Books by author: Ellen J. Langer

I've been coming at the topic of mindfulness from several angles over the past two years or so, from meditation as a stress-reduction technique, from "mind like water" in David Allen's Getting Things Done, and from a general desire to get more out of life by living in the moment.

This book approaches mindfulness from yet another perspective — the psychology of graceful aging and its implications for living well.

Langer is a psychologist who has done research on "mindlessness" in the elderly and in the workplace, and she credibly describes the horrors of living on autopilot. There is much to be said for questioning our assumptions and our mindless habits and looking for ways to live in the moment. Langer's book provides a background for why this is so.