Turn Back the Clock

Aging may be inevitable, but holding a negative stereotype about it is not. Research from Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer shows that we can actually turn the clock back in surprising ways through shifts in our expectations. Here’s a non-affiliate link to Langer’s book on mindful health.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
[ music] Hi, this is Rob Sepich, and welcome to Relaxing
with Rob.
Would you like to turn the clockback on your age?
Globally, we spend about 50billion U.S.

(00:21):
dollars each year on anti-agingproducts and services.
And since ageism is one of thelast acceptable prejudices in
many parts of the Western world,we put a lot of effort into
looking young.
In episode 42,"Avoid SnapJudgments," I shared how I'm

(00:42):
working through my own implicitbias against older people, and
how it started only after Ibecame one of them! So it runs
deep for a lot of us.
I have a Zumba friend in hermid-twenties who once complained
to me about her aches and painsthat she attributed to age.

(01:02):
And I got to tell you, I wasn'table to offer her much empathy.
But our conversation reminded methat feeling old can happen
earlier than you might think.
For example, last year I read ajournal entry I made after my
first year of college aboutsomebody I had started to date,
and I wrote that I was so happybecause[quote]"she made me feel

(01:26):
young again." I was 19 at thetime! There are cultures where
age is revered, and wrinkles areembraced, and wisdom gained from
our experience counts more thanour looks.
In their song,"Good Old Days,"Macklemore and Kesha sing about

(01:46):
having some scars, feeling somepain, but being here now.
Their most relevant line for ustoday is,"I ain't worried'bout
the wrinkles'round my smile." Iwould put their song on repeat
whenever I found myself lookinga little too long at my own
scars and wrinkles.
Eleanor Roosevelt said,"Beautiful young people are

(02:08):
accidents of nature, butbeautiful old people are works
of art." So what age means toyou is mostly culturally
determined.
And the degree to which weaccept this is on us.
Personally, I'm all aboutembracing the benefits of age at

(02:29):
every stage of life.
But my goal today is morenuanced than that.
It's to first challenge some ofyour assumptions about the aging
process.
And I'll see if I can helpreduce your anxiety and make it
then easier to embrace thebenefits of getting older.
Here's how.

(02:49):
If you're up for swimmingagainst the tide of Western
culture(but hey, how hard canthat be?) I'd like to share some
research by the Harvardpsychologist Ellen Langer from
her 2009 book,"Counter-clockwise: Mindful
health and the power ofpossibility." Langer has
published more than 200 researchpapers, so although her work on

(03:12):
mindfulness in particular hashelped countless people, she's
not a self-help author; she's ascientist.
And for your convenience, I'llplace a non-affiliate link to it
in the show notes.
In other words, if you purchasea copy, I don't receive
anything.
Okay.
She's done 30 years of researchon turning the clock back, not

(03:33):
just psychologically, but hernovel research is on doing it
physically.
She and her colleagues havedemonstrated improvements for
older adults in vision,appearance, and longevity, just
through shifts in ourexpectations and our behaviors.
It turns out that so much ofwhat we think are inevitable

(03:56):
effects of age are actually not.
They're self-created beliefs,and our behaviors then follow
suit.
One self-fulfilling prophecybegets another.
And when I read her book, I knewit was even more evidence for
the power of the placebo effectthat I talked about in episode
41,"Return to Wellness." Langerwrites a lot about the

(04:21):
healthcare industry in the U.S.
And she knows it's hard to be aprovider, but it's also hard to
be a patient.
And she points out, it's partlybecause of our mindsets that we
bring to health and to disease.
And when we passively acceptdiagnoses and medications and
the typical course of anillness, reality often follows

(04:43):
suit.
But when we're willing toreasonably question our
providers and be active membersof our healthcare team, the
course of our illness can oftenimprove.
Years ago, a doctor told my wifethat she would never ride a bike
again.
And she wasn't willing to acceptthat pronouncement, so she got a

(05:05):
second opinion and a referralfor physical therapy.
She did her homework andimproved, and years later she
still bikes regularly andwithout injury.

So lesson number one is (05:15):
be an active healthcare consumer.
The author also talks aboutcorrelation not implying
causation.
If you've ever taken astatistics class, you already
know that.
For example, we know tumors arecorrelated with premature death,
but just because you'rediagnosed with one does not mean

(05:38):
you're going to die early fromone.
Yet, when we think"cancer equalsdeath," and we lose hope, we
don't have much of a chance touse all the resources available
to us for treatment.

So lesson number two is (05:53):
learn what statistics actually mean.
And if you don't understandthem, ask a trusted person who
does.
A fascinating study that Langerconducted with Becca Levy on
memory decline and older peoplefound that in cultures without
negative stereotypes about oldage, a little memory loss still

(06:15):
occurred, but not nearly as muchas in cultures with negative
stereotypes about old age.

So lesson number three (06:22):
some age-related"changes" in our
health don't necessarily mean"decline." Whether you're 19 and
want to feel young again like Idid then or you're much older
and feeling some effects ofentropy, there is hope.

(06:42):
In fact, there's more than hope.
There's evidence that it doesn'thave to be the way you think it
is.
A former student in our stressmanagement class described her
identical twin great aunts.
One lived in a retirementcommunity in the South and one
in a large Midwestern city.

(07:03):
The Southern relative spent hertime mostly sitting on her
balcony, and watching TV, andcomplaining about her age.
The big-city relative lived in awalkup apartment, climbing a
couple of flights of stairs mostevery day, and was pretty
involved with her neighborhood.
And the student told us thatthey seemed to be about 15 years

(07:25):
apart in their age.
Those two relatives served asimportant teachers for the
student on choices andexpectations she could make
about aging.
And she already held herbig-city aunt as a role model
for healthy aging.
In the musical"Pippin," acharacter reveals a secret she

(07:47):
never has told, and she thinksmaybe you'll understand why.
She believes[quote]"If I refuseto grow old, I can stay young
'til I die." That's what I'mdoing, and I hope you will too.
Thank you for listening, andwe'll talk again soon.

(08:11):
[ music]