I don’t start many sentences with “I believe”. It feels like an irrevocable moral contract of some kind – something never to be taken lightly. Right now, I have a couple of those rattling around.
I believe in energy and the body’s power to gently guide that energy to get results.
Let me explain.
We live our lives in these things made mostly of water, fueled by chemical and electrical activity – that’s energy. With all things that run on energy, the right mix of elements – all those key components to fire the mechanism properly—is pretty important for optimum functioning. If our goal is to maintain a mixture that supports living in a particular way, tracking those balances, as if watching a monitor, is necessary. Not too much and not too little but always fluid and flexible.
I believe that we can reset those balances by doing course corrections, big and small, along the way.
Note the studies examining BNDF – a little protein that we know is released during exercise. This little protein has the power to tap into DNA and make something happen. BNDF actually unlocks a rule programmed in DNA, found specifically on chromosome 11, and triggers a particular sequence of events that tells the body to create new cells – researchers believe that that sequence triggers the creation of new neurons.
Think about that for a second.
Every time I step on the elliptical or go out for a vigorous walk I am telling my body that I want more neurons… I want to grow. That is not just energy but that is power.
That is one protein and one tiny set of instructions in our DNA but one that can be seen in the lab – today. Not science fiction. Not voodoo or mysticism. One we can activate personally every single day.
Just imagine the possibilities as this branch of research deepens and scientist continue to unlock the mysteries of the relationship between our behaviors and our bodies.
Goose bumps, right?
–Ruth