Once we do that, he said, we'll alter the structure of our brains, optimize our genetic functioning and stop taking so many unnecessary medications.
Chopra calls this the biology of happiness and expounds on it in his latest book, "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul."
In a phone interview, Chopra said that what we think and how we feel physically change our brains and bodies. He pointed to research on neuropeptides, which are protein-like molecules used by brain cells to communicate information to one another.
Thinking a thought or feeling an emotion, he said, causes a synapse to fire neuropeptides, not just to other brain cells, but to cells throughout the body including the immune system. Once a cell receives a neuropeptide, he added, its information changes that cell down to the genetic level.
"Now we're starting to see that how you behave, how you think, your personal relationships, social interactions, environment, diet, stress levels, they all modulate the activities of your genes," he said. "So what you think can change your genes and the structure of your brain."
