Education & Career Trends: March 9, 2023
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
- Article written by Deepak Chopra, published on Medium.com
The promise that ageing can be defeated is centuries old, and many biological approaches keep cropping up in medical science. It seems only natural to suppose that our bodies age because our cells do, and our cells age because something has gone amiss at the genetic level — so the current thinking tends to go.
But if you probe deeper, ageing is embedded in the mystery of time. Until that mystery is resolved, human ageing won’t really be understood.
When people think about growing old, they blame the passage of time — the years roll by, and the body stops looking younger year by year. But the cells that make up your body live only in the present. The now is the only location that is timeless. This is one reason memory remains such a mystery. Brain cells function through an electrochemical activity that occurs the instant a chemical reaction or electrical impulse is able to occur. There are no pauses to think about reacting; if the potential is there, the action must follow.
Our capacity to transcend time allows us to remember things
A brain cell can never go back in time, no matter what it does. So how is it that if we recall a birthday party from our youth we appear to be transported back in time? Although no one is certain, the solution won’t require going either forward or backwards in time. Our capacity to transcend time allows us to remember things. This skill must be brought back into your awareness in order to live in the present. You must keep in mind how to stay timeless.
In terms of biology, the core of ageing is the discrepancy between a person’s life and a cell’s life, which is constantly in the present. People tend to repeat old patterns, hold on to unwavering ideas, fear the future, and generally occupy mental states that are not in the present. In other words, the state of awareness of a person may be linked to all the symptoms that result from being trapped in time. For the simple reason that our bodies react to our ideas, moods, and mental states ranging from depression and anxiety to pleasure and inspiration, consciousness triumphs over biology.
Biological age is more significant than chronological age
You can bridge the chasm between your life and the life of your cells if you can come back to the here and now. You can delay or even stop ageing by doing this. That isn’t some mystical or speculative remark. Over a generation of ageing, research has established that biological age is more significant than chronological age. Depending on a variety of conditions, two persons approaching their fiftieth birthday may be physiologically younger or older.
For the straightforward reason that lifestyle is a conscious decision and lifestyle is the primary biological age determiner—far more so than so-called good or poor genes—the things that you can influence are in awareness.
Ageing is not just one thing, but rather a complex of potentials. There are countless possible outcomes, but no one has yet demonstrated that any signs of ageing must manifest. Although while we can all list the unappealing symptoms of getting older, such as creaking joints, wrinkled skin, fatigue, unpredictable sleep patterns, and deteriorating memory, there is someone who has actually gotten better as they aged in each of these areas, with the possible exception of wrinkles. Even yet, there are people who are still flexible, energetic, well-rested, mobile, and mentally sharp. Even our fear of Alzheimer’s, which affects an estimated 6 million people, is unjustified in light of its actual prevalence.
In fact, it becomes apparent that ageing may truly be the sum of disease processes if we give up the idea that ageing is inevitable. Without these disease processes, cells can continue to function at a high level of efficiency for a very long period. (In laboratory research it has been proven that a cell can only divide a certain number of times, roughly 50, which would set a physical limit on longevity, and this may imply a genetic barrier that cannot be passed. But, outside of the confines of the lab, more individuals than ever are surviving to be 100 years old, and maintaining good health into old age has become a realistic aim.)
As described in the book The Healing Self, the prospects of anti-ageing and the reversal of the ageing process begin, as far as individual choices go, with conscious choices.
DO
- Meditate
- Join a social support group.
- Strengthen emotional bonds with family and close friends.
- Take a multivitamin and mineral supplement (if you are age sixty-five and older).
- Maintain a balance of rest and activity.
- Explore a new interest.
- Take up a challenging mental activity.
UNDO
- Don’t be sedentary — stand up and move throughout the day.
- Examine your negative emotions.
- Heal injured relationships that are meaningful to you.
- Be mindful of lapses and imbalances in your diet.
- Address negative stereotypes about ageing and ageism.
- Consider how to heal the fear of death.
Each of these choices is correlated with maintaining a state of wellness throughout one’s lifetime.
As there are yet undiscovered linkages between genetics and even quantum mechanics, the function of consciousness has seldom been studied to date. Nonetheless, it might be argued that the importance of meditation lies in the fact that it forces the mind to remain in the present moment, where the body is always. About restoring the capacity to transcend and realising our eternal essence, there is much more to be said. The ability to exist in the present moment might be seen as a spiritual goal, but for your cells, it is the only place where decisions about how to survive and grow are made. It should also be how we think.
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Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?
Why Non-Linear Career Paths Are The Future
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