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

If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the following two books:
The Power of Premonitions – How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives by Larry Dossey, MD
	Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles by Bruce Lipton, PhD

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Neurobics can take the form of mental exercises, brain teasers and puzzles. Studies show that by exercising your brain, you can actually create new neural pathways and reverse cognitive decline. This contradicts the old belief that our brain cells are just dying off as we age. The truth is we can stimulate growth in our brain cells at any age!

Every day I exercise my body and my brain, but that’s a big change. Before I began my “Growing Younger” program, every time I got the urge to exercise, I’d lie down until it went away. Now I exercise every day (almost every day) and it’s fun!

I had a special reason for beginning brain exercises and changing my negative mental chatter about aging: my mother died of Alzheimer’s. Mom spent over three years in a nursing home and every time I visited her, I absorbed those images of her wasting away. I’d read a lot about Alzheimer’s and that it’s hereditary, so I worried that I’d have the same kind of deterioration of mind and body as I aged.

It was after I had a “wake up” call that I realized how my thoughts and beliefs about aging were creating a life for me that I did not want. That’s when I began to consciously change my self-talk and exercise my brain.

It’s very easy to fall into habits of doing the same things and not trying anything new. Routine actions and thoughts become so automatic that most of our actions are governed by “muscle memory” and we do them largely unconsciously. To activate new brain circuits we need to stimulate our brain chemistry by doing something new, like eating with our non-dominant hand or closing our eyes during some routine action.

Sudoku is good for the brain and so are crossword puzzles, especially if you set a time limit for yourself and do them quickly. Want a new challenge? Try word games and puzzles at www.merriam-webster.com/game/new.htm. Another way to stimulate your brain is by learning how to do something completely new – to speak a foreign language, a new skill such as knitting or how to play an instrument — perhaps the piano, banjo or guitar.

The best book I’ve found for increasing my brain power is Train Your Brain: 60 Days to a Better Brain by Ryuta Kawashima. You can order from Amazon here.

Allow yourself to become excited about trying new things and challenging yourself. The brain can be exercised and become more flexible just as our muscles can. So use it, don’t lose it, and you can forget about memory loss.

With my love and best wishes for a sharp memory and youthful brain!

Ellen

ellen@howtogrowyounger.com

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Love and Blessings,
Ellen

ellen@howtogrowyounger.com

Tribute To An Amazing Elder

By Lesley Ivy

Walter Cronkite died this month. The media has reminded us of his stature as an iconic and trusted media figure so I’m not going to reiterate all his professional accomplishments.

Instead, I’d like to look at other aspects of his life and ways he is a model for success.

Walter Cronkite enjoyed a happy marriage that lasted 65 years, until his wife Betsy died in 2005. In an interview that year he cited his wife’s wonderful and off-beat sense of humor as the key ingredient that made theirs such a successful union. They had three children, and speaking at his father’s funeral service, Chip Cronkite recalled the way his dad would stop his mother in the hallway or kitchen – anyplace around the house – and say to her, “Shall we dance?” Then he’d take his wife for a few spins around the room.

Sustaining a loving, supportive relationship for 65 years is no small feat! This alone makes Walter Cronkite an amazing elder in my eyes!

Add to that the fact that he not only lived through the great depression, WWII, and the cold war – as many have done – but that as a news correspondent and then television news anchorman, he set the standard for fair, unbiased and truthful reporting.

Walter Cronkite didn’t simply report the important news of the time, he participated in many of the significant events of the 20^th century, and he spoke the truth about what he saw and learned. Born in 1916, Cronkite graduated from college in 1935 and joined United Press in 1939 to cover World War II. As part of the “Writing 69th,” he went ashore on D-Day, parachuted with the l0lst Airborne, flew bombing missions over Germany, covered the Nuremburg trials, and opened the UP’s first post-war Moscow bureau.

All this was before he even joined CBS News.

We came to trust him more than any other newsman to present the facts in an unbiased way – to tell us the truth. His name has become virtually synonymous with the position of news anchor worldwide–Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters and in Holland they are Cronkiters.

Yes, Walter Cronkite was an outstanding reporter, an amazing man and an amazing elder. Because CBS policy required that he retire from his full-time role as anchorman at age 65, he did. However, he certainly didn’t see that as an end to his productive life. He went on to host a weekly science program, “Universe”, and in 1993 he began working with the Discovery and Learning Channels. That’s right. At age 77, Cronkite signed a contract to produce 36 documentaries in three years!

Recognized and respected for his integrity and honesty, we can also admire and honor Walter Cronkite because he defied the “out to pasture” mentality so prevalent in the past century. He continued to love life and live it! He had a passion for sailing and New Orleans jazz, which explains the song his family chose for his final exit. His casket left St. Bart’s at the end of his funeral service to a rousing rendition of When The Saints Go Marching In.

Walter Cronkite died at the age of 92, having lived a life full of love, humor, compassion and contribution. Let us all seek to live as fully.

Well, now it’s time to take a good look at that little ditty and realize that names CAN hurt us.

I’m not saying that other people are still calling us disparaging names even though we’re grown up.  Society is too polite for that.  But what names are we calling ourselves?

Listen to that little voice in your head.  What’s it telling you?  Is it saying you’re darned good-looking?  Yay!  Is it saying you’re fabulous?  Yay again! 

Or is it saying you’re wrinkled up?  Or you’re weak and exhausted?  Or you’re foggy and forgetful?

Observe your thoughts and become aware of those that reinforce a negative mindset about aging – or a negative mindset about anything. 

Our words are very powerful, whether we’re saying them out loud – or silently as thoughts.  Your words are programming your subconscious mind and your subconscious mind is programming your biology, sending signals that your cells respond to. (For the science behind this, see For Further Information below.)

Letting those negative thoughts run on is simply a habit.  Realize that it is possible to break that habit and form a new habit – one that reinforces how wonderful you are.

Here’s one way to break the habit of destructive self-talk.  Start by deliberately deciding to watch your thoughts.  Find something that you do mindlessly at a set time every day, like wash your face and brush your teeth.  In fact, first thing in the morning when you’re looking in the mirror is one of the best times to see what your mind is chattering about.

You can give yourself a reminder.  Write on an index card, “What am I saying about myself?” and put it where you’ll see it near your mirror. 

If it’s chattering about how marvelous you are, good for you – praise yourself. If instead it’s knocking you, say an affirmation to counter that thought.  For example, if it’s saying, “You’re looking old” then say, out loud if you’re alone, “I am young and fresh and alive!”

Practice with affirmations that make sense to you.  Then email me to let me know how it goes and to share tips that make it work best for you.

Joy and Blessings!

Ellen Wood

What drew my attention to her was the way she looked furtively from side to side and then slunk down into a seat in the back, as though she was being hunted by someone and this seemed a good place to hide.

It was later, after my talk was over and the line for book signings and questions had thinned to a precious few, that I noticed her again.  All the other seats were empty but she was still hunkered down, just waiting.  For the police?  A jealous ex-lover?  Gotcha, you’re It?

Actually … none of these.  After everyone else left, she came up to me and the intrigue was over.  She just wanted to ask me a question but didn’t want anyone she knew to see her at a workshop about growing younger.

In a timid voice she told me her friends discussed my workshop and criticized it as vain attempts to hold back what’s natural and inevitable.

She told me they concluded, “It’s against nature.  We should just grow old gracefully.  Wanting to grow younger is just vanity.”

I told her I deeply respect those who feel we should grow old gracefully, but I don’t agree that we should accept the inevitability of decline. 

Accepting that decline’s going to happen no matter what – brings with it all the programming we’ve accumulated over the years that associates age with progressive deterioration of mind and body. 

And no, it’s not vanity to want to enjoy life with vigor; to live passionately; to feel good and share joy, love, accomplishment and adventure.  That just doesn’t have to change because we live longer.

I noticed she was perking up. She straightened her shoulders and I swear she grew two inches. “That’s how I feel,” she told me and excitement began to creep into her voice.

I was back on my soapbox: this method is not about glorifying youthful appearance so you can get flattering remarks and admiring glances.  But don’t be surprised if you do.

If we, individually and collectively, change our image of aging, just think of the incredible contribution people our age can make to humankind. 

We can be the pivotal generation group that bridges the old human way to the new. We can envision all of humanity living lives that are empowered and grow better and better as the years progress.  I don’t know what that looks like exactly – but the baby boomers, especially, are ripe for pioneering a new frontier of transformation and renewal.

I was giving my speech all over again and it felt so good! She gets it, I thought, as she broke into a big smile and we both hugged like we meant it.

I could tell there would be no more hiding for her.  No more putting youthfulness ideas and techniques in a plain brown wrapper so people won’t know she’s partaking of something forbidden.

Dear Readers, let’s all come out in the open about our desire to be vital and healthy and fresh and alive!  And if that’s called youthfulness, let’s embrace it with gusto.

Joy and Blessings!

Ellen Wood

“Someday you’re going to be old,” we’ve admonished teenagers and youngsters who have ridiculed elderly people and expressed a lack of compassion for their seeming helplessness.  And it warmed our hearts when we watched other young people share love with elders and delight in their company.

Little did we know that their stereotypes about old people would have an effect on young people’s own lives when they got older!  Yet that’s what a major study by the Yale School of Public Health has found: younger people with strong negative stereotypes about the elderly are more likely to experience strokes, heart attacks and other heart problems when they grow old.

The 40-year study, which appeared in the March issue of Psychological Science, found that age stereotypes acquired in childhood and young adulthood and carried over into old age have far-reaching effects.  Becca R. Levy, PhD, is the study’s lead author and associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health.  “The findings suggest that efforts to reduce the negative age stereotypes of younger individuals could provide them with better health when they reach the age of those they had been previously targeting with these stereotypes,” Levy said in a news article written by Michael Greenwood. 

We already knew that older adults who believe they will experience deterioration of mind and body in their later years tend to fulfill that belief, and research proves it.  Now we have good reason to not just grow younger for our own sake, but to serve as an example of youthfulness and profoundly affect the future health of youngsters and teenagers as well. 

Joy and Blessings!

Ellen Wood

ellen@howtogrowyounger.com

www.howtogrowyounger.com

For further information, go to http://publichealth.yale.edu/news/feb09/stereotypes.html

Other study authors are: Martin D. Slade of the Yale School of Medicine, and Luigi Ferrucci and Alan B. Zonderman, both of the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program in Baltimore. The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program and grants from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical  Research Foundation and the National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood.

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