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
Stress is a function not of events, but of our view of those events.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Stress arises not from external events but from our perceptions and interpretations of those events.
This quote by Ellen Langer emphasizes the idea that stress is largely a subjective experience influenced by how individuals perceive and interpret situations around them. It suggests that it is not the events themselves that create stress, but rather our own mental framing of those events, and therefore, shifting our perspective can alter our experience of stress.
Themes
StressPerceptionEventsViewInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation, you might quote this to encourage others to focus on their mindset rather than the pressure of the audience.
More from Ellen Langer
All quotes βWhat we have learned to look for in a situation determines mostly what we see.
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To be mindfully engaged is the most natural, creative state we can be in.
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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.
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When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there.
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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
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