Do you have these symptoms?
Written on June 15, 2012 at 3:53 pm, by Ellen WoodWe all know what stress feels like.
It’s the number one aging factor and the symptoms can affect your body, your mood and your behavior as well as cause significant health problems.
What’s the opposite of stress?
Inner peace.
A sheet of paper with the symptoms of inner peace was tacked up in my doctor’s office so I asked for a copy. Author is unknown.
Do you have these symptoms?
• An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment
• Loss of interest in judging others
• Loss of interest in interpreting actions of others
• Loss of interest in conflict
• Loss of ability to worry
• Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation
• Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature
• Frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes from the heart
• Tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen
• Tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fear based on past experiences
• Susceptibility to love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend love.
Inner peace can be contagious. If you’ve got it and have other symptoms besides these, please share them with our community by commenting below.
Joy and Blessings!
Ellen
How can I stay in the “now” when the “now” won’t stay still?
Written on May 31, 2012 at 3:14 am, by Ellen WoodThese are the Rockies, forgodsakes, and there are no guardrails! I’m driving up Gold Hill Mountain northwest of Boulder, grateful that the mountain’s on my right because the drop off on the other side is a sheer cliff – probably a canyon with no bottom, though I can see the tops of enormous pines over there on the left.
I’ve come here for one week to live at an ashram and practice present moment awareness. This is an important step for expanding consciousness as well as growing younger (which has been my special focus since I almost succumbed to Alzheimer’s after it took my mother.) I’ve found it’s easier to develop a new habit when I’m alone with no phone, no internet and no family, friends or dog to distract me.
But I’m flunking so far. All I can think about is how I’m going to get down the mountain when it’s time to go home. That’s the bottomless, guardrail-less side and I can just imagine the number of cars that took a Thelma-and-Louise dive on a snowy night.
Right now it’s raining and my car is slipping and sliding in brown goo on this steep dirt road. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I say, half praying, half begging, half blaspheming. Oh, wait a minute. The Sacred Mountain Ashram I’m heading for embraces the wisdom of all spiritual paths but has its genesis in Hinduism. Ganesh! Vishnu! Shanti! I shout the only three names I can think of. (Of course, you don’t have to be Hindu – or any religion – to stay in the guest house. It’s also for people like me, a non-religious seeker of Heart-centered Expanded Consciousness.)
I’m in a cloud now – one I had seen from down below. And ah, yes! I’m right here in the present – totally aware – scared and aware – every nerve ending totally engrossed in what’s going on right this moment. A tiny success but hey! – it’s a success.
And then I see it: a sign on the right proclaiming the name of this sacred place. When I turn in I’m greeted by groves of aspens, their white trunks splattered with dark spots and branches like arms spread wide to give me hundreds of hugs, their newly-born leaves showing off a green that’s reserved only for spring. The pines are no less welcoming, standing straight, ready to jump up and down on their bed of long green grass. The breathtaking views have me stunned and yes, I’m still in the “now.”
I easily find the large dome where five women greet me. All are wearing long, gathered skirts and nondescript blouses and their beautiful, makeup-free faces have a translucent shine that could only emanate from their hearts.
Surely they must think I’m an alien or elderly painted-up showgirl, with my unnatural blonde streaks in mouse brown hair that refuses to turn white, unnatural rosy cheeks and what must seem like tons of mascara.
Hmmm. There I go again – out of the present into some projected concern about what someone will think of me. But I did notice my thoughts, so that counts for something.
These women run the ashram founded by their Beloved Gurudeva, Swami Amar Jyoti, a Fully Realized Being who died in 2001. The ashram publishes a magazine, Light of Consciousness, which is dedicated to our awakening into the Pure Consciousness that dwells within each of us, no matter which path we choose. Each issue carries lively, stimulating articles by respected authors such as Dr. Bruce Lipton and Eckhart Tolle.
The magazine is how I found out about this ashram and the guest house I could rent for a very reasonable rate. And now Sita is showing me around the house which will be my home for the next seven days. It’s a converted stable, totally charming in a funky way – perfect for developing my new habit. I notice that I’m thinking there’s a sweet energy here. Yes! I’m observing my thoughts and being in the present moment.
Practice, practice, practice is my theme for every day of this week. I intend to develop the habit of present moment awareness by stopping at least five times a day for two minutes each time to be in the “now.”
Two minutes is actually a long time to remain in the present. We have a tendency to live in the past and the future. Notice your thoughts and see how difficult it is to be present for even one minute. Breathe through your heart and pay close attention to what’s going through your mind. If you’re like most people, your mind will busy itself with thoughts of something pleasant or unpleasant that happened in the past or may happen in the future. Try it.
When I get home, I’ll put index cards around my house with “BE PRESENT” as reminders. If I need to, I’ll say what I’m doing at the moment: I am taking a dish out of the dishwasher. I am putting the dish in the cupboard, and so on.
Then all I have to do is figure out how to stay in the “now” when the “now” won’t stay still.
What do your cells and avocados have in common?
Written on April 30, 2012 at 5:24 pm, by Ellen WoodA: The way they ripen depends on the environment.
I know – it’s a bit of a stretch but I was inspired to write about cells and avocados because of an encounter I had in the supermarket last week. I was standing at the avocado bin, staring at the vibrant green, unripe avocados – now and then picking one up to try a squeeze, even though I knew it would be rock hard.
A woman approached me and said, “Put it in a brown paper bag with a banana and it will ripen just right.”
Now, every green avocado I’d brought home to ripen in my kitchen had turned rotten, not ripe. But I decided to try her method and when I got home I put two avocados and two bananas in a brown paper bag. It worked! Two days later the avocados had turned dark brown. I caressed each one and they were firm yet slightly yielding. Clearly, it was the environment that made the difference.
That’s when Dr. Bruce Lipton popped into my mind. In his books, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles and Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here, this renowned cell biologist tells us that the environment determines what happens to our cells. How our cells change as we age is not pre-determined by our genes, as we’ve heard. The environment will determine if the cells ripen beautifully, or well… sort of rot as our body gets older.
Actually your body is no more than seven years old at the most. In less than one year, 98% of your body’s cells are replaced with new ones. There are approximately 50 trillion cells in your body and they are busy! Science has proven that you make new skin about once a month, a new intestinal lining every 5 to 30 days, a new skeleton every 3 to 8 months. And a year from now, you won’t even have the same brain.
Since it’s a new brain and new body, then why do you remember incidents from many years ago, and why is that scar from childhood still on your forehead? Although we don’t yet have a definitive answer, one theory – the one that feels right to me – is that it’s cellular memory.
At the subatomic level, you are made up of energy and information and all your conscious and unconscious behavioral patterns are stored in your cellular memory. You perceive and behave in a certain way based on the thoughts, feelings and beliefs programmed into your cellular memory.
This is good news! When you realize that your body is constantly renewing itself and that every year 98% of you is totally replaced, you have to conclude that you’re not stuck. You have options. You can choose to change your cellular memory and replace old cells with new healthier, stronger cells. The key is to change the environment of your cells. The environment creating the cellular memory is produced by your perceptions, beliefs and actions – things you can change!
Easier said than done, of course. It’s those unconscious beliefs – the ones that operate below the radar of our conscious mind – that heavily influence our perceptions. But we have to start somewhere, and that’s with the patterns that are conscious.
Once we are aware, we can make conscious decisions about how to react and what to do. Most of the time we react to stimuli without consciously choosing how we want to react. Our emotions take over, often based on past experience and behavioral patterns, rather than on what’s happening at the moment. That’s why our body doesn’t seem fresh and new, even though a year has gone by and 98% of our cells have been replaced. The old patterns are still there.
However, we can become more aware of what we’re feeling, thinking and saying; of what our body is telling us. We can choose what food and drink we put into our body; the exercise (or lack thereof) and sensible sun we get; how much fresh air, playfulness and stress-free time we allow ourselves.
Awareness and positive choices create a good environment for our cells – just as a brown paper bag and bananas create the right conditions for beautifully ripened avocados.
Joy and Blessings!
Ellen
A cow helps me grow younger.
Written on April 1, 2012 at 8:28 pm, by Ellen Wood
Ellen with Elsie
Sometimes it’s the little things that make life so wonderful. And sometimes they might be as big as a cow!
That happens to be true for me. There is a cow in my life and she brings me, and others, much joy and delight.
What does a cow have to do with growing younger? Well, one of my daily anti-aging action steps is to do something silly or fun or spontaneous. Something that makes me feel good – better yet, something that makes me laugh.
And my cow makes me laugh!
I’ll tell you how she came into my life but first I want to tell you about what is possibly the most underrated aspect of staying youthful.
It’s laughing.
Laughing rejuvenates our cells. In fact, a regular 20-minute laughter session can profoundly influence our health and wellbeing. When we laugh, our bodies release hormones and chemicals that have startling positive effects on our minds and bodies.
There’s a website called Laughter Yoga with videos about laughing for good health. You might want to try out their laughter exercises. Just go to my website www.howtogrowyounger.com, click on Ellen Recommends, scroll to the bottom and click on the last link.
And how did I get a cow that makes me laugh?
One day seven years ago I thought to myself: I need a cow in my sagebrush. You see, there’s sagebrush everywhere you look outside my house in northern New Mexico. Sagebrush, mountains and a few pinion pines.
And I felt a cow would look great in the sagebrush – for the absurdity of it. Not a real one, but one that’s life size and looks real.
So I went looking for a life size, fiberglass cow for my New Mexico plot of land. And I found her – in New Jersey.
I had her shipped out here and named her Elsie. She’s black and white, unlike the REAL cows around here, and I had her placed at just the right spot near my driveway.
As you approach my house, the driveway makes a sharp turn to the right and the pinion trees hide the rest of the driveway. When you make the turn – surprise – there’s Elsie! Her body faces south but her head looks east at the approaching car, as though, startled, she looked up.
Everyone who comes to visit for the first time thinks she’s real at first glance. And they enjoy the absurdity too!
So how does she make me laugh? Well, if the sun’s ready to set and I haven’t done something silly or fun or spontaneous, I walk out to my cow halfway down the driveway and moo. Yes, I moo! Silly, right? It makes me laugh so I guess that’s pretty silly. (I figure when she moos back, then maybe I’ll start to worry.)
Not many people have a life size cow that’s not real, so here’s another idea for being silly. Free that inner child: stand out in the rain and open your mouth. Don’t care what people think; invite them to join you. It’s making you younger. Or turn on the music and dance with the broom.
It takes only a minute or so to do something silly or fun each day, but if you’re not in the mood, then do something spontaneous. Here are some ways: You could say to someone “Let’s go to the movies tonight.” Or “C’mon over and let’s lie naked in front of the fireplace.” That’ll get their attention even if you intend to keep your clothes on. Or give someone a hug when they least expect it.
Flexibility is one of the secrets of growing younger. Being spontaneous helps you stay flexible – instead of being rigid which is often associated with old age.
Do something different. Eat pizza for breakfast. Well…maybe not pizza but you get what I mean. Think about it. Do you know someone who’s set in their ways – not just getting older but growing old and rigid? Eating oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal every morning?
And you’re afraid to ask them how they are because you might get an organ recital?
Decide that that’s not who you intend to emulate. Be spontaneous. Be silly. Be different. Do something absurd. Paint your toenails green! Okay, so you guys don’t want to do that but find a way out of your set ways. Maybe go to a girlie movie and let yourself cry at the sad parts.
Please share with us your stories of silly, fun things you do to keep young and flexible. Just Click to Comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
You know, that shop in New Jersey also had a life size pig. I wonder…
Joy and Blessings!
Ellen
Toxins can age you fast – get rid of them this cheap and easy way
Written on March 14, 2012 at 1:22 am, by Ellen WoodYou encounter toxins in everyday living – and they build up in your body. Here’s one way to reduce your body toxins that won’t cost you an arm and a leg: dry brush your skin.
Your body’s largest organ – your skin – craves dry brushing.
In this blog I give you the when, where (never your face or nipples) and how – precise instructions on the correct way to dry brush.
But first, I want to share with you the other benefits of dry brushing. When you treat your skin to the simple act of dry brushing, you’re doing more than just helping your body eliminate toxins.
It also makes your skin healthier and cleaner by increasing blood circulation, removing dead skin cells, stimulating your skin’s natural oil glands and helping absorb the nutrients you apply with oils or lotions.
Not only that – it feels good, invigorating your whole body.
The most important reason to dry brush your skin, though, is to help the fluid of your lymphatic filtration system clean up the toxins, poisons and metals.
Skin is one of the first things we notice in another person and when we look in the mirror. Dry brushing your skin is one of the things that makes you want to look in the mirror.
Tips for Dry Brushing Your Body
• Use a natural bristle brush with moderately stiff bristles – never one with synthetic bristles. Most likely you’ll be doing your own dry brushing (a lover might get distracted), so get one with a long handle that’s part of the brush, not glued on. That way you can reach all the areas of your body. Body brushes are usually found in health food and herb stores.
• If you’ve never brushed your skin, or haven’t in a long time, brush softly and gently every other day for the first week. Your skin needs some time to get used to the rough feeling and you don’t want to stir up the toxins too vigorously when first starting.
• Do not brush your face or nipples with the body brush. Do not brush skin rashes, wounds, cuts, infections or other skin problems.
• Your body and the brush should be dry. It’s ideal to dry brush your skin in the morning before you take a shower. Why dry brush your skin? Why not wet brush while in the shower or tub? The answer is because wet brushing stretches your skin (honest!) so always brush before bathing.
• Every few weeks take your brush into the shower with you and wash it in soap and water. Then let it dry.
• Have fresh, pure water ready to drink.
Okay now, here’s where we start the process:
How to Dry Brush Your Skin
1. Get naked.
2. Always brush towards your heart. This is so important because brushing or massaging away from your heart can cause the little valves in your veins to become blocked or damaged, leading to varicose veins. Your veins are loaded with actual valves that are meant to open in the direction leading back to your heart.
3. While you brush, feel what you’re doing. That means put your consciousness on the part of your body that you’re brushing. This will help keep you in the present moment, because while you’re feeling the sensation of the brush against your skin, your mind chatter will begin to quiet down.
4. Treat the act of dry brushing your skin like a sacred ritual – stay attentive to what you are doing and adopt an attitude of love and gratitude. Love your body. Get into the habit of telling your body you love it. And thank each part. Loving and thanking your body are extremely important aspects of the process because your body’s chemistry will react one way if your attitude is love and another if your attitude is fear or loathing. The loving way will enhance your immune system.
5. Start brushing the soles of each foot. Brush back and forth while feeling the sensation. For the rest of your body, use smooth, upward strokes – always toward your heart. Brush up each leg starting at your toes; then brush your belly, butt and lower back, your arms from your fingertips up to your shoulders, and then brush down your neck, chest and upper back. Thank each part of your body as you’re brushing it and tell it you love it.
6. After you finish brushing, your skin will glow. Take a warm, short shower to wash away the dead skin cells.
7. Drink at least 8 ounces of water to flush away the toxins.
8. Apply my castor oil home remedy. (Write and ask for it if you didn’t see it in a previous blog.)
Dry brushing has become a daily ritual for me the last eight years. I’m on my third body brush, having completely worn out two others.
The best thing about this simple act of skin stimulation and conscious gratitude is that it has helped me relinquish negative judgments about parts of my body. After all, how can you dislike a buddy you’ve gotten to know and love and who sticks with you through thick and thin?
Go ahead and try dry brushing. You’ll be amazed at what a loving relationship with your body can do for your health and wellbeing and besides, it sure feels good!
Please Click to Comment beneath this blog, and tell me how you feel about this tip – or give me any thoughts or advice or questions you have about dry brushing your skin.
Joy and Love,
Ellen
The Incredible Response to My Last Blog Nourished My Soul
Written on March 6, 2012 at 8:10 pm, by Ellen WoodHow blessed I am!
The outpouring of beautiful, loving replies to my last blog didn’t just warm my heart – they blasted a big old hole in it and I scooped you all inside. I love you back a thousand times.
Every single email, and comment below my blog, gave me tremendous support and encouragement; a few of you also shared the agonies you’ve gone through during extremely challenging times and some dispensed advice like, “Take time to smell the roses, Ellen.” (Wow! I needed that one.)
But not one person told me I was saying too much and I should keep some things private.
Imagine that.
I guess sometimes I’m my own worst critic. In that blog I said what I had to say but a part of me was urging me to hold back – afraid of criticism. The response from you, dear friends, proves that authors, speakers and the like do not have to appear to be invulnerable to the anguishes of life.
I thank you deeply, dear friends, for your love and your blessings.
And so, what is today’s anti-aging tip?
Well, since we’re on the subject, how about the most important technique for growing younger?
Love one another. Love yourself.
Here I am preaching to the choir. But this is a reminder we all need because love is something we crave – and it’s as vital to our bodies on a daily basis as eating and sleeping. Science supports this fact!
Start at home if you live with others. Tell them you love them. Give big hugs. And smile. A lot.
You don’t have anyone to love? Not even a pet?
Then go to the children’s ward at the nearest hospital, or the hospice or the pound. All that love you have inside is too good to be put on hold until someone comes along. Go out and spread it around.
And if you’re alone and housebound?
Well, you still have the most important person who needs your love. We often forget the second part of “Love Thy Neighbor.”
How do you love yourself, especially if you’re feeling just the opposite?
Like everything else, it’s about creating a new habit. Sometimes when we do something stupid or embarrassing (as we all do at one time or another) we chastise ourselves and play the scene over and over and over in our minds. We keep telling ourselves how disgraceful we are and then we get into a rut of continuing to be hard on ourselves.
It’s time to break that habit.
I told you earlier that sometimes I’m my own worst critic. Well, that’s stopping as of right now. I’m going to practice changing to a new habit of loving myself just as I am, right along with the rest of you.
Write on an index card, “ILYJAYA YAM.” and put it by the mirror in your bathroom. (I don’t have to use a card because I created a T-shirt with the mirror image of ILYJAYA YAM.)
Then every morning look into your eyes in the mirror and say: “I Love You Just As You Are. You Are Magnificent.” Say it twice.
No judgment. Focus on that thought alone.
Oh, it won’t do a lot of good when you first do this. Probably not the second or even third time, either. But don’t give up. Continue saying it every day – even more than once a day.
Eventually it will sink in and your subconscious mind will suck it up.
And then see how young you feel. When love really permeates your brain, a whole cocktail of chemicals is released, including adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin, and your immune system is enhanced. The result is a healthier body and it FEELS GOOD!
If you’re tempted to think you’re not worthy of loving yourself, repeat the divinely inspired words of Marianne Williamson in her book, A Return to Love.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Please Click to Comment beneath this blog, and tell me how you feel about this tip – or give me any thoughts or advice or questions you have about love.
Love and Joy!
Ellen
I’M BACK FROM RETREAT AND GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PATIENCE
Written on February 15, 2012 at 2:43 pm, by Ellen WoodIt warms my heart to know that you’re still here – that you haven’t clicked on Unsubscribe. And I thank you for sticking around. In fact, I have a gift for you later on in this blog.
They say the year 2012 is a special year and when I look back in my journal, I realize that in this second month of 2012, I am not the same person I was when I first went on retreat the end of July 2011.
Getting here, though, was anything but a bed of roses. The path on my metamorphosis journey included several months of profound despair and fear brought on by the surfacing of old, repeating issues and some I never knew I had – plus painful, gut-wrenching soul searching. On July 25 I started on medication but it didn’t work at all for the first three months.
My saving grace was the almost-daily sessions on the phone with my son Peter and then with my daughter Harper that went something like this:
– What does it feel like, Mom?
– There’s a horrible feeling of dread in the pit of my belly.
– Aren’t you lucky! That’s good! Don’t push it away. Welcome it!
– Welcome it? You’re kidding. I just want it to be gone.
– FEEL it, Mom. Don’t resist. Talk to it. This is your opportunity to allow whatever it is to come up for nurturing.
And so it went. All my other daughters and my friends also comforted me, and made me meals during the worst part. And they loved me. Relief came the end of October when the dread feeling dissipated and I was uplifted by moments of indescribable joy.
What did it? Two things. The first was love. The love I received from family and friends was palpable and I sopped it up. Almost miraculously people I’d never met, subscribers in many countries who had no idea of what I was going through except perhaps on a collective unconscious level, sent loving emails. I have received more of those emails since last July than I had in the previous four years. In addition I gave myself permission to love myself. Really, truly love myself.
The second thing that contributed equally to my change was total surrender. After months of trying to retain some measure of control over my life, I finally stopped and totally surrendered.
But let me back up a little. The message in early July that I was supposed to go on retreat and do inner work couldn’t have been stronger if I had been hit on the head with a 2 by 4. Here’s what happened: we had received numerous requests to offer a DVD of full instructions on how to do the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation so in early June my crew and I began videotaping it.
But nothing worked right! One video camera didn’t show up and the other two worked only sporadically even though both worked well before and after they malfunctioned for my project. The sporadic part of filming that did work was then given to an experienced editor. When her efforts produced no usable footage, even after calling in two other experienced videographers/editors, I realized all these obstructions were beyond coincidence and I called a halt to the project.
I proceeded to write a blog of grow younger tips for my subscribers but before I got two sentences written, my barely-a-year-old keyboard broke. I waited for the company to send me a new one and then started on the blog again. Within two weeks my printer broke, my scanner broke, my computer broke, my stereo broke, my refrigerator broke and all but one of my landline phones stopped working.
That was message enough for me! I decided I needed to go on retreat to focus on my inner life and stop pursuing getting subscribers, sales and speaking gigs. I told my subscribers I was going on retreat and pulled the plug on my business – not knowing when, or even if, I would ever return. Then I descended slowly into my dark night of the soul.
And I aged! Last summer weight dropped off me and I became skin and bones. I felt old and I looked old. My face became sallow and my diminished energy had me shuffling around the house like a person far older than my years. I couldn’t feel my Life Force; however, for a while my ego was strong and calling the shots – and telling me how worthless I was and how could I possibly have been teaching people about techniques to grow younger when I myself was aging rapidly.
My daily Tibetan Rites practices were put aside when I didn’t have the energy to make my meals, let alone exercise.
But I prayed hard and I meditated – more often than my usual twice-a-day practice because my kids and my friend Zia insisted. I practiced tapping to release the trauma of emotions stuck in the tissues of my body. It’s called EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique. And I journaled, including conversations – more accurately, pleading (my part only), arguing and playing one-upmanship – with F.O., my nickname for God, the Formless One.
And that’s basically what I did for those months, allowing everything to bubble up to the surface, especially my fear of poverty which I’ve had since childhood.
Then, as I explained earlier, I allowed love to envelop me, I surrendered totally and my joy-for-no-reason gradually came back. I began again to practice my daily grow younger mind/spirit/body techniques and quietly celebrated my 75th birthday on November 18 with a small dinner attended by a few of my kids and grandkids. Since December I’ve felt prompted to clean out, organize, give away what I don’t need and simplify my life.
I’m delighted to tell you that I feel younger than ever and have the old zip in my step and enthusiasm for life in my heart. People tell me I look radiant, and on January 21 I danced wildly for hours to the music of the El Rito Rhythm Kings at our neighborhood party.
Today I feel worthy again of sharing with you the practices that are doing so much good for me. And so I’m back and I’m deeply grateful that you’re still here.
My gift for you? It’s one of the products that’s for sale on my website. Because, you see, “I’d rather you stay than pay.” That’s a motto I’m borrowing for this blog from Inc. magazine’s Company of the Year, Evernote (more about them in a subsequent blog.)
I trust that I will be taken care of totally – physically, spiritually, emotionally AND financially – no matter what happens. My primary interest is having you become as healthy and full of joy as I am. And yes! grow younger with me.
Your gift is a download of three of the tracks of my Affirmations to Grow Younger for you to burn your own CD. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/6rnpnwk
The fourth track is my son Peter’s song, “Precious,” but he asked me not to send it along today since he’s close to finishing recording an even better version of that song. But if you don’t want to wait, just send me an email to ellen@howtogrowyounger.com and I’ll forward your request to Peter. It’s the beautiful song that’s in the background of my Five Tibetans YouTube.
You have blessed me by your presence, dear friend; thank you for staying with me. I’m back now, better than ever and raring to go!
Joy and Love,
Ellen
I AM ON RETREAT. I DON’T KNOW FOR HOW LONG.
Written on July 30, 2011 at 11:07 pm, by Ellen WoodI guess I’ll be on retreat as long as it takes to do this
inner work I feel called to do.
It’s important that you know I care about you, and that
I am so grateful for the love and support you express
for me in your comments and emails.
While I’m on retreat there will be no emails or blogs
from me, so in the meantime I have a few suggestions
for you.
If you’ve come to my website because your primary
interest in growing younger is the body/mind-attitude
aspect, then I recommend you go to maxlife.org and sign
up for Dave Kekich’s free newsletter and get his
incredibly informative book – free also – “Life
Extension Express” (soon to change to “Smart, Strong
and Sexy at 100.”)
And/or if the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation
interest you, watch my YouTube at
http://www.howtogrowyounger.com/p/tror.html
If your primary interest is the spirit/mind aspect, then
I highly recommend reading “A New Earth” by Eckhart
Tolle as well as listening to “A More Conscious Life
Workshop” a set of CDs by Marianne Williamson. These
and “A Course in Miracles” are the most inspiring in
my life right now.
I wish you Joy and Blessings and hope you’ll stay
subscribed.
Love,
Ellen
It’s a WIN for Everybody!
Written on July 4, 2011 at 5:39 pm, by Ellen WoodI have to say it was a real red-letter day for me when I learned my audio book was chosen for a GOLD Nautilus Book Award. When the awards committee chair invited me to New York for the Award Announcements, another blessing fell into my lap. I’d already booked my flight to New Jersey to attend a family wedding – taking place just a few days before they wanted me at Book Expo America at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. The timing was perfect! Synchronicity strikes again!
There’s more to this timing story, but first let me tell you a bit about the Nautilus Book Awards. This award recognizes books, audio books and e-books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change and, at the same time, stimulate the imagination and offer readers new possibilities for a better life and a better world.
The Nautilus Book Awards Silver and Gold Winners are selected in a unique three-tier judging process by experienced teams of book reviewers, librarians, authors, editors, book store owners and leaders in the publishing industry. They are charged with looking for “distinguished literary and heartfelt contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and positive social change.”
A short list of some of the other authors who have received a GOLD Nautilus Book Award includes Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Carolyn Myss and Eckert Tolle, and I’m honored to be included in such a group.
Funny how things work. When the Nautilus Award folks contacted me to say my 3-CD audio book was nominated, I was knee-deep into designing a new cover for it – and giving it a new TITLE! Why? It was an inspiration that came to me when I completed my morning meditation one day – that the original title, “The Secret Method for Growing Younger”, just didn’t feel quite right. “THINK and GROW YOUNG – Powerful Steps to Create a Life of Joy” seems to have just the right vibration or frequency or whatever you call it.
I immediately asked the Nautilus committee if the change in title and packaging would affect my consideration for the award and found it would not. Whew! It did spur me to speed up the production process, however – all in all, a good thing!
So with lovely new, eco-friendly packaging (no plastic!) for the second edition of the audio book, it occurred to me that I still had an inventory of the original title – both in audio and soft cover print. Now, with new, improved covers and better title, what should I do with the old title/old cover books? The answer came: offer all of you a big discount – and hold a huge Inventory Reduction Sale!
To celebrate my Gold Nautilus Book Award, I am offering all the earlier editions with the title The Secret Method for Growing Younger at 50% off! The content is the same, and I’m thinking perhaps the sale prices will encourage my readers to stock up for gift-giving. And…trite but true: supplies are limited.
Whether you’re reading – or listening to me read – Think and Grow Young or The Secret Method for Growing Younger, the message is the same – and it’s the message I so want to get out to the world: we CAN reverse aging and grow younger – in our minds, spirits and bodies. I hope you’ll help me spread the word.
Joy and Blessings,
Ellen
CONSUMER NOTICE: In my articles and blogs there may be affiliate links. That means if you buy something from a link in this email or based on my recommendation, either expressed or implied, I may get paid an affiliate commission. It’s a win-win situation!
Anti-Aging Scientific Research Shows Aging CAN Be Reversed!
Written on May 24, 2011 at 2:24 pm, by Ellen WoodResearchers at Harvard-affiliated medical centers recently published remarkable anti-aging results of a study using gene therapy that reversed aging — on mice!
That’s right, in the study they saw the total reversal of age-related problems, including decreased brain function which returned to normal and failing organs that started working well again. Even fur on the mice that had turned gray was restored to dark fur. (See link to ABC News story at bottom.)
I find this so exciting! The researchers didn’t expect such dramatic anti-aging results, results that went way beyond slowing the signs of aging to actually reversing it — which is what I call growing younger!
What did they do to cause the mice to grow younger? They lengthened their telomeres.
You haven’t heard of telomeres? Let’s back up for a second and define some things. DNA is held within the chromosomes and each chromosome has a protective cap at the ends — called a telomere. It’s sort of like the tip of a shoelace which keeps the shoelace from unraveling.
Throughout life, these protective caps get shorter and shorter — and eventually they become too short to protect the DNA. At this point cellular damage begins to occur, leading to malfunction in crucial organs like the brain, heart, liver, and pancreas.
Muscle loss also occurs, and eventually extreme weakness and frailty happen. In other words, when the telomeres get short enough, the deterioration of old age occurs.
In this study, researchers boosted the cellular levels of telomerase, enzymes that lengthen telomeres, in the mice — and saw the signs of aging reversed. In measureable ways, the mice grew younger!
The next big question is: Can they do the same for people?
They’re certainly hopeful and are conducting more animal studies which will undoubtedly lead to research with people. In the case of humans, each cell holds 23 pair of chromosomes, each with telomeres at the strand ends.
Prior research has already established that shorter telomeres are associated with age-related diseases such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s. The exciting news about this study is the fact that boosting cellular levels of telomerases resulted in a significant reversal of the detrimental signs of aging.
Dr. Ronald DiPinho, a geneticist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, and co-author of the study results, said he thinks this research has identified the core pathway explaining many different theories of aging.
Now, as exciting as this is, we don’t want to sit on our laurels and wait — we want to do everything we can right now to grow younger!
Lifestyle factors may matter just as much! Dr. Dean Ornish, researcher at the University of California San Francisco, conducted a study several years ago with volunteers (people!) who agreed to follow a low-fat diet, exercise regularly and use relaxation techniques.
These lifestyle changes increased the volunteers’ levels of telomerase – hence postponing the time when the telomeres could no longer protect the cells from damage.
My diet is not so low-fat if you count all the coconut oil I consume — which is very healthy for you so I’m sure that’s good. But I DO exercise every day and the relaxation technique I use is twice daily half-hour meditation. Those are just a few of the “grow young” techniques that are working for me so I expect my telomeres are doing a good job protecting my cells.
If you need scientific anti-aging evidence to believe it’s possible to reverse aging, you’ve got it in the studies I mentioned. Keep in mind, however, that when you allow the belief that you CAN grow younger, you’ve taken a significant step toward making it happen. Now let’s celebrate! Walk, exercise, drink lots of pure water, observe your thoughts, pray, meditate and eat less — so we can grow younger together!
If you have an anti-aging tip, we’d love to hear from you. Please share it with our community by clicking Comment below. Thanks!
Joy and Blessings!
Ellen – Your Grow Young Guide
P.S. Here’s the link to the story about the mice on ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Alzheimers/aging-reversed-mice/story?id=12269125