Reinventing the body | Deepak Chopra | TEDxTimesSquare

Translator: Victor Carras
Reviewer: Maria K. Okay. Well, I have 10 minutes to inspire you to move
in the direction of well-being,perfect health, discover your true self,
resurrect your soul,influence the markers
of ageing at a cellular level -the level of cell biology –
and actually discover who you really are. But before we do that,
the first thing I want to share with youis that you have to change
your perception of your physical bodybecause we are talking
about literally reinventing the body. Your physical body is not physical,
your material body is not material. You have to start thinking
of your body as an activity,as a process, if I may say it so,
instead of a noun, as a verb, an activity. So our bodies are constantly
in the river of change and transformation. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said:”No man can step
into the same river twice,because it’s a new man
and it’s a new river. “Likewise, your true self cannot step
into the same flesh and bones twice,because in every moment of your life,
you are actually in the river of changewhich is your physical body. Through processes like eating, reading,
digestion, metabolism, illumination,elimination, sensory experience, thoughts,
feelings, emotions, desires, memories,imagination, creativity, intention,
intuition, inspiration,In fact, the physical bodiesthat you are using right now
to listen to my lectureare not the ones that you came in
from Times Square a few minutes ago. Even with one breath that you breathe in,you breathe in
10 to the power of 22 atoms,which is a huge amount of stuffthat comes from everywhere
in your environment,ends up at your cells,
your heart, your brain, your kidneys. With every breath that you breathe out,you are literally breathing out
at the atomic levelbits and pieces of your heart,
and kidney, and brain tissue,and technically speaking,we are all intimately sharing our organs
with each other, right this moment. In fact, there are studies –
mathematical calculations -that can show without a shadow of doubt
that right this moment,you might have a million atomsthat were once
in the body of Jesus Christ,or Buddha, or Genghis Khan,
or anyone else you want to think about. In just the last three weeks,a quadrillion atoms
have gone through your bodythat have gone through the bodyof every other living species
on this planet. So think of a tree in Africa, a squirrel
in Siberia, a peasant in China,you have stuff in your body,
which is actually non-stuff,that was there only three weeks ago. None of the atoms in your body
are the ones that you were born with. None. They were manufactured
in the crucible of stars,and in fact the atoms in this hand
and the atoms heremay have come from different stars. The carbon, the hydrogen, the oxygenthat is right now circulating in your body
is not even a material entity;it’s a process. Once you understand
that your body is a process,then you can engage
in reinventing the body. And you do soby very simple, fundamental activities
that you pay attention to. So let me tell you what are
the most important fundamental activities. Sleep. When you sleep, your body
rejuvenates itself, repairs itself. Not only your brain,
but the rest of your body. The second thing: meditation. We now have, actually, scientific proof
that a daily practice of meditation -and we have done these studies
with places like scientists at Harvard,at Mount Sinai here in New York,
and University of California -within – in our study –
within four days of meditation,people increased the enzyme
that controls biological ageby almost 40% in four days. And then we took those samples,
we sent them to our teams -as I said in these institutions –
and we showed that the entire genomestarts to express itself
in a different way. You don’t change the sequence
of nucleotides in your body,but there are genes that get up-regulated,genes that promote homeostasis
of self-regulation or self-repair. And there are genes
that get down-regulated,genes that activate inflammation. So both inflammation
and homeostasis are self-repair,our protective mechanisms. When you fall down,you need the inflammatory
response to heal yourself,but if that response is exaggerated
then it is the basis of many diseases. Many diseases,
including chronic conditions,like bronchial asthma, arthritis,
many types of cancer, etc. , etc. ,heart disease, inflammatory disordersare all connected with these diseases. So when the genes get
down-regulated or inflammation,the genes get up-regulated,you’re literally changing the activity
of your genes and the enzymesthat control cellular ageing. And this we have shown already. So here are the few things
that really matter. I mentioned sleep and meditation. Movement. The more you move,
the healthier your body. Don’t worry about the kind of exercise
you want to do, you can do any exercise. The key thing is to keep moving. The fourth thing is emotional well-being. And somebody in a previous talk
mentioned the limbic brain. The limbic brain
is that part of your brainthat is influenced by your emotions. So when you experience emotions
like joy, peace, compassion, empathythen there’s a phenomenon
that occurs in your brain,it’s called limbic resonance,and the hormones that are secreted
and the neuropeptides that are secreted,like oxytocin, and dopamine,
and serotonin, and opiates,these are immunomodulators,and they enhance
self-healing or self-repair. On the other hand, if you’re feeling
guilt, hostility, depression,any of the things
that create fear in your body,then limbic resonance
turns to a limbic dissonance,and that starts
a disruption of homeostasis. So cultivating those emotions. And finally: diet. A diet that is free of -A diet that’s not based on refined foods,
manufactured foods, or processed foods. A diet that is more plant-based
and also perhaps a Mediterranean diet,which includes fish and olive oil. It’s that simple. Sleep, meditation, movement,cultivating healthy emotions
and a healthy diet. So here is the formula:Wake up every daywith the intention that you are going
to experience a joyful, energetic body. A restful alert mind. Cultivate the emotions of peace, joy,love, compassion, empathy, and equanimity,and finally experience lightness of soul. Because at the core of our beingis an intelligence that’s orchestrating
all these activities that I mentioned. You have 600 trillion cells in your body,which is more than all the stars
in the Milky Way galaxy. Only, by the way,only 10% of them are human,the rest is what is called the microbiome. So of the 600 trillion cells in your body,
most of them are bacteria. You are a walking bacterial colony
with a few human cells added. And all of these cells are working
together as an ecosystem. And the things I mentioned to you,
they influence everything. Diet particularly influences
the microbiome, which is in the GI tract,and the microbiome and your genes
actually regulate each other. So, it’s a fascinating thing. Our body is star stuffthat has learned to self-regulate itself,That has become self-aware,
that knows itself,that regulates itself, that evolves,and ultimately, that goes back
to the field of pure consciousness,which is the field of infinite
possibilities, infinite creativity,that takes leaps of evolution,
and as we move into the future,I think you will see
that reinventing the bodyis not a possibility in the future,
it’s a possibility right now. Thank you.