Longevity and Happiness

Longevity and Happiness

If you wish to live to 100 and beyond, you must have a healthy body and a happy mindset with the right thinking. More specifically, you need the physical strength to live and survive in the material world, as well as the mental attitude to confront all the changes and challenges confronted as you approach the end of your life journey. In other words, you must be happy.

Human happiness is about the realities in human life experienced by the human mind. That is to say, the humanl as mind plays a pivotal part in human happiness because it is the thinking mind that perceives and processes all those life experiences, turning them into either happiness or unhappiness.

Life is all about experiences, which are thoughts of those experiences composed by the thinking mind. According to James Allen, the author of As A Man Thinketh, men are “makers of themselves” and the human mind is thus the “master-weaver, by both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.” Accordingly, you may have become who and what you are by way of your thinking mind over the years; in other words, you are the sum of your own thoughts. Therefore, it is important that you understand how your thinking mind works in your life, making you happy or unhappy.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Surviving in a World of Depression

Living in a World of Depression

Nowadays, we always talk about gun violence and mental disorder. The truth of the matter is that we are living in a world of depression. Indeed, there are millions and millions who are suffering from this mental disease all around the world. This disorder is as old as age.  

In ancient times, according to the Bible, King David of Israel was often mentally troubled, and he forever battled against his deep despair. In many of the Psalms, he expresses his anguish, loneliness, fear of the enemy; his heart often cries over sin, and the guilt because of it. Another Biblical example is Elijah, the great prophet, who was often discouraged, weary, and afraid. Even after his great spiritual victories over the prophets of Baal, this mighty man of God feared and ran for his life into the desert, where he prayed. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19: 4)

In modern age, Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, underwent serious bouts of depression during his country’s national crisis in World War II. The fact of the matter is that depression is no respecter of persons—even for those with high I.Q., such as the Nobel-Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide, just as his father did, with the comment “I’ll probably go the same way.”

Indeed, many of us are vulnerable to this genetic mental disorder of unhappiness. To many, the word “depression” may be synonymous with the word “unhappiness”; but the reality is that happiness is not the absence of depression. So, even if you are not depressed at all, you may still be unhappy.

The bottom line: how do we overcome this mental disorder? Medications apparently don’t work. We need profound human wisdom to understand how and why we have become unhappy in the first place, and then use the human mind to create a happiness recipe for each individual to survive in this world of depression..

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Natural Recipes for Beautiful Skin

Looking younger means you have beautiful and youthful skin.  

Dark circles around your eyes make you look much older than your real age. Unfortunately, dark circles are only too common. In addition, aging spots, wrinkles, and sagging skin make you look older than your chronological age.

Dark eye circles are caused by bruising on the skin around the eyes, which is the thinnest as well as the most delicate part of your facial skin with many tiny capillaries. Any abrasive action may result in bruising, leading to blood leaking from those tiny blood vessels; the blood leaked out may become oxidized, turning into a dark bluish red—your dark eye circles!

(1) Dark circles around the eyes become more common with increasing age. The reason is that as you age, you skin becomes noticeably thinner, and therefore more vulnerable to abrasion and injury.

(2) Inadequate sleep makes your skin look paler, and hence intensifies the darkness through color contrast.

(3) Stressful work may affect your hormones and general skin conditions, making you look haggard and worn-out, accentuating your dark circles.

(4) Pregnancy or menstruation brings about temporary hormonal changes, which can make your skin look much paler, and hence darker circles around the eyes.

(5) Allergic skin reaction may cause you to rub or scratch your skin more frequently, especially around the eyes, which may unintentionally cause bruising.

(6) Healthy skin requires healthy nutrients from a balanced and healthy diet. Your skin becomes what you eat!

Now that you understand what may have caused unsightly dark circles around your eyes, you should know what to do with the dark circles around your eyes:

(1) Get good sleep habits (such as keeping regular sleep patterns, even on weekends) to maintain adequate sleep without medications.

(2) Learn to cope with stress—especially stress at work—which may interfere with your sleep and your diet. Meditation is the most effective way to relax both the body and the mind.

(3) Drink more water to cleanse your body of toxins. As a matter of fact, it is good practice to detox your body on a regular basis for optimum health for body and skin.

(4) Avoid the sun—especially tanning salons. A tanned skin only accentuates the darkness of the circles around your eyes.

(5) A cold eyewash compress can constrict the blood vessels and reduce the darkness.

(6) Certain dark eye circle creams do speed up the oxidization process, while certain bleaching creams may also lighten the darkness of the skin around your eyes (but use them with caution around the eyes).

(7) Take a vitamin E capsule, break it up, and dab the content on your skin under your eyes, and then take the remaining supplement.

You always look gorgeous and radiant. Do not let dark circles under the eyes mar your absolute facial beauty. Dark Under The Eye Circles shows you how to use natural home remedies to make you look years younger.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

My New Book: THE HAPPINESS WISDOM

I have just published my book: “The Happiness Wisdom”, which is a 161-page book on human wisdom based on ancient wisdom from the East and the West, conventional wisdom, and spiritual wisdom, which may all provide guidelines for choosing the happiness ingredients for your own happiness recipe. In addition, the book also provides real examples taken from real life, illustrating how these real people perceive their realities, and thus leading to their happiness or unhappiness.

Human happiness or unhappiness is no more than a perception of the human mind, based on an individual's own life experiences. You think, and your perceptions then become your "realities"; with profound wisdom, you can change how your mind processes your perceptions. Change your mind to change your realities, and live your life as if everything is a miracle! Your life journey is uniquely yours. Make your own happiness recipe from the happiness ingredients of ancient wisdom, conventional wisdom, and spiritual wisdom. Continue your life journey with your own happiness recipe.

Click here to find out more about the book.

Click here to get your digital copy, and here to get your paperback copy.

Stephen Lau

Unhealthy Trans Fat Substitute

Due to the many health problems related trans fat, the food industry has ingeniously come up with another “man-made” fat to replace the now-unpopular trans fat. Well, it may well be a case of “jumping from the frying pan into the fire.”

This new process of making fat is called interesterification, which is a chemical process of making butter-like products from liquid vegetable oils. This chemical process uses enzymes to alter the molecular structure of a vegetable oil so as to give it the properties of a fat. Simply, it involes adding enzymes to a batch of vegetable oil to separate a triglyceride molecule into a glycerol and 3 fatty acids, and through the process of hydrogenation, the vegetable oils become hardened.

Some preliminary testing indicates that interesterified oils have the same health risks as trans fat.

Currently, there is no legislation covering interesterification, and the food industry takes advantage of this to make you believe that the “vegetable oil” you see on food labels of cakes, biscuits, and other food products are “healthy” ingredients.

No matter what is said on the food label, processed food is unnatural food. The more ingredients you find on the food label, the unhealthier it is for you. Eat natural whole foods.

Living and Raw Foods: To eat healthy, go on a living and raw diet.

Organic Food Gardening Beginner’s Manual: A 103-page manual with step-by-step guidelines to help you grow your own healthy organic food!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau