The Part That Is Ageless

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

Did you know that the cells you have in your body today, approximately 38 trillion, are not the ones you were born with? About a century ago, scientists discovered that some of our brain cells formed during fetal development persist throughout life, but most cells have a relatively short lifespan. Some cells are replaced every few days, and others may last a few years. For example, gut lining cells are about five days old. Skin cells are about 14 days old. Red blood cells are about 120 days old. If you are 70 years old today, you probably have a minuscule number of original cells; they have been replaced multiple times. So in truth, you are not the same person that you were 70 years ago - or are you? What part of you is ageless? The body that I had when I gave birth to four children is not the body I have today, but I certainly have a memory of those events, even though the brain cells have been replaced by new ones. Evidently, some part of me is ageless and directs what the cells are doing, yes, even my brain cells.

The part of me that has been with me my whole life is, in fact, ageless. The part of you that remembers the distant past is ageless, too. We may call it spirit or soul, but there is something in us that is not made up of cells - and it has no age. We have unwittingly accepted that time will deteriorate our bodies, and there is nothing we can do about it. In fact, when we focus our thoughts on that ageless part, we may actually experience a longer life and never become old in the classic sense. We have more control over our cells than we think. Some people become old without disease; they should be our role models. Some will dismiss this thought by saying it is just in your genes, but there is growing evidence that your mind and thoughts are vastly more significant than your genes. Your cells are responding to your beliefs. Let’s begin each day by professing, “I am ageless!”