Epigenetics Taught Me That Certain Aspects Of Myself Are Not Set In Stone

Hello everyone!

I hope that you're doing amazing wherever you are in the world.

My name is Boomshakha and I welcome you to my channel.

As always,

I hope that you're liking my videos and I'm grateful that you're here.

Hopefully you'll stick around for a long while to come.

Or if not,

Seh la vie and good luck on your journey.

In this one I wanted to talk to you about epigenetics.

Now,

Why epigenetics?

You're probably thinking,

Epigenetics,

What?

I kind of saw a post recently on Instagram and it said something like,

Are you really an empath or were you raised in an environment where you had to be constantly on alert and you were constantly watching people,

Their expressions,

Their faces to make sure that you knew what to do in an event of an emergency.

Basically the question is asking whether you were born an empath or whether you were created to be an empath by your environment.

Were you born or created?

Is it genes or the environment?

I know a lot of people have a question about this.

When I posted it on my Instagram,

A lot of people said,

I'm both or no,

It's the environment or no,

It's genes.

I was born this way.

Everyone has their own opinion or their own viewpoint on how they were made to be the way they are.

I know you probably know because of all the videos I've done that I do believe that,

Yeah,

Definitely genes have a role to play in this.

A lot of research that I've read says it's 50-50.

But of course,

I don't know if that's true or not.

I believe because of the research that I've been doing also on epigenetics that,

Yes,

It might be 50-50 in the beginning of your life.

You're born and you grow into an environment.

You're like,

All right,

50% of who I am is because of my genes.

This is because when you are born,

You already have a personality.

Parents will always talk about this,

That when their child was born or when their children were born,

They already had a unique personality that they were born with.

It's not like they were like,

All right,

Two years old and now they have a personality.

No,

They were born and they already were either really cranky all the time or really happy all the time.

They always talk about this stuff.

They were five days old and they already started displaying all these personality traits.

Obviously,

You're born with something already,

But I do believe that the environment obviously has an effect on you.

But as you might know,

If you've done any kind of research on epigenetics,

That as we get older,

The role of epigenetics and the role of the environment,

The exercise that we do,

The books that we read,

The people that we hang out with,

In general,

All the things that we're doing with our lives has a bigger and bigger and bigger role as we get older and older.

Right.

And I love epigenetics.

I love it so much because when I was younger,

I used to believe that who I was was what I was stuck with for the rest of my life.

And,

You know,

I had a lot of terrible traits.

I was very impatient.

I was extremely impulsive.

I was.

And a lot of these things now I realize are positives as well.

But at that point,

I used to not really like myself that much because I had a lot of negative traits.

And obviously my parents would tell me all the time,

Oh,

My God,

You're such a terrible person.

You have all these terrible traits.

When are you going to grow up?

I still hear that,

Though.

But so,

You know,

I get told all these things and I was like,

Oh,

Interesting.

Am I just stuck being an impatient person for the rest of my life?

Like,

This is terrible.

How am I going to change myself?

Right.

And at that point,

There wasn't a lot of research on epigenetics.

There was not.

The Internet wasn't there either.

So there was no way for me to figure out if I could change myself or not.

And I was very upset by the thought that I would be stuck as I was as an as an imperfect person for the rest of my life.

Right.

That imperfect person.

As I grew older and then I started learning about epigenetics,

I realized,

No,

Actually,

You're not stuck with who you were.

Actually,

You're not stuck with any trait that you have.

In fact,

Everything is malleable.

Your entire body structure,

Your entire psychological structure,

Your entire physical,

Psychomental,

Everything.

Every structure that you are born with is absolutely malleable.

It's it's changeable.

Actually,

In fact,

It's changing all the time.

And that's the glory,

I think,

Of being a human being on this planet right now,

Is that we have this information at our hands.

So if you're thinking to yourself,

Oh,

Right,

You know,

I'm an impatient,

I'm an impatient person.

I've always been impatient.

I'm always going to be impatient.

I'm going to die impatient.

I'm never going to change.

Right.

And a lot of older people have this tendency to believe,

Oh,

Right,

No,

This is me.

And this is what it is.

And you just happen to have to take it.

And I'm never going to change.

This is how I am.

Well,

No,

I'm sorry to say and I'm sorry to tell you this.

And I know it's easy for you to believe,

Oh,

I'm never going to change because then it's easier.

You don't have to do anything to change yourself.

But in fact,

You're constantly changing all the time anyways.

So how about you start changing for the positive rather than for the negative?

Everything that we do,

Everything that we are,

Everything that we read,

Everything that we take in,

Everything is changing us on a genetic level.

On a genetic level.

So what's happening is that,

You know,

For example,

I use an exercise example because that's the easiest one to look at.

The easiest ones want to see tangible effects on your body.

But you notice that,

You know,

Every single time you exercise for a consistent period of time,

Obviously your physical body changes.

Obviously.

But also,

If you do research on this and if you start looking at yourself and you start testing all your blood and all this,

You'll notice that genetically as well,

The protein markers in your genetic system,

In your DNA are changing.

The proteins that your body is releasing are changing.

The hormones that your body is releasing are changing.

And a lot of other things are changing as well.

Right.

And that's one of the reasons why they tell you to have healthy habits,

Especially as a mother or as a person who's going to give birth,

Is because all of the genetic changes or all those genetic markers that are in your DNA are going to be transferred over to your child.

And if you've been living a healthy life,

It's very likely that your child is going to have those healthy markers as well.

Right.

And again,

That's one of the reasons why they tell you,

Like,

If you're smoking,

You know,

Stop smoking because it's affecting you genetically.

And if you're living in an environment where there's a lot of asbestos or a lot of air pollution,

You know,

Be careful and get out of there because,

Of course,

It's changing you genetically.

And if you're surrounded by a lot of negative,

Stressful situations or people,

You know,

Again,

Move away from that because it's changing you on a genetic level.

It's changing you on a genetic level.

Listen to these words.

And like when I first heard them,

I'm like,

Whoa,

Oh,

My God,

I need to change everything.

But literally,

That's what it's telling you is that,

You know,

Everything that's in your life right now is affecting you at a genetic level.

It's changing you from the inside out.

Right.

And so what's actually going on there?

Like,

Why are you creating the life that you're creating?

Well,

Look at the life that you're leading right now.

What are you doing right now?

Are you spending all of your time watching Netflix?

Are you being programmed by Hollywood?

You know,

Are you spending all your time reading amazing books or listen to audio books or podcasts or me?

No,

I'm just kidding.

What are you doing with your time?

Right.

And what kind of foods are you eating?

Every food that you eat is affecting you as well and changing you on a genetic level.

Right.

And if you're spending a lot of time eating junk food like me,

Me,

I do this.

I eat a lot of chips,

People.

I eat a lot of chips.

I know I've told you this before,

But it is one of those things that I'm like,

Oh,

My God.

I do eat healthy,

But I do have this habit of eating chips,

Which I really need to change.

And so that chip,

That every chip that I put into my mouth,

I'm like epigenetics.

It's changing me from the inside out.

See,

I know it,

But I'm not changing it,

Obviously.

So that's one of the human qualities that I have.

Everyone has.

You know what's good for us,

But we don't do it.

But epigenetically,

It's just it gives you the power.

I feel like it gives you that power back.

Right.

Because as I said,

As a child,

I was like,

Well,

I'm stuck with this.

Oh,

No,

You're not stuck with it.

Right.

You can change everything.

Everything about you can be changed.

I mean,

Of course,

You can't be like five feet taller or and if you are,

You know,

A little more of a heavyset person,

You're not going to necessarily be able to change into a supermodel,

Thin,

Skinny type.

I mean,

Certain things are obviously written in your genes and you're going to have to learn to live with it.

Like,

I'm not going to become a very tiny person all of a sudden or things like that.

And so some things are yes.

Some things you can be like,

Well,

Yeah,

OK,

Fine.

But some things you can definitely work on,

Most things you can definitely work on and change them.

Of course,

I'm not an expert.

I'm not an expert on epigenetics.

I'm not a scientist or a researcher or any kind of smart human being in that regard.

So what I do recommend is you go read on this stuff.

Really,

If you are absolutely or even a little bit fascinated by this stuff,

Please go read about it.

I think it is that superpower that everyone has that no one realizes that they have.

Everyone has it,

This treasure in their heart,

In their body,

In their genes,

But no one uses it because they don't actually know that they have this power.

They don't know that they have this treasure.

So as soon as you realize it,

You can start looking at your life in a completely different fashion because you look at it in a way,

OK,

So what is epigenetically affecting me right now in a positive fashion and what is affecting me epigenetically in a negative fashion?

You can start looking at your life like that and from the inside out,

You can start changing your life for the better,

For the better towards the positive,

Towards the future,

The future that you want rather than the future that has been dictated to you by society or the future that you believe was dictated to you by your set genes,

Which are not set.

Yeah,

They're not set.

Now,

Of course,

As I said,

You're not going to be able to change from being from one race to another or from one gender to another by epigenetics.

You're going to have to do something else about that.

But a lot of traits,

A lot of personality traits,

A lot of our physical structure,

A lot of the way our neurotransmitters work and things like that,

Like the way our depression or anxiety and all that stuff works,

A lot of that can be changed or at least affected by the study of epigenetics,

By the use,

Sorry,

Not study,

By the use of epigenetics and the thinking behind it.

I hope this makes sense.

As I said,

I'm not an expert,

But I do love epigenetics.

I think it's brilliant.

And so hopefully you're able to use it to change your life for the positive.

If you have suggestions on other videos that I should do,

Please share the suggestions below.

And again,

Thank you so much.

I shall see you the next time around.

Bye.