The Power of Mindfulness

Dr. Ellen Langer

Mindfulness is a hot topic, but how many people even know what the term really means? To dive into it we have one of the world's foremost researchers on this topic. Ellen Langer has been researching mind-body unity for nearly half a century, and her work has influenced everything from behavioral economics to healthcare to positive psychology.

We've cited her work on numerous occasions before, most notably the chambermaid study, as well as several studies led by students from her lab. This work generally centers on how our beliefs influence how our bodies respond to things we might normally assume are strictly biologically mediated.

You'll hear quickly in this episode that we did not come to this conversation immediately agreeing on the applicability of mindfulness in all situations, but Dr. Langer presents compelling arguments for its advantages.

Ellen Langer was the first woman to be tenured in psychology at Harvard, where she is still professor of psychology. The recipient of three Distinguished Scientists awards, the Arthur W. Staats Award for Unifying Psychology, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Liberty Science Genius Award, Dr. Langer is the author of twelve books, including international bestseller Mindfulness, as well as The Power of Mindful Learning, Counterclockwise, and On Becoming an Artist.

Her trailblazing experiments in social psychology have earned inclusion in The New York Times Magazine's "Year in Ideas" issue. She is known worldwide as the "mother of mindfulness."

We discussed a large number of research studies in this episode, here are just a few of the most foundational and most frequently cited:

Mind-set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect, better known as "The Chambermaid Study," is a classic that demonstrates how our mindset towards physical activity directly influences its health benefits.

Blood Sugar Level Follows Perceived Time Rather Than Actual Time in People with Type 2 Diabetes is one of several Langer studies relying on rigged clocks to show how perceived time can be more influential than actual time, even on something as seemingly biological as blood sugar.

Mind Over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine Ghrelin Response shows that how we think about our food directly influences how it is digested and the nutritional value it provides.