Stressing is a part of life. With so many things going on at one time, it’s no surprise. Lately, the word mindfulness has been rising in popularity because of the wonderful break it gives our minds. Meditation has been around for centuries, but it has just recently become a huge deal in American fitness. There are centers dedicated solely to meditation sessions.

The benefits are well-known, but what has been recently discovered is how incorporating mindfulness into our lives can affect our DNA. In fact, practicing meditation can change the way we handle the stress that is embedded in our DNA. The new research studies show that exercises associated with meditation such as yoga and Tai Chi can also have an effect on our DNA.

Our stressors can actually trigger bad health and mental illness. What if there was a way for these stressors to be taken away completely without medication to aid them? That is what this research study is claiming that meditation and mindfulness can do.

Prolonged stress is bad news. It is no secret that once the stress is at a heightened state for long periods of time, it causes chronic problems to develop in our bodies. Our cells react to stress in a harmful way. That is why they say stress kills because it truly does. Proteins within our body become inflamed, leading to cancer, younger death age, and mental illnesses such as depression or bipolar disorders.

Yoga and meditation calm our bodies and minds down, and this calmness is what reduces the stress that builds up in our bodies. You can breathe out disease or at least decrease the chances of it. By simple moves such as the downward dog or a spinal twist, which both require deep breathing; you are doing your body a huge service for its long-term upkeep.

What is familiar to people who practice yoga and meditation are the benefits your body gets from the duo. However, the study breaks it down and shows how those benefits affect our molecular. Ivana Buric, who is the Lead Investigator from the Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab In Coventry University’s Centre for Psychology, Behaviour, and Achievement said, “Millions of people around the world already enjoy the health benefits of mind-body interventions like yoga or meditation, but what they perhaps don't realize is that these benefits begin at a molecular level and can change the way our genetic code goes about its business. These activities are leaving what we call a molecular signature in our cells, which reverses the effect that stress or anxiety would have on the body by changing how our genes are expressed. Put simply; mind-body interventions cause the brain to steer our DNA processes along a path which improves our wellbeing.”

Practicing any exercise is beneficial to our bodies, but mindfulness and yoga actually change the genes that produce cells that make us sick. That is why many other doctors are recommending yoga and meditation as a method of treatment.