Mind-Body Unity: Exploring the Power of Mindfulness in Life and Leadership

What does it mean to truly be mindful?

And what impact can this have for our work lives and our health? In the latest episode of We Are Human Leaders, we explore this and (much) more with Harvard University Professor and the ‘Mother of Mindfulness’, Ellen J. Langer. 

In this warm and wide-ranging conversation, Ellen shares wisdom from her latest book, ‘The Mindful Body: Thinking our Way to Chronic Health’, explaining that this is not down to a connection between the mind and body. 

“I’m talking about the mind and body being a single unit.”

She shares a compelling outline of the impact of mindfulness, which as she terms it is not a practice but a way of being: “When you’re being mindful, people find you charismatic, more attractive and more authentic. Your health is better, your relationships are better and the most important part: it’s easy and it’s fun.”

Mindfulness allows us to hold space for 'both/and thinking'

Ellen explains how bringing mindfulness to the workplace can positively impact employee engagement as well as other factors that drive outstanding results. In her view, “Perhaps the most important job of the leader is to promote the mindfulness of all those being led.” 

In particular, mindfulness allows us to hold space for multiple ways of viewing the same scenario (both/and thinking), which can directly lead to higher levels of innovation and creative problem solving. 

As Ellen puts it, “Business has an overwhelming tendency to use yesterday’s solutions to solve today’s problems. When you become more mindful, you find new solutions. Plus, the more mindful you are, the more options you have for understanding yourself, other people, for imagining how events are going to unfold.”

The wide-ranging benefits of Mindfulness

We explore the impact of mindfulness for medical conditions and disease, including dementia and chronic illness, and the extensive research Ellen has conducted over many decades into the unity of mind and body. As Ellen summarizes: “It’s so important that people realize the control they have over their lives. Not just their happiness or their effectiveness, but their physical health.”

Learn more about Ellen's research on the Illusion of Control, and what this means for leaders in the full podcast conversation.

Ellen J. Langer is the author of eleven books, including the international bestseller ‘Mindfulness’, which has been translated into fifteen languages, and more than two hundred research articles. Ellen’s trailblazing experiments in social psychology have earned her inclusion in The New York Times Magazine’s “Year in Ideas” issue and will soon be the subject of a major motion picture.