How to Make Your Meditations Effortless

By Deepak Chopra,TM MD

 

Meditation has a built-in problem that needs solving, the problem of noncompliance. Countless people have taken up the practice, motivated by the benefits of meditation supported by literally thousands of studies. The first few sessions go well, which is encouraging, but it is only a matter of time before meditation becomes one more thing we don’t have time for.

Letting your meditation drop away seems to affect every kind of practice, no matter how simple, including mindfulness, mantra meditation, Buddhist Vipassana, and so on. Even sitting for 10 minutes following your breath, which is the simplest meditation of all, doesn’t manage to stick. The result is that the vast majority of people stop meditating and never go back, while a much smaller number meditate “when I feel I need it.”

The number one reason for noncompliance is that everyday life is too busy, too full of work, family, TV, texting, eating out, and all the rest. But if we reframe the situation, meditation can be effective and effortless at the same time. Let’s accept that occasional meditation, although it might bring a moment’s respite from a busy day, hasn’t worked out for you. Instead of feeling guilty, you can begin a radically different practice.

In place of occasional meditation, you can shift to “total meditation,” a useful term for bringing the mind into a meditative state anytime you want. The technique is simplicity itself. Whenever you notice that you are distracted, stressed, feeling burdened, anxious, or out of sorts, use this as a trigger to return to the mind’s natural state of inner peace and quiet. The steps are as follows:

  • Find a quiet place where you can be alone and undisturbed.
  • Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
  • Put your attention on the area of your heart.
  • Breathe easily until you feel relaxed and quiet inside.

Total meditation, being spontaneous, is effortless. And because you do it anytime you like for a few minutes, the practice fits into the busiest days. At first you might find yourself doing the practice six or more times a day. but over time your mind will become trained to seek the meditative state more quickly and easily.

I describe the implications of this practice in a new book, Total Meditation, whose basic principle will surprise many people. In medicine it has long been known that the body automatically seeks a balanced state known as homeostasis. If you go for a run or a session at the gym, your body adapts to the increased activity in many ways that include changes in heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation of muscles, digestion, and much more. Homeostasis is dynamic and holistic.

But there has been a reluctance to grant the mind the same automatic return to a state of balance, even though the evidence is quite clear. Between every thought your mind goes into a silent gap from which the next thought emerges. If you experience a momentary emotional upset, your mind can stay there only so long before the upset is gone. Even long-term upsets like grief over losing a loved one will eventually, for the vast majority of people, return to the person’s emotional set point.

Without knowing it, perhaps, you are already experiencing how important the mind’s rebalancing ability is. The chief benefit is a healing one. Every school and type of meditation takes advantage of this healing effect.

Mindfulness is the way your mind recovers from distraction. You are brought back into the present moment.

Self-Inquiry is the way your mind recovers from habits. By asking yourself, “Why am I doing this?” you bring conscious attention to a situation where you have been ruled by habit, routine, obsessive behavior, knee-jerk reactions, and stagnant beliefs.

Reflection is the way your mind recovers from thoughtlessness. You regard your behavior, see what is self-defeating or troubling about it, and realize what is actually going on.

Contemplation is the way your mind recovers from confusion. When faced with multiple choices, each with its pros and cons, you sort everything out by contemplating the situation until you have a certain level of clarity.

Concentration is the way your mind recovers from pointlessness. It is pointless to do a careless job, having careless opinions, and relate to other people in an unconcerned or arbitrary way.

Prayer is the way your mind recovers from helplessness. By contacting a higher power, you are acknowledging a need for connection.

Quiet mind is the way your mind recovers from overwork. The mind is constantly processing daily life and its challenges, but when mental activity becomes burdensome, there is a risk of exhaustion, anxiety, and mental agitation. The mind naturally wants to be quiet when no activity is necessary.

There is no firm dividing line among these practices, and all arise naturally out of the mind’s natural tendency to rebalance itself whenever it detects a state of imbalance. Total meditation expand upon this natural tendency and consciously directs it as needed. It is effortless to center yourself during the day, and the more you make it a habit, the deeper your meditative state will be. More importantly, your life outside meditation will become more conscious, again without effort on your part. (In the book I address examples of stress, habits, and old conditioning that have become chronic. They can be serious conditions, but they are still open to the healing touch of meditation, if approached in the right way.)

I’ve come to feel that occasional meditation’s problems can be solved in this simple way. The problems won’t go away simply by promising yourself that you will try harder to keep up your practice. It’s good news, I think, that a better way exists.

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

Switching from Lifespan to Healthspan

By Naveen Jain and Deepak Chopra™, MD

Some pessimism has been circulating about lifespan recently. In the modern era lifespan has increased every decade, and dying before you turn seventy would now be considered a premature death. Three score and ten is no longer a destination for a normal life, and average lifespans among people who are not underprivileged could easily top ninety in the near future.

The difference in quality of life is now more important than lifespan on its own, because the health status of two seventy-year-olds can vary wildly. The concept to keep in mind is healthspan, defined as the years you spend without infirmity, chronic disease, and dementia. Right now healthspan is a hit and miss proposition.

While we are told that our genes determine how we age, this needs to be clarified. Research on identical twins reveals that it’s not your genes that determine your healthspan but your lifestyle, nutrition, and gut microbiome that play a much more important role. Identical twins are born with the same genes, a fact that will not change over the decades, but by age seventy, many identical twins are as unalike in their health status as two people chosen at random.

What makes the difference is known as gene expression. DNA is an inactive molecule, but its expression into active molecules (proteins), is influenced by all the factors that determine the difference between aging well or badly. The active side of genetics belongs to the field of epigenetics, which controls whether a gene is turned on or off. You carry around at the epigenetic level all the major experiences of your lifetime. As these accumulate, they automatically divide into experiences that promote a long healthspan and those that do the opposite.

Here is where a breakthrough is possible that could make an enormous difference. We said that you cannot change the genes you were born with, which has been gospel in genetics for decades. Even though you can not change the genes you are born with, you can change their expression, which is what matters. Also, 90% of your genes are not in your cells but in your gut microbiome. Trillions of bacteria in your digestive tract do more than digest food. They constitute an immense chemical factory sending messages to every part of the body. Humans have evolved in cooperation with these bacteria. They are not alien or separate from you; they are part of your evolution, affecting you every moment.

Chemical messages can be harmful, such as those that create inflammation or promote stress, or beneficial. Your microbiome is unique to you and constantly shifting. In essence, you are changing the vast majority of your genes through your lifestyle, for the gut microbiome amounts to 90% of your genes. The genes you were born with amount to only 10% of your total genome. The good news here is that you can change their expression, also.

Healthspan, therefore, depends on living in such a way that the entire genetic complement functions properly. The enemies of beneficial gene expression are now pretty well known:

  • Impure water, air, and food
  • Lack of hygiene and sanitation
  • Stress
  • Chronic inflammation
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Toxins like alcohol and tobacco
  • Sedentary lifestyle
  • Inherited predisposition (normally a minor factor if you are healthy)

These negative factors take years to develop before symptoms appear and a doctor must be visited. In the meantime, people shorten their healthspan simply through everyday choices. It’s the small things accumulating over a long time that determine who is healthy at seventy and who isn’t. Similarly, the choices that support the best functioning at the cellular level are well know.

  • Pure food, water, and air
  • Absence of additives and toxins
  • Moderate physical activity
  • Meditation
  • Lowered stress
  • Good level of mood
  • Close fulfilling relationships
  • Having a good support system
  • Overall happiness and well-being

These influences go far beyond preventive medicine and depending on a doctor to keep you healthy. You can lower your biological age by the choices you make, and your entire complement of genes will benefit. They express the benefit by exchanging chemical messages that promote their own lives at the cellular level. Those messages are chemical and therefore do not speak in the language humans share. But every aspect of consciousness, going beyond the physical, lies at the heart of healthspan.

That’s why a direct connection can be made between meditating, even for a short period, and the level of telomerase in your cells. Telomerase is a chemical that is vital to keeping DNA intact without fraying from age. It took years of intense research to uncover the role of telomerase, yet the bottom line is that your consciousness, not just your positive lifestyle choices, is key to what your cells are doing, including the one-celled microbes in your intestinal tract.

More importantly, however, is the message that healthspan should be everyone’s top priority when thinking about present and future health. What makes you young and keeps you young is the healthy functioning, right this minute, of your cells and microbiome. How do you actually know that your lifestyle is contributing towards healthy aging or in other words are you biologically becoming younger or older than your chronological age. Viome is a company that recently launched a health intelligence service that gives you insight into your microbial health, cellular health, immune system health, mitochondrial health, stress response health and your biological age. For fair disclosure authors are founders and advisor to Viome. Your microbiome are living solely for your benefit, and by giving them some attention in return, you are caring for your future far beyond what a doctor can do after symptoms appear.

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Naveen Jain is the founder of Viome and many other successful companies. Viome’s Health Intelligence service assesses your gut microbiome health, cellular health, mitochondrial health, immune system health, and your stress response health. Viome can even reveal your biological age. Naveen is the author of the award-winning book Moonshots– Creating the World of Abundance, has been awarded E&Y “Entrepreneur of the Year”, and “Most Creative Person” by Fast Company.

Your Microbiome: The Most Promising Facts

By Naveen Jain and Deepak Chopra™, MD

It is fair to say that the exploration of the microbiome has turned out to be the most exciting prospect in medicine since the discovery of DNA. Most people have at least heard the term “gut microbiome,” which applies to the trillions of microbes, chiefly bacteria, that live in the human digestive tract. Awareness has risen to the point that taking probiotics—over-the-counter additives of microbes to supplement and balance the gut microbiome—has become a global $5 billion-dollar market.

We’ve reached the point, after a decade of intense investigation, where the ABCs of the microbiome are known. These facts provide the groundwork for what you can do, or cannot do, to improve your own gut microbiome (the word “gut” is necessary because we have multiple microbiomes in our mouth, groin, and armpits as well as over the surface of our skin).

Here are some basic facts and the positive implications of each:

  • Every person’s microbiome is unique.
    Positive implication: Individual diets can be tailored to promote the best bacterial activity in your diet.
  • Hundreds and perhaps thousands of different species of bacteria inhabit the gut microbiome. As part of a teeming community that is involved in digesting your food, some bacteria are beneficial, some are not.
    Positive implication: It is possible to potentially increase the beneficial bacteria and decrease the harmful ones.
  • Through direct chemical signals sent to the immune system, the gut microbiome has a strong, perhaps the strongest, influence on your immune status.
    Positive implication: All types of diseases, including cancer and the major chronic diseases of modern life (obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension), might be prevented and possibly cured through maintaining a healthy gut microbiome.
  • Diet is seen as the most powerful way to change your gut microbiome, since each bacterial species feeds on specific foods.
    Positive implication: Without any kind of medication, a healthy microbiome should be sustainable through proper diet alone.

You can see why the microbiome has provoked so much promise and excitement. As positive as these facts are, however, they are also very general. At present there are hundreds of studies on the gut microbiome that have reached no consensus, so the whole field remains in flux.

Here are the major issues that need to be resolved.
There is no ideal microbiome and therefore no ideal diet. Much seems to depend on the individual. Even inside one person the community of micro-organisms is incredibly complex.

Studies show that indigenous peoples around the world have much richer gut microbiomes than in developed countries. This depletion of our microbiome has some researchers worried, but no conclusion has been reached.

With so many issues still up in the air, what can you reliably do to maintain a healthier microbiome? In your colon, the food that nourishes you isn’t what nourishes your microbiome. It feeds largely on fiber, of which there are many kinds. But essentially fiber is from vegetables, grains, and legumes. Those foods are considered “prebiotic,” meaning that they are the building blocks that the microbiome needs. A diet rich in prebiotics would include a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, grain, and nuts. This is far more important than taking a probiotic pill and buying active yogurt.

Secondly, it is now possible to test your own gut microbiome to see what is weak, deficient, or out of balance in it. To understand what such a test can tell you, we’ll delve into the biology of the gut microbiome.

Each person’s gut microbiome can produce beneficial molecules such as vitamins and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and it can also produce harmful molecules (e.g., lipopolysaccharides and putrescine). They key is that the production of molecules is determined by the dietary ingredients in food. The micronutrients in our food are the raw materials for specific microbiome functions. Because every person’s gut microbiome is unique, the same food given to two people can cause the microbiome of one person to produce beneficial molecules and the other person harmful molecules.

By performing functional (gene expression) tests through stool samples, each person can feed their microbiome exactly what it needs to produce lots of beneficial molecules rather than the harmful ones. Presently the only such RNA (functional) microbiome test readily available is from Viome—in the interests of fair reporting, the two authors are the founder of Viome and an advisor to the company. But our larger aim is to further the practical application of microbiome research.

Let’s deepen this understanding. Your cells share a chemical language with the bacteria in your gut. They sense their environment using chemical signaling. Crucially, the immune system, senses the presence or absence of specific molecules that rigger an immune response. For example, your immune system mounts an inflammatory response if it senses the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and inflammation calms down in the presence of a different molecule, butyrate. Both LPS and butyrate can be produced by many types of bacteria under specific conditions. If we can figure out which foods a person should eat, and which ones to avoid, we can rebalance the functions of their microbiome to reduce the inflammation and chronic diseases. Because every person has a different gut microbiome, there is no one diet that is good for all people.

Only individual testing makes precise dietary recommendations possible. Your gut microbiome can be used to measure your own digestive abilities. For example, if our digestive juices are not able to process all the protein we eat, the undigested protein will make its way to the colon, where certain microbes can convert it to putrescine or cadaverine, two harmful chemicals that deserve their morbid names. If these microbial functions (processing of undigested proteins into putrescine or cadaverine) are measured by a functional stool test, it can inform a person to reduce their protein intake.

This brings up the difference between DNA and RNA tests. Let’s say that a DNA test determines that someone’s gut microbiome has the genes that ferment undigested proteins into putrescine and cadaverine. That DNA test cannot determine if those genes are active or not (in other words, is protein fermentation actually happening?). Only an RNA test can determine if harmful protein fermentation actually takes place or not, because it measures gene activity, not just the presence or absence of the genes.

Testing is a critical step in doing the most important thing, analyzing the state of your gut microbiome, since it is unique to you. There are exciting links being made with autoimmune disorders and a person’s immune response to invading pathogens (a pressing issue during the COVID-19 pandemic). With so much suspicion being directed at inflammation and stress as the root cause of chronic illness, the gut microbiome has huge implications.

We’ve given a one over lightly of the issues involved, but the important thing is that at this very moment faith, fiction, and facts are being separated out. This is some of the best medical news one can think of.

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Naveen Jain is the founder of Viome and many other successful companies. Viome’s Health Intelligence service assesses your gut microbiome health, cellular health, mitochondrial health, immune system health, and your stress response health. Viome can even reveal your biological age. Naveen is the author of the award-winning book Moonshots– Creating the World of Abundance, has been awarded E&Y “Entrepreneur of the Year”, and “Most Creative Person” by Fast Company.

The Surprising Connection between Well-Being and Living Indoors

By Deepak Chopra™ MD, and Paul Scialla

The lockdown that occurred in the face of COVID-19 brings to light something almost everyone overlooked in the past. We are now an indoor species. This was already true before the lockdown. Outdoor work has declined radically since the Industrial Revolution. In the West today we spend on average over 90% of our lives inside, whether in our homes, offices, schools, hotels or restaurants.

This development is contrary to most of human history, which was spent primarily outdoors. Unknown to most people, the boxes we now occupy have a profound impact on our health and well-being. Our physical and social environments conceivably have as much impact on our health as factors more widely recognized, such as genetics, lifestyle, and behavior patterns. Indoors the elements of air and water quality, lighting, temperature, and acoustics can all have a direct impact on such diverse things as respiration, sleep, immunity, and cardiovascular health.

While the notion of “wellness real estate” first emerged several years ago, COVID-19 has brought about a sudden awareness: What surrounds us matters. What we touch matters. It makes a difference how we gather indoors and share the same air. In a word, real estate is, and will remain, the largest “carrier” of a pathogen load such as the coronavirus or the next pathogen we face in the future.

The risks are primarily threefold: airborne (what we breathe), surface borne (what we touch), and behavioral borne (how we gather and how we care for our immune systems).

As society cautiously returns to normal, we should reconsider all three of these risks. Programs such as the WELL Health-Safety Rating from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which is evidence-based and third-party verified, focuses on strategies to protect people in a post-COVID environment. Drawing on insights from nearly 600 public health experts, virologists, government officials, academics, business leaders, architects, designers, building scientists, and real estate professionals, the rating provides a reliable means to measure how effectively all building types can be maintained for the health of the people inside them. The rating program is relevant for all building types – restaurants, schools, retail stores, offices, theatres – and is a review of policies and protocols that building operators put in place regarding cleaning and maintenance requirements, emergency response readiness, social distancing, and other factors that explicitly address the risk of pathogen transmission. The WELL Building Standard expands further into design interventions such as improved air filtration and ventilation to reduce the concentration of airborne viruses, pollutants and allergens, and circadian lighting to help balance 24-hour sleep-wake cycles.

Strategies to consider based on this research include:

  • Enhanced cleaning products and protocols: Maintaining thorough cleaning protocols on high-touch surfaces can help reduce the chance of infection.
  • Improved air quality: Opening windows to increase ventilation within a space or implementing air filtration technologies can help reduce the concentration of airborne viruses, along with other pollutants and allergens.
  • Elements of comfort: Working from home may lead to decreased physical activity and increased strain on our bodies. Active furnishings can help discourage prolonged sitting and sedentary behaviors.
  • Mental health support: Connecting with nature through plants, light and access to views can help improve mood and mitigate stress. This is particularly important since stress is known to weaken the immune system.
  • Circadian lighting design: Poor sleep quality can play a role in weakening the body’s immune function. Lighting that mimics the patterns of the sun can help promote a restful night’s sleep.

These strategies are an important step in responding to today’s public health challenge, but also to building a healthier future overall. One of the positive outcomes that has come to light over the past few months is a collective understanding that every facet of the indoor environment plays a role in our health outcomes. This is the next phase in promoting a holistic approach to well-being.

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Paul Scialla is the Founder of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which administers the WELL Building Standard® globally to improve human health and wellbeing through the built environment. After 18 years on Wall Street, including 10 at Goldman Sachs as a Partner, Paul’s interest in sustainability and altruistic capitalism led him to found Delos, which is merging the world’s largest asset class – real estate – with the world’s fastest-growing industry – wellness. Paul graduated from New York University with a degree in finance, and he currently resides in New York City. www.wellcertified.com

A New World Needs a New Worldview

By Zach Bush MD and Deepak Chopra™ MD

It is very rare that human beings have a chance to rethink our place in Nature. The modern world is the fruit of a worldview that has placed Homo sapiens reigning supreme over all other life forms. This worldview seems only right and proper to the vast majority of people. In the course of just a few weeks, however, over seven billion people’s lives changed for the worse. Economies were halted, global transportation and supply chains were shut down to a crawl, and hundreds of millions of jobs were lost. More money has been lost globally than in any other moment in history. Amid the shock and panic, the catastrophe of COVID-19 has prompted some radical rethinking. Can a new and better world emerge? Not unless our worldview changes, because in many ways the virus isn’t a mindless primitive life form ravaging us, “the most superior life form on the planet”. Nor did Nature strike back to punish us. Something deeper is going on. To see what it is, we need to consider a worldview based not on humans-as-supreme, but on life-as-supreme.

We must realize that our superiority complex has quite literally put us in opposition to life on earth. Climate change can be laid at our doorstep. The prediction of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction is more than plausible, and 50% of biodiversity in plants and animals has been eliminated in mere decades, while hundreds of indigenous cultures have been virtually wiped out. The destructive human machine has been inexorable so far. The collective voices of Richard Attenborough and one million non-profits and NGOs have proved inadequate agents of change. There was no global pause.

Then, in January the world caught news of a virus, a new variant of a coronavirus, a family of viruses that has been with us for well over a thousand years. At no point did any science suggest, nor any public official report, that this virus would poison our ecosystems and threaten the survival of humans and much other life on the planet in the coming years. Instead, we were told that the virus would contribute to the passing of the millions of people that die of a myriad of respiratory illnesses every year. The death toll from the virus (even at its most hyperbolic predictions) would be a fraction of the deaths from chronic diseases that result each year from our polluted and depleted soil, water, air, and food systems. Nonetheless, this new threat was suddenly enough. We paused.

If we needed more evidence that we are a shortsighted and self-interested species, it is here, but there is no time for self-condemnation. While the world’s leaders struggle to sort out the true implications of this virus, we have an opportunity to finally learn from our mistakes. The lesson is being taught by the humblest of messengers, a microscopic speck of genetic material. The virus is not our enemy—if we let it, it will be our greatest teacher.

First, we need to learn that the emergence of this coronavirus adaptation was predictable, and from Nature’s viewpoint, which oversees all living things, it was even necessary. As the stress levels of an organism increase, the speed of adaptation has to increase if it is to find a solution and survive. Since the beginning of life, the most significant biologic adaptations have been achieved through the viral communication network. Every form of DNA is constantly in touch with every other form. From bacteria in soils and water systems to the cells in our bodies, rapid transmission of new genetic updates can save a species from a new threat.

If you adopt the perspective of life itself, earth is dominated by the genes of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa which hugely outnumber any other life forms. This vast microbial genome is the foundation of life on the planet, and its aim, as with all life forms, is to adapt, survive, and foster diversity. To the life force that is in the 1030 bacteria in existence, a major threat—we would argue that it is the major threat—is coming from the widespread, indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture via animal feed and the management of poultry, swine, and cattle.

As the collective bacterial stress levels increases, DNA “misspelling” (i.e., mistakes in reproduction) creates billions of trial-and error genetic variations. When a survival advantage is discovered (such as antibiotic resistance in a strain of bacteria), that beneficial gene can be transferred in various ways across many species, but for maximum impact over great distances, viral transfer is the vehicle of choice. Thus, millions of species of microorganisms work toward one goal, which isn’t to harm us, but to maintain a stable biodiverse ecosystem everywhere on earth.

The upshot is the change of worldview mentioned at the outset. A viable, balanced, dynamic, healthy microbiome (the sum total of all micro-organisms) benefits human beings far more than our self-centered, shortsighted focus on money, power, war, nationalism, endless consumerism chained to massive pollution, and the chemical degradation of our air, food, and water.

Viruses have long dispersed their vital genetic information throughout the planet via air and water currents. The messages they carry are picked up by many species, including us., Each individual takes up a viral load on the basis of its own stress levels. For many people there are no clinical signs or symptoms of acute illness as cells of various organ systems integrate or reject the new genetic data, while for others the viral stress signal can call up an immune response from cell populations. Life adapts, and we humans are made more resilient by the encounter. That is how viral communication has worked for billions of years, and the latest findings have revealed that our own genome was built by genetic data from bacteria, fungi and other multicellular species. In concert they created the profound complexity and resilience of human biology.

But we have changed the playing field for the critical balance of viral communication, and COVID-19, when seen on a global scale, represents the continued effort of the four-billion-year-old microbiome seeking to put things right. In the old worldview, this is irrelevant. The only measure has been an either-or choice: Either things are good for human prosperity or bad for it. In the new worldview, there is no either-or. What is good for the global microbiome is good for the planet and for us. As self-aware creatures, we can support life or diminish its chance for survival. In short, a new world, if it emerges in the coming decade, will make choices that benefit the microbiome and us at the same time.

It will take a shift in worldview for that to transpire. The separate elements for global healing are already present and known to everyone. But humans can be perverse as well as shortsighted. Achieving the abolition of global pesticides, herbicides, indiscriminate antibiotics, and carbon emissions is essential, and only our irrational resistance to reality, bound up with an outmoded, self-destructive worldview, keeps us on the downward path. The pleas for life-enhancing choices has proved ineffectual so far. In the name of healing and the salvation of life on Earth, no one can alter the course of destruction except us.

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
ZACH BUSH, MD is an internationally recognized educator and thought leader on the microbiome as it relates to ecology, human health, and consciousness. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Hospice Care, his published biomedical research ranges from chemotherapy development to the role of the microbiome and agricultural toxins in human health and disease. He is founder and CEO of Seraphic Group, Inc., an IP development firm committed to developing root-cause solutions to bring balance to the biome of our planet. His non-profit, Farmer’s Footprint, is raising awareness of the synonymous nature of human and soil health, and working to create a roadmap to end chemical food production and ecologic destruction through the universal adoption of regenerative agriculture.