Can You Think Yourself Young? Well, Maybe…
You know the saying “You’re only as old as you think”? Well, turns out it might not be hooey after all if the study by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer holds up.
Langer did a study like this with a group of elderly men some years ago, retrofitting an isolated old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier. The men—in their late 70s and early 80s—were told not to reminisce about the past, but to actually act as if they had traveled back in time. The idea was to see if changing the men’s mindset about their own age might lead to actual changes in health and fitness.
Langer’s findings were stunning: After just one week, the men in the experimental group (compared with controls of the same age) had more joint flexibility, increased dexterity and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had risen measurably, and they had improved gait and posture. Outsiders who were shown the men’s photographs judged them to be significantly younger than the controls. In other words, the aging process had in some measure been reversed.
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Her theory, argued in her new book, “Counterclockwise,” is that we are all victims of our own stereotypes about aging and health. We mindlessly accept negative cultural cues about disease and old age, and these cues shape our self-concepts and our behavior. If we can shake loose from the negative clichés that dominate our thinking about health, we can “mindfully” open ourselves to possibilities for more productive lives even into old age.
Read the whole article. Essentially, her argument comes down to “mind over matter” which we’ve all heard countless times in our lives but few of us really believe. Perhaps if we believed it a little bit more, we’d see some differences in how we feel and function.
The book sounds interesting. I may just have to pick it up sometime fairly soon.
(via Villanous Cassandra who I really should link more)
Other Posts of Interest:
- Red Wine. Is There Anything It Can Not Do?
- A Loving Message to America’s Schoolchildren from a Canadian Friend
Category: Health Care Craziness, Hey, Mr. Science Guy!
