Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibilityby Ellen J. Langer
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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. ( ) Langer illustrates how much our minds influence our health, well-being, longevity, and "intelligence". We are "primed" to believe many things that are not necessarily true for our specific case. Much of healthcare and medicine is based on a sort of statistical analysis of what works for the majority in a large group study. But even such studies are primed by the scientists and doctors running the study, often unintentionally. But studies are useful, nevertheless, she points out. So, how DOES one know what to do? Ellen Langer argues that only by being mindful of one's own health and aging and staying attuned to "variability", can one make the right decisions for one's own case. It is by living mindfully that one can overcome social priming and challenge conventional wisdom in a way that promotes one's own health by accounting for one's own variability and that variability with respect to the norm. no reviews | add a review
If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than thirty years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now, in Counterclockwise, she presents a conclusive answer: Opening our minds to what's possible, instead of presuming impossibility, can lead to better health--at any age. Drawing on landmark work in the field and her own body of highly original experiments--including her "counterclockwise" study, in which elderly men lived for a week as though it was 1959 and showed dramatic improvements in their hearing, memory, dexterity, appetite, and general well-being--Langer shows that the magic of rejuvenation and ongoing good health lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to social and cultural cues. Examining the intricate but often defeatist ways we define our physical health, Langer challenges the idea that the limits we assume and impose on ourselves are real. With only subtle shifts in our thinking, in our language, and in our expectations, she tells us, we can begin to change the ingrained behaviors that sap health, optimism, and vitality from our lives. Improved vision, weight loss, and increased longevity are just three of the results that Langer has demonstrated. Provocative and riveting, Counterclockwise offers a transformative and bold new paradigm: the psychology of possibility. A hopeful and groundbreaking work by an author who has changed how people all over the world think and feel, Counterclockwise is sure to join Mindfulness as a standard source on new-century science and healing. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.4613Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Specific aspects of culture Technology Medicine and health Personal health (body image, eating)LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |