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He cites research by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer in her 2009 book Counterclockwise , that suggests that by creating a “reminiscence bump” for residents of their own past college experiences, university-based communities may even help to “reverse” ageing. “You are as young as you feel. If you put people in their past environments,” he s... See more

Retirees this way: college life is no longer just for students

In old age, mindfulness can increase health by saving us from a diminishing sense of authorship of our stories. In a 1976 experiment by Langer and her colleagues, a number of elderly residents in a nursing home were given houseplants to look after and water. They were also encouraged to make decisions for themselves, such as where to receive visito

Derren Brown • Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

"Soft openness" - Ellen Langer via Russell Davies

Those who had arrived using canes, and dependent on the help of their children, left the building under their own power and carrying their own suitcases. By expecting these men to function independently and engaging with them as individuals rather than “old people,” Langer and her students gave them “an opportunity to see themselves differently,” w... See more

Benjamin Hardy • Personality Isn't Permanent

We need to stop fearing boredom and be comfortable with what is going on around us, whether it’s exciting or not. This is an argument made eloquently by my colleague Ellen Langer, who defines mindfulness as the practice of actively noticing new things. You can do that only when you are not distracting yourself.

Arthur C. Brooks • Eight Ways to Banish Misery

When we protect our time, energy, and attention and direct it wisely—when we are present for meaningful people, places, and pursuits—our entire experience of being alive improves dramatically.

Brad Stulberg • The Practice of Groundedness

Langer defines mindfulness as ‘the process of actively noticing new things’. Her 40-plus years of experimentation and research proves that being more mindful and noticing how you do things, the assumptions you have about yourself, the myths you tell yourself, what you might take for granted, and so on, is one of the most powerful things you can do

Bec Evans, Chris Smith, • Written

Our cognitive apparatus is designed, at least in part, to sustain us in the long term rather than balm us in the near term.

Daniel H. Pink • The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward

When Abraham Maslow did clinical studies of people who self-actualized, one thing that set them apart from others was, he wrote, that they lived “more in the real world of nature than in the man-made mass of concepts, abstractions, expectations, beliefs, and stereotypes that most people confuse with the world.” They were, to put it simply, more per... See more