Dr. Ellen Langer

I had this slide when I used to give these lectures, as I still do, and I say on the slide,

virtually all of our problems, whether personal, interpersonal, professional, global, are the direct or indirect consequences of our mindlessness.

Now, it's interesting because then I tell them, just among us and the other 10 million people I've said this to, I really mean all.

So that's enormous, right?

I'm saying all of our problems are a result of our mindlessness.

So if we're able to get people to understand how easy it is to change their mind, to become more mindful, whatever ails them should dissipate.

Let me tell you three stories.

Okay.

So I got married when I was obscenely young.

Don't tell anybody.

And we go to Paris on our honeymoon.

We're in this restaurant, and I order a mixed grill.

On the plate was pancreas.

So I asked my then-husband, which of these is the pancreas?

He was more sophisticated than I. He points to that.

I eat everything.

I'm a big eater.

Now comes the moment of truth.

I still don't understand why I thought that being married meant I had to eat the pancreas.

But somehow I felt as a young person, a sophisticated woman of the world, because I was now married, should eat it.