In a television programme, a man is lying on a hospital operating table.

The narrator states that "Old age is catching up with him. - A build up of cholesterol is having a near-fatal effect on his heart." And with that, the author of this article, yours truly, is impassioned and compelled to write to dismantle an untrue, and very damaging, costly and dangerous assumption.

The build up of cholesterol, or any such similar thing, is a process of actions. It is NOT caused by, and has nothing to do with the simple passing of time. But how much power and responsibility to keep ourselves strong and healthy do we give up to think and believe that it is?

Yet spoken in the serene, yet authoritative, dulcet tones of the young narrator, viewers might just have assumed that everything being spoken was true. And with that, in that one fleeting moment, how many millions of viewers might have either accepted or reinforced the idea in their own mind that they are at the mercy of the passing of time?!, ironically, the one belief which will guarantee that they won't adopt the one mindset that can allow them to take an empowered approach to such situations and lifestyle choices.

Let's create a very simple example. If you put three boxes into your car every night and take two out every morning, over 'time' you will have a build up of boxes. But the time is irrelevant. If you didn't put boxes into your car, it wouldn't matter how much time passed. A thousand years even would not cause a build up of boxes in your car.

Similarly, if you put boxes into your car, but each day took out as many as you put in, you still wouldn't have any boxes left in your car, regardless of how long a period of time you did this over.

The notion that it is old age causing the build up of cholesterol is incorrect.

More crucially, by putting this down to 'old father time', anyone is given the perfect invitation (excuse) to abdicate responsibility for the situation, either after it has caused a problem, or before it can.

But not taking responsibility is not about not being able to be 'blamed' for an event. It is more serious and more important and self-robbing than a telling off for shirking the blame. It is about surrendering one's own power.

If people watched this programme and accepted what they heard, they might be tempted to think to themselves, "Oh well, there's nothing I can do about degenerative diseases - it doesn't matter what I do, because time will kill me". If you think that, then you haven't understood the difference between the nature of time and the process of degeneration.

I invite you to be one who learns and rises above the outdated, fear-based, and nature-ignorant teachings of self-powerlessness.

If you can understand (and share with others) the difference between a process of actions, even if they are thought-actions, and the simple passing of time, then you are coming from a position of strength, truth and wisdom.

James Blacker