How Our Perceptions Shape Our Reality
How often do we feel stuck in a pattern, or in a state of health or symptoms that is not serving us, and feel like there is nothing we can do? “Everyone in my family has it” or “I guess I just got the gene.” We were raised on the idea that genes cause physical attributes and diseases and we are just stuck with what we get.
I want to tell you about the science of Epigenetics, which will change your life, if you take in what it is really saying.
Most of us think of the physical world as “reality,” which it is. However the medium we swim in - our consciousness - has just as much to do with how our physicality expresses itself as does the physical world. You can bark your shin on a table, watch a bruise rise up and easily understand the causality, but it is also true that our emotions, and our perceptions of what is going on in our lives cause physical consequences just as real. The mind and body truly are one.
Neuroscientist Candace Pert, who wrote Molecules of Emotion shows clearly how the chemicals inside our bodies form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body – how there are receptors on our cells for our emotions. Cell biologist Bruce Lipton, in his book The Biology of Belief, can take you step by step through how our perception of our environment triggers corresponding physical changes in our bodies.
Our bodies are made to adapt, and haven’t changed that much since we first hit the planet. For this reason we must be very good at adapting to our environment. That being so, if we are to survive, Nature must have a way to prepare each baby for the world it is being born into. A baby born in a sleepy town in the Midwest, will need a very different survival response than a baby born into a war-torn country. The hardwiring for this response begins in the womb. The baby’s developing brain takes cues from the level of stress hormones in the mother’s body and begins to determine how sensitive it will need to be to survive.
Our DNA is a great storehouse of what we need to meet the needs of our bodies and minds in whatever environment we find ourselves in. Environmental signals select, modify and regulate gene activity. The order comes in, the DNA pulls out of storage the things it will need to meet the demand, and then the DNA manufactures the proteins needed.
The mind/body split still reigns in Western medicine. We think of the mind residing in our brains but in fact, both our neural system and immune system are located all through the body on cell receptors which are triggered by environmental cues, emotions and physical occurrences.
So, if you feel inclined, find out what your mother’s stress levels were while pregnant with you. How did this inform your brain? What beliefs did you grow up with that told you how healthy you would be? There is a process for exploring this in Making Sense of Menopause. There is no time like the present to change your life!
