The single most important factor in our health

Mindfulness.

I believe strongly, this is a big statement, but that virtually all of our problems, whether they are physical, interpersonal, professional, global, are the result indirectly or directly of our mindlessness, which means that by (making) these simple changes, we can produce vast improvements in every aspect of our lives.

In many, many experiments, we put the mind in unusual places and take the measurements from the body. And the results are kind of astounding because what they suggest is that almost everything we think we know (about wellness) is wrong.

~ Ellen Langer

https://news.uchicago.edu/why-secret-health-lies-mind-body-connection

Ahahahahaha - what a great example...

Okay, so mindfulness as we study it is not about meditation. It’s the very simple process of actively noticing new things. Everything is always changing. Everything looks different from different perspectives. Yet we think we know. And when we think we know, we don’t pay any attention. 

Many years ago I went to Paris on my honeymoon and I’m in a restaurant and I’m trying to be ever so sophisticated. And then I saw on the menu there was a mixed grill, and it had among the items, pancreas. And so I was going to order this because now I was a woman of the world. So the dish finally comes and I asked my husband at the time, Which of these was the pancreas?” He pointed to something, I ate everything else. And now was the moment of truth. Could I get myself to eat the pancreas?

I start eating it and I’m getting sick to my stomach. Meanwhile, he starts laughing. I say, “Why are you laughing?” He said, “Because that’s chicken, you ate the pancreas ages ago.” Okay, so it was my mind that was controlling my illness at the time. So all of the experiments we’ve done keep taking you back to the idea that our mindsets have limited us enormously. 

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