Longevity Book Review: Part 2 The Mental Aspect

The mental aspects of longevity involve our thoughts and feelings about ageing and how society treats ageing. Our mental and emotional state will reflect in our habits and physical health. The two books I am reviewing, Dr. Ellen Langer’s, The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health and Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past by Brett Popplewell, explore how our thoughts about ageing affect our abilities.

The Mother of Mindfulness

At 76 years old and a professor of psychology at Harvard University, Dr. Ellen Langer knows something about ageing and ageism. As a Harvard psychologist, she is known as the “mother of mindfulness.” The first book I read by Dr. Langer, Counterclockwise, is described on her website as a book about “opening our minds to what is possible, instead of presuming impossibility can lead to better health at any age.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Her research shows that how we treat older people and, to some degree, how they expect to be treated is one of the reasons that people decline with age. We expect that older people are incapable, and then they start believing this, and so the cycle of decline begins. In Counterclockwise, Dr. Langer is dedicated to changing our beliefs about what is possible instead of accepting the ideas of what is not and how that can improve our health at any age.

In her 1979 counterclockwise study, she has a group of elderly men live as it was 1959 and shows how beliefs can change our lives, as the men seemed to get younger when they are expected to be and treated as if they were “young.” Dr Langer believes that mindset matters when it comes to ageing and that we mindlessly react to cultural cues about ageing.

How do you think about ageing?

In The Mindful Body, Dr. Langer carries on her research about attitudes and ageing. Unfortunately, this book is not as compelling as Counterclockwise. If I were going to read one, I would recommend Counterclockwise and skip the Mindful Body.

In Counterclockwise, Dr. Langer explains how we can challenge our beliefs by making small changes to how we think and talk about our health and abilities. Improving our health also includes our thoughts about our physical limits. It gives us the tools to live right now as if this were the most important moment of our lives because if it is not, then what is?

The Mindful Body seems like a random collection of thoughts with little cohesion and many awkward stories. As I have listened to more than one webinar about this book with Dr. Langer, where she articulately explains her research, I am blaming the book’s almost unreadability on the editors. The current trend is to tell “stories” so people can “relate.” This results in stories that aren’t relevant, and some are simply wrong. For example, one chapter starts with “When I was having lunch at Jennifer Aniston’s house, I realized we had so much in common…” and then a story about not much more than name-dropping. Another chapter suggests that if you need glasses, you are probably just hungry and should have a snack instead. (Also, please don’t drive.) I find this strange as someone who can’t exist without my glasses. Dr. Langer is not a medical doctor who seems to think everything can be cured with the right thoughts, which is certainly not the case.

While I agree with the idea that our thoughts do influence our health. I see this all the time when someone believes they can’t do something without any attempts otherwise, or they buy into the story about being “too old.” I do recommend listening to Dr. Langer discuss her ideas, like the video included below, but skip the book.

“I think what people should stop doing is trying to add more years to their lives, what instead they should be doing is add more life to their years – then the rest will unfold naturally.”

Dr. Langer

Outsider

If you want to inspire yourself no matter what your age, then read Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past. While it is not a book specifically about longevity, it is a life story, and it does prove what Dr. Langer believes, your thoughts influence your abilities and your age.

Brett Popplewell tells the story of Dag Aabye, which interests me as I have met Dag. He has always been around in the mountains where I have lived and skied. Knowing the story behind the older, scruffy man I have seen running down mountains, living in a school bus and hearing stories from friends who have known Dag made this book even more interesting.

“Old people need superheroes too.”

Dag Aabye

The story is described as a mix between Born to Run and Into the Wild. It is about an older man pushing the boundaries of how we think about older adults and ageing. He lives a simple life, running every morning and pushing his limits.

You don’t have to live in an abandoned school bus and run almost an hour each way for water every morning to understand that we are capable of more than we think.

Now it is your turn. What inspires you to age better?

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla