On good intention

I am avoiding the word resolution in this new year. I can say I intend on making a few changes. It seems to me that to be resolute is to firmly determined, to feel that I-failed-if-I-didn’t-make-it-happen. To be intent is to have desire fleshed out in a mindful plan and perspective, and that feels truer to where and who I am presently.

Our intentions and perspectives do matter; they even become matter. How we are mindful in our present moment has a bodily effect. I have mentioned before in a February 2010 blog post an intriguing study, conducted by Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard U, and her then student Alia Crum ’05. An experimental group of half of 84 hotel workers were told that their work was exercise just like being in a gym. At the end of a month - with no other modifications in eating habits or working hours - the group of 42 showed statistically significant changes of: loss of two pounds on average each, lowered blood pressure by 10 points, and reduced waist to hip ratios.

“Wherever you put the mind, the body will follow,” says Langer.

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought,” said Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

“As a man or woman thinks within him or herself, so he or she is,” declares the writer of Proverbs (23:7).

Our thoughts and attitudes affect our health. In “CounterClockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility” Langer describes ways to reorient our attitudes and language in order to achieve better health [find more via her webpage publicizing the book]. As reported online at Harvard Magazine in a study recently submitted for publication, Langer, Shelley Carson (an associate of the department of psychology), and Aline Flodr ’07 "asked breast-cancer survivors whether they considered themselves in remission or cured. The “cured” group reported better general health, more energy, less pain, and less depression. The research was correlational: its findings suggest a relationship between variables, but cannot prove causation.”

Reading that causes me to consider whether my general stance in life is more like "cured" rather than "in remission" -- does it you? To embrace more of an “I’m good today” (akin to ‘cured’) versus a “maybe I’m just okay” (in remission) kind of mindset is one of my hopes for this year. I’d like to nurture a gentle intent to count each moment as good. [In spiritual direction language, I’ll be asking myself, “What is the invitation here? Where is God in this?”]

Along with intending to track what I eat, move my body, reduce some indulgences, serve cheerfully, learn more about the enneagram, let it be about love, listen to Jesus in the gospels --- I want to remind myself that “I’m good today” (I know well that we are all a mixture of both good and evil, but what if we really could look for and dwell more in the good? see the good and cultivate gratitude?). Maybe I'll even respond to the frequent ask of "How are you?" with a sincere smile and enthusiastic "I'm good!" I’m good because God is good and God has given this life as good gift.

My wellness wish: that you might enjoy and live in these (I want to say truthful) ideas of -- you are “good,” life is gift, God is good, God is love.

Yes, may you realize all that is loving and good in 2011!

“For the LORD is good and his love endures forever…” Psalm 100:5

“…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience….And over all these virtues put on love…” Colossians 3: 12, 14

PS: I think I’ll soon also get a new hair-do. For fun, here’s one last study to close us out: In “The Influence of Age-Related Cues on Health and Longevity” researchers Hsu, Chung, and Langer conclude, “women who think they look younger after having their hair colored/cut show a decrease in blood pressure and appear younger in photographs (in which their hair is cropped out) to independent raters.” (For what they found on uniforms effecting morbidity, on baldness affecting old age, on older moms and life expectancy: see the article abstract or the entire article.