How We Repair
Scoring the Body
One of the first books to present epigenetics to a popular audience was Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. This book explains the basic principle of epigenetics: our lifestyles and life circumstances change our DNA. When we live in healthy environments, our body enjoys healthy modifications. When we live in unhealthy environments, our body suffers unhealthy modifications.
We can’t control everything about our environments, or even our lifestyles, as much as we wish we could. But we can make minute changes over time, which will snowball into better and better health.
In order to repair our bodies and minds by reworking our genetics, we must get critical about our environments. Just think of how many things you do in the span of a single day that require critical thinking. I know I think like this when I’m working at my job and when I’m handling things with my kids. When we feel it’s imperative, we think hard and creatively about the choices we have and are making.
I suggest we apply this critical thinking to our social-environmental contexts like our lives depend on it. Because they actually do.
Repair Radar
I’ve been enjoying another breakthrough book as of late: Becky Kennedy’s Good Inside. It’s a book that gives strategies for parenting and raising kids to be emotionally healthy. Similar to Rethinking Intelligence, it explains how important it is to start wherever you are and make the little changes you can. It’s never too late!
Indeed, my favorite synergy between our books is the idea of developing a radar for repair. Dr. Becky introduces this notion for parents and kids so they can take a beat and come at their situation with a wiser, more emotionally healthy outlook. I introduce it to remind us that social-environmental change is built on a multitude of smaller changes that we make together—repairs to our reasonings, routines, and relationships. We just need to see the opportunities out there.
Developing a radar for repair in social-environmental terms doesn’t require having a PhD in sociology. It can grow from simply listening to your gut. Before you act, you feel. This is a hardwired aspect of human cognition. Honing that internal radar means sensitizing yourself to the feelings already taking place. Those feelings are like flags for things we can repair in ourselves and our environments to make them as healthy as can be.