Mindfulness, exercise, diet and health

A few weeks ago, my brother sent me a link to a book by Ellen Langer, Mindful Body. I hadn't heard of Prof Langer, but I was familiar with some of her research, in particular the Philadelphia chambermaids experiment. In this, 84 hotel employees were divided into two groups; one was told that a day's work – cleaning 16 rooms, making 16 beds, lifting, pushing, carrying – was the equivalent of an intense daily workout in a gym. The other group, the control, carried on normally without this information. The researchers measured the maids' body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, weight and body mass index. "All of these indicators matched the maids' perceived amount of exercise, rather than their actual amount of exercise." Once the women mindset had accepted that they were actually exercising intensely, "there was a decrease in their weight, waist-to-hip ratio, and a 10% drop in blood pressure."

I've now watched several interviews and podcasts with Prof Langer from over the years, and it confirms what I've long believed; that mind and body are one, and the mind has the power to heal or accelerate healing. As I've written here before, if you believe in the power of belief, you can heal yourself to a far greater degree than modern medical science would give credit for. Healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical industry would have you believe in them more than any flaky woo-woo pre-scientific witchdoctorism.

Earlier this month, the UK lost a great broadcaster, Dr Michael Mosley, presenter of Just One Thing. He died, apparently of heat-stroke, while out walking on a Greek island. His BBC Radio 4 programmes focused on one thing that can improve your health outcome if introduced into your daily habits – be it glugging olive oil, reading a poem aloud, Nordic walking, holding the plank, or high-intensity interval training, to name but a few. 

The plank episode gave me cause for reflection. If holding the plank for two minutes a day reduces your blood pressure, then holding it for six and half minutes a day should be even better, right? Or is it just the belief that holding the plank reduces blood pressure reduce blood pressure – or are both factors at play here?

Tracking exercises (something I've been doing daily since 1 January 2014) also works. I am motivated to 'beat last year' – the only person I'm competing against is the younger (65-year-old) version of me. Looking across the seven sets of exercises, the walking –  and indeed the fruit-&-veg and alcohol consumption, I've improved in every metric compared to the first half of 2023.

An old family joke was my mother's book Think Yourself Slimmer – which she interpreted as an alternative to cutting out cakes and biscuits from her diet. Yet there might have been something there; her belief in the power of the mind over body might have contributed to her reaching the age of 88, despite a total lack of exercise or inability to resist sweet and starchy foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, my father exhibited the two key features of mindfulness throughout his life – instinctively. Number one – he observed. He was, to use Prof Langer's term, noticing. He would notice things around him, all the time. Number two – he was curious, he was ever keen to learn (one of the last words he ever wrote, found on a Post-It note by his bed, was 'quantum supremacy'.) 

Back to Prof Langer. Listening to her is like having my personal theories, built up over decades, confirmed by high authority. "YES!" I feel like shouting out. "YOU ARE SO RIGHT!" She defines 'mindfulness' not as meditation, but as being aware of being aware. Mindfulness is not about detaching yourself from reality, but about being in the moment, observant, perceptive, attentive. 

As I said, I've watched several interviews with Prof Langer. She's a well-practiced public speaker, and gets her points across in a way that are easy to absorb. Of all of these, I'd say this is the best; here she is being interviewed by Steve 'Freakonomics' Levitt. Highly recommended!

And yet I intuit that there's even more than Prof Langer says. Being consciously grateful for your good health is part of the cycle. And this leads to the spiritual dimension. Because if you are grateful, you must be expressing gratitude towards someone or something. Mindfulness includes never taking your blessings for granted, never allowing yourself to become complacend. And quantum luck? The idea that you can will an outcome by collapsing some wave function or other? That you can avoid misfortune by precluding the possibility? It's not just about expecting the unexpected, but precluding the unconsidered mishap by considering it. A timeline collapses. The very verge of magical thinking – physical effect without physical cause. Not something mainstream medical science is keen on.

This time last year:
Blasted!

This time six years ago:
My new used laptop
[Six years on, it's still fine albeit without a battery; I can no longer source a new one. But it works fine when connected to the mains.]

This time nine years ago:
Face to face with Mr Hare

This time 11 years ago:
Central Warsaw vistas

This time 12 years ago:
Future of urban motoring?
[Sadly not. It proved to be V8-powered two-tonne SUVs for dragging lazy lard-arses into town]

This time 14 years ago:
On foot to Limanowa

This time 16 years ago:
Crumbling neo-classicism in Grabów

This time 17 years ago:
Bike ride into deepest Mazovia