Does Relaxation Really Change Your Genes?

Scientific studies now show that deep relaxation actually changes our bodies on a genetic level.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered that long-term practitioners of relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation have far more “disease-fighting” active genes compared to those who do not practice relaxation.

This includes genes that protect from: pain, infertility, high blood pressure and even rheumatoid arthritis. The changes were induced by what they call “the relaxation effect” — a phenomenon  just as powerful as medical drugs,  but without the side-effects.

The experiment, which showed just how responsive genes are to behaviour, mood and environment, revealed that genes can switch on, just as easily as they switch off.

“Harvard researchers asked the control group to start practising relaxation methods every day,” explains Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London’s BodyMind Medicine Centre, who teaches clients how to induce the relaxation effect. “After two months, their bodies began to change – the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells and protect the body from cancer, all began to switch on.”

More encouraging still, the benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice – the more people practised relaxation methods, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.

The research is pivotal because it shows how a person’s state of mind affects the body on a physical and genetic level. But just how can relaxation have such wide-ranging and powerful effects? Research around the world has described the negative effects of stress on the body. Linked to the release of the stress-hormones adrenalin and cortisol, stress raises the heart rate and blood pressure, weakens immunity and lowers fertility.

“What you’re looking for is a state of deep relaxation where tension is released from the body on a physical level and your mind completely switches off,” he says. You can only really achieve it by learning a specific technique such as self-hypnosis,  meditation, or neural brainwave training.”

Do Dreams Really Contain Hidden Truths?

You wake up after a dream of a plane crash, and you’re scheduled to board an aircraft later in the day for a long-awaited trip. Will that nightmare of a plane crash have an effect on whether you continue with your plans to fly?

According to a new multi-cultural study involving nearly 1,100 people around the world, you may not cancel your trip, but your dream will probably weigh as heavily on your thoughts as if there had been a real plane crash. The study suggests that people from many cultures believe their dreams are a window into the mind.

Do Dreams Really Mean Anything?
When Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899, he introduced science to the complex and bizarre world of the human mind. Freud called dreams the royal road to the unconscious.

The most common dream occurs in all cultures: Someone, or something, is in hot pursuit, and if the dreamer can’t escape, the consequences will be deadly. That dream usually means the person feels threatened or under attack, or is recalling a time when an attack was real.

Dreams Contain Hidden Truths
Researchers Morewedge and Norton of Harvard University wanted to determine if dreams actually influence our behavior or contain hidden truths. They conducted six studies in both Eastern and Western cultures ( United States, South Korea and India).

(1) 182 commuters in Boston reported that dreams affected their daily behavior. 68 percent said dreams foretell the future, and 63 percent said at least one of their dreams had come true. Participants reported that a dream of a plane crash would affect their travel plans more than a conscious thought of a crash, or a warning from the government

(2) 341 pedestrians were surveyed in Cambridge, Mass., and people who believed in the Freudian theory of the subconscious were more influenced by their dreams than were nonbelievers. But regardless of the theory of dreams they endorsed, participants considered dreams more important than similar thoughts while awake.

(3) 60 undergraduate psychology students at Rutgers University were asked whether they believed in God on a five-point scale ranging from definitely to doubtful. Not surprisingly, believers rated dreams in which God spoke to them as more meaningful than did agnostics. Also, not surprisingly, agnostics reported that dreams were more meaningful when God suggested that they should take a year off to travel the world than when God suggested they should take a year off to work in a leper colony.

The Role of Dreams in Our Waking Lives
Consistent throughout the study is the thread that dreams actually DO play a role in the waking lives of most people. They come from within and, thus contain hidden truths that could be useful in real life, or so most of us believe.

The study noted that, although dreams are unlikely to predict future world events, it is possible that they may provide some hidden insight in the way that people believe they do. Learn to control your dreams with lucid dreaming. Amazing!

Got Mental Grit? You May Be a High Achiever!

What are the most common characteristics of high achievers?

It seems passion and perseverance may be more important to success than talent or intelligence. And pure grit may turn out to be at least as good a gauge of future success as talent.

In a series of studies at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers found that “gritty” people are more likely to achieve success in school, work and other pursuits—perhaps because their passion and commitment help them endure setbacks. In other words, it’s not just talent that matters but also character.

How Much Does Talent Count?
Want to achieve a goal? So… if effort is the bedrock of success, what roles do intelligence and talent play? Many large research projects suggest that intelligence accounts for about 25 percent of one’s success. While persistence, or pure grit, accounts for at least 50 percent, and creativity an estimated 25 percent.

Neurobiologist Angela Duckworth and positive psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman, known for his groundbreaking work on optimism, interviewed high achievers in various fields to identify their common distinguishing characteristics.

There were a number of people in their study who were brilliant, ambitious and persevering, Duckworth reports. But there were also a lot who were not geniuses, but were really tenacious. The researchers began to refer to this tenacity as “grit”—the determination to achieve an ambitious, long-term goal despite the inevitable obstacles.

And for those who may not be ranked as having a genius IQ, Duckworth and Seligman have an important finding: Grit has value for people at all levels of raw intelligence and ability. And they know how to achieve a goal.

In fact, their initial studies show that grit and intelligence are completely independent traits. Duckworth says regardless of your ability, it’s important to be focused, hardworking and able to bounce back from setbacks.

The Power of Passion

There is strong evidence that passion fuels persistence. Although extremely persistent people are usually passionate about their work, that doesn’t mean that the passion always comes first.

Perseverance, notes Duckworth, can itself foster passion. Often the most fascinating aspects of an area of interest only become apparent after deep immersion, to a level where you understand it and are enlivened by it.

For others, persistence may grow from a desire to test their limits. Consider endurance athletes, for whom challenge isn’t merely an obstacle to accomplishing something but often the spur to action in the first place.

Also in the Mix

Passion may be the linchpin of grit, but it’s not the only element. Truly gritty people tend to set especially challenging long-term goals. Self-discipline is probably also important, and studies have shown that gritty people tend to be highly self-disciplined.

Then there’s optimism, a trait that Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis finds is extremely common among high achievers. They just really believe in the end that they’re going to win, and they just keep on pushing, he says. That’s the ultimate self-discipline tool

posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success

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