Staying Youthful

We are each made up of 50 trillion different cells, all of them in a constant cycle of replacement. Some cells regenerate every few weeks, others every few months, and some every few years. And approximately every eight years, every single cell in your body is replaced with a new one!

Unfortunately, cellular repair is one of the critical functions to get shut down when we are under stress. Due to the frantic nature of our lives, and having to cope with regular intermittent stressors, our cellular repair and replacement system is often operating below par.

The stress hormone cortisol also ages the brain.  

As a result of stress our bodies and brains are ageing at a faster rate than they would if they were subject to more bliss and less background stress.

A research report from UCLA found that “Age-related decline of white-matter tissue is considerably reduced in active meditation practitioners.”

What’s more, Beeja meditation doesn’t just slow the ageing process down.

For the first five years of practising Beeja meditation, the biological ageing process completely stops and for most people actually goes into reverse. 

The largest ever study done on meditation involved 4,000 participants, and it measured an astounding eight-year average reduction in biological age over the five-year study period.

Normally, our cells tend to reproduce and match what’s there. What the studies suggest is that earlier, healthier memory within the cellular DNA is reawakened by the process of meditation. Conditions allow our cells to begin replicating at their optimal rate.

The upshot is that our biological age will actually fall for the first few years of meditating even as we officially get older. 

It’s not quite Benjamin Button, but an elegant ageing process begins and we find our rate of ageing then proceeds much more sedately.

The other benefit is that meditation gives us such a strong sense of our self that we are far less likely to want to fight the natural ageing process, and feel energised and inspired to make the most of each day - whatever our age.