Harvard research: We can think ourselves younger and healthier

Harvard Professor Ellen Langer and colleague Alia Crum reported that they took 84 hotel workers and told one group that “the work they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle.”

Langer and Crum told the control group nothing. Four weeks later, the control group hadn’t changed physically, but the test group had decreased their weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index.

Jennifer Aniston will be producing and starring as Ellen Langer in a movie about her Positive Psychology research on beliefs and aging.

From the article How You Tell the Story of Your Life, By Senia Maymin (Positive Psychology News Daily)