Change your thoughts, change your life

Last night a good friend and I went to see Dr. Wayne Dyer speak at a progressive, everyone (and I mean everyone) is really loved, church. The title of the talk was "Change your thoughts change your life: Living the wisdom of the Tao." Yeah, he is the guy who does PBS specials and a few weeks ago I tried to watch one and couldn't really get into it, so I was a little worried going in to the talk and told my friend that I was up for leaving early if it was lame. Well that wasn't very positive thinking and thankfully the Universe didn't listen to my pessimism.

Reflection... I've been recently teaching genetics to both my 7th and 10th graders. My 10th graders are supposed to know about phenotypes and genotypes. Basically a genotype is the actual genetic information in the nucleus of you cells that you inherit from your biological parents. Phenotype is the observable trait of a person. For example in your genes you inherited the genes to be able to roll your tongue. You can either be homozygous dominant (RR) or heterozygous (Rr) that equals genotype. That is in the genetic code on your chromosomes. Well the phenotype is the trait that when you put your tongue out you can actually make it look like a taco. So what does this have to do with anything. Well, our phenotype can be affected by environmental conditions. You see... you can inherit the actual genetic code to be tall, but if as a young person you have a poor diet you will not be tall. So "things" can affect your traits even though you are genetically disposed for something else. THIS IS GOOD NEWS!!! I have been genetically predisposed for depression. My brain works a little differently. I am predisposed to obsess, obsess, obsess and worry, worry, worry. (Although I think environmental factors reinforced this) I can feel it when something stressful enters my life. Well... I have power over this. I can manipulate my phenotype and decide, you know what I am NOT going to obsess about this. I understand that my genetic code is written a certain way, but I am not going to allow it to control my life. This is amazingly powerful.