Ageing But Not Getting Old

When I was a teenager in high school, my home economics teacher made a comment that never left me: “youth is wasted on the young”. As a young person, I thought it an unkind comment and viewed my teacher unsympathetically. Of course now that I am a mature woman, I completely understand what she was getting at. The vitality and beauty of youth, that gets traded off for experience, knowledge and, dare I say, some wisdom in ones growing years, is for many of us, if not most, painful to relinquish.

We rush in hordes to the cosmetic check out counter to pay a premium for the next best promise of youth in a bottle. Maybe this time it will work. We gain some comfort from the fact that today’s forty year olds are the new thirty year olds, and the fifties something crowd, well they are the new forties something crowd. If that doesn’t quell our anxiety, we get on the phone to the surgeon, often too hastily and with dire results. If the results happen to be satisfactory, we can look in the mirror for another decade with a little more ease – if we are lucky. But mostly we’ll just focus on the next thing we need to get ‘fixed’. Ageing phobia is pandemic and palpable.

Now you could say, I am one of those forty something year olds, who is faking the thirties well. Is it a result of all the therapies I’ve tried, or genes, or both? Like most women, I’ve gotten on the anti ageing regime, trying all kinds of the usual products and services on offer: expensive creams and serums, chemical peels, exercise, facial exercises, urine therapy, hydration, supplements, electronic facelifts, diet change … stopping short at injections and surgery – but just. I have consulted a cosmetic surgeon and am filled to my boots with research on procedures. Is any of it working? Maybe, a little. Am I giving up? Definitely not. I am wholly committed to ageing but not getting old and I think it important to draw a distinct line between these two ideas: ageing and being old.

Personally, I don’t think most of us would mind ageing if we didn’t look it. If, in our forties, we looked and felt like we did in our twenties, the fact that we were forty probably wouldn’t bother most of us at all. We have all seen those rare individuals who are in their fifties, sixties, seventies … and they are beautiful. They sparkle, they have something timeless about them, and a youthfulness. If most of us are honest, we would admit we’d like to be like that at their age. Similarly we have all met people who seem far too old for their age. What is it that is going on with these two groups that causes one to remain younger than their years and the other to become older than their years?

Like the society we live in, for most of us, our understanding of growing old is mostly at a surface and superficial level. Most of us don’t know what is going on biologically, emotionally, or mentally when we grow old. We put it down to age and we assign the title of anomaly to those who defy this apparent law of nature. But what science has already proven is that the way we think has a direct and immediate effect on our physical and emotional well being. There is no truer saying than ‘so you think, so you are’ and it begins in the brain.

Like the brain, our thoughts are really no more than energy with the potential to affect other manifestations of energy, like the energy manifestation that is our brain. Basically thought energy interacts with brain energy and if the thought energy is ‘happy, positive’ energy then the effects on the brain will be to effect other parts of the body in a ‘happy, positive’ way. Similarly if the thoughts are unhappy the opposite occurs.

For example, when a person is feeling depressed and experiencing negative thoughts, something very distinct occurs in the brain. It begins to reduce its happy neurotransmitters serotonin, while increasing cortisol, the degenerative, ageing hormone. This causes the body to stop functioning optimally, the immune system becomes depressed, the bodies rate of degeneration accelerates, in essence, the body starts to age faster. Simply put negative thinking reduces the life force of the body and accelerates the onset of death.

Conversely if you observe what is going on in the brains of those who are happy and have a positive disposition, you can observe the opposite. A biological response occurs that increases the individuals life force, slows down ageing and enhances longevity. The brains of positive thinking, happy, people cause the body to increase its happy neurotransmitters (serotonin), increase its feel good endorphins, reduce its cortisol (degenerative hormone) while increasing its DHEA, human growth hormone and melatonin (three hormones associated with youth and vitatlity).

This is not pie in the sky thinking, this is factual and scientifically proven. Any explanatory research on brainwave activity will substantiate this. Brainwave activity is directly correlated to thought processes, and the effects on the body are a direct result of the brains response to the quality of those thought processes.

If we reflect back on those fifty, sixty, seventy year olds, that seem younger than their years, they will all possess the same thing: a generally happy disposition and positive outlook. No matter what life throws their way, they manage to maintain a buoyant outlook. They realise that things will change again, and don’t get bogged down in the temporal hardships of the moment. Similarly for those who are older than their years the opposite can be found. They are mentally burdened, and have a generally poorer outlook on life. When something goes wrong, the effects hang on, and tend to cause the individual to have more trepidation regarding future events. Ironically this tends to increase the negative occurrences in their lives, stead fasting their negative outlook.

What does this all mean for all of us lying somewhere between the two, who need to get happier brains? Many will say, you cannot change your essential character. But this is actually wrong. We can change the general negative or positive outlook of our character because our character is a result of our thoughts, and our thoughts can be changed by changing our brainwave patterns.

How does one change their brainwave patterns? Easier than you might think:

For mon:re information: Learn How To Slow Ageing. DHEA The Facts

Mind Body Health And The Effect Of Deep Relaxation

In our modern world, we seem to find it harder to relax. Our lives are full of busyness and we are constantly bombarded with stressors; our minds are continually chattering and full of worry. What we often don’t realise is this chronic state of mental unease is the beginning of disease in our body. When we are in this constant mental state of agitation, our body is on constant alert, our metabolic rate increases, our adrenal glands are on overdrive and our brains are giving the signal to pump out more cortisol (the degenerative hormone) into our blood.

Cortisol is important when we need to fight or take flight, and it has helped us survive, but it is only good in small doses. Cortisol is very hard on our bodies and when we have too much of it in our blood, for too long, it accelerates our physical decline. Ageing us faster, it acts as a destructive agent. This is bad news. Because we have become habituated to a state of high alert, this same hormone we called upon to save us in emergencies, is now pumping through our bodies on a daily basis and accelerating our degeneration. In essence the high-pressure lifestyle of our age has put our bodies into self-destruct gear.

It is a fact that physical and mental illness is hitting people in ever increasing numbers and at much younger ages despite the fact that, as a species, we are the most resourceful and scientifically advanced civilization of human history. We also know, but habitually ignore the fact, that the mind is the gatekeeper of our health and well being.

When scientists observe the activity of the brain during different mental states, it is clear that positive mental states create positive effects in the physical body. For example when in a state of deep relaxation or meditation, the brain enters what is commonly referred to as the delta brainwave state. This is the state of deep healing. While in this state, the brain sends signals to the body to release regenerative, antiaging hormones (DHEA and Melatonin) into the blood serum while also giving the command to reduce the cortisol that gets released during high alert and stressed mental states.

Similarly, there have been numerous case studies where patients suffering potentially terminal illnesses where exposed to deep relaxation, and meditation techniques. Compared to the individuals of the control group those exposed to regular ‘doses’ of deep relaxation had either completely healed or extended their longevity substantially compared to those in the control group. What is conclusive is that time to relax deeply and ease our minds is crucial to our health, it is the antidote to the high-pressured lives most of us are living and without it, most of us will die younger than we need to.

A daily dose of deep relaxation, will not only improve your health, but will improve your overall mental state. As well as releasing regenerative hormones, being in a deeply relaxed state also releases endorphins and the ‘happy’ neurotransmitter serotonin. By adopting a daily practice to deeply relax, you will, in time, normalise yourself into a mentally happy state.

One of the most, or perhaps the most, effective way to achieve a state of deep relaxation is through meditation. Meditation is tranquillity for the mind, and where the mind goes, the body follows. However meditation is a serious practice that does not suit everyone. If meditation does not appeal, there are other ways to achieve this, and one must find what suits best. Using relaxation, meditative or binaural beat recordings are a proven, easy and effective choice. Alternatively, yoga, or tai chi might suit better. Whichever means one decides upon is secondary to the result, what is most important is that the technique used causes the brain to slow down its brainwave frequency where the damage of a high gear life can be reversed.

For more information on the positive effects of meditation and binaural beat recordings: Positive Mind States

Meditation And Its Effects On Mind Body And Spirit

For anyone who meditates, they know that it is a seriously life changing practice. Meditation can: increase your life span, improve your health, reverse signs of ageing, boost brain function, increase performance, make you happier, bring you peace, give you greater insight and give you greater control over your life to achieve the success you want. Meditation reveals the truth of things and enables you to manifest the life you want.

It sounds to good to be true, but it is well known that all the great sages known through history used meditation to actualise their potential and reach the great heights that they did. What is also true is that we now live in an age where the secret power of meditation is no longer hidden from ordinary folks. And for anyone who seriously wants to step up his or her life, meditation is a way. Easy right? Well yes and no. It is true that meditation is a discipline, and dedication to it brings tremendous rewards. But, like any discipline, meditation takes time to master.

The mind is constantly busy with what I call mental noise. Without even realising it, it is running a constant stream of thoughts to our subconscious mind. The trouble with this is that, for most of us, the thoughts tend to be around stressors and negatives in our lives, and because the brain keeps running these thought without thinking about it, it literally becomes addicted to these thoughts, and in turn these thoughts create more stressors, which in turn feeds these negative thought patterns again. Its not that we want to think these things, they cause us pain, but our brains have become patterned to these thoughts and has no other ‘programme’ to run – unless we give it one.

Now trying to change our programming is very hard to say the least. This is where meditation comes in. Meditation will literally wipe out those programmes. In time, your mind will become tranquil, and with that tranquillity your life, as you know it, will change. You will become attuned to the real you. You will be on your way to actualising your greatest potential.

Now I know this may seem like a grand statement, but I promise you, it is true. Since meditating regularly, my life has literally opened up. I possess a calm I never thought I would have. This benefit alone is enough, but this is just the beginning. It is as if the doors of possibility have swung open right in front of me and life is presenting to me on a whole new level. I am realising I can have exactly what I want now.

I also realise that the idea of sitting quietly for an hour a day might seem impossible to some. For me it took quiet a long time to actually dedicate myself to it as a discipline. But since doing so, I have come across a new meditation technique that makes the benefits of meditation so much easier to achieve and it has to do with certain sound frequencies. Without getting too technical, the benefits of meditation are a result of the brain being conditioned into certain brain wave states and what science has discovered is that the brain can be entrained to enter into these brainwave states by certain sound frequencies, otherwise known as binaural beats.

The scientific term for this is Brainwave Entrainment and it is basically meditation made easy with all the benefits of disciplined meditation. Brainwave Entrainment (binaural beats) put you into deeply relaxing meditative states (alpha, theta and delta) and it is in these brainwave states that the mind is reconditioned to the benefit of the listener as follows:

PHYSICAL/HEALTH BENEFITS: It 'grows' the brain by thickening the connections between the corpus callosum. It lowers blood pressure, reduces cholesterol, reduces metabolic rate, boosts the immune system, smoothes the skin, and releases youth hormones DHEA and Melatonin, while reducing the degenerative hormone Cortisol.

MENTAL/EMOTIONAL BENEFITS: Most people’s brains work in mono, meaning that one side of the brain dominates, but by increasing the connections between the two hemispheres through meditation or brain entrainment, the brain actually begins to work in stereo. It is believed that the brains of the world’s greatest thinkers worked in this way. By causing the brain to dip into Alpha, Theta and Delta states more frequently, mental clarity peaks, creative thinking is enhanced, as is intuition. Through regular use stereoscopic brain functioning puts one into peak performance states by getting the two sides of the brain to work together rather than individually. Fortune 100 companies, leading world minds and NASA are all known to use brain entrainment to engage peak performance levels. A relaxed mind causes a sense of well being, mental stress subsides, mental clarity increases. It causes the mind to calm down, become clear, and can even bring about a sense of elation. This is the optimal state for succeeding in whatever you are focused on. This is key, for focus is the key to changing your life, and brain entrainment and meditation train the brain to become more focused.

For more information: Positive Mind States, Brain Entrainment, Binaural Beats