I’m going to touch on what could be the most important single factor in your recovery: Why your mood matters? I have read Bruce Lipton’s book “The Biology of Belief” so the subject of epigenetics is not entirely new to me, but the message is worth remembering: Our mind and thoughts make up our own, unique, inner environment. If we are stressed, for example, it puts our cells, where our genes are located, into survival mode, decreasing our cellular functions to crucial ones only. This non-activity sends a signal to our genes that is a very different one from a cellular environment that is thriving. Similarly, a healthy diet full of vitamins, minerals and healthy fats will create a completely different inner environment from one based on sugar, processed foods, pesticides and all the nutritional impurities that we come across regularly. So too, emotions and thoughts, which are nothing more than chemical structures and electrical impulses, make up our inner environment which our epigenetic mechanisms are exposed to.
It may feel a little overwhelming to us, how every little factor can influence and upset our inner environment, but let us remember that we can optimize our diet, reduce our levels of stress, move and exercise to improve our thoughts and mood. This is how we can improve our internal environment, and control how our genes are regulated. We can no longer put the blame on “I’m a victim of my genes” mentality, but instead put us firmly in the driver’s seat of our own health. Since our mood takes a severe hit after stroke, this encourages us to do everything in our power to stay positive and work with a joyful heart.
I hope this puts a new perspective on mood !
Good luck, live long & prosper ! Roland
I totally agree that mood matters. It plays an important part in not only who we are but how we motivate ourselves and deal with all those things life throws at us.
It’s not always easy though & getting that motivation going is often the hardest part; especially when you’re feeling low. But often once we get going the motivation improves etc.
A few years prior to my stroke I was a little overweight…nothing significant but enough. I always made excuses as to why I couldn’t exercise…too busy, not enough time etc etc. One day I completely changed my mindset from one of finding reasons not to do something to one of finding reasons to do it.i started thinking I migh not have 30 mins but I have 10 & that is better than nothing.
I can’t tell you why I suddenly had that change of mindset but it worked for me. And then i had my stroke…back to square 1 & starting again.
I love that you wrote about epigenetics a field I’m so very interested in.here’s something I wrote about genetics:
For those of you who know me well, you know that when I was little I had a very unusual childhood raised by my grandparents as their sixth child with five brothers who were in terms of genealogy my uncles,and father.My uncle Ricky,who is sadly no longer with us,the very blond boy on the right,I’m the baby sitting on my mother’s lap. Ricky taught me so much.
As a young teenager I plastered my face with makeup and he quietly told me that makeup should be subtle and should enhance your looks rather than detract from them.He also taught me how unnecessary it was to shave my legs and armpits telling me he saw no reason to do so.growing up in a mysoginist patriarchy I did what society expected of me without question and he taught me to question social norms and social constructs,which I have done ever since,and successfully taught my daughter’s to do the same,I was so very brainwashed by male supremacism that I believed the woman was responsible for the sex of a child,and at 12-years-old,he put me straight explaining the X and Y chromosomes and how the mother always gives the X and the sperm confers the Y for a boy and an X for a girl.Genetics has intrigued me ever since.At university studying Biological Sciences for a genetics presentation I did one on the genetics of sexuality and it turns out that while there is a region on the X chromosome called xq28,it is likely that sexuality is polygenic,more than one gene needs to be expressed,and environment has a large effect.the field of epigenetics sadly didn’t exist when I was at uni this field is about how environment affects whether a gene is turned on or not.A great example is identical twins even though they have the same DNA their lives are different leading them to act and even look different.In my family there is alcoholism or addiction and homosexuality in each generation,this surely means that it is genetic… no, studies have shown environment is more at play than genetics.back to twins If one identical twin is gay, the other has a 50-60% chance of being gay as well.This is significantly lower than 100% showing that other factors such as environment are at play.And it’s the same for addiction, children of alcoholics are about 4x more likely than the general population to develop choose your path wisely!life is short!and as a special friend wrote to me:”everything happens for a reason.” And as one of Ricky’s champions
