Does positive thinking really work?
You’ve heard the advice/clichés:
But do you believe they really work?
Is it all just “Pollyanna” thinking?
Well, are you familiar with this fascinating experiment done by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer back in 1981?
She and her colleagues piled two groups of men in their sev
enties and eighties into vans, drove them two hours north to a sprawling old monastery in New Hampshire, and dropped them off 22 years earlier, in 1959!
They were surrounded by mid-century mementos-1950s issues of Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, a black-and-white television, a vintage radio-and they discussed the events of the time: the launch of the first satellite, Castro’s victory ride into Havana, Khrushchev and the need for bomb shelters.
They had agreed to live in the setting for seven days, thinking, talking and acting as they had twenty years before. They had taken a battery of cognitive and physical tests before and after that one week and there were dramatic positive changes across the board, and not just in their frisky attitude!
They were stronger and more flexible. Height, weight, gait, posture, hearing, vision-even performance on intelligence tests had improved. Their joints were more flexible, their shoulders wider, their fingers not only more agile, but longer and less gnarled by arthritis.
AS Ellen Langer said in a 2010 interview about that monastery study, “Men who changed their perspective changed their bodies.” Context, she says, is everything.
The more we learn, the more we realize that the way we think really does matter! Our mind really does affect our body! And it’s our choice.
And of interest to me, is her later study on breast cancer survivors where she asked the survivors whether they considered themselves in remission or cured.
I’m Cured!
The “cured” group reported better general health, more energy, less pain, and less depression. The research was correlational (findings that suggest a relationship between the variables, but cannot prove causation) but warrant a possible rethinking of how to instruct breast cancer survivors like me to envision their relationship with the illness.
She suggests we contrast the way we talk about 
cancer to the language we use to describe a cold. We think of each cold as a new one-we’re not in remission. So cancer can be thought of the same way too.
Martin Seligman, in his book Learned Optimism, invites pessimists to learn to be optimists by thinking about their reactions to adversity in a new way. The resulting optimism—one that grew from pessimism—is a learned optimism. The optimist’s outlook on failure can thus be summarized as “What happened was an unlucky situation (not personal), and really just a setback (not permanent) for this one, of many, goals (not pervasive).”
Something to think about-we choose our outlook!
So what belief do you want to test it on? Or have you already experienced it?
Please share your thoughts on how your thinking has changed something in your life, for better or for worse.
And what you think about this positive thinking “stuff”?
9 Comments
Very interesting and enlightening study they did! We all need to practice it – particularly those that write the news. I believe if we weren’t inundated with all the horrible news ALL the time it would be much easier to think and act positive. There is so much good out there!
Tish, I too thought that study was enlightening as it seems so simplistic, as if the immersion into what we want to think about could be fun!
Thank you Pat. Just what I needed to read today.
For me it certainly worked very dramatically. Quite some years ago (as you well know, Pat!) I was, well a ‘shrew’ is a nice way to put it. You and I were estranged (my doing, not yours), my marriage was off kilter (ya think?) and I was feeling pretty miserable and making those around me miserable, too. Being snarky all the time is exhausting!
One day I remember waking up and thinking that this was awfully hard work, and not fun for me or any one around me. So….I changed my thinking around and everything else changed as well – and within a quite short amount of time – dramatically turned around. Whew! What a relief to feel more positive about everything and anything! How nice to smile and laugh again and to reach out. Yup, how we think changes our entire emotional being as well as having the physical changes that go with that. And of course, gratitude is definitely one of those positive things.
And hey, who cares if seems like ‘pie in the sky’ or Pollyanna thinking? Do what works!
Fay, I often wonder what took me so long to “get it.” Wouldn’t it have been great to have learned some of this when we were young? I think it’s one of the reasons I enjoy teaching Junior Achievement classes at the high school level-I get to include some of my philosophy and psychology along with career planning and financial stuff.
Very interesting. Never heard of this experiment but would like to know more. Incredible that there would be measurable changes in only one week! More evidence for us of the mind/body connection. If only we can find some ways for all of us to apply this.
Dave, I’ll look up some references for you about the study that Ellen Langer did. I found it really interesting!
A few years ago, following a stroke and good reading ( and able to read and remember again ) I knew that I could change things in my head as I got back to mostly normal again. I could and I did concentrate more on positive thoughts and actions. Try to get away from negative things like things you hear or read most of the time these days. When you see positive, tell others too. When you see a VietNam Vet, tell them Welcome Home. Donna L always told me to hug a bit more and I do. Its a nice feeling to see smiles once in a while. Look for and try to find positive things, you will feel better about yourself and others. If bad happens, choose a positive answer. Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes – try to understand better before you judge. Shake hands, look over their shoulder, and accept them – their path has been different than yours. Outlook on things does change as does acceptance of others different than you – we are all different. Welcome people, all people. Positive outlooks does make a difference – hopefully for politicians too. Earl B
Earl, you are a great role model! Your personal philosophy is inspiring.