The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer

by Elizabeth Blackburn

Telomerase can slow, prevent, or even reverse the shortening of telomeres that comes with cell division.

Our emotions are not pure reactions to the world; they are our own fabricated constructions of the world.14

REDUCE “EGO THREAT” STRESS

Instructions for distancing: Close your eyes. Go back to the time and place of the emotional experience and see the scene in your mind’s eye. Now take a few steps back. Move away from the situation to a point where you can now watch the event unfold from a distance and see yourself in the event, the distant you. Now watch the experience unfold as if it were happening to the distant you all over again. Observe your distant self. As you continue to watch the situation unfold for your distant self, try to understand his [or her] feelings. Why did he [or she] have those feelings? What were the causes and reasons? Ask yourself, “Will this situation affect me in ten years?”

Cynical hostility is defined by an emotional style of high anger and frequent thoughts that other people cannot be trusted. A person with hostility doesn’t just think, “I hate to stand in long lines at the grocery store.” A person with hostility thinks, “That other shopper deliberately sped up and beat me to my rightful position in the line!”—and either seethes or makes a nasty expression or comment to the unsuspecting person who is standing in front of him. People who score high on measures of cynical hostility often cope passively by eating, drinking, and smoking more. They tend to get more cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease,2 and often die at younger ages.

TAKE A SELF-COMPASSION BREAK

The lifetime of an emotion, even a very unpleasant one, is no longer than ninety seconds—unless you try to chase it away or engage with it. Then it lasts longer.

Do you have someone in your life who is close to you but also causes unease? About half of all relationships have positive qualities with less helpful interactions, what researcher Bert Uchino calls “mixed relationships.” Unfortunately, having more of these mixed-quality relationships is related to shorter telomeres.37 (Women with mixed friendships have telomeres that are shorter; both women and men have shorter telomeres when the mixed relationship is with a parent.) That makes sense. These mixed relationships are characterized by friends who don’t always know how to offer support. It’s stressful when a friend misunderstands your problems or doesn’t give you the kind of support you really want. (For example, a friend may decide you need a long pep talk when what you really need is a shoulder to cry on.)

You can test your own bias at this website: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/agg/blindspot/indexrk.htm.