The Harvard Scientist Who Says You Can Use Your Thoughts To Improve Your Health | Ellen Langer

1. Embrace Mind-Body Unity

Recognize that your mind and body are one, not separate entities, and that your thoughts profoundly control your physical health. By putting your mind in a healthy place, your body will follow.

2. Practice Active Noticing

Engage in the simple process of actively noticing new things in your environment and experiences, as this is the essence of mindfulness. This practice puts you in the present, offers more choices, and combats mindlessness.

3. Challenge Perceived Limits

Question and reject self-imposed or societal limits on your physical and mental capabilities, as your beliefs often dictate what you can achieve. A change in mindset can unlock vastly greater potential, as shown by examples like the Tarayamora tribe.

4. Actively Notice Symptom Variability

For chronic illnesses or pain, set periodic reminders to check in on your symptoms, asking if they are better or worse and why. This practice makes you aware that symptoms are not constant, empowering you to seek solutions and participate in your own health care.

5. Reframe Daily Activities as Exercise

Consciously perceive your everyday work or routine activities as forms of exercise. This simple change of mindset can lead to measurable physical health improvements, such as weight loss, improved body mass index, and lower blood pressure.

6. Support Medical Treatments Mindfully

Actively engage your mindset to support the effectiveness of any medication or medical treatment you receive. Your mental state can significantly influence whether a treatment works, as demonstrated by the placebo and nocebo effects.

7. Cultivate Confidence and Uncertainty

Adopt a life posture of being confident in your abilities while simultaneously accepting that uncertainty is the rule and everything is constantly changing. This balance fosters engagement, learning, and adaptability.

8. Reject Negative Aging Narratives

Challenge and dismiss negative societal beliefs and expectations about aging, such as the idea that you will inevitably ‘fall apart.’ Viewing aging as a process of continuous change and growth, rather than deterioration, can prevent self-fulfilling prophecies and foster well-being.

9. Reframe Forgetting in Older Age

When you forget something as you get older, reframe it as a normal variation, a change in priorities, or a lack of initial attention, rather than a sign of cognitive decline. This reduces unnecessary stress and challenges the belief that memory loss is inevitable deterioration.

10. Understand Behavior from Actor’s Perspective

When observing behavior you dislike in others, seek to understand the underlying perspective or advantage the actor gains from it. This approach fosters non-judgmentalism and empathy, as all behavior makes sense from the actor’s viewpoint.

11. Reframe Negative Traits Positively

Identify the underlying positive values or strengths behind perceived negative traits in yourself or others (e.g., impulsive as spontaneous, gullible as trusting). This helps to stop trying to change aspects tied to valued traits, promoting self-acceptance and better understanding.

12. Manage Stress by Reframing Events

Recognize that stress is caused by your perception of events, not the events themselves, and actively generate multiple alternative views for any feared outcome. This reduces the certainty of negative outcomes and alleviates stress.

13. Ask: Tragedy or Inconvenience?

When feeling stressed, pause and ask yourself if the situation is truly a tragedy or merely an inconvenience. This simple reframe can immediately reduce the perceived severity and induce calmness.

14. Increase Mindfulness After Diagnosis

If you receive a serious medical diagnosis, actively increase your mindfulness rather than turning inward or shutting down. Active noticing keeps your neurons firing and is beneficial for your overall health and well-being.

15. Engage in Imagined Exercise

If physical limitations prevent real exercise, engage in imagined exercise. Research suggests that imagined exercise can provide similar physical benefits to actual physical activity.

16. Cultivate a Horizontal Worldview

Adopt a worldview that values diverse skills and knowledge, recognizing that everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses rather than comparing vertically. This fosters mutual respect and reduces competitive comparison.

17. Seek Novelty and Younger Connections

To operationalize the benefits of the ‘counterclockwise’ study, actively seek out friendships with younger people and fill your life with novel experiences. This promotes a more youthful mindset and engagement.

18. Embrace Challenge and Imperfection

Rethink the desire for constant success and instead embrace challenges and minor setbacks as opportunities for engagement and learning. Doing things imperfectly mindfully is more enlivening than perfectly mindlessly.

19. Teach and Learn Conditionally

When teaching or learning, emphasize conditional knowledge and seek multiple answers to questions, rather than absolute, singular truths. This fosters critical thinking, openness, and prevents rigid, potentially incorrect, beliefs.

20. Cultivate Contagious Mindfulness

Develop your own mindfulness, as it can positively influence those around you, making interactions more enjoyable and encouraging others to become more mindful. Your awake and engaged presence can be mirrored by others.

21. Actively Look for Similarities and Differences

When observing familiar situations or objects, make a conscious effort to notice both how they are the same and how they are different. This practice keeps your mind engaged and prevents mindlessness, helping you perceive more of what’s truly there.