Science of Mindlessness and Mindfulness

Ellen Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard, defines mindfulness as the simple act of actively noticing things, which can bring increased health, competence, and happiness. Her provocative, unconventional studies prove that it's possible to become physiologically younger through a changed frame of mind. She has suggested for decades what neuroscience is pointing to now: that our experience of everything is formed by the words and ideas we attach to them.

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1250/ellen-langer-science-of-mindlessness-and-mindfulness-krista-tippett/