If you’ve ever felt your stomach turn in a moment of anxiety or felt like jumping up and down with excitement, then you’ve experienced the mind-body connection firsthand. Ellen Langer’s The Mindful Body argues that you can use this connection to take control of your health.
We’ll explore Langer’s assertion that the mind and body are inextricable and discuss how this link manifests in health outcomes. We’ll also examine three limiting beliefs that shape health, including the view that health is a finite resource. Finally, we’ll touch on two research-backed strategies for approaching your health mindfully. Continue reading for our full overview.
Overview of The Mindful Body
In The Mindful Body, Ellen Langer outlines her approach to connecting the mind and body to improve your well-being. Langer believes that your ailments don’t define who you are or how good your life is. By changing your thoughts, you can live a stronger, healthier life.
Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. Through her research spanning over four decades, she’s explored the damaging effects of mindlessness and the benefits of mindfulness in all aspects of life. She has written 13 books and over 200 research articles on subjects such as stress, aging, and decision-making. These include The Art of Noticing and Mindfulness.
The Connection Between Mind and Body
Langer’s research on mindfulness and health rests on the concept that there’s no functional separation between mind and body—they act as one.
In this section, we’ll discuss how this assertion contradicts the way Western culture typically treats health issues. Then, we’ll look at examples from Langer’s research that support her argument against these prevailing attitudes toward health.
Mind-Body Unity vs. Mind-Body Dualism
In Western medicine, the mind and body are generally considered independent from each other. According to Langer, this understanding is called mind-body dualism, and it dictates that the mind and body act on each other sometimes, but only in a very limited capacity. Mind-body dualism primarily stems from the ideas of 17th-century philosopher René Descartes.
Mind-body dualism was further reinforced by several key discoveries. One was Robert Koch’s identification of bacteria as the cause of tuberculosis, anthrax, and cholera. Another was Louis Pasteur’s development of germ theory (the idea that microorganisms cause disease). These discoveries bolstered the idea that pathogens cause disease and psychological factors don’t play a role.
Thus, in modern Western medicine, treatments specifically address physiological issues. However, many cultures around the world have treated and continue to treat disease through holistic methods, which emphasize mind-body-spirit connections. For instance, yoga and meditation, elements of Ayurvedic medicine from India, use the power of the mind to regulate physiological responses to stress and encourage healing.
Langer’s approach fits into this holistic framework. She argues that instead of being disparate parts that only sometimes work together, your mind and body are part of the same whole. One doesn’t act without the other. Thus, your thoughts and mindset can have a major impact on the rest of your health.
The Mind-Body Connection in Health
Langer supports her thesis on the connection between mind and body through many examples from medical and psychological research. Let’s take a look at two of these.
Example 1: The Role of the Mind in Placebo Treatments
According to the author, placebos are an important example of how psychological factors play a significant role in healing. A placebo is a treatment that has no active healing properties, but it can still have a healing effect. The effectiveness of a placebo is based on the recipient’s belief in it—if a patient thinks they’re getting a treatment that’ll help them, they’re likely to experience the benefit they expect to a certain degree. Sometimes, placebos are as beneficial—or more beneficial—than a true pharmaceutical treatment because they have no adverse side effects, while still providing both physiological and psychological benefits.
Langer discusses several studies that demonstrate the placebo effect. One neuroscientific study measured the brain activity of participants who took a placebo pain reliever without realizing it. Through brain imaging, the researchers observed that after taking the placebo, patients had less activity in the parts of the brain sensitive to pain: the anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and insula.
Another study from 2009 looked at a man who had cancerous tumors throughout his body. According to his doctors, he was close to death—but when he began taking a new experimental drug, his tumors disappeared. This drug was later determined to be ineffective, and when the doctors informed him of this, his tumors returned. Then, he was given a placebo that researchers told him was twice as strong as the first medication. The tumors vanished again. But when they told him that he’d been taking a placebo, he passed away soon after. Thus, the treatments were only effective when he believed in them.
Langer states that there are two important things to keep in mind when using placebos. First, the placebo treatment must not cause any harm. Second, the placebo itself isn’t what’s healing the patient; rather, it’s the patient’s mind that’s doing the healing. The placebo is only there to prompt the mind to do what it’s already capable of.
Example 2: The Role of the Mind in Aging
Another facet of mind-body health that Langer discusses is aging. Through her research, she’s found that mindset plays a large role in how aging manifests in the body. Her findings suggest that the health difficulties we typically consider to be inevitable aspects of aging, such as vision and hearing loss, can be improved when people feel younger. Therefore, we have some control over how we age and how much it affects us physically.
In her first study on the role of the mind in aging, Langer and her fellow researchers set up a week-long retreat for a group of elderly men. The aim of the study was to test whether having the men believe they were in a previous time would make their bodies respond as if they were actually younger. To start, the researchers measured a collection of baseline biological markers in each of the men. Then, participants entered a retreat, which researchers designed to look and feel like it was from 20 years in the past by altering the following:
- The physical environment, such as furniture and decor
- The media participants consumed, such as the news they watched and the music they listened to
One group was told to talk about their surroundings and the media they were exposed to as if everything around them belonged in the present. A control group lived in the same environment, but they were instructed to discuss the setting in the past tense when speaking to each other. When the retreat ended, the researchers measured the same biological markers they’d collected at the beginning.
Langer and her team discovered that physical and psychological measures improved for both groups after they spent time in the constructed environment. This suggests that just being in an environment that looked and felt like the past made their bodies respond as if they were physically younger. Participants showed improvements in memory, grip strength, and hearing.
The experimental group that discussed the retreat setting in the present tense showed additional improvements, indicating that there was a further psychological and physical benefit to fully immersing their minds and behaviors in the past. They outpaced the control group in areas such as joint flexibility, manual dexterity, and vision. Years later, Langer and her students replicated the same study and achieved comparable results.
How Limiting Beliefs Shape Health
In the previous section, we explored how the mind and body are intimately connected, and we looked at multiple ways this connection can affect our health. In this section, we’ll examine three common limiting beliefs that prevent us from taking full advantage of our minds’ healing powers: believing that rules and labels are absolute, that we can predict what’s going to happen, and that health is a limited resource.
Belief #1: Rules and Labels Are Absolute
Langer states that mindlessly adhering to rules and labels can be very damaging to your health. First, we’ll examine the dangers of believing that rules are absolute. Then, we’ll explore how labels influence health outcomes.
Rules Aren’t Absolute
Often, we interpret rules in healthcare (and other aspects of life) as if they’re set in stone, forgetting that they were created by people who are just as fallible as anyone. Additionally, many rules that affect our health were created for a specific subset of people at a different time. They don’t allow for variation among individuals or differences over time.
When you mindlessly follow medical rules, you may not get the care you need because your situation isn’t the same as that of the people the rule was based on. Instead, you need to assess your health mindfully, stay open to multiple possibilities, and consider any diagnosis or treatment in the context of your specific circumstances.
For instance, consider the common medical rule that short-acting blood pressure medication should be taken first thing in the morning. This guideline was established based on studies showing that most people’s blood pressure naturally rises in the early morning hours. However, suppose you work night shifts as a nurse. In that case, your circadian rhythm would likely be reversed—your “morning” blood pressure spike might actually occur in the late afternoon when you wake up for work.
Mindlessly adhering to the standard “take your medicine in the morning” rule could mean your blood pressure is poorly controlled during your active hours. Your medication could be wearing off precisely when you need it most—during the stressful late-night hours when you’re caring for patients. Solving this issue might take finding a different doctor who looks beyond the standard guidelines and considers your unique schedule. It might also require doing more individual research before talking to your doctor about adjusting the timing of your medication.
Belief #2: You Can Predict the Future
According to Langer, another false belief that limits our ability to lead healthy lives is that we can predict what will happen. We tend to believe that there’s a right and a wrong path to take and that we can control outcomes if we make the right choice. However, this is a misconception—we can only respond to the results of our choices and judge them through hindsight.
Instead of trying to control outcomes through your choices, focus on what you actually can control—how you respond after you’ve made a health decision. You can’t predict the future, but you can mindfully accept uncertainty, acknowledging that there are many possible outcomes that you can’t force or avoid. Decide that you’ll make the best of whatever happens as a result of your choices. Choosing to see and accept myriad possibilities in any situation frees you from the fear of making the wrong choice and a sense of regret, thus benefiting your mental health. At the same time, it empowers you by showing that you do have control over your perspective.
Belief #3: Health Is a Limited Resource
Finally, Langer states that many people think of health as a limited resource, which keeps them in a fixed mindset that hinders their improvement. This is due to a pervasive scarcity mindset—the belief that there’s only a certain amount of every quality and resource available. In this belief system, you may have a fixed idea of how much of each quality or resource you and other people are allotted. For instance, you may believe that you have an inherently low athletic ability, but a higher-than-average allotment of math skills.
Langer argues that this scarcity mindset exists to create an artificial hierarchy—it’s in the best interest of those with the majority of a resource to stay at the top. However, the standards used to measure personal qualities and achievements aren’t absolute or objective. They’re always determined by people and are therefore inherently changeable and flawed. Once you realize this, more possibilities open up for you. You see that resources and qualities aren’t fixed, and you can do a lot to change your circumstances.
How to Approach Health Mindfully
Now that we’ve examined some of the common beliefs that keep us from unlocking our best health, we’ll take a look at two of Langer’s strategies for approaching your health mindfully: Spending time with mindful people and paying attention to fluctuations in your health.
Strategy #1: Spend Time With Mindful People
According to Langer, just spending time around people who exhibit mindful traits can make you more mindful, which is beneficial for your health. Mindful traits include paying attention to details, thinking critically, and noticing small behavioral changes.
Langer describes how one of her studies found that patients with traumatic brain injuries had better health outcomes when the people taking care of them exhibited mindful traits. This could be for multiple reasons: First, patients may have become more mindful themselves because of the influence of their caregivers. Second, the more mindful a caregiver is, the better they can respond to changes in the patient’s symptoms and behavior.
Strategy #2: Pay Attention to All Types of Health Changes
To avoid getting into the fixed health mindsets and limiting beliefs we touched on earlier, Langer suggests that you pay attention to all types of changes in your health. We tend to be more aware when symptoms and health challenges get worse, mindlessly accepting that our condition will only deteriorate. However, it’s important to notice positive fluctuations in your health as well.
In practice, this may look like:
- Considering what factors could have contributed to your symptoms worsening or improving at different points in time
- Noting the intensity of your symptoms in different circumstances
- Consciously paying attention to times when symptoms are absent as well as the times they’re present
Tracking your health changes in these ways will help you notice controllable factors and circumstances that affect your symptoms. This habit will ensure that you remain open to possible solutions for your health challenges.
Monitoring your health changes can also make you less dependent on things like medications and medical devices. For instance, say you experience motion sickness when you’re on road trips. If you mindlessly accept that this’ll always happen, you may depend on a drug like Dramamine, which makes you feel extremely drowsy. However, if you experiment and mindfully pay attention to your symptoms, you may find that sitting in the front seat helps, or that chewing ginger candy reduces your nausea enough that you don’t have to take Dramamine. Thus, you’ll have a way to reduce motion sickness and be awake during road trips.
