Ellen J. Langer

Whilst this contains a significant overlap with the, more recent, Counterclockwise it is still a worthwhile book to read.

Ellen Langer's style is so readable it is easy to forget that the briefly cited anecdotes are actually a simplified version of years of research that has been published in the top journals.
A very useful, scientific and yet practical guide to applying mindfulness to every day life.

My daughter recommended this book about six months ago but it didn't grab me. Now I wonder what I was on. I've savored it over the past couple of weeks and I'm so happy I own a copy because I found underline-able wisdom in each chapter.

Langer's studies showed up in several recent reads including [b:Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End|20696006|Being Mortal Medicine and What Matters in the End|Atul Gawande|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408324949s/20696006.jpg|40015533], so I show more found myself smiling with recognition on occasion. With curiosity and insight Langer presents study after study revealing our unintened mindlessness and its farreaching and often dilitorious effects and the simple ways to move toward mindfulness and its notable benefits.

As I study and write about the ways healthy people move through change, intention is my by-word. Mindfulness, as defined by Langer, seems a perfect alternate word choice for intention. I'm sure I'll refer to this work again and again.

Here's the first article I wrote referencing Langer's wisdom. show less

Radical in its implications, this original and important work may change forever the views we hold about the nature of learning. In The Power of Mindful Learning, Ellen Langer uses her innovative theory of mindfulness, introduced in her influential earlier book to dramatically enhance the way we learn. In business, sports, laboratories, or at home, our learning is hobbled by certain antiquated and pervasive misconceptions. In this pithy, liberating, and delightful book she gives us a fresh, show more new view of learning in the broadest sense. Such familiar notions as delayed gratification, ”the basics”, or even ”right answers”, are all incapacitating myths which Langer explodes one by one. She replaces them with her concept of mindful or conditional learning which she demonstrates, with fascinating examples from her research, to be extraordinarily effective. show less

Incredible life affirming book. Deeply researched and evidence based, but written in a very engaging style. I will read this again in the future, just for the pleasure and the positivity it engenders.