The Pandemic Challenge : Grow Now

Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

Years ago I took a Social Psychology class at the Harvard Kennedy School and was introduced to Ellen Langer’s work about mindfulness — and its counterpart — mindlessness.

What I learned then — is relevant now.

Here is what stuck with me.

Being mindless can be dangerous. Being mindful can positively impact health.

We are all mindless sometimes. A great case in point is when we drive and arrive somewhere — but can’t quite recall how we got there. The drive is so routine — that we can kind of — check out — even though we are still technically present.

This type of mindlessness is rather benign.

The extreme danger of mindlessness, though, we learned, was underscored by a case of airplane crashes that were later attributed to the ‘mindless’ state of otherwise well-meaning pilots who checked the ‘deice’ box on their safety checklist (without deicing the wings.)

As the case study demonstrated — they did so — mindlessly — even on days with extreme weather events — when the deicing needed to happen.

The checklists had become too routine, too regular — the implicit danger of mindless thinking.

On the flip side, we learned about a group of senior citizens confined to nursing homes whose health…