Hello,
I'm Don Joseph Goey,
The author of the Insight Timer course,
The Science of Ending Stress,
And I want to respond to an issue that's been raised about attitude,
That attitude is not going to determine every outcome in every circumstance.
The shift in attitude that I described in the first session of my course changed the outcome for me in that dire time when I faced a brain tumor and financial ruin,
But of course that doesn't mean that attitude determines every outcome all the time for everyone.
I just reached the point one night where it came down to whether I wanted to continue to suffer and abject fear as I face the world or to choose to look within,
To see if I could find the strength to be at peace,
To find happiness in the moment,
To give and receive the love that I am,
The love that surrounds me,
As I face whatever the world might put me through that day.
And I surprised myself.
I discovered that being at peace in the midst of my calamity was actually possible.
I found I could do it.
That is,
If my first concern was being aware when fear was about to overwhelm me and to practice allowing it to roll through without taking me over,
It was a huge wake up for me to discover that attitude really was more important than facts because inwardly it made me larger than facts,
Larger than my circumstances.
So I made my attitude matter most and as a result I suffered less emotionally and the outcome improved immeasurably from what the doctors first predicted.
Let me tell you about what researchers found regarding the profound effect attitude has on physical health.
They found there is a direct connection between stress,
Attitude and our chromosomes.
Chromosomes hold the genes that rebuild and repair our body.
It's our DNA.
And at the tip of our chromosomes is a cap that protects the ends.
It's called a telomere.
And if the cap deteriorates,
Our chromosomes disorganize and start producing abnormal cells that can cause cancer and cause healthy cells to age faster,
Shortening lifespan.
So science wanted to know what caused telomeres to deteriorate and the answer was stress hormones.
The length of telomeres directly relates to the amount of stress that you've been under and the number of years you've endured stress.
Elizabeth Blackburn,
Who won the Nobel Prize for her research on telomeres,
She studied mothers caring for severely disabled children.
The daily demands on these women are stressful to the point of overwhelming and the study found that the vast majority of them had shortened telomeres.
There was in excess of 10 years of extra aging in these women's blood cells from the stress that they were under.
But not all of these mothers had shortened telomeres.
The telomeres of mothers who had cultivated a positive,
Peaceful attitude were still intact,
Supporting healthy chromosomes.
And as a result,
They would live a much longer and healthier life to say nothing of a happier life.
One of the mothers said,
And this is a direct quote,
She said,
I was determined from the beginning to have a great attitude.
I thought no one would want to be around me if I didn't.
Other research found that you can repair damaged telomeres through the fundamental shift in attitude that counseling can facilitate,
Much of which is in this course.
Attitude really is everything.
The world can be defined as all the circumstances we don't completely control from the weather to the economy to job security to other people.
But attitude is the one and only thing we control completely.
And when we harness this power,
Life tends to go better,
Way better.
