Virtually all of life's ills boil down to mindlessness. If you can understand someone else's perspective, then there's no reason to be angry at them, envy them, steal from them.
Ellen LangerRead
To be mindfully engaged is the most natural, creative state we can be in.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mindful engagement leads to creativity and authenticity in our actions.
Ellen Langer's quote emphasizes the importance of being fully present and attentive in our experiences. When we approach life with mindfulness, we tap into a state that fosters creativity and awareness, allowing us to connect with ourselves and the world around us in a genuine and productive way.
Themes
MindfulnessCreativityEngagementPresenceAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a leadership workshop, one could say, 'As Ellen Langer reminds us, to be mindfully engaged is the most natural, creative state we can be in.'
More from Ellen Langer
All quotes βWhat we have learned to look for in a situation determines mostly what we see.
Ellen LangerRead
Stress is a function not of events, but of our view of those events.
Ellen LangerRead
People are at their most mindful when they are at play. If we find ways of enjoying our work blurring the lines between work and play the gains will be greater.
Ellen LangerRead
When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there.
Ellen LangerRead
Out of an intuitive experience of the world comes a continuous flow of novel distinctions. Purely rational understanding, on the other hand, serves to confirm old mindsets, rigid categories. Artists, who live in the same world as the rest of us, steer clear of these mindsets to make us see things anew.
Ellen LangerRead
Similar quotes
The great will not condescend to take anything seriously.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
But there is another danger besetting your path. I mean the error of regarding your own capacities instead of your work, of putting self-consciousness in place of God.
Joseph Barber LightfootRead
An error can never become true however many times you repeat it. The truth can never be wrong, even if no one hears it.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The only antidote to dangerous ideas is strong alternatives vigorously advocated.
Lawrence SummersRead
Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.
PlatoRead
Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.
Samuel JohnsonRead