Ellen J Langer
Mindfulness is the book which changed it all. Everyone is talking about mindfulness, but Ellen Langer started her work in this field in the early 70s. Mindfulness is the very simple process of noticing new things, resulting in engagement, which is exciting. Mindfulness as Langer has studied it is energy-begetting and fun. She’s found that not only is mindfulness literally and figuratively enlivening, but when we are mindful, other people find us more attractive. In fact, her research has shown that this active noticing is the essence of charisma.
If that wasn’t enough, her research has also shown that mindfulness leaves its imprint on the things we’re creating. For example, orchestra musicians who were taught to make the pieces they were playing new in a very subtle way, then produced music that was overwhelmingly preferred by those who heard it.
Mindfulness is not just a fad. Imagine that you were making toast and you burned it every time you made it. If someone showed you how to make toast without burning it, you would then make toast that way for the rest of your life.
Meditation is engaged to result in post-meditative mindfulness, and this is just a different way of getting to the same place. Rather then taking yourself out of your daily life as you would if you were meditating, the process of active noticing in mindfulness means that you’re fully engaged in your ongoing life. You come to see that the things you thought you knew, it turns out you didn’t know, because everything is changing and everything looks different from different perspectives.
Ellen Langer is fond of saying that we tend to confuse the stability of our mindsets with the stability of underlying phenomena. That means that when you’re holding it still and think you know it, it’s only an illusion. Langer’s studies show that mindfulness means you’re never a passive participant.
Dr Langer is currently working in the areas of aging and chronic illness.