Your thoughts are like instructions to every cell in your body, they have the power to keep you well or make you sick. What are you telling your cells?

Cellular Biologist and best-selling author Bruce Lipton PhD, whose book The Biology of Belief was awarded 2006's Best Science Book of the Year, is internationally recognised as the leader in ‘bridging science and spirit.' Lipton's research has shown that it is actually the environment, or your perception of the environment (your thoughts), which directly control the activities of your genes.

This concept is quite a departure from Western Medicine's Newtonian perspective, which sees the human body as a ‘biochemical machine' programmed by its genes. When Watson and Crick deciphered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953 they hypothesised that DNA controls life, this hypothesis is referred to as the ‘central dogma' in molecular biology. Yet this dogma, that life is controlled by our DNA, was and is only a hypothesis that has never been scientifically validated - despite the fact that much of Western medicine's advancement is based on it.

The Human Genome Project began in an effort to catalogue all of the genes which make up a human body. Scientists expected that an organism as complex as a human being would have at least 120,000 genes, but they only found around 25,000 genes. This number was far too few to account for all the proteins found in the human body, especially considering that it was only 1500 more genes than a spineless microscopic worm!

Until then, the assumption had been that DNA controlled life - that our bodies get all the information they need to build, maintain, control and repair themselves from our genes - but given this discovery, this couldn't be the case. So scientists set about determining exactly where humans are getting the necessary information to run their bodies.

Epigenetics, or the new biology, discovered that the brain of a cell, rather than being in the nucleus (DNA) is actually in its membrane. It is the cell's membrane which translates signals from our environment and controls the function of a cell - activating or de-activating genes. This is why we don't need 120,000 genes, because any cell can perform any function, it just depends on what command it is given.

To put it another way using a computer analogy: the cell nucleus is like a hard disk and genes are software programs. Each hard disk (cell) is capable of running any software program (gene) required to run the body. The programs don't automatically run, they must be instructed to do so. Therefore, to run a program or express a gene you need to command it. Whether genes are expressed or not depends on your instructions to your cells, but how do you issue these instructions?

A cell receives a command from a signal in a lock and key fashion - a signal which controls a cell might be physical, such as a hormone, chemical or neurotransmitter. This is how a drug works, a chemical locks into a cell and changes the way that cell behaves. However, a signal might also be vibrational, such as a thought, emotion or electro-magnetic frequency. This is where Epigenetics moves beyond the Newtonian matter-based world to the energy-based world of Quantum Physics. It acknowledges that the physical body (matter) can be affected by the immaterial mind (energy) since the two are actually inseparable. In this sense, energetic thoughts can act as signals to either activate or inhibit a cell's proteins.

You are constantly taking in information from your environment, yet it is how you perceive this information which determines how your body will react and adapt. Essentially, the thoughts you have about what you are experiencing become the instructions you send to your cells. For example, when your mind perceives that the environment is safe and supportive, your cells will receive the message that it is safe to focus on the growth and maintenance of your body. But in stressful situations, your cells will forego their normal growth functions and adopt a defensive protection posture. This is why being under stress for prolonged periods can lead to illness; your cell's growth and maintenance processes have been suspended because they have been in ‘survival' mode.

So why is this discovery important for the management of your health and wellbeing? Because it means that what you think and how you feel are just as important as exercising, eating and sleeping well. In fact, your attitude to eating and exercising becomes critical - what's the point of avoiding chocolate if you're using a barrage of negative self-talk to restrain yourself? Likewise if you eat the chocolate and beat yourself up? The damage is done. It's what you tell your cells that really matters.

What is most important is that you realise how powerful you actually are. You are not a victim to anything; you are not powerless over your life because of your genes. Your thoughts, beliefs and mind control your behaviour, body and the life you experience, how empowering is that?

Belinda Morris is a Registered Kinesiologist, Mind Detox Practitioner and founder of Well Mind, Well Body. She is passionate about assisting people in using their mind-body connection to become energised and empowered to realise their full potential. For more information, refer to www.wimwib.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it