Your Happiness Genes with Dawson Church

The most important guiding story in the field of human biology for the past half-century has been that of the genome. The theory of genetic determinism teaches that “it’s all in your genes.”

Yet, recent breakthroughs have shown that only a small part of the genome is fixed — while more than 80% is affected by environmental influences, such as emotions, beliefs and transcendent experiences. This inspiring new story demonstrates that you can shift the patterns of gene expression consciously, and create more health and happiness.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The ways genes express themselves — and turn on and off
• How genes build proteins, and what that means for programming better health into your cells
• How your thoughts, feelings and beliefs affect your genes
• Exercises that allow you to take control of your gene expression to improve your health and wellbeing
• 2 experiential practices for lowering stress that will produce immediate shifts in your nervous system function and gene expression

Your brain holds important keys to health, vitality and quality of life. For examples, neural bundles increase in size and connectivity when they’re used often, which improves memory and your cognitive abilities. Brain regions correlate with patterns of gene expression, such as those that regulate the stress response.

Very frequent neural signaling produces astonishingly quick growth in the synapses that connect neurons. In time, this produces greater volume in certain regions of the brain — such as the prefrontal cortex — enhancing your brain performance. By contrast, stress causes brain regions like the hippocampus to decrease in size over time, while increasing the signaling capacity of the circuits that carry stress signals.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The regions of your brain, and how they communicate, grow and shrink
• The parts of the brain responsible for cognition and for stress
• Simple practices to increase or decrease your brain’s signaling capacity
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also known as “tapping,” which science has proven reduces stress

Could there really be a gene for happiness? Does being happy produce changes in your genome?

Not very long ago, scientists would have found these questions absurd. Today, they’re at the forefront of research and we’re finding a dynamic interchange between our moods, including how happy or unhappy we are, and genetic states.

In particular, inflammation genes associated with disease, and immunity genes associated with vibrant health, are now known to be entwined in an intricate dance that triggers with our emotions.

In this module you’ll learn:

• Why a hair-trigger stress response helped our ancestors survive, but…
• Why this response is now killing off our brain cells, and our happiness
• How lowering your stress changes the expression of hundreds of genes
• Research that shows that happiness can add 10-15 years to your
• The gene “regulating” powers of joy and laughter

Your body has an electromagnetic field — as do your organs and cells. In fact, within a year of the discovery of electricity, physicians were already experimenting with its use for healing — research that is now resurging.

Because your genes interact with electrical and other energy fields, disease can often be detected within them long before it appears in molecular form. In this module, we will explore energy medicine and energy psychology, focusing on the areas of research most applicable to shifting your physical and psychological states.

In this module, you’ll learn:

• The ways that health and disease can be detected in the electromagnetic field
• Practices to induce rapid healing in your body
• A daily 5-minute exercise to regulate your energy — and give you steadier focus, more vitality and more positive emotions

A growing body of research into practices like mindfulness meditation, EFT tapping and neurofeedback demonstrates that these techniques can have profound effects on health, especially through feedback loops that affect genetic expression and hormonal cycles. We’ll also explore the five primary brain waves that can be measured, and patterns observed as objective guides to stress and relaxation.

In this module, you’ll learn:

• How to incorporate different practices that will promote inner peace and shift your gene expression
• How the “Epigenetic Health Cycle” produces resilience, enabling you to thrive in situations where you’ve been emotionally or physically challenged
• The nature of stress-dampening genes that make you feel good
• Characteristics of theta, delta, alpha, beta and gamma brain wave states — and how to entrain your brain into the most beneficial states.
• A simple EcoMeditation technique, based on physical postures that automatically induce an altered state of deep relaxation and connection.

Traumatic memories make a lasting impression on the brain because that had real survival value for our ancestors. However, this means that most people’s brains have been overly shaped by negative early childhood memories, with parts of us still “stuck” in those traumatic memories. Such memories have been linked to the turning on of genes associated with disease and mental illness. While it was once thought to be impossible to erase these traumatic memories, new research shows these memories can be modified and replaced with new positive memories.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How you can extinguish a traumatic memory
• Reasons your brain is “Velcro” for negative experiences and “Teflon” for positive ones
• How early childhood trauma becomes deeply embedded in theta and delta brain waves
• The role of extinction and “reconsolidation” in the formation of memory
• Practices that transform traumatic childhood events into positive memories

For its entire history, the field of psychology has focused on mental health problems and how to restore people to “normalcy.” But what lies above that “normal” plateau? This is the realm of transcendent experience. This week, we’ll explore mystical states where you go beyond religion to experience the transcendent reality that underlies all spiritual traditions.

In this exciting final module, you’ll discover:

• How to evoke transcendent experiences that you can use daily
• The genetic and neurological characteristics of transcendent experience
• How to induce mystical states using physiological cues
• Guidance for integrating the practices you’ve learned over the 7 weeks into your lifestyle
• An advanced form of EcoMeditation that sparks guidance from your deep subconscious