Deepak Md Chopra - Grow Younger, Live Longer: Ten Steps to Reverse Aging

Table of Contents

The information presented in this book is intended to help improve your overall well-being. It is not a substitute for appropriate medical care. If you are facing a specific medical condition, be sure to discuss any lifestyle changes with your health-care provider.

Acknowledgments

There are many souls contributing to the collective dream that is transforming our vision of health, aging, and life itself. To each of you who remind us on a regular basis of our essential purpose and meaning, we thank you from the depths of our being.

In particular we wish to acknowledge: Carolyn Rangel, Nan Johnson, Jennifer Pugh, Nicolette Martin, Jenny Hatheway, Roger Gabriel, Dennis Sugioka, Jude Hedlund, Sara Kelly, Veronique Franceus, Brent Becvar, Chantal Kovatch, Debbie Myers, and the team of immeasurably nurturing and talented people at the Chopra Center for Well Being and MyPotential.

Leanne Backer, for developing our age-reversing menu and for her power to transform love into food.

Peter Guzzardi, our beloved editor, who continuously encourages us to push the envelope.

We would also like to acknowledge the love and support of our families, which enable us to do our work: Rita Chopra, Mallika Chopra, Sumant Mandal, Gautam Chopra, Pamela Simon, Max Simon, and Sara Simon.

Introduction

In 1993, the first edition of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: TheQuantum Alternative to Growing Old was released. The essential message of the book was that the human body is not a piece of biological machinery that deteriorates steadily and inexorably over time. Rather, human beings are magnificently organized networks of energy, information, and intelligence in dynamic exchange with their environment, fully capable of transformation and renewal. Since the publication of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, thousands of patients at the Chopra Center for Well Being have experienced profound changes in the quality of their lives by applying the principles presented in that book, which at this writing is in its eleventh printing. According to many readers and literary critics, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind remains a classic, consciousness-based approach to the reversal of aging.

Grow Younger, Live Longer: 10 Steps to Reverse Aging extends this consciousness-based approach and includes ten practical steps that can become habit-forming, enabling you to reset your Biostat (your biological, or functional, age) up to fifteen years younger than your chronological age. We have intentionally made this new book simple and practical, so you can begin implementing these approaches right away. By integrating these insights and practices into your lifestyle, you will notice immediate improvements in your physical and emotional well-being. As you begin to reverse your biological age, you will reclaim the ability to tap into your inner reservoir of unlimited energy, creativity, and vitality. You will feel younger and you will function like a much younger person, too.

Our generation has been celebrated for its willingness to challenge the prevailing assumptions of society. Rather than viewing the second half of life as a time of progressive deterioration in body and mind, we see aging as an opportunity for greater wisdom, love, creativity, meaning, joy, and increased mental and physical capacity. More people than ever before are living into their eighties, nineties, and beyond with sound bodies and clear minds.

This book is designed as a manual for renewal. Three very practical recommendations are suggested for each of the ten steps. Each week we encourage you to implement the action steps so that by the end of ten weeks you are taking full advantage of all the resources available to you. Although awareness is the essential first step in any transformation, unfortunately, reading this book is not enough for you to begin reversing the aging processyou have to actually executethe recommendations on a daily basis in order to reap the benefits of this program.

Readers familiar with our previous works may ask if it really matters that we reverse our aging. If, as we often state, we are immortal souls on an eternal cosmic highway without beginning or end, if our essential nature is transcendental reality not subject to the laws of the material world, does it really matter if we grow younger and live longer? Why should we care about maintaining a youthful appearance for an extended time? Is it mere vanity? Does it take our attention away from our true self?

To those of you who ask these questions, we answer that in the deeper reality, all is play. Life is a cosmic game of hide and seek in which we lose ourselves to find ourselves. At our core we are all members of the same being and it does not matter if we are young or old, villain or hero, sinner or saint. The real purpose of the book is to remind you, the reader, that this deeper reality, the domain of pure potentiality, of spirit, is the essence of who you really are. Reversing aging and growing younger is part of the possibility. Whether you choose to activate this choice and implement this possibility is up to you.

We believe our primary purpose here is to seek the pure spiritual potential that is available to all of us. As human beings, the vehicles we use to explore our spiritual potential are the human body, the human nervous system, and the human mind. We therefore believe it is worth focusing attention on maintaining optimal functioning of our body/mind so we can seek our true nature as spiritual beings.

The experience of life through a human nervous system is a miraculous gift of creation. We are blessed among species in that we can change our perceptions, interpretations, and expectations of life and thereby transform our reality. As a result of changing our perceptions and taking new action steps, we can literally create a different physical body. As an expression from the ancient Ayurvedic system of healing tells us, To know a persons experiences from thepast, examine their body now. To know a persons body in thefuture, examine their experiences now.

The basis of these principles and of this book is that every impulse of experience is transformed into the chemistry and electricity of your body. With every thought, sensation, and feeling you have, your nervous system undergoes subtle shifts in physiology, generating chemical messengers that regulate your body. These biochemical communicators continuously mold the molecules that comprise your cells, tissues, and organs.

The field of mind/body medicine declares that you can influence your health and well-being through the choices you make. Your mind and body are intimately interwoven so that changes in one instantaneously influence the other. Our personal and professional experience at the Chopra Center makes us confident that applying the principles and practices offered in this program will enhance the way you think and the way you feel. You have the capacity to reverse your aging. This book provides the tools. We welcome you on this journey to renewal and look forward to hearing about your success.

How to Use This Book

Human aging is reversible. Read this book at least twice and make sure you understand all the principles. If something is not clear to you, send an e-mail to younger@chopra.com. Once you feel confident that you have grasped the essence of this book, set a date for fully committing to the ten-step program. Make the ten steps a routine for ten weeks. You will be amazed at the results.