The Miracle of In the Now

Mindfulness holds the key to the art of living well. Why do we need to live well? Because we all want to be happy. Without happiness, living is meaningless and life is purposeless. The goal in the art of living well is to activate happiness in our lives through our minds. The human mind is powerful in that it can make heaven out of hell, or hell out of heaven. It's all in our minds; they can be our friends, or our enemies. 

The essence of happiness is freedom -- not freedom in getting what we want out of life, especially our material wants, but freedom from our self-imposed bondage that prevents us from enjoying the happiness that is within each one of us. In many ways, we are like the proverbial bird that will not leave its self-imposed cage even when the cage door is opened. To illustrate, each of us has set certain conditions in our minds that dictate how we look at our happiness. These pre-set conditions have become the criteria for our happiness. If our marital partners do not meet our conditions or expectations to have those conditions fulfilled, we file a divorce; in other words, our love is conditional. We have no real freedom if we keep on thinking about something in our minds, such as the new car we want to get; our happiness becomes conditional on getting what we want.

The problem with conditional happiness is that we have knowingly or unknowingly created energy that is forever pushing us forward. It is like a carrot-stick in front of us, forever unreachable. Even when something becomes attainable, we create another carrot-stick, and yet another one. Isn't this the kind of life most of us are living? We have created one life goal after another, and our minds have become compulsive. In truth, we are unable to slow down because we are living in the past and in the future, but not in the now. 

Our human experiences are perceived by our bodies through our five senses (seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching), which are then stored in our subconscious minds in the form of feelings, emotions, and memories. Our subconscious minds tell us what to do and what decisions to make through our conscious minds. Living in the past means we keep on going back to the past to find out what to do in the future. Our minds predict our futures in the form of desires and expectations, and that is how we live in the future. But the past was gone, and is no longer real; the future is uncertain and unreal, except in our minds. 

Only the present moment or the now is real. It is a gift, and that's why it is called "present." But many of us are unaware of it, let alone appreciative of the now. Are you thankful that you are breathing right now? Only when a person is drowning, gasping for air, or having difficulty in breathing due to some lung disease, will that person be mindful of breaths. 

Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening right now. It can work miracles. First of all, mindfulness relaxes your mind because it stops the mind from thinking -- at least temporarily. Mindfulness enables you to perceive the truths or separate the truths from the half-truths through clarity of mind and thinking. Mindfulness lets you appreciate what is happening right now, instead of going back to the past or worrying about the future. Only with mindfulness can you become the person you are meant to be, and not the person you wish you were. Without mindfulness, there is no concentration, and without concentration, there is no wisdom that plays a pivotal part in your success in anything you wish to accomplish in life. Don't deny yourself the miracle of the now, and pursue your life in the past or the future.

As If Everything Is A Miracle: My book recently published explains in detail how you can "rethink" your mind to make it powerful and fully functional to work to your advantage. Albert Einstein once said that thinking is hard and that is why so people do it. But to live in this world as if everything is a miracle, you need to know "how to think" in order not to live as if nothing is a miracle. Learn how the mind works. This 125-page book is available in paperback or the kindle edition for immediate download ($3.49). .

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Believe In Mind Power As If Everything Is A Miracle

Your brain is the most powerful organ in your body: it controls what you do in the physical world. 

Your body perceives all sensations and experiences in the physical world through its five senses. Your mind interprets and records them in your subconscious mind, which controls your conscious mind. You conscious mind screens and filters all your mental input, while your subconscious mind remembers everything indiscriminately and stores in the back of your mind. When your conscious mind makes your daily life choices and decisions, it is actually your subconscious mind that controls your thinking thoughts, resulting in your actions, non-actions, and reactions of your body in the physical world. Therefore, your subconscious mind holds your mind power. If you can "rethink" your mind, you can control your thoughts in your conscious mind through empowering your subconscious mind. Believe in mind power as if everything is a miracle.

My recent book publication As If Everything Is A Miracle explains in detail how you can "rethink" your mind to make it powerful and fully functional to work to your advantage. Albert Einstein once said that thinking is hard and that is why so people do it. But to live in this world as if everything is a miracle, you need to know "how to think" in order not to live as if nothing is a miracle. 

The important role of mind power cannot be overstated. Be that as it may, the mind power may easily be compromised by toxins from the body. As a result of the toxic contamination from the body in the physical world, toxic emotions and thoughts may be formed in the mind, leading to toxic memories that may ultimately devastate the mind, given the close body-mind connection. 

A compromised and toxic mind needs to solicit help from the soul, which feeds the mind with spirituality that provides connection and interconnection with others through empathy and compassion, gratitude and generosity, as well as love and forgiveness. The body, the mind, and the soul—all play a pivotal role in wisdom in contemporary living. It is their “alignment” with one another for balance and harmony in the being of an individual that holds the key to living in wisdom in this day and age. This 125-page book is available in paperback or the kindle edition for immediate download ($3.49). .

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How Active Is Your Brain?

Brain activities are critical to your mental health and your overall well-being. Your brain is one of the most important of your body organs because it controls and directs your thinking, which results in your life choices and decisions, leading to your actions and reactions in your life experiences. Your brain is the source of your thoughts, the materials with which you weave the fabric of your life and being. The importance of the brain is never an overstatement.

The brain is just like the rest of your body: it requires both tender love and care in the form of rest and activities to keep it in optimum functioning. You need to exercise your body to avoid muscle atrophy. while you also need to give it sufficient rest to recover and rejuvenate. Likewise, your brain needs activities, as well as a meaningful break, to hence its mental power.

What are brain activities?

Brain activities are metal processes that activate the brain cells in terms of association, cognition, connection, communication, and interpretation. It is a myth that mental functions decline with age. The decline is probably due to disuse and inactivity of the brain. Mental functions can improve at any age with practice.

How active is your brain?

It is not difficult to not think. In fact, thinking is difficult, and that is why, according to Albert Einstein, so few people do it. Your mind can be filled with rambling and compulsive thoughts, such as what you are going to do tomorrow, what dress to wear, what to eat for dinner, what TV program to watch, but your mind is not engaged in activities that really benefit your brain, because your mind is not "thinking.".

In this day and age it is easy to acquire mental disuse, which is inadequate use of the brain. If you spend much of your time before the TV screen, you are not keeping your brain active. As a matter of fact, an average American spends more than 4 hours watching TV, which is the main source of mental disuse.

Keep your brain busy by engaging in activities, such as learning (a skill, a language, a musical instrument), writing (a letter, a journal or a blog), reading (a non-fiction book); doing things that are out of your daily routine. The busier you are in mental activities. the larger your brain cells (neurons) become, making some of your DNA repair more efficient. Mental activities increase your neurotransmitters responsible for communication between your brain cells, leading to better mental processing by your brain. If your brain is active, you have better memory and overall more efficient mental functioning. Your brain cells are just like your body muscles: use them or lose them.

Like your body requiring rest and sleep, your brain needs mental relaxation too in order to maximize its mental functioning. Relax your brain by quieting the mind with daily meditation, which slows down the brain activities. The difference between watching TV and meditation is that the latter puts your brain in different brain-wave patterns that lead to total relaxation, whereas in the former brain is inactive but still working.

The bottom line: keep your brain active to keep your mind and body healthy. Science has attested to the body-mind connection. If your mind is healthy, your body will naturally become healthy too; after all, the mind controls the body.

Mind Secrets Exposed: Learn the art of getting what you want out of life by keeping your mind active. Use state-of-the-art subliminal messages to transform your subconscious mind in order to change your conscious mind to do what needs to be done to keep your mind healthy and functional.

Go to my bi-monthly newsletter Wellness Wisdom Newsletter to get more information on how to use your mind to your advantage.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How the Mind Can Help Healing the Body

The mind can help healing the body in many ways.

The body and the mind are interconnected. The body has its innate mechanisms responsible for self-healing, such as the immune system, the liver, the kidneys, and the skin, among others. Unfortunately, a toxic body can compromise the functioning of these systems and organs to bring about natural self-healing.

How can the mind help healing the body?

First of all, the mind can do disservice to the body by thinking toxic or negative thoughts that create toxins in the physical body in the form of choices and decisions of actions, and reactions; for example, choosing junk food, and reacting in anger. Thinking positive thoughts can eliminate body toxins.

If the body is in disharmony and a disease is imminent, it will send out messages to the mind in the form of signs and symptoms. Again, the mind may play a pivotal role in perceiving and deciphering those messages, and taking appropriate actions to stop the onset of the disease. To do this, mindfulness is required, which is essentially the awareness of the mind.  

Your mind ages as much as and as fast as your body does. The good news is that you can use your mind to stop the aging of both your mind and body: just put your mind where your body is! Healing begins when you put the mind where the body is.

Your body is now  right here. But your mind may be elsewhere: your mind may be preoccupied with thoughts of the past in the form of memories, or of the future in the form of desires and expectations. In other words, your mind is rambling and disconnected, although you may be unaware of it. A chaotic mind produces adverse and detrimental biological and chemical changes, such as the production of stress hormones, and the reduction of human growth hormone (HGH), among others, that not only bring about the aging process in both the body and mind, but also make the body vulnerable to disease..

To remedy the situation, put your mind where your body is.

(1) Sit comfortably. Place the back of one hand in the palm of the other, allowing your thumb tips to touch lightly. Rest your hands on your body in line with your lower abdomen.

(2) Breathe mindfully for a minute or two; that is, be aware of your breaths, noticing how you inhale and exhale..

(3) Gently close your eyes. Focus your attention on the flow of your bodily sensations within your awareness, such as the beating of your heart, the tingling and twitching of your muscles, as well as your sense experiences, such as the sounds, smells, and tastes surrounding you.

(4) Meanwhile, thoughts may arise. Release them without any effort or struggle: just let them drift away. If needs be, direct your attention back to your breathing, and again notice your awareness of your physical sensations and experiences.

(5) Continue this process for as long as you like. You will feel the interconnection between your body and mind; it is your conscious awareness of your body that connects your body and mind in a unique way. Essentially, you are putting your mind where your body is in the present moment.

Becoming mindful of your body in the present moment is putting your mind where your body is. This is deep relaxation for both body and mind—the best way to sharpen your mind to help healing of the body and mind.

For more information, visit my web page: How To Meditate.

Mindfulness helps your mind stay in the present moment; this reinforces your awareness of your body, thereby instrumental in helping its healing. You will become more alert to the signs and symptoms of any disease and disorder.  In addition, you will become more aware of your posture, such as maintaining a straight spine, which is the river of life. A straight spine optimizes breathing. Yoga, for example, is an exercise that heightens awareness of the spine in all yogi poses to attain a more centered consciousness. Centeredness in the spine is also instrumental in enhancing spiritual awakening.

101 Yoga Poses: Learn yoga in the comfort of your home with 500+ step-by-step color photos. Use yoga for body awareness, optimal breathing, and good posture.

Mind Secrets Exposed: Learn the art of getting what you want out of life. If you find yourself facing constant frustration from never-ending problems in life, or you feel as though your life is a proverbial treadmill, not going anywhere. Now is the time to take charge of your life. It is all in your subconscious mind that is the real power center of your being and the "headquarters" of your body. Use state-of-the-art subliminal messages to transform your subconscious mind in order to change your conscious mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Mind Power to Quit Quitting

The mind is powerful if you know how to harness its power.

Most recently, it was in CNN news about a guy by the name of Jonathon Walters who lost 200 pounds within a matter of months -- it was a matter of the mind.

Over the years, Jonathon had quit school, college, relationships, and multiple jobs -- quitting led to his weight increase through overeating as a result of his inability to face reality. He weighed 477 pounds, with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and all sorts of health problems. 

Jonathon's father, who died prematurely in his early fifties, once told him: "Quitting is unlike anything else in life. It is only hard the first time you do it. After that it is a habit and almost impossible to break." Quitting had caused his binge-eating, making him obese. He knew he would not live long unless he would quit quitting. He decided to harness his mind power to quit quitting. 

The human mind is powerful. Jonathon never looked back, and he quits quitting; he has exercised, and he has completely changed his diet. To quit quitting has completely changed his life -- has made him lose 200 pounds without surgery. 

Jonathon has taken back control of his life because he quit quitting. You, too, can follow his example, if you know how to control your mind without quitting 

The Secret of Deliberate Creation is a life-changing course by the famous Dr. Robert Anthony, the bestselling author of many mind power books. This groundbreaking course is like driver’s education to change your life through the mind. It’s hand on, and it will make you a better driver  You’ll know everything you need to know to get from point A to point B faster than the 'walking around' or 'bumming a ride' through life you are doing now. After the course, all you’ll need is practice. And just like a car, the practice is actually nothing more than going through your life and driving your new car.

Deliberately create your reality through your mind!

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

Moment-to-Moment Awareness

It is an erroneous belief that time is often our enemy: with more time, we could do much more to improve our lives. Dissatisfied with life, many of us would strive to do more, to attain more, to be more. But time cannot increase our mind power, nor can it change our lives; time keeps on flowing, just like water, forever flowing downwards. Time is neither our enemy nor our friend. Time does not change; only we do, and it's all in the mind.

Increase our mind power with moment-to-moment awareness, which can change our perspective on life. The human mind is burdened with emotional baggage from the past and worries about the future. Many of us do not see how our past experiences in the form of memories can affect, positively or negatively our current behaviors, choices, decisions, and actions -- the realities of our lives. Only with moment-to-moment awareness can we understand how we may have become slaves to our memories, letting them become our masters controlling our lives.

With emotional baggage from the past and worries about the future, we subconsciously make our minds compulsive; that is, overly preoccupied with past memories and future expectations, such that our minds do not quiet or slow down and do not stay in the present. To illustrate, many of us have many career goals, planning this and that for our families; our minds are forever on the go: we talk on the phone while we are eating, or even driving, and we wish we had more than 24 hours a day to finish our daily chores. 

But with moment-to-moment awareness, you may realize that not going through your children's homework tonight does not mean that they will not go to Harvard some day; even not going to Harvard does not mean that they will not receive a good education. It's all in your mind -- your conditioned mind. Just learn to let go your attachment to time. It is your ego that makes you think you can make the world do your bidding. Given that your ego is focusing on the past and the future, and not the very present moment, your ego is not aware of what is going on in the world right now, therefore, letting your ego decide what is best for you is unwise. That is why moment-to-moment awareness is important because it enables your mind to stay in the present so that it can perceive and understand what is the best for you, what is real and what is unreal. 

With moment-to-moment awareness, you will do, by doing and no more, what you need to do, and you will learn, by going, where you have to go. Life becomes simple and stress-free. It is not easy, but with practice, you can do it. Remember, you always have choice, but you don't have control over the consequence of your choice, nor over what others may or may not do in response to your choice.

Practice meditation to enhance your moment-to-moment awareness. Learn how to think, as Albert Einstein once said: "Thinking is hard; that's why so few people do it.".

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

Be Your True Self, Not Your Ego-Self

One of your life goals should be: Being who you are meant to be, not who you want to become. Why? Because being who you are meant to be holds the key to happiness and contentment, which is what living is all about. To achieve this goal, you need the help of your mind.

Your mind is powerful in that it controls how you think, what you do, and what you may become. Descartes, the great French philosopher, once said: "I think, therefore I am." You think, and your thoughts may ultimately turn you into the person you have become. Therefore, thinking can be dangerous; it may lead you astray through the wrong thinking process.

Your thoughts mostly come from your life experiences --  what you are exposed to. Your culture and your upbringing may tell you that you must have dreams and aspirations, and that you must go after a role model in order to succeed in life. These thoughts may involuntarily inflate your ego-self, transforming you into someone else you want to become. But that may not be your true self that you are meant to be.

The danger of an ego-self is that once it is inflated, you might want to protect it at all costs; doing extra work, more than what is necessary, even to the extent of breaking the law -- a case in point is the disgraced cyclist Armstrong, who used performance-enhancing drugs to win all his races. An ego-self is the embodiment of human pride, which is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and hence the source of all human miseries. The ego-self, once it is formed, is very difficult to deflate, because it involves great courage and willpower to let it go.

But how do you know who you are meant to be? Or, more specifically, how do you avoid being who you want to become?

Mindfulness is the answer. Then, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is acute awareness of what is happening to you and around you; mindfulness is focusing on others, rather on yourself; mindfulness is living in the present, and not letting your mind being haunted by unpleasant memories in the past, or projecting your pleasant past experiences into future expectations.

To enhance your mindfulness, practice meditation, which not only quiets a compulsive mind, but also enables your mind to internalize to find out what are the ultimate truths in life. Meditation enhances your awareness and compassion.

Read my book The Book of Life and Living to get more information on ancient wisdom and contemporary wisdom to be your true self.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

. .

The Zen Mindset

Nowadays, the human mind is often too preoccupied with thoughts and worries about career, money, children, relationships, health, and social responsibilities -- that is how many of us have developed a compulsive mind that never stops its thinking process.

There is one solution to stop the compulsive mind: the Zen mindset.

What is the Zen mindset? It is the mind focusing on the way of Zen.

Then, what is Zen?

Zen is a way of life. It is a misconception that Zen is a religious belief. Zen is a philosophical approach to living a life of peace and harmony, totally free from stress. In spite of having its origin from Buddha, Zen is not the foundation of Buddhism. The word “Zen” is Japanese, but it derives from the Chinese, meaning “meditation.” It is an Oriental mental practice for self-enlightenment. More specifically, Zen is a transcendental mental state that affects the overall physical and mental being of an individual, and therefore relaxes the body and the mind to enhance body-mind connection, which plays a pivotal role in the art of living well.

Zen is knowing intuitively—that is, naturally knowing the ultimate truth of living. According to Plato, the great philosopher, life is a process of “forgetting” with episodes of experiences and happenings that make you “forget” the ultimate truth of living, which you are supposed to know intuitively. In other words, as we continue to live in the contemporary world, it is easy for us to "forget" who we are, and in the process "forget" how to live. The Zen mindset is to bring us back to the ultimate truth. The way of Zen is to re-discover that inherent wisdom of knowing the eternal truth that may have eluded so many of us in the process of stressful living. Essentially, Zen living is “self-awakening” to the real meaning of living; once we understand that ultimate truth, we will be liberated from the shackles of memories of the past and worries of the future, and thus instrumental in enabling us to live in the present. Many of us are not living in the present; a case in point, texting or talking on the phone while walking or driving is not living in the present, which is supposedly to be walking or diving.  

With the Zen mindset, life becomes simple, and life is never a problem. If life becomes a problem, it is because we have created the problem for ourselves. If there is no problem, then we don't need a solution. Unfortunately, many of us have projected the problem into the future in the mind's eye, and then we start anticipating the problem with solutions. In the process, we pick and choose, resulting in wrong choices that lead to anxiety, frustration, disappointment, and regret, among others that become our problems. Fixing a non-existing problem in life is only creating more problems for ourselves.

Learn how to live in the present and relax by acquiring the Zen mindset, which is the wisdom in neither avoiding problems in life, nor seeking solutions to problems that may not even have existed in the first place.

The following Zen poem may help you to understand better the Zen mindset:

"The perfect Way is without difficulty.

Save that it avoids picking and choosing.

Only when you stop liking and disliking

Will all be clearly understood.

A split hair's difference

And heaven and earth are set apart.

If you want to get the plain truth,

Be not concerned with right and wrong.

The conflict between right and wrong

Is the sickness of the mind."

from an old Zen poem

Start Zen: Learn the healing art of Zen meditation. Free yourself from the thoughts and emotions that are holding you back in your life. Dramatically improve the quality of your life by enhancing the quality of your mind.

Read my book: The Book of Life and Living. It is a blueprint for living a stress-free life through an integration of the ancient wisdom of Tao, the contemporary wisdom, and Biblical wisdom.

Visit my website: Wisdom in Living.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

Use the Mind to Get Wellness Wisdom

Health is one of the greatest assets of your being, and your brain is of the most important organs in your body. For without a healthy brain, your whole being cannot function efficiently. Your brain is the hardware, which controls how you think and act. Your brain is made up of your conscious mind and your subconscious mind. The former may be under your control because you can control your voluntary input, while the latter may control you because the input by the subconscious mind is involuntary and it is your subconscious mind that controls your conscious mind.. 

The body may control the mind in the form of desires and perceptions by the five senses of the body. If the mind is inefficient in controlling the body, then the mind may become dysfunctional and even toxic. A toxic mind may adversely affect the soul, and thus the well-being of the whole person. There is a close connection of the body, the mind, and the soul, which has an impact on the overall wellness of an individual. The overall health of an individual is often ignored, just as Dr. Deepak Chopra, M.D. bestselling author, and founder of the Chopra enter for Well-Being, once said: “If you don’t take care of your health today, you will be forced to take care of your illness tomorrow.”

With that in mind, I have just published "Wellness Wisdom Newsletter." 

This “Wellness Wisdom Newsletter” will be regularly updated with news, comments on news, and tips regarding health and wellness of the body, the mind, and the soul. In addition, if you subscribe to the newsletter, you will also be sent an email (on the 1^st and 15^th of each month) with information to boost your health.

Learn the art of getting what you want out of life. If you find yourself facing constant frustration from never-ending life problems, or you feel as though your life is a proverbial treadmill, not going anywhere. Now is the time to take charge of your life by controlling your mind and harnessing its power. It is all in your subconscious mind that is the real power center of your being and the headquarter of your body. Learn all the Mind Secrets Exposed.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau