What if there was a proven medical device that could scan your body and give you an exact measurement in terms of how many years you could expect to live?
Most people would shy away from a test like that, being afraid to even approach the idea of their own mortality, but not you! You want to know everything about your future…right?
So you decide to take the test and within a few minutes the results come back showing that your future lifespan is going to be well over 100 years!
Then, what’s even more exciting is that you’re told you’ll be living out your “supercentenarian” lifespan in excellent physical and mental health!
Honestly, wouldn’t you be overcome with joy and excitement?
Then later as the realization of your time ahead begins to sink in, wouldn’t that joy turn into a deep, abiding sense of peace and contentment?
I call this state of mind “Longevity Peace” and guess what—you don’t need to take a test to have it. In fact, if you’ll continue reading for the next 5 or 6 minutes you can get a glimpse of just how attainable Longevity Peace can become.
Our journey begins by considering two words that were carved in stone at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi in Greece—“Know Thyself.”
This ancient inscription was meant to encourage others to look “inward” for philosophical answers to questions about meaning and the purpose of life.
What I’m encouraging is an altogether different kind of “self-discovery,” one in which the answers to questions of identity and direction are not found in philosophical debate but in established scientific reality.
The path of Longevity Peace begins to open up when you set about to discover and understand the truth of your intentional primal design—how you have been “fearfully and wonderfully made” to live, survive, adapt and overcome whatever challenges life throws your way.
IN THE BEGINNING…
All of us alive today share intrinsic, undeniable connections to every form of life going back to the very beginning.
Many scientists and philosophers consider these connections to be evidence of an unseen force of intelligence and design existing behind all of creation. Others see these connections as proof of purely natural and verifiable forces of change over vast amounts of time.
One thing is certain, all forms of life share common properties such as reproduction and respiration, as well as the ability to respond to their environment.
It is also a fact that all living organisms store genetic information using the same molecules known as DNA and RNA. There is abundant and compelling evidence that connects us to all other forms of life written in the genetic code of these molecules.
WHAT ABOUT US?
No one knows for certain the actual date and time when homo sapiens began to move on this planet. Whether you believe that to be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago is not that important.
What is important to understand is this—those of us who are alive today possess a unique design, a genetic signature if you will, that is virtually identical to those men and women who first walked on the earth!
Whether we like it or not, all of us are born carrying that ancient genetic signature—fashioned and encoded with a specific set of instructions for optimal health, vitality and ultimately, the survival of the species itself.
Simply put, these innate instructions are the “genetic expectations” that have been programmed into every single one of the 30-40 trillion cells that make up our physical body.
All we have to do is give our body what it expects to receive in terms of water, food, movement, sleep, and a handful of other factors, and our body will do the rest.
Imagine that! Each one of us comes pre-equipped with an array of control systems, capable of regulating our overall health in astounding, almost miraculous ways.
These innate systems work around the clock repairing damaged tissue, releasing enzymes to balance our digestion, secreting hormones to provide everything from massive boosts of energy to subtle corrections of our moods, and a myriad of other vital functions that have allowed our species to survive and prosper since the very beginning.
THAT WAS THEN—THIS IS NOW
There’s no question that our present-day lives are FAR removed from the challenges and daily pressures of our species hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Today our food can be purchased without having to risk our lives or expend enormous amounts of time and energy to obtain it.
Deadly weather conditions can be easily controlled with the touch of a thermostat.
Distant locations requiring a lifetime to walk can be reached in a few hours.
Our entire way of life has “evolved” in directions that have changed nearly everything about how we live and survive.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE “GENETIC EXPECTATIONS”?
Here’s the important thing to know. As long as we meet the “expectations” that our genes have been designed to anticipate, they will signal all the cells, tissues and organ systems of our body to respond and function according to their intended purposes, keeping you in a balanced state of wellness and protecting you against potential diseases and dangers.
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE IGNORE THOSE EXPECTATIONS?
Here’s where it gets really interesting. Our modern diets, movements and habits are often completely incompatible with what our bodies were originally designed to handle. This can apply to just about everything in our day-to-day lives.
The most pronounced example of this modern mismatch is the type and quality of foods that most of us consume regularly.
As a Primal Health Coach I’m always being asked “What are the best things to eat that will keep me healthy?”
I often respond by having them consider what foods they think were readily available 40 or 50,000 years ago. These will be most of the primary food sources that your genes have been programmed to ideally utilize for energy, healing, and survival.
It may surprise you to know that most diets today are loaded with an abundance of foods that didn’t even exist throughout the majority of human history.
Cereal grains such as wheat, rice and corn have been around for less than 12,000 years, yet they comprise some of the most commonly consumed “food” in the world.
Processed sugar has only been commercially available since the 17th century, yet it is found (in one form or another) in almost all prepared foods and drinks found on grocery shelves today.
Industrialized Seed Oils made their way into our food supply in the early 1900s and are perhaps the most dangerous and damaging food substances being eaten today. In spite of the fact that they are highly unstable and prone to oxidation (creating inflammation and massive free-radical damage), seed oils are almost impossible to avoid if you eat out at restaurants or consume packaged foods of any kind.
Our bodies have been meticulously designed to eat REAL food in order to enable all their parts to function properly.
If we consistently violate our innate design and ignore our genetic expectations in terms of real food, our bodies will respond by releasing a cascade of chaotic genetic signals, and the consequences of sickness, frailty, despair and early death will be set in motion.
However, the GOOD NEWS is that when our lifestyles and daily habits are brought into alignment with our primal design, our bodies’ astounding potential for healing, restoration and longevity can be unlocked and released.
Severely limiting “man-made” foods (as mentioned above) and insisting on feeding yourself REAL foods (plants and animals) will prove to be a HUGE step down the path to a long and healthy life.
Here’s some more GOOD NEWS.
A diet based on our genetic expectations is only one of a vast number of ways in which we can release our full hereditary potential. In coming posts I hope to be introducing and sharing many of these primal concepts.
In closing, I strongly encourage you once more to “Know Thyself.”
THE UNSEEN THREAD…
As you look back in time and examine all the vast diversity of prehistoric life on this planet, in all its manifestations, you will come to realize that we are all attached by design. At a purely genetic level there is an undeniable thread that, while surely differentiating our species’ uniqueness, simultaneously connects us as well with every living thing.
Honoring that ancient, primal design through our movements, lifestyles and behaviors will guarantee Longevity Peace; in fact, it is our genetic inheritance!
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