“Aging is a state of mind.”

“Yeah, right. Tell that to my knees. And my back. And my hips.”

This is the chit-chat I have with myself when my mind or a memory starts arguing with my body. Every Labor Day weekend, for example, I find myself staring sadly at a busy volleyball court. But the part of my brain connected to my body just laughs.

“Don’t even think about it,” I hear. And so I watch. But now listen up. Suppose I told you that aging really is a state of mind. And it might be healthy to live in the past. Because, yes, there are studies that show this. There’s one in particular that fascinates me.

In 1979, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer took a group of eight men to a retreat at an isolated monastery. They were in their 70s and 80s and stayed for one week, a walk back in time.

Their environment was designed around the year 1959. They were asked to dress and behave as they did that year. Current events discussed were from 1959. Music and movies also. We’re talking Ed Sullivan on a black-and-white TV.

There were no mirrors, but the men had photos of themselves in their younger days. It was all about stepping back in time and building a 1959 state of mind. A week like that sounds like fun. Rejuvenating, I think. But this was a study that found some interesting findings.

“The eight elderly men involved in Langer’s experiment became young again,” writes journalist Eddie Carroll for TheCareSide.com.au. “And by the end of the week, their physical health reflected that psychological reversal of time: they showed substantial improvements in flexibility, dexterity, memory, hearing, posture, cognitive ability and general well-being. They even looked younger to outside observers who were shown photos of them before and after the experiment.”

Langer detailed her findings in her book: “Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.” She is recognized for her research on aging and was the first woman ever to be tenured in psychology at Harvard University in 1981.

In 2012, she spoke about her book to an annual gathering of scientists, educators, psychologists and artists who explore happiness and fulfillment. Carroll shared these quotes from Langer’s speech:

“The study of possibility is the study of what might be rather than a mere description of what is. Possibility opens up when we recognize the difference between uncontrollable and indeterminate … trying is the key.

“When we’re mindless, we’re not there to notice we’re not there. Health is more than the absence of illness. Our mindsets may be the cause of unnecessary limits.”

That’s a powerful message. It adds weight to what our elders kept saying: “You can do whatever you set your mind to do.” Langer has done other studies that support this, which Carroll noted in his article.

A chambermaid study saw a group of hotel maids drastically change their health. They began viewing their jobs as exercise, which led to weight loss, blood pressure improvements and increased well-being.

In another study, participants read a list of negative words linked to aging. Within 15 minutes, they were walking more slowly than they had before.

Then Carroll notes: “The argument here isn’t that having a certain mindset will prevent aging; rather, it’s that we don’t need to accept, believe and surrender to the concepts that we’ve been conditioned to hold as absolute truths.”

The message seems pretty clear. Our state of mind affects our physical body. So will I be on the volleyball court this year? Probably not. But … I have a few months to get my head back into the game.

Maybe I can redo Langer’s experiment, and there’s no better way to travel back in time than music. I need to find that cassette I made years ago.

I used to pop it into the boom box and crank it. Right before I sprinted onto the grassy court and shouted, “Let’s go. Volley for serve!”

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.