Change The Perception Of Your Body

[Myriel RAouine]

Change The Perception Of Your Body

The prevailing worldview looks at the body as a material vehicle, similar to an automobile, in which parts inevitably break down until the body is no longer serviceable. Modern science and the wisdom traditions tell us this is a flawed interpretation.

Your body is not merely a physical device that generates thoughts and feelings; rather,
it is a network of energy, transformation, and intelligence in dynamic
exchange with the world around you. With every breath you take, every
mouthful of food or swallow of water you ingest, every sound you hear,
sight you see, sensation you feel, and aroma you smell your body
changes. Just since you began reading this paragraph you exchanged four
hundred billion trillion atoms with your environment!

Your body looks static because the changes are taking place at a level too subtle
for you to directly perceive. Scientists can calculate the turnover of
matter in your body by labeling atoms with radioactive material and
tracking their metabolism. Through this process we've learned that the
lining of your stomach is replaced about every five days.

It takes about a month for your skin to be retread. In about six weeks your
liver has turned over, and within just a few months, most of the
calcium and phosphorus crystals that make up your skeleton have come and
gone. Every year over 98 percent of all the atoms in the human body
have been exchanged. After a course of three years, you would be hard
pressed to find an atom that was a part of you then, which could still
be considered yours now.

To help you appreciate this idea, consider that your body is like a local branch of the public library.
Although on one level the library seems to be stable, on another level
it is constantly changing. Books are coming and going every day, with
completely new ones added and old ones returned to the downtown
facility. Particular books do not define a library; rather, it
represents the site and process of this ever-changing exchange of
information.

Your body is like a flame that is constantly metabolizing new material. The flammable matter and the oxygen necessary
for its combustion must be continually renewed. The smoke and gases
released are changing at every moment. And yet the flame appears to be
nearly the same over time. The processes of creation, maintenance, and
dissolution are simultaneously at work in a flame and in your body.

The Greek poet Heraclitus said you cannot point to the same river twice
because new water is always flowing. Like a river, like a library, like a
flame, your body may appear to be the same on the surface, but in
actuality, it is constantly changing. Rather than viewing your body as a
static biological machine, begin to think of it as a field of energy
and intelligence, constantly renewing itself.

To grow younger you must change your perception of the body, relinquishing the idea that
it is a bag of flesh and bones. Begin to experience your body as the
flow of vital energy, transformation, and intelligence, and you will
experience the reversal of aging.

Even though the body appears to be material, it is not. In the deeper reality, your body is a field of
energy, transformation, and intelligence.

- Grow Younger, Live Longer by Dr.
Deepak Chopra