Ellen Langer is credited with bringing the study of mindfulness “out of the Zen caves and into the light of everyday functioning.” (Harvard Magazine). Her famous counterclockwise study from 1981 divided a group of men in their 70’s and 80’s into 2 groups. One lived in a setting that replicated life from 20 years earlier—old magazines on the table, music and movies from the late 50’s playing, etc.-- and was instructed to pretend they were living as the younger men they had been at that time. The second group was placed in the same setting, but told to simply reminisce about those earlier times. The results? Both groups showed marked improvement in their physical health, vision, even intelligence. “Their joints were more flexible, their shoulders wider, their fingers not only more agile, but longer and less gnarled by arthritis. But the men who had acted as if they were actually back in 1959 showed significantly more improvement. Those who had impersonated younger men seemed to have bodies that actually were younger.” (ibid) “The men who had changed their perspective changed their bodies,” wrote Langer.
Qigong has always embraced the concept of mindfulness: The mind leads the qi, as we say. We practice mindfulness each time we feel our feet on the ground or each breath as it enters and leaves the lungs. We sharpen our mindfulness by noticing how “silk reeling” style exercises smooth out the creaks and crunches in our joints and return to us a sense of vitality, relaxation, and ease. Mindfulness is just that simple! No prayer cushions necessary.
What’s the opposite of mindfulness? Not paying attention. Also, unconscious, habitual, programmed behaviors and beliefs about what we can or can’t do. Maybe you’ve caught yourself believing “I’m just too old” or “I can’t balance” or “This injury will never improve.” This negative bias happens to the best of us. How great to know we can (in the immortal words of Loretta in Moonstruck) “Just snap out of it!”
“It’s like those optical illusion brain teasers,” Langer says. “Once you’ve seen there is another perspective, you can never not see that there’s another point of view.” Our fixed ideas and preconceptions clearly influence the way we feel as well as how happily, comfortably, and gracefully we age. It’s wonderful to understand that the way we age is as changeable as our minds and is, indeed, less fixed than most people think.
