Mind-Body Unity: Ellen J. Langer emphasizes that our thoughts powerfully influence our physical health, urging a view of mind and body as unified. By shifting mindsets, daily activities can be perceived as exercise, enhancing overall well-being.
Ellen J. Langer's work highlights the powerful relationship between our thoughts and physical health, suggesting that mind and body act as one unified system rather than two separate entities. By adopting a positive mindset and viewing daily activities as beneficial exercise, we can enhance our well-being. Her insights challenge traditional views and show that our perceptions can significantly influence our health outcomes, even making placebos effective. This perspective encourages people to rethink their beliefs about health and recognize that their thoughts can lead to meaningful changes in how they feel physically.
Mindset Matters: Our beliefs and perceptions about activities influence our health outcomes significantly. Viewing tasks as exercise or acting younger can lead to real health benefits, showing the power of mindset and mindfulness in improving well-being.
Research shows that how we perceive our activities greatly impacts our health. In studies, individuals who viewed their physical tasks as exercise experienced weight loss and improved health outcomes, despite working at the same intensity as others who didn't. This highlights the power of mindset in achieving health goals. Additionally, older adults who acted younger in a study also demonstrated noticeable health benefits like improved cognitive functions. Such findings suggest that our beliefs and perceptions influence our physical health significantly, underscoring the importance of mindfulness and awareness in our daily lives. Instead of focusing solely on positive thinking, being mindful and recognizing new things can lead to healthier outcomes. This unity of mind and body can empower people to take control of their health and well-being in meaningful ways.
Mindfulness Matters: Embracing uncertainty and practicing mindfulness helps us see the world differently, leading to personal growth and improved health outcomes.
Many things we take for granted as absolute truths, like one plus one equaling two, can actually depend on context and perception. Embracing uncertainty and actively noticing the world around us helps to shed mindlessness. This shift in thinking fosters mindfulness, mindfulness is essential not just for personal growth but can also improve health and wellbeing. By being aware of changes in our experiences, we learn that our perceptions may not always reflect reality. This approach can bring joy, enhance our interactions with others, and lead to better problem-solving. Mindfulness opens up new possibilities and empowers us to manage our lives with more flexibility and awareness, including in the case of chronic health issues. Regularly checking in with ourselves, noticing our thoughts and symptoms, can improve our health outcomes and allow us to engage more meaningfully with our experiences.
Mindfulness and Participation: Active participation in healthcare and embracing uncertainty can enhance mindfulness and personal insights. It's about observing the variability in life rather than solely relying on meditation.
Healthcare requires active personal participation, as predictions about treatment effectiveness are often general and uncertain. Rather than relying solely on medication or formal practices like meditation, one can increase mindfulness by embracing uncertainty and paying attention to the variability in experiences. This can lead to deeper insights, better relationships, and overall well-being. Mindfulness doesn't necessitate meditation, as it can stem from observing and understanding the fluid nature of life. By recognizing that nothing is constant, one can discover new aspects of familiar people or situations, fostering appreciation and understanding.
Mind-Body Connection: Mindfulness and positive thinking can lead to unexpected healing and better aging. Embrace growth instead of fearing deterioration; perceptions shape our experiences.
Spontaneous remissions in health demonstrate the power of mind-body unity, where positive thinking and mindfulness can lead to unexpected healing. Medical predictions can often become self-fulfilling prophecies, reinforcing negative beliefs. Embracing aging with a focus on growth and mindfulness can enhance life satisfaction and promote resilience, highlighting how our perceptions shape our experiences.
Embracing Growth: Embrace uncertainty, celebrate differences, and learn from setbacks. Mindfulness can transform our self-views and relationships, leading to greater happiness and personal growth.
Life is about embracing our uncertainties and enjoying the journey. Rather than focusing on constant success or comparing ourselves to others, we should celebrate our differences and the skills we each possess. Mindfulness can change how we perceive ourselves and the world, helping us recognize that setbacks are opportunities for growth and that everything can be changed. By fostering a mindset where we acknowledge our unique challenges and learn from them, we contribute positively to our personal happiness and relationships. In a world filled with potential and variety, our individual growth thrives when we accept that not knowing is part of learning and living.
Mindfulness Matters: Embracing mindfulness in education and healthcare can promote self-worth, understanding, and healthier communities by valuing individual experiences over rigid assessments and expectations.
Mindfulness is a vital approach that can transform both education and healthcare. Instead of ranking students or patients by grades or illness, we should focus on understanding their unique experiences. By fostering mindfulness, we create environments where individuals feel valued, respected, and connected, enhancing their well-being and recognizing that we’re more alike than different. Mindful teaching encourages creativity and multiple perspectives, rather than discouraging mistakes through harsh judgments. Moreover, mindfulness can spread easily; being around mindful individuals can inspire others to engage more fully with life. This shift can lead to a healthier society overall, where everyone is empowered to appreciate their own worth and potential. It’s about teaching and caring in ways that promote self-respect and mutual understanding, aiming for a collective improvement in mental and physical health.
The Harvard Scientist Who Says You Can Use Your Thoughts To Improve Your Health | Ellen Langer
Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
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Recent Episodes from Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
Optimize This: If You Care About Mental And Physical Health, This May Be The Missing Piece | Kasley Killam
Up until now, in our culture, we’ve generally talked about physical health and mental health–but there’s an emerging consensus that the missing piece is social health.
But what can you actually do to improve your social health? Today we’re going deep with the scientist who has thought a lot about this, and has a ton of good advice.
Kasley Killam, MPH, is a leading expert in social health and the award-winning author of The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier. As a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, sought-after advisor and keynote speaker, and founder of Social Health Labs, Killam has been improving global well-being through connection for over a decade. Her collaborations with organizations like Google, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the World Economic Forum contribute to building more socially healthy products, workplaces, and communities. Killam’s insights can be found in outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, NPR, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and The Washington Post.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why social health is so important, and how it impacts our physical and mental health
- How to figure out what your social style is
- Tips for strengthening your social muscles
- What you can do to boost your social health muscles
- How much vulnerability is appropriate
- How to have a healthy relationship with yourself
- How legislation could help with social health
- Emerging industries for social fitness
- And lastly, how we can work towards creating a society that cultivates connection
Related Episodes:
Self-Compassion Ain’t Always Soft | Kristin Neff
Kryptonite for the Inner Critic | Kristin Neff
Rethinking Success | Mia Birdsong
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Tuning Your Inner Compass | Bonus Meditation with Emily Horn
Without a good compass, it is hard to have a sense of direction. Our inner world is much the same—and you can fine-tune your aim in life by sensing where you are right now.
About Emily Horn:
Emily Horn is on the core team of Buddhist Geeks, which integrates technology, culture, and meditation. She is authorized to teach meditation by Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Society, and InsightLA, and has been called a “power player of the mindfulness movement" by Wired Magazine.
To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Tuning Your Inner Compass.”
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What To Do When You’re Angry | Matthew Brensilver, Vinny Ferraro, Kaira Jewel Lingo
A deep dive on one of the thorniest and most destructive states of mind.
For this episode, Executive Producer DJ Cashmere interviewed a trio of brilliant Dharma teachers to get their advice about how to handle anger. This is the first in a series of 'correspondent' episodes, in which DJ identifies a pain point in his life and meditation practice, then goes out into the world to report on the best ways to address it.
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a former nun in the Plum Village tradition started by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Vinny Ferraro teaches at the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, and also in prisons. Matthew Brensilver teaches at many of the same retreat centers, and spent many years working in the field of addiction pharmacotherapy.
Related Episodes:
- 3 Buddhist Strategies for When the News is Overwhelming | Kaira Jewel Lingo
- How to Keep Your Relationships On the Rails | Kaira Jewel Lingo
- Three Buddhist Practices For Getting Your Sh*t Together | Vinny Ferraro
- Why Self-Hatred Makes No Sense | Matthew Brensilver
- How to Actually Be Present | Matthew Brensilver
- The Voice in Your Head | Ethan Kross
- I Just Went Through A Career Earthquake: This Is What's Next.
- How to Repair the Damage After a Fight | Dr. Becky Kennedy
- Get Happier Without Losing Your Edge | Kamala Masters
- Best of the Archives: Making it RAIN | Tara Brach
- Kryptonite for the Inner Critic | Kristin Neff
Also, the teachers’ sites:
Vinny Ferraro's Course, A Year To Live
https://www.matthewbrensilver.org/
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Dr. Sanjay Gupta On The 5 Pillars Of Brain Health
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the multiple Emmy Award-winning chief medical correspondent for CNN and host of the CNN podcast Chasing Life. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news for all of CNN’s shows domestically and internationally. In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is an associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University Hospital and associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He is the author of four New York Times best-selling books, “Chasing Life” (2007), “Cheating Death” (2009), “Monday Mornings” (2012), and “Keep Sharp: Building a Better Brain” (2020).
In this episode we talk about:
- Sanjay’s origin story and how he got interested in the brain in the first place
- The mysteries of consciousness
- We dive into his five pillars of brain health
- How you can grow new brain cells by moving the body (but in certain ways)
- Key skills for challenging your brain
- We hear about some meditation tips Sanjay picked up from the Dalai Lama
- Whether we should worry alone or with other people
- And lastly, why it’s so important for men to have vulnerable conversations with each other
Related Episodes:
The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness
#230: The Power of Rest | Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
#614. Your Brain on Food | Dr. Uma Naidoo
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You Can’t Always Get What You Want: A Guided Meditation On Frustration | Bonus Meditation with JoAnna Hardy
This practice is an opportunity to take a break from *thinking* about frustration and feel a little bit of balance, ease, and patience.
About JoAnna Hardy:
JoAnna Hardy can talk about meditation to pretty much anybody. She not only teaches in traditional environments like retreat centers, but also in both schools and jails. JoAnna has been studying meditation for nearly two decades and she's done some amazing work ensuring that the practice is available to people who might not otherwise have access to it. JoAnna teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, at Spirit Rock, and is a Founding Member of The Meditation Coalition.
To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “When You’re Frustrated.”
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From "Good Inside with Dr. Becky": If You Think You're Bad at Meditation, Dan Harris Says You're Doing it Right
Bringing you an episode of Good Inside with Dr. Becky Kennedy.
Even if you don't consider yourself an anxious person, once you become a parent, it is easy to start worrying about the health and wellbeing of your child. But parents need to learn to manage their anxiety for themselves and their kids. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his book, 10% Happier, Dan Harris joins Dr. Becky to dispel some of the myths about meditation and to show parents how meditation can be a practical strategy in their everyday lives.
Check out Dr. Becky's appearance on the 10% Happier Podcast here.
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Tara Brach Has A Counterintuitive Strategy For Navigating Tumultuous Times
A (potentially challenging) Buddhist recipe handling anxious times.
Tara Brach, a legendary meditation teacher, psychologist, and frequent flier on this show. She is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and has been active in bringing meditation into schools, prisons and underserved populations. She has also written several books including Radical Acceptance, Radical Compassion and Trusting the Gold.
In this episode we talk about:
- A Buddhist tradition known as the Bodhisattva teachings… which are quite radical… and which Tara thinks can vastly improve your life… and the health of democracy.
- We also talk about: why some people might think this stuff is too soft
- 4 practices to develop compassion
- A mindfulness technique known as RAIN
- How mindfulness can help you see what is beneath your anger
- Letting distress be a portal—and the amazing phrase, “action absorbs anxiety”
- How to get active when you have limited time
- And how to counteract the tendency to numb out
Tara also recorded a guided meditation based on this conversation, which you can find on www.DanHarris.com.
Related Episodes:
- The Dalai Lama’s Guide To Happiness
- Vitamin E: How To Cultivate Equanimity Amidst Political Chaos | Election Sanity Series | Roshi Joan Halifax
- A Counterintuitive Source of Hope | Sebene Selassie
- Best of the Archives: Making it RAIN | Tara Brach
- Can You Handle This? | Tara Brach
- How to Stop the War Against Yourself | Tara Brach
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Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/tarabrach-833
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The Harvard Scientist Who Says You Can Use Your Thoughts To Improve Your Health | Ellen Langer
The connection between your psychology and your health, and how to work with it.
Ellen J. Langer is the author of eleven books, including the international bestseller
Mindfulness, which has been translated into fifteen languages, and Counterclockwise:
Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility. Most recently, she is the author of The
Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health.
Langer is the recipient of, among other numerous awards and honors, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public
Interest from the American Psychological Association, the Award for Distinguished
Contributions of Basic Science to the Application of Psychology from the American
Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and the Adult Development and
Aging Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological
Association.
She is the author of more than 200 research articles and her trailblazing experiments in
social psychology have earned her inclusion in The New York Times Magazine’s “Year
in Ideas” issue. A member of the psychology department at Harvard University and a
painter, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In this episode we talk about:
- The power of placebos
- Why she isn’t a fan of positive thinking as it is talked about in new age circles
- Her version of mindfulness, which is quite different from the version we usually talk about here on the show, which comes out of Buddhism
- Psychological treatments for chronic illness
- Smart strategies for reframing aging.
- Why the world would be boring if you knew it all
- What she means by her concept of a “mindful utopia”
- And her favorite one liners
Related Episodes:
- The Science Of Manifestation: Can This Stanford Neuroscientist Convince A Skeptical Dan To Give It A Shot? | Dr. James R. Doty
- How to Get the Wisdom of Old Age Now | Dilip Jeste
- Tripping Out with a Legend: Jon Kabat-Zinn on Pain vs. Suffering, Rethinking Your Anxiety, and the Buddha's Teaching in a Single Sentence
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A Guided Meditation For First Thing In The Morning | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos
Start focused on what's truly important. When you pause to remember the big picture, your day can move forward grounded in integrity & wisdom.
About Alexis Santos:
Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya (a well respected meditation teacher in Burma whose teachings have attracted a global audience), and his teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity -- a style of practice that's particularly useful during our crazy lives. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.
To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Wake Up With Perspective.”
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Natasha Rothwell (White Lotus, How To Die Alone) On: Loneliness, Envy, People Pleasing, And Finding Your “Hell Yes”
Natasha Rothwell created, executive produced, and stars in the highly anticipated series How To Die Alone.
Natasha is best known for her Emmy Nominated performance in HBO’s The White Lotus and is set to reprise her role as Belinda Lindsey in the third season of the series currently in production.
She is also known for her critically acclaimed work as a series regular, writer, director, and producer on HBO’s Insecure, for which she has won a Peabody Award and received the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.
Having previously written for Saturday Night Live, and after penning screenplays for Netflix, Paramount, and HBO Max— Natasha’s original screenplay Black Comic-Con was selected for the 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Her genre-bending feature, along with several other projects, are in development at her production company, Big Hattie Productions—founded in 2020 to focus on creating, producing, and developing projects that champion marginalized voices in subversive ways.
In this episode we talk about:
- Being alone vs being lonely
- How she handles her own tendencies toward people-pleasing and burnout
- Working with doubt, faith and the venerable cliche of “trusting in the universe”
- Envy (and how it’s a partner to the scarcity mindset)
- Therapy
- Meditation
- Why she loves RomComs — and her issues with them
- And we go Behind the scenes in a TV writer’s room — and why it’s even tougher when the character is you
Related Episodes:
Kryptonite for the Inner Critic | Kristin Neff
Self-Compassion Ain't Always Soft | Kristin Neff
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Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/natasha-rothwell
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