Dr. Ellen Langer

For many people, they think that is the way, but who decided?

When I give lectures, sometimes I'll ask, is there a tall man in the audience?

For reasons I don't understand, Mel, there always is.

A six foot five guy.

I ask him to come to the stage.

So here I am at 5'3".

Here he is at 6'5".

We look ridiculous together, right?

I ask him to put his hand up.

He puts his hand up.

His hand is three inches longer than mine.

Then I just raise the question, should we do anything similar, anything the same way, anything physical the same way?

And I don't think so.

Now is the important point, especially for your female listeners.

If he created the rules for how to do this, the more different I am from him, the more important it is for me not to do it exactly that way, for me to change it ever so slightly so that it more meets my own needs, physical being, and so on.

And we just, this is the way you do it.

This is the way.

And, you know, so one of the titles for the book that you have there that I'm very excited about, The Mindful Body, you know, when you write a book, then you have to think, what should you call it?

And one of the names for the book early on was Who Says So?

And that's what one of my pieces of advice to all of the adults listening.