Dr. Ellen Langer

So I think that people need to understand that events themselves are neither positive nor negative.

What makes them positive or negative is the way we understand these events.

The more mindful we are, the more choices we have for how to understand the things we experience.

You know, I'm curious about your view of this as an important physician.

My view is that stress is

is the major killer.

I think everybody these days knows that stress isn't good for you.

And so stress is psychological.

And so if disease is primarily a function of stress and we can control our thoughts that will control whether or not we're stressed, it means we have enormous control over our health.

Far greater than most people realize.

You know, I have a few one-liners I like after doing so many years of research to see if I can capture some of the major thoughts very briefly.

One of these is if people just ask themselves, is it a tragedy or an inconvenience?

Now, I'm not talking about the fire, you know, but most of the stress that we experience.

I think people would realize, you know, so what?

You know, it's really not such a big deal.

And they'd immediately feel better.

But also, stress requires two things.

It requires a belief that something is going to happen and that when it happens, it's going to be awful.

And almost always the things we worry about don't happen.

So if you simply said to yourself when you were stressed, what are three reasons, five if you're interested, that this thing might not happen?