How much do circumstances determine the quality of our lives?
Young, old, rich, poor, healthy, sick… these are all circumstances. There’s no doubt they affect the quality of our lives in some ways, even in major ways, yet I believe they don’t ultimately determine the quality of our lives unless we choose to see it that way. We always have that choice. The choice to be ruled by our circumstances or the choice to not be ruled by our circumstances.
This isn’t “believe in yourself.”
This is hard science.
For example: genetics. Genetics obviously affect many of our circumstances. Tall, short, male, female, and so on… all genetics. And as time goes on, we find more and more circumstances affected by genetics. Fat, thin, happy, depressed, alcoholic, sober, violent, gentle, in short, almost everything about us is turning out to have some sort of genetic connection.
But here’s the amazing thing about genetics. Not all people with the “alcoholic” gene are alcoholics. Not all people with the “breast cancer gene” get breast cancer. Not all people with the “depression gene” are depressed. The reason for this is found in epigenetics. It’s the science of gene expression… another way to say which genes are “switched on” and which are “silenced.” In other words, while you may have the breast cancer gene, you won’t actually develop breast cancer unless that gene gets switched on. If it remains silent, you don’t get breast cancer.
What is particularly amazing and exciting about this fact is that epigenetics react to environmental circumstances. And by environment, I mean the internal environment of the body itself. Now it’s true that the external environment often makes it’s way into our internal environment. The foods we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, all contain substances that can become part of our internal environment and react with the epigenetic process and determine which genes get switched on and which get switched off.
However, it isn’t just the external environment acting on us. Much of our internal environment is determined by things like our activities. Exercising, or the lack of it, makes changes in our body chemistry. Did you know that emotions are measurable biochemical states? Anger changes your body chemistry. Laughter changes your biochemical state. Love is biochemistry. Even the thoughts you think make changes to your biochemistry.
Part of what this all means is that while we may be stuck with the genes we’re born with, we do have some say in whether or not those genes get switched on or if they get switched off. This isn’t just someone’s idea or hope, this is an experimentally determined scientific fact.
The implications of this are huge. HUGE!
One of those implications is that many ideas previously thought of as mysticism are really scientific fact. The power of positive thinking isn’t mysticism; it’s a demonstrable scientific fact with a known mechanism. This comes around to one of my favorite ideas. A wise man once said to me… There are two things in life. There is “what is”… and there is “how we feel about it.” The problem with this fact is that 90% of what we think is part of what is, is really part of how we feel about it.
By definition, we can’t change what is.. because it is! But we can change how we feel about things. And now we know that changing how we feel about something can actually change the thing itself. Maybe something in your life is part of what is. Maybe it’s part of your circumstances. But maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s part of how you feel about things, part of what you do, part of how you think. If it is, then you can do something about it.
And even if it’s not, you can still choose to let it rule you… or not.
You can choose to let circumstances determine the quality of your life… or not.
Richard Random Thoughts
