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Introduction

Ten million people in America practice mindful meditation. That’s quite a lot. Mindful meditation has become popular as more and more people enjoy living a better, less stressful, more productive life.

Why are these people turning to meditation to improve their daily lives? The easy answer is, meditation works. The more complex answer is that today, we are suffering from information overload and stress more than previous generations. Some meditators want to reduce stress and enjoy greater peace. Others seek more awareness to create a more purposeful life. Still others want to gain greater awareness and align their thoughts with their actions.

Mindful meditation is useful for all of these purposes. What is true for everyone, however, is that the more you know about your thinking, the more you are in control of your life.

Whatever the reason, mindful meditation can be a powerful force. Like music, life has many layers, and mindful meditation can help you become aware of all the nuances.

Mindful meditation isn’t magic. It allows you to concentrate your awareness on the here and now. All too frequently, our attention can scatter into the past or the future. We become distracted and unable to focus on what is important in the present.

Mindful meditation gives us power to focus on the here and now.

It increases our mental energy, allowing us to perform better and achieve more. Quite simply, mindful meditation makes us more efficient in many areas of our lives.

More importantly, it puts us in control. The mind is an extremely complex labyrinth, where the subconscious can rule and throw roadblocks in our path. There are times we behave in certain ways without being consciously aware of why. Mindful meditation increases our awareness and opens our minds to more answers.

Our senses are heightened as we enjoy the present more fully.

Everyday activities, from what we eat, how we enjoy art and listen to music, and how we respond to friends and family become more vivid as mental walls crumble.

Mindful meditation relaxes us. With awareness, stress and unpleasant thoughts become less threatening and easier to handle.

We become more relaxed and are able to let more joy and peace into our lives.

Today, we live in a state of impermanence more than ever before in history. More than a hundred years ago, most people spent their lives in the town in which they were born. They knew all their neighbors. Their station in life determined their job. It may not sound ideal to us, but it certainly wasn’t stressful. These days, we live very fragmented lives. We may move regularly and barely know our neighbors. We switch jobs and friends on a regular basis.

Constant change has become the one permanence on which we can rely. There’s no denying that modern knowledge and conveniences have brought us untold advantages. However, at the same time, we have lost our connection to others and our surroundings. Mindful meditation brings back that important lost connection to what is happening inside of us and around us. It’s not an antidote to the problems of living in the 21st century, but it can provide the skills to help us cope with many of its problems.

You don’t have to be a yogi to reap the benefits of mindful meditation. The more you practice, the better you will become. It’s like exercise for the mind. You know what daily exercise does for your body. It strengthens and firms those muscles.

In much the same way, daily mindful meditation strengthens your mind and hones your thinking process. It’s both simple and complex, and at all times, it’s a choice. Hopefully, this book will help you make the right one for you. Consistency is the key to successful practice. Even a short meditation period every day is more effective than sporadic longer meditations.

Like physical exercise, mindful meditation is a process. Success doesn’t happen overnight. But it will happen. When you begin your meditation journey, you may find it difficult to sit quietly for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. You may start making excuses why it’s okay to skip meditation for just one day.

This will make it harder to resume meditating the following day, and you’ll easily find an excuse why you shouldn’t. You’re too tired, too busy, too frustrated … any excuse will do. That’s why making a commitment to regular meditation is necessary. Ask yourself what motivated you in the first place. Make a pact with yourself that you will get up half an hour earlier in the morning to meditate. With a firm commitment, you will gain momentum and see the results.

Mindful meditation is unrivalled in its ability to open your mind.

If you are new at mindful meditation, it is helpful that you ask yourself what has motivated you to start meditating at this time.

There is, however, no right or wrong reason.

Chapter 1

What Is Mindful Meditation?

Mindful meditation is actually very simple, yet it comes with great benefits.

The Origin Of Mindful Meditation

It’s a Western practice with roots in thousands of years of Buddhism, where it’s referred to as “Insight Meditation.” As that name suggests, it is meant to develop our mental skills and become more aware. However, mindful meditation is not associated with any specific ideology.

Mindfulness is a skill we all possess, but not all of us develop and cultivate it fully. The unique thing about mindful meditation is that it allows us to take an active part in our thinking process instead of remaining passive. It’s more than being aware of the world around us; it specifically refers to that exciting and sometimes mysterious world inside of us. Mindfulness increases our awareness of ourselves and how we think. It’s an effective way of knowing ourselves better.

Mindful meditation is always purposeful and non-judgmental. We calmly accept and acknowledge what is. Instead of moving through the day on autopilot, mindful meditation allows us to be more present and gain more control over our thoughts and activities. This invariable enriches our lives beyond measure.

Mindfulness To Tackle Daily Challenges

When we practice mindful meditation consistently, we gain an inner calm that will help us deal with life’s many challenges. How often have we become so stressed that we have consciously avoided

thinking about our problems, which then only worsen as we become more stressed? Sometime, it may feel easier not to think at all. But in the long run, reality will take over.

Non-judgmental awareness allows us to remove ourselves mentally from the mental tsunami and remain calm in times of adversity. We become more connected to our experiences in a healthy, non-threatening way.

On a basic human level, it’s natural for us to push aside unpleasant thoughts by distracting ourselves from what is really important. Addictions to alcohol, drugs and social media are just some of the ways we avoid dealing with the present.

This obviously is not helpful and merely generates greater anxiety and stress. Daily mindful meditation keeps us focused on the present and helps us deal with problems rather than avoiding them. Fortunately, becoming more aware is a skill that can be learned. Like playing a musical instrument or a sport, the more we practice, the better we become at it.

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Chapter 1: Why Energy Management > Time Management

What is it that is holding you back in life? A lot of us make the mistaken assumption that it is time. We think that if only we had a little more time, then we could get all kinds of things done. If we had a little more time, then the house would be cleaner, we’d spend more time with our family and friends and we’d be able to progress faster through our career. Maybe we could start a new training program as well and finally get those abs?

But there just isn’t time in the day. We work from 9-5 and when we get home, we often still have a long list of tasks to do that we just don’t have time to finish. That includes checking the mail, paying bills, making dinner, washing up and hopefull y getting just a little bit of time to spend with family!

Man, if only there were more time… right?

Well actually, time is very often not the problem. Rather, the problem comes down to energy. Think about it: if you really don’t have any time to do anything, then how were you able to watch that entire Boxset of Game of Thrones recently? If you really don’t have time to do anything, then how have you been finding time to play Uncharted?

If you genuinely work and busy yourself from the first thing in the morning, all the way up until bedtime, then the answer would be simple: get up earlier, or go to bed later.

No, that is not the problem.

Instead, the problem is energy. Time management isn’t the only big deal here: energy management is just as important. If you can’t effectively manage your energy, then you’re going to find that you can’t make full use of your time. And that’s a problem!

What probably really happens when you get home from work, is that you collapse onto the sofa and watch TV for a bit. Or maybe you just procrastinate a little by not really doing anything much for a short time.

Either way, you could be working. You could be working on that amazing novel.

The issue is not your time at all but rather it is your energy. And this isn’t to say that you’re in some way lazy, or that you could be making better use of your time right now. Instead, it is to say that you’re simply pushing yourself too hard and too far – and it should come as no surprise that you’re not achieving as much as you hope as a result.

Energy is something that most of us ignore: ‘I have a few hours tonight,’ we say, ‘I’ll do it then!’. The only problem is that if you don’t have the energy, then you’re not going to do it. Your energy is finite, it can only go so far, and if you ignore that fact then you’re going to run out of steam and not accomplish the things you want to change.

Coming to Terms With Energy Management

There’s a good chance that you may be reading this and considering energy management properly for the very first time. Perhaps it’s something you never really thought about before – you wouldn’t be alone in that!

But even at this early stage in the book, you’ve hopefully learned a valuable lesson. Simply acknowledging that energy is probably what’s holding you back is one of the very best things you can do to start making life easier.

Once you come to terms with this, you can start to think more logically and realistically about what you can achieve in a day. That means you can remove item from your agenda – knowing full well that you won’t be able to accomplish them – and thus actually get more done as a result and come home with more energy left over.

When thinking about whether you’re going to walk home tonight or drive, be realistic and accept that driving may be easier. When planning to complete a long list of chores this evening, be honest with yourself and ask how likely you are to really complete that list. Did you manage to finish everything you set out to last time? Give yourself a break and organize your day sensibly.

Our Strategy for Boosting Energy

So what is our overall strategy for boosting energy?

It actually comes down to a few things. The first is management: managing our time better and thinking about how much energy we’re likely to have in a given day and what we actually want to do with it. And by finding ways to avoid wasting energy, we can save more for the things that we ultimately decide really matter.

The next step is to start small and not be too ambitious. That’s true with the other things we’re trying to achieve and it’s also true of the lifestyle changes we’re introducing in this book. Simply put? You’re not going to transform your energy levels and your health overnight – and you shouldn’t try! Work up to it slowly and be smart about how you’re raising your energy. We’re going to introduce the concept of ‘kaizen’ here, which means that we’re introducing small changes with the aim of eventually seeing big results. Kaizen is a Japanese concept that basically means any journey is best accomplished with lots of little steps.

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A lot of marketers have all sorts of wrong ideas about social media marketing. Some think that you only need to post "viral content" to get tons of traffic overnight. They actually believe that if you are able to pump that much traffic to your target website, a large chunk of those people will buy whatever it is that you are selling.

Maybe you're selling services, maybe you're selling an event, or maybe you are selling products from an online store, it doesn't matter. According to this idea, you just need to have a lot of traffic; courtesy of viral content on social media, and you will get the conversions you're looking for.

There is an assumption that social traffic, regardless of which platform it comes from and regardless of how you qualify that traffic, converts to sales readily.

Sadly, none of these assumptions are true. In fact, all of them are tragically mistaken.

If you believe in any of these, don't be surprised if you spend a lot of time, effort and money only to end up with a whole lot of nothing. Welcome to the club.

Effective social media marketing can be reduced to one metaphor. Master this metaphor and you probably will make money on autopilot with social media traffic. Screw up this metaphor or remain clueless to it, and you'll continue to struggle; you'll continue to believe that social media traffic can easily be generated through viral content. You might keep running after that unicorn only to get tired and frustrated.

It doesn't have to be this way. You just have to have the right metaphor or the right conceptual model to make social media marketing work for you. Best of all, you can make it work on autopilot.

You probably have heard of all sorts of "set it and forget it" systems. You probably bought at least one of these products. Well, they're definitely on the right track as far as their label. Social media marketing can be automated. It can be mastered to the point where it can produce income after you've set it. But getting there is another matter entirely. And that's the price people have to pay.

And unfortunately, most people are not willing to pay that. They're excited about shortcuts, but they're not willing to take the stairs to get to the top. At the back of their minds, they're thinking that there has to be some sort of elevator.

There is no shortcut. You have to work with this metaphor

What am I getting at? Well, the secret to effective social media marketing is an inverted pyramid. It looks like a funnel. That is the metaphor you should have in your mind when thinking of ways to get traffic from social networks and social media platforms and turning that into cold, hard cash in your bank account.

I need you to keep this idea of an inverted pyramid in your mind. It should have a wide base at the top. The top of that pyramid is heavy visibility. It has to be there. You need to be visible on the four major social media platforms. I'm talking about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Taken together, the traffic volume you can get from these four platforms is mind blowing. They can potentially pump a tremendous amount of traffic. But that's just part of the equation. That's just the top of the funnel. Potentially, you can push a lot of traffic from the top. That's how wide the top of the funnel is.

This training will focus on these four platforms, but you can pretty much use the tips that I'm going to share with you and modify them to market on other platforms since many of these principles easily apply.

You might need to modify them a little bit. For example, if you are thinking of marketing on Instagram, a lot of the things that I will teach you about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest, can be tweaked to work well on the Instagram platform.

Now that you have a clear idea of the heavy visibility that you can achieve with social media, keep in mind that visibility does not mean traffic or clicks to your

site. This is a myth. The visibility that I'm talking about means visibility on those platforms.

When people share your content within those platforms, you can enjoy a tremendous reach within such platforms.

But this does not automatically mean that when you share content on Facebook, people who see your link on the materials shared by their friends would automatically click them.

Get the idea out of your head that raw visibility, or as Facebook terms it, "reach," automatically translates to traffic. It doesn't work that way. Instead, you need to start with heavy content visibility on each platform. People must see your stuff there. You must achieve a wide enough reach.

People may not necessarily click on through to your site, but that's secondary. At this point, you just want your brand to be visible. You just want people to become familiar with your brand.

So what's the big deal about visibility anyway? You may be thinking, since visibility doesn't mean actual visitors to your website, what good is it?

Think about it this way, when was the last time you saw an ad for the first time and automatically clicked it? If you're like most other people, you probably would want to see the ad show up a few times for you to become familiar with it. You might glance at if from time to time, you might read the description from time to time, but after enough showings, you might seriously think of clicking through.

The same applies to your content on social media platforms. Don't expect that just because you come up with catchy titles and nice, attention-grabbing graphics that this is enough for you to expect a tremendous amount of clicks to your website. It doesn't work that way.

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E-mail marketing is hands down the most powerful and effective form of online marketing. Nothing comes close. Seriously. Even search marketing with all its hype and tried-and-proven success can’t even hold the candle to just how effective list marketing can be. It’s easy to see why, survey after survey, marketing firms keep putting e-mail marketing at or near the top of their advertising preferences. Here are the reasons why.

Through e-mail marketing, you can get in front of the eyeballs of your audience members anytime anywhere. That’s right. You can be at a beach in the Bahamas somewhere writing an e-mail update. Plug that in to your e-mail service provider and your audience, regardless of where they may be in the world and regardless of what they’re doing, are sure to get your e-mail. After all, most people check their e-mail inboxes. Isn’t that awesome?

This enables you to sell more products. Since you have a de facto relationship with people who voluntarily got on your mailing list, you are able to keep the conversation going. You don’t get just one bite at the apple in trying to get list members to buy. Every time you send an update, you get a chance to convert some of your audience members into buyers.

Through e-mail, you also get to keep in touch with the needs of your audience. It’s like you’re plugged in to what they need, what they’re looking for and the problems that they face. After all, that’s the reason why they joined your mailing list in the first place. They’re looking for solutions and answers that your list can provide.

This enables you to keep a steady flow of traffic to your blog or online store. Now, this traffic may not convert right there and then but the fact that it is constant enables you to get many bites at the apple. You don’t just get a one-shot chance at converting online traffic. That traffic can come back again and again with each and every update that you spend.

If you’ve heard great things about social media, you might want to think again. Social medial marketing faces many challenges because of the evolving algorithms of platforms like Facebook. As the years go by, Facebook is sending less and less organic traffic.

Even if you have a big Facebook fan page with a gigantic following, you’d be lucky for your page posts to reach a tiny fraction of your following. It’s getting worse and worse with each passing year.

With e-mail marketing, you have a higher chance of reaching your complete mailing list instead of being at the mercy of these changing social media platform algorithms. It really all boils down to how well you write your headlines and how targeted your list recruitment is. If you did your homework and you played your cards right, you stand to reach a much larger percentage of your list audience. This is not the case with the typical Facebook fan page.

Finally, with your own e-mail list, you stay in control of your access to your audience. You can even download your list members’ e-mail addresses as you move from one e-mail service provider to the next. This list is your asset. It’s not going away anytime soon. Given all these amazing reasons, it’s no wonder lots of old-school online marketers say “The money is in the list.”

But wait… If you have just jumped in with both feet into e-mail marketing, I’ve got some bad news for you. You’re probably going to fail. There, I said it. You can fail by:

- Putting up a list but it doesn’t attract many members.
- Attracting enough people to your list but most don’t open your e-mails.
- Building a huge list of people with many opening your e-mails - but most don’t buy anything.

The sad reality is that the vast majority of people who try their hand at e-mail marketing have very little to show for it. They spend money every single month on their e-mail service provider only to come up empty handed.

Failure in e-marketing comes in many different forms because people try many different things. Marketers also have many different circumstances and priorities. However, they all lead to the same place: very low to no income!

If you want to get into e-mail marketing and enjoy the amazing passive income it can produce for you, you are reading the best book to get your started. Seriously. No other book comes close because almost all other books out there try to pump you up about e-mail marketing. They get you all hyped up but they leave you high and dry. How come? They do not step you through a systematic and methodical way of doing modern e-mail marketing.

Let me tell you the old tricks no longer work. Get rid of them. Don’t get excited by them. Otherwise, you are just setting yourself up for failure. Unfortunately, almost all the other e-mail list marketing books out there keep rehashing the same stuff.

In this guide, you are going to get just what you need to succeed in the highly competitive yet also highly lucrative world of e-mail marketing. Put simply, I will step you through the process of putting up a modern e-mail list - one that is engineered to succeed from the ground up. I have trimmed all the fat off. There is no fluff in this book. Instead, you’re going to get clear, easy-to-understand concepts that you need to wrap your mind around for you to be successful.

If you have a fuzzy idea of who your target audience is, you are going to fail with e-mail marketing. You really are.

You might as well give up now if you are chasing after some sort of vaguely defined market.

Audience identification is crucial for niche list marketing. You cannot just target everybody. You have to drill down to a specific population of people who are trying to solve a fairly narrow set of problems. This is how you define their needs. By directly addressing the needs of these individuals, conducting enough consumer research and speaking their language, you would be able to convert a high percentage of them from website visitors to list members to product buyers.

It is crucial that you go from raw traffic to dollars in your bank account. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time. All the traffic in the world is not going to add one red cent to your bank account unless you target a specific niche market and give its audience the solutions that they are looking for.

Finding the Right Audience So, how do you know which audience you should target? There are many different audiences out there. All of them cluster around a specific range of needs or problems. Well, it all boils down to commercial value of those needs. There are many problems out there that people are not going to pay top dollar to solve. Sure, people are looking for the right DVD set of headphones but there is a limit to people’s budgets. Different problems have different priorities.

You need to find a niche that has enough commercial value. One way to estimate this is to use Google AdWords Keyword Planner and do cost-per-click research on keywords related to your niche. If you notice that advertisers are willing to pay a lot of money per click on those keywords, then you’re in a good spot. Chances are there is enough commercial demand for that niche. People are willing to pay a significant amount of money to solve problems related to your niche.

It’s also important to make sure that you are targeting a niche that is big enough. Sure, there are lots of advertisers willing to pay a tremendous amount of money for “structured settlement” keyword traffic. We’re talking about more than $20 per click. The problem is the volume of searches for that niche is actually quite low.

Make sure the niche you are targeting has enough demand as indicated by Google Keyword Planner. This tool not only tells you how much advertisers are willing to pay per click but it will also give you an estimate of the volume of searches for keywords related to that niche. You’re looking for a nice combination of decent commercial value with decent traffic volume.

Finally, you should also pay attention to competition levels. If you pick a niche that is extremely competitive with gigantic brands monopolizing pretty much all the search volume for keywords related to that niche, you probably are going to have a tough time making inroads. You should look for a niche that is somewhat competitive but no so competitive that there’s absolutely no space for newcomers.

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The Name Of The Game

Hi there. Welcome to Evergreen Leads Business.

If you're new to doing business online, read with an open mind and leave behind your struggles and frustration. And if you're a seasoned marketer, good! Now it's time to go great.

Whatever business you're in right now, whether you’re...

Selling your own product as a vendor

Promoting other people's products as an affiliate, A coach looking for Clients, A service provider, An MLM / Network Marketing Distributor...

This book has the answers you seek. It is the missing puzzle that most business owners and marketers alike are seeking and when you put it all together, this will add another digit to your income. Maybe two.

You should have a reason for having this book in your hands. This book will change your life, the same way it did for other internet marketers out there. Bold statement? No, understatement is more like it.

If you are new and clueless on what to do, but all you know is you want to make money online, then this is going to save you months, or easily years of guesswork.

If you have been trying to succeed for a long time with no results, the coming pages will de-mystify Internet Marketing for you. Evergreen Leads Business is meant to take the complicated stuff and break it down to simple-to-follow steps.

If you have been buying one shiny object after another - STOP. This book is the missing puzzle that will show you how to put together the things you've purchased and transform them into a tangible, cash-generating machine.

If you have your own product, or bought the rights to another product, but don't know how to get Customers, the answers are staring back at you.

If you are an affiliate promoting other people's products for commissions, this book will show you how to build authority on par with the vendors you promote. The last thing you want to be right now is another 'me too' marketer.

If you are a Network Marketer and run an MLM business, the same holds true.

It's a red sea to compete with thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of other people promoting the same product as you. How would you like to discover an edge over your Cross-lines and even Uplines, and grow your network even if you have exhausted your own contacts?

If you are a service provider or a Coach, and you have trouble looking for Clients, often times the real problem isn't so much in the way you sell but rather it's a PROSPECTING problem. The good news is, the same method to sell products is also applicable to attracting high paying Clients.

All in all, every business needs one thing: LEADS.

Picked up a common pattern?

Every business has a lead problem.

Even if you have a proven sales system, you will still need leads. You can't possibly sell anything if no one even knows about you in the first place, yes or yes?

And no matter how big your business grows, you will still need and want MORE leads.

Unfortunately for most people, the only experience they have is frustration. That's why most marketers desperately resort to hard-sell, hype and heavyhanded sales tactics. And as a result, they betray their insecurity to their prospects. And what happens? Either most prospects leave, or the few Customers they close will become disgruntled buyers.

There are a few recurring 'themes' or common causes of failure when it comes to internet marketing businesses. Most of the time, the reason why most businesses suffer has to do with lead generation.

Sure, there are other factors - like having a compelling message, converting sales funnel, quality products, etc. but if you have no one to show your offer to, then you can't make any money. Period.

Evergreen Leads Business addresses the root of the problem.

Is this the ultimate book and last word in marketing? Absolutely not.

And neither is any other book.

But for everything else to make sense and come together, Evergreen Leads Business holds the answer. If you know how to find and generate leads, you not only solve a big part of the problem in your business but you can very well scale your business and turn yearly income into monthly income, or monthly income into weekly income.

But first, make sure you’re honest with yourself. It's time to confront some of the limiting beliefs that has been holding you back from achieving greatness.

A lot of people approach this business, hoping to make money as a newbie. There is nothing wrong with being a newbie, but there is something very wrong with trying to succeed as a newbie.

Think of the experts and leaders you know in ANY industry, niche or profession. Did they get to where they are today by staying a newbie? Or did they invest time, effort and money to hone their skills and mastery? Yet for some strange reason, most people don't want to level up. Maybe because it takes effort and that's a put off. Look, your business isn't going to build itself. If you're planning to do nothing or want everything handed to you on a silver platter then you might as well stop reading here. There are no millionaire earners that got results just by staying ignorant or refusing to grow out of their comfort zone.

Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a newbie. No one starts out being an expert. But success is earned, not given.

Pursue mastery. Make it your craft. And don't worry if you've not done this before. No one has ever died from learning how to make money online!

We are living in the most exciting time of human history and the sheer amount of opportunities is unprecedented. Believe it or not, you already have access to some of the most powerful leverage easily afforded to mankind.

And this book will help you achieve the power to earn up to 7 figures.

Are you ready to do this?

Chapter 1: The Alpha Marketer

If you've been in the Online Marketing scene for at least a few months, then you will have already learn of some of the marketing top guns. The guys who are crushing it in this business.

You will have also come across more marketers in the making.

And then, there is the rest of the crowd. The majority of the people who are not making much money - or any at all.

After so many years of Internet development, evolving technology, abundance of training products, software, and more opportunities than ever before, how is it that the odds of success had hardly improved?

Is the playing field still far from being leveled?

Or hmm... could the culprit be the individual himself?

Most people might find it unsettling to learn that they are responsible for their own success (or the lack thereof) but in actual fact, it’s good news.

Isn't it great to be able to forge your own path and be the master of your own destiny? Or would you rather surrender that power to someone else and be at the mercy of external forces you have little to no control over?

The main point is this: if you've been struggling to make sales, be it online or in person, the first thing you've got to do is take responsibility for your actions - or the lack thereof.

For success is found within you, not outside you. It's not found in the e-book you've just bought, or the seminar you're about to attend. I mean, sure, these are great time savers and a compass in the right direction, like this book you're reading right now.

However ultimately, your business isn't going to build itself. Not in the initial stage, at least. And these books, courses, programs, software, etc. they're just tools for you to use and leverage on. If you're a lousy carpenter, you can have the best saw in the world and still produce mediocre work. But put average tools into the hands of an expert and he can craft beauty.

It's hard not to see where this is going.

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Chapter 1

What Is REVERSE AGING?

Turning Back The Biological Clock

Who doesn’t want to look young? The concern becomes more paramount as we start to advance in age and mature in years.

But despite every effort towards advancement, the one thing that we as human beings have not been able to control is time.

The clock keeps ticking and with it our biological age. And given our obsession with looking young, feeling young and staying that way, it is no wonder that a lot of research has gone into finding ways to stop the aging process. But before you can actually do the right thing to RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH, you need to get an idea of what is causing the change.

First, there are simple biological reasons that cannot be ignored or controlled (more like inevitable). For instance, aging is a natural process that occurs in all the body’s tissues, cells and organs. These cells undergo changes with aging by becoming larger and less adept at dividing and multiplying. Among other things, there is also a growth in fatty substances and pigments that start to collect inside the cells.

At the same time many cells also lose their potential to function properly or may start to function unusually. A pretty dismal picture so far, most would think.

And then there are factors like outside influences which can be controlled (these are the ones we can work on and will discuss in much detail in this book). If you have lifestyle habits like smoking, enjoy frequent night caps, or like to pop a pill every time you sneeze, you may unconsciously be promoting premature aging. Also, if you are not someone who likes to exercise regularly, you have just added years to your real age and unfortunately, these will show.

The results can be less than pleasant; fine lines and wrinkles way before time, greying and thinning hair as well as weak and brittle nails.

However, as far as aging goes, most of us tend to be concerned with only half the equation; the superficial half. But aging is not only about looking good on the outside. If anything, it’s about feeling great on the inside. If you are healthy on the inside, it will naturally reflect on the outside, giving you a youthful and vibrant appearance as well.

Of course, the way you appear to others is an obvious indicator of how successful you may have been in halting the aging process. But when you pair it up with feeling healthy on the inside, the benefits of RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH are boosted. A body that functions well, heals well and looks good too is the full package for successful RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH.

Advances in the medical field has allowed people to recover faster from illness and injury reclaiming their health back. It has also reduced the incidence of ailments and afflictions that were once considered fatal but are now fairly easy to prevent and treat. Plus, many of these have now been downright eradicated.

But while we may not be able to reverse the biological clock, we can do a lot to take better care of ourselves so that age doesn’t show and we can still feel youthful.

Biological vs Chronological Age

Just to clarify things a bit, as humans we have two different ages. First there is the chronological age which is the number of years a person has been alive and starts with your birth date. And then there is the biological age which is how old a person seems. When we talk about RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH, it is the biological age that we want to retain and improve on, since the chronological one keeps ticking, no matter what.

It is also the biological age that takes into consideration lifestyle factors and habits. So while how we age chronologically is beyond our control, there are things we can do to improve on our biological age.

The Natural Approach to RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH

Reclaiming your youth does not have to be an impossible task. It can be as simple as changing the things we do to ourselves because the damage that we bring on ourselves is the easiest to correct. There are a number of ways that you can optimize your health and prolong your life.

Step One

This part of the RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH program deals with making dietary changes, boosting the immune system, reducing systemic inflammation and removing toxic waste from the bodyall pretty basic stuff. In other words, this part of the damage control is up to you. You are in charge and play an active role in how effectively you can RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH, but more about that in later chapters.

Step Two

The second part of damage control involves preventing and reversing damage at the cellular level. This component of RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH may not totally be up to you as factors promoting aging are genetically programmed in your cells. Having said that, there are still some proactive measures you can take to prevent damage at the cellular level.

For one, you can incorporate more exercise into your daily routine to keep circulation moving, the heart pumping well, and the lymphatic system flowing freely. This will, among other things, nourish and replenish your cells well.

Second, you can invest in some quality anti-aging products that will work internally to regenerate cells and minimize aging effects. A lot more on this in upcoming chapters.

Step Three

The final step in this process addresses hormonal changes that affect aging at a macro level. Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers telling the body what to do and when. With regards to aging, hormones tell the body how to age and any fluctuations in hormonal levels affects aging.

While hormonal production cannot be completely dominated by any single treatment, you can make small but sensible changes to restore these imbalances. Some basics to boost the body’s ability to create and balance hormones include changing lifestyle and dietary habits while staying away from common stressors and detoxifying.

And then of course, there is all that hormonal therapy that you could get involved in, but do you really to go there? Instead follow a sensible age reversing protocol that will help you better control the way you age. These basics can not only prevent and reverse chronic illnesses but also the signs and symptoms of aging.

In this book we will look at the different factors that affect the production of collagen, on the external front, concerning the look and feel of skin. On the internal front, which is equally important, we will look at what is crucial to keep you young and healthy on the inside.

Chapter 2

The Science Behind RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH

While a lot of research has been done on the subject, a recent one was actually successful in reversing the process of aging in mice. The study indicated that not only did the mice appear younger but that their lifespan was extended by approximately 30 percent. And while the study has only been done on mice, the researchers are hopeful that the same would be ready for human trials within ten years.

Epigenetics

The basis of this research was something called epigenetics. By definition, this means the study of inherent changes in gene function. As we move through life, our genetic makeup changes in many different ways.

For instance, outside factors such as environmental pollutants like smoking or lifestyle habits like alcohol and drug dependency can bring about changes. And with a change in our genes, our bodies change as well. When the body changes, it starts to age.

Whether these changes promote a predisposition to an inherited condition such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis or create a new condition that the body remains unable to recover from, such epigenetic changes supply a lot of information for why these things happen. And when scientists find out why these changes happen they can work on a way of stopping them from happening, or even reversing them such as in aging.

Scientists have also determined an age reversing agent known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide or NAD+. This compound was present more in younger mice than older ones and is very important in repairing DNA damage. There is also another DNA repair agent called PARP1 which responds well to NAD+ levels in the human body. So the higher the NAD+, the more PARP1.

Younger individuals, much like younger mice, have higher levels and these levels start to fall as people age. This, in turn, makes it harder for DNA to restore itself. So with this in mind, scientists gave more NAD+ to older mice and sure enough, they started to appear younger, biologically.

As a takeaway, research findings concluded that by changing adult cells into their earlier stage, RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH may be set in motion.

But that is for the scientists to do. As for your part, what you can do to RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH is to take better care of yourself to stop cellular damage at different levels. Once your cells are working well, they are in a stronger position to repair DNA themselves and stop aging prematurely.

What Else Does Science Say?

Science has a whole lot more to say about RECLAIM YOUR YOUTH, but we will only look at some basics here. Just enough to get an idea about established research into the topic.

Genetic Component

Looking for a way to halt aging has undoubtedly stepped into science labs to unlock the mysteries of aging. In fact, research believes that not only may we be close to stopping aging but actually reversing it as well.

For starters, as mentioned earlier, your genes have a big role in how fast or slow you age. But because genes are something beyond your control, here is what you need to know about genes affecting the aging process.

DNA research has shown that specific genes are responsible for aging. Collectively dubbed as ‘late life cyclers’, this set of genes activate only in later life or during bouts of intense stress.

Stressors relators to aging such as molecular and cellular damage, oxidative stress and even some disease states cause these genes to respond. Plus some of these genes have been studied to be more active in individuals with cancer, creating more responses in such people and signalling a higher level of distress. All of this activity will quickly age you taxing not only your looks but also your health.

The same set of genes are also activated if something called the circadian rhythm is out of sync.

Circadian Rhythm

One of the elements that needs to be maintained well is a person’s circadian rhythm. This is roughly your 24 hour cycle, or body clock which determines your physical, mental and behavioral patterns. In other words, daily routines from waking up to going back to sleep all fall within your circadian rhythm. It is also known as your sleep/wake cycle.

So what you do during this sleep/wake cycle can actually determine the state of your overall health. Your circadian rhythm works best when you have regular sleep habits such as going to bed at a good hour and waking up early in the morning (incidentally, the circadian rhythm also coincides with sunrise and sundown).