Your Thoughts Affect How Your Body Ages

“Studies show that one of the most accurate predictors of longevity is what a person thinks about their own health,” says Dr. Larry Dossey, MD, author and one of the top experts in mind-body medicine.

Recent research shows that your mind, not your genes, is the primary determining factor in how long you live and how healthy you’ll be. World-renowned cell biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, has done extensive research into how the mind influences our biology. His findings reveal that while you can’t change your genes you can change which genes are going to be expressed and affect the cells in your body. This is where raising your consciousness comes in.

When you change your perceptions and beliefs, you send totally different messages to your cells and, in effect, reprogram them. Changing your beliefs begins with observing your thoughts. Watching. Noticing. Becoming aware of what you’re thinking.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds and it does take practice. Here’s an effective way to get started. Find a time each day when you’re doing something mindlessly. An ideal time is in the morning when you’re washing your face, brushing your teeth, looking in the mirror and shaving or putting on makeup. That’s often when we’re most critical of ourselves, a time when that little voice in our head tells us what we don’t like about ourselves.

Next, get this picture in your mind: you’re in bare feet and your thoughts – one at a time – tumble out of your head onto the floor. The positive thoughts like, “I feel really great today,” or “I have lots of energy,” are small polished diamonds. The negative thoughts like “I don’t like the way I look,” or “I can’t afford to buy my medicine,” are broken shards of brown glass.

Don’t analyze each thought and don’t judge it. Just notice whether it’s a diamond or broken glass and let it fall. This daily practice won’t take any extra time because you’re doing it while brushing your teeth or some other routine task. It’s simply you focusing on the contents of the ongoing mind chatter.

Behavioral science has shown that it takes 21 consecutive days to establish a new habit, so you may want to have a reminder. Try putting an index card or sticky note that says WAITRN? (What Am I Thinking Right Now?) on your mirror as a prompt.

For most of us this mind chatter says the same thing over and over. Often these repetitive thoughts are negative – continually reinforcing the programming that keeps us from enjoying life and stops us from living up to our full potential.

I promise that if you make this a practice, it will raise your consciousness and the broken glass shards will become fewer and fewer. You’ll even start to get promptings about action steps you need to take to grow healthier and younger.

In time the process of avoiding negative thoughts will become automatic, you’ll feel lighter and happier and find yourself surrounded by diamonds!

Joy and Blessings!

Ellen