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Your Body Is Obeying Your Beliefs. A Harvard Psychologist Has The Proof | Ellen Langer

Dr. Mayim Bialik

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What if the things you do every single day are quietly making you sick… and you don’t even realize it?

Harvard psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer, author of The Mindful Body, reveals the shocking ways our minds shape our health, aging, stress levels, and even how long we live—often without us noticing.

In this mind-expanding of Mayim Bialik's Breakdown, Dr. Langer explains why self-agency and making your own decisions can literally extend your lifespan, how expectations and beliefs shape disease progression, and why the real meaning of mindfulness has almost nothing to do with meditation.

Dr. Langer breaks down:
Small, everyday habits that are secretly harming your health
Why stress is the #1 cause of illness (and not for the reason you think)
Whether healing timelines are based on real time or perceived time
Surprising benefits of positive thinking, even with terminal illness
Danger of labels, including words like “try” and “remission”
Why spontaneous remissions exist & why they’re so hard to study
Simple ways to become more mindful right now, even if you’ve never meditated once in your life
Can we train ourselves to not need eyeglasses?
The real power of the placebo effect
Can the mind cure the common cold?
Psychological treatments for chronic illness
Who is more likely to get sick & why
How color influences our biology more than we think
Why spirituality requires presence and mindfulness
How to reframe negative circumstances into positive ones, and the health benefits of doing so
How her mother’s battle with cancer inspired her groundbreaking research

This episode will change how you think about healing, stress, aging, illness, and the true power of your mind over your body!

You may never see health, sickness, or “reality” the same way again.

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00:00 - Intro
01:54 - The Power of Perception in Health
07:20 - Mind-Body Unity Theory Explained
13:36 - Mindfulness: Beyond Meditation
34:47 - Mindfulness in Everyday Life
38:37 - Importance of Questioning Absolutes and Embracing Possibilities
40:12 - Do We Even Need Eyeglasses?
42:37 - Symptom Variability & Chronic Illness
45:32 - Power of Language and Perception
51:22 - Why Placebo Works
57:53 - Dangers of Labels & Diagnoses

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If you’re tired of being tired, this is your chance to finally get answers and get your energy back. Go to https://superpower.com/ and use code BREAK for $20 off your membership this year.

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Theme Song Written, Produced, and Performed by Ed Robertson. Mixed by Kenny Luong.

#MayimBialik #BialikBreakdown #Stress #HealthandWellness #Longevity #Mindfulness #Meditation #Healing #Remission #Placebo #Color #Spirituality #ScienceandSpirituality #spiritualityandscience #Cancer #Aging

20 Comments

@MayimBialik Creator 7 months ago Pinned

Head to https://impact.ourritual.com/c/4792730/2005678/24744 , take a quick quiz, and use code BREAKER20 for 20% off your first month.

If you’re tired of being tired, this is your chance to finally get answers and get your energy back. Go to https://superpower.com/ and use code BREAK for $20 off your membership this year.

@lindamac45 2 months ago

I've followed Dr. langer's work for decades. I had a patient who came to me and said I just found out I'm terminal. I immediately begin regurgitating Dr. Langer's work in a way that he could comprehend since he was both in shock and grief. I said are you sitting down everyone's terminal? nobody lives forever. I asked him how did the doctor know for sure you only had a month or two to live. I said is there an expiration date on the bottom of your foot? he laughed and the more we discussed her work, the more I could hear his voice relax. bottom line is he's still alive and that's been 10 years ago!!

@donnareynolds4 7 months ago (edited)

I witnessed this personally with a client. He had a brain bleed, passed out and wasn't found for 2 days. Was hospitalized and then sent to a rehab facility for a few months. They told him he would leave in a wheelchair and may never walk again. He loved to downhill ski. Every day he would visualize himself skiing. He'd sneak out at night and use a walker and walk the halls. He said they would catch him and tell him he 'couldn't walk' and put him back in bed. He told me his desire to walk and eventually ski is what he believed led to him actually waking out of rehabilitation. We worked together for a year and he went from depressed to more positive and healthy and was on the ski hills enjoying life again. Our minds and body's are incredible!!!

@RAWKINJGUITAR 7 months ago (edited)

When I was about 7 years old, I got a really big fever and I was really sick at my Grandma's. While in bed, I imagined little men ( like the workers in Fraggle Rock!) repairing my body inside, cleaning, scrubbing, polishing, making everything chrome. when I woke up, I felt like a miilion bucks! I've been using my little healing men since. And they work on other people too.

@SoulPetHealing 7 months ago

"The more different you are than the person who wrote the rule, the more important it is for you not to mindlessly follow the rule." Solid Gold!! 👏

@AndreaDunnett-zf7fl 7 months ago (edited)

I'm a high school teacher, and over the years, I discovered that telling students they were working above my expectations or higher than other classes of the same grade level resulted in higher results. I soon learned that what students believed about their own capabilities directly affected their performance. In essence, my 'faith' in them created self-fulfilling prophecies within their individual and group perspectives when it came to the belief in their achievable abilities.

@kirk8321 2 months ago

My grandmother who passed at 85, was born in 1899. As a very young woman a doctor told her she was unable to have children. She declined to take that to heart and ended up having four sons and two daughters, the youngest of them all became my Mother! Everything is possible

@astronauttriloki_sts107 7 months ago

Mayim dropping neuroscience + spirituality bombs again! 🤯 If thoughts can rewire DNA and reduce inflammation like the guests say… we're all walking miracles. Time to level up our inner dialogue! Who's starting today? 🚀

@astronauttriloki_sts107 7 months ago

Wait… so this is actually REAL? 😲 I've been doing this intuitively since I was 10—visualizing my body healing during fevers or injuries—and doctors always said it was 'mind over matter' coincidence. Mind blown that science is catching up! Who's with me? 🙌🔥

@thewaythingsare8158 7 months ago

"rather than adding more years to your life - add more life to your years" Love that ♥

@YTtolearn 7 months ago

When my daughter was little, she had an abscess on her gum. We couldn’t get into the dentist till later that week. I told her before she went to bed that when she woke up, it would be gone. I asked her in the morning how it felt. She looked at me shocked. She said it’s gone. You told me it would be in the morning. And it was in fact gone.

@KennethJensen-v1y 7 months ago

I was in a bad accident when I was homeless years ago and was untreated due to having no insurance. Despite the fact that I was told after the accident that I would end up in a wheelchair. So I was curious 🤔 about what that would be like so I found a wheelchair and I got in it and bound my legs and after using it for about 12 hours I made a decision that this was not for me. I was told that I would not be walking either. I can't explain it, but I have noticed something quite interesting... when I focus my thinking on the NEEDS of others around me and focus on helping someone else other than ME, I experience HEALING.

@jeanmorris4190 2 months ago

Almost 20 years ago, I lost my prescription glasses for seeing at a distance in my car. I searched but could never find them. I was in financial constraints at the time so chose not to replace them at that time. Several months later, I started noticing that my vision seemed improved and soon I could read street signs clearly again, even at night. I continued not wearing glasses and now twenty years later I have passed my driver’s license eye test 3 times without the aid of corrective lenses. I had no expectation that my eyes would improve, although previously I had bought a book at a garage sale which showed exercises that could improve eye sight without using glasses. I did not do those exercises however. My eyes just got stronger by themselves. We are told as well that if we wear glasses our prescription will naturally need to be changed to a stronger one as time goes by. Everyone who wears glasses knows and accepts this prognosis.

@thureyaroberts 7 months ago

I like her. As a scientist myself I have been so disappointed at the closed-mindedness of my colleagues. Great to listen to an open-minded scientist 😌

@divatheologica5135 7 months ago (edited)

I had a major stroke at the gym 8 months ago. I was taken to hospital and misdiagnosed and not treated. It took a week Between the stroke and the diagnosis. I was at home, alone, to recover. I was determined that the symptoms were temporary (paralysis on one side, speech issues, extreme dizziness, had to relearn how to do basic things). I took a shower and "couldn't" bend to wash my feet. Instead of saying "oh i can't do that" I said "I will do that later". It's 8 months later. I can wash my feet. I'm finally back at work. There are no visible symptoms of the stroke. I have some cognitive issues but it all came down to me being ignorant of the initial diagnosis and just "getting on with it", telling myself that this was not forever, and, prayer "Dear God, help me to be the best I can today so that tomorrow I will beyond today. Whatever this stroke means help it be of service to the world." Did I have a major depression and hit a few walls? Yes. But I allowed myself to be patient with myself and said "this is chemicals in my brain reorganising and right now this feels terrible but it won't be forever". I know this is not typical and I'm over simplifying but the point is, choosing to reframe things as difficult as it sometimes is, works if you believe it will. It is also being ruthlessly loving of the self, fully mindful. 42:22

@AngelaMaini-ym7gx 3 months ago

Henry Ford said, "weather you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." I have foud this to be fact in my life. ❤

@cherylbracey420 7 months ago

I have 4 years clean from heroin addiction and when I introduced myself in meetings I said that I'm a grateful recovering addict.

@MandyB-v1o 7 months ago

My gran was fit and healthy right up until her 100th birthday. No hospital stays, no cancers, not even broken bokens. We swear she had that as a goal in her mind. Sadly soon after, dementia kicked in and she had to live in a local care home. Due to covid the residents had to be self contained on occasion, it was at this point my gran gave up. She decided enough was enough. I truly believe the mind is a very powerful tool. Great episode x