The Power of Possibility

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Added: Mon. Nov 29, 2010 12:00pm
Posted in: Aging

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I’m declaring Growing Bolder a landmark study in social psychology.  And I’m declaring our slogan -- It’s Not About Age, It’s About Attitude™ the most powerful combination of words ever strung together. Sure, both are exaggerations but only partly.

We’ve been telling the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for more than four years. We feature people who somehow seem immune to the subtle messages that our society bombards us with about aging. These are the people who have managed to ignore the stereotypes of the elderly as feeble, immobile, mindless, helpless and passionless. And as a result, they are none of the above.

As interesting and inspirational as our large library of anecdotal evidence is, I wondered if there exists actual scientific evidence that it’s not about age, it’s about attitude? Can it actually be proven that your attitude can turn back the hands of time? It didn’t take long to discover the research of Harvard professor Dr. Ellen Langer.

Dr. Langer is one of the world’s top social psychologists and has designed one fascinating research study after another that reaffirm what we have been saying for years -- believe and you will become.  Or as she put it,  “Where the mind leads, the body will follow.”

In the early '80s, she took two groups of men in their 70s and 80s on a weeklong retreat in which she created a realistic living environment from the 1950s. The men were totally immersed in the culture of their youth. They watched 1950s shows and movies on black and white TVs and listened to music, prize fights, horse races and news reports from the era. The first group was told to pretend they had actually traveled back in time and were young men again -- living, acting and talking like they did in the 1950s. The second group was told to stay in the present but reminisce about the past.

When the week was over, both groups had significantly improved their overall health but the change in the group who actually pretended to be younger was astonishing. Not only did they change psychologically -- they changed physically. Their gait, posture, hearing, vision, grip strength and manual dexterity improved. Their joints were more flexible, their shoulders wider and their fingers were not only more agile, but longer and less gnarled by arthritis. Impersonating younger men for only one week resulted in bodies that actually were younger.

“It is not our physical state that limits us,” Langer explains, “it is our mindset about our own limits. Men who changed their perspective changed their bodies.”

In 2007, Dr. Langer took 84 female hotel workers who didn’t have the time or money to join a health club. One group was told that research had proven that the work they do (vacuuming, bending to pick up towels, pushing carts, scrubbing tubs, making beds and emptying trash) is legitimate exercise that duplicates many of the exercises performed in gyms. The control group was told nothing.

Four weeks later, Langer returned to take measurements and discovered that the control group hadn’t changed physically, but the test group had lost weight, lowered their blood pressure, reduced their body fat and decreased their waist-to-hip ratio. They reported feeling better and their loved ones thought they looked better.

Nothing changed except their perception of what they were doing. What was mindless was now mindful. As soon as they began to view their daily routine as exercise beneficial to their health and fitness, it was. Where the mind led, the body followed.

Langer has made a career out of proving the mind-body connection that scientists have suspected for years.  She points to the use of placebos in medicine. “A third of people with virtually all disorders self-heal using placebos,” she said.

But it’s not the placebo that affects recovery. “You’re making yourself better.”  For that reason, she believes that doctors should rarely, if ever, deliver a terminal diagnosis. “A terminal diagnosis becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Where the mind leads, the body follows.

The same can said for the aging process. Our fixed ideas, internalized in childhood and reinforced throughout our life by the media, our families and friends, affect the way we age. We have literally been brainwashed into believing that when our hair turns gray or begins to fall out or when we begin to get wrinkles, that a rapid physical decline is inevitable.

At Growing Bolder, we’ve documented one person after another who disproves that notion. We’ve learned that when you hang out with younger people, you not only act younger -- you feel younger and you look younger. We’ve learned that it’s never too late to turn back the clock.  We’ve observed repeatedly what Dr. Langer is proving -- that mindset determines outcome, that a change in self-perception is ultimately a change in reality.  That it’s not about age. It’s about attitude.

Dr. Langer’s research demonstrates clearly that if your mind accepts the negative stereotypes of aging, so will your body.  Opening our minds to what’s possible instead of clinging to notions about what’s not can dramatically improve our health at any age.

Here’s the take-away -- the aging process is not fixed. It’s not based solely or even mostly on your genes. It’s based largely upon your mind. Where your mind leads, your body will follow.

Note:
If you’ve not heard much about Dr. Langer, you will. Dreamworks Studios has optioned the film rights to “Counterclockwise,"her book about the men who turned back the clock by returning to the 1950s. Jennifer Anniston has signed on to produce the film and will play the 34-year-old Langer.

In addition, the BBC has recreated the study in a reality show called "The Young Ones."  The show features six well-loved British celebrities in their 70s and 80s who move into a house to try to turn back the clock by returning to 1975.  For one week, they live, work and eat in the 1970s to see if they can regain their youth.