Mindfulness

A landmark work of social psychology that demonstrates a rare capacity both to see what is extraordinary about human events and to envision even more enlivening human possibilities... One simply can't finish this book and see the world in the same way.

Mindlessness is the application of yesterday's business solutions to today's problems. Mindfulness is attunement to today's demands to avoid tomorrow's difficulties.

Never underestimate the power of the mind! And Ellen J Langer, being the great researcher that she is, could make the complex simple (yes KISS is important!); I love the way she presented her findings with concise precision in Mindfulness.

My verdict: A MUST READ. Indeed the mind is "The Lord of Speech" and a state of mindlessness snaps shut our minds and don't let in new signal.

Symptoms of which include:
- Acting from a single perspective (rigid closed off mindset)
- Automatic behaviour from habit (familiarity lulls us into mental laziness)
- Coolidge effect
- Entropy
- Premature cognitive commitments

Improving our mindfulness requires:
- creation of new categories
- openness to new information (vs sensory deprivation)
- awareness of more perspective

While with an eye made quiet by the power of harmony and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things - Wordsworth