I’ve been reading a book called Counterclockwise, written a few years ago by Ellen J. Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and an award-winning social psychologist. Its theme is “Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility,” and it’s a heartening book for seniors to read. For now I just want to make a note of one chapter. It’s about “priming” older adults with either positive or negative aging stereotypes and how this can affect their morale and even their health.

Quoting a study by psychologist Becca Levy and her colleagues in which two groups of women were subliminally “primed” with separate lists of words about aging, here are the words on the negative list: Alzheimer’s, confused, decline, decrepit, dementia, dependent, diseases, dying, forgets, incompetent, misplaced, and senile.

And here is the other list, the positive one: accomplished, advise, alert, astute, creative, enlightened, guidance, improving, insightful, sage, and wise.

Did it make a difference in the study, being primed with words that make people feel helpless and useless versus being primed with words that give them a sense of wisdom and self-respect and having a lot to offer? Yes, it did, and I think I’ll post that good list where I can see it now and then.

Ellen Langer has written other books and is highly thought of for her work in the field of psychology. Right now I’m also reading the 25th Anniversary Edition of her book Mindfulness, written in 1989 and updated in a long preface to the new edition. Her use of the title word has little to do with its association today with meditation; she’s more about learning to trust and respect your own mind rather than believing everything you’re told, even by experts. I didn’t read the original edition but I’m learning a lot from this one. This has been more of a reading week than a writing one.