Have you ever heard of epigenetics? If not, it might be the thing that finally gets you to commit to a daily meditation practice.
Emily had the pleasure of hearing a scientist by the name of Riccardo Sabatini give a lecture on the topic. Sabatini is one of of the researchers who worked on decoding the human genome and he explains epigenetics like this:
Imagine your genes are like a 100 page book. The first 95 pages of the book are your epigenetics. These epigenetics are basically the on and off switch for the 5 pages which are your fixed genes.
The good news? Your epigenetics are mutable. This means that every time you meditate, eat healthy food or exercise you’re positively affecting your fixed genes.
So even if you’re predisposed to certain health conditions, by choosing healthy habits you can keep your epigenetics from turning on certain gene combinations.
It gets better.
We also know that these epigenetics can be passed down intergenerationally.
So if you commit to getting to the chair every day, twice a day, that means you’re passing along healthy epigenetics to your children.
But it couldn’t all be sunshine and rainbows… the same goes for stress.
Likely, your ancestors were not living in a utopia drinking green juice and doing yoga so chances are you inherited some stress along the way. And unless you’ve been actively committing to a daily meditation practice, it’s possible you passed some stress down as well.
While we’re still learning more about this every day, scientist know we inherit at least 2 generations of stress (and some think it could be up to 7 generations!). So by adopting a daily practice, not only will you be healing the stress you inherited, but you’re also preventing this accumulation from being passed down to future generations.
Our healing isn’t just for us.
We filmed a video about this (pre-quarantine) and in it Emily covers:
- The science of epigenetics
- Why meditation is the least selfish thing you can do
- The importance of meditating if you’re pregnant