When Thinking Makes It So
Rea,
You already know about the placebo effect - how sugar pills can work like real medicine if people believe they will. The brain is powerful enough to turn thoughts into physical changes. But what if this power works beyond medicine? What if how we think about everyday activities changes what they do to our bodies?
In 2007, Harvard psychologists Ellen Langer and Alia Crum noticed that hotel housekeepers spend their days doing physical work - pushing heavy carts, scrubbing bathrooms, and vacuuming. This work burns as many calories as a gym workout. Yet when asked, most housekeepers didn’t consider themselves physically active.
The researchers wondered what would happen if the housekeepers were told their work was exercise. To find out, they needed to compare two groups - this is called a control group experiment. They divided 84 housekeepers into two groups. The test group learned that their daily work was excellent exercise that satisfied health recommendations. The control group received no information, allowing researchers to see if knowledge alone made a difference.
Four weeks later, something remarkable happened. The informed group lost an average of 2 pounds, lowered their blood pressure by 10%, and showed improvements in body fat. The control group showed no changes at all. Here’s the key part: neither group changed their behavior. The only difference was how they thought about their work.
When the housekeepers began seeing their work as exercise, their bodies responded accordingly. They reported feeling less tired and more energetic. Some even said they started to enjoy their work more. All from a simple shift in perspective.
This power of reframing works for all kinds of activities. Emptying the dishwasher could be a boring chore - or it could be flexibility training as you bend and stretch. Waiting in line could be frustrating - or it could be a chance to practice patience.
The same activity looks completely different depending on the mental frame we put around it. It’s like wearing different colored glasses - the world stays the same, but everything takes on a different hue. Our bodies and minds respond to the frame we choose, not just to the activity itself.
This doesn’t mean pretending boring things are fun. It means recognizing the hidden benefits that are actually there. The housekeepers really were exercising all along - they just didn’t know it. When they recognized this reality, their bodies responded accordingly.
Love, Abba
P.S. Next time you have to do a chore you don’t enjoy, try an experiment: give it a new name that focuses on what it’s doing for you. Notice if it feels any different!
