Mind Power

This post is based on several recent articles , the first appeared in the New York Times Personal Business section on Saturday February 15 , 2010 in an article titled " when Children Are Overweight , Changes For the Whole Family " , the average child spends 7 hours and 38 minutes each day using computers , i pods , cellphones and watching television according to a January report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The second article appeared in the Boston Globe , Sunday February 21 , 2010 , talking about Harvard Professor Ellen Langers research and how it has transformed Psychology , she is best known for her concept of minlessness - the idea that much of of what we believe rational thought is in fact just our brains on auto pilot - and her concept of mindfulness , the idea that simply paying attention to our everyday lives can make us happier and healthier. Several of her studies that are fascinating: she found that giving nurrsing home residents more control over their lives made them live longer. In a more recent work, she made hotel maids loose weight simply by telling them that their work burned as many calories as a typical workout- a team led by Ellen Langer found that instructing a group of elderly men to talk and act as if they were 20 years younger could reverse the aging process..

The work done by Ellen Langer reinforces the concept ; what we put into our minds can have a very powerfull effect , a reason and reminder to moniter what Children watch and listen to , as well as what we watch and listen to .