My personal passion is the flying trapeze. Yes, like in the circus. I jump from a platform, swing through the air only to let go and be caught by the catcher and then launched back to catch that same bar and swing up to the platform again. My family thinks I’m crazy, and likely my kids do as well, but my contemporaries, my friends, understand fully my quest to feel young, strong and vibrant. Believing that I am a young trapeze artist and living as if that is true has literally turned me into a trapeze “flyer”, and I feel myself getting younger and stronger! I use my mind to tell me how I feel and who I am and my body seems to follow without much resistance.
But in terms of aging, most of us are scared and imagine the “worst case scenario” – slumped over in a wheelchair, requiring help to go the bathroom or make a meal, and needing prompts to remember who we are. Our fear of aging has convinced us that aging is awful for everyone. How is our negatively bias mindset contributing to our actual physical manifestations of aging? If we believe we are old and unable does our body prove us right? This week’s guest, Dr. Ellen Langer, social psychologist, professor at Harvard University, author of 12 books and the “Mother of Mindfulness” discusses her book Counterclockwise and how a mind frame of youth can lead to overall better health.