Santa Claus Is Coming

Your Golden Years and Santa Claus explains the wisdom of living in the present, the wisdom of letting go, and the wisdom of not picking and choosing -- they are the essentials for happy and successful aging in the golden years. Learn how to think and act like Santa Claus in your golden years.

Your future is always unknown and unknowable, but it is your readiness to get new information and to use your new experience to reassess your current situation that provides a light at the end of the tunnel.

Wake up from your nightmare and live a life that you rightly deserve in your golden years.

Growing older sucks. The alternative is to die younger.

So, make the best and the most of your remaining years; turn them into the golden years of your life in spite of any frailty and adversity you may be facing. Remember, life is a task-master: it teaches you not only how to survive in any challenging circumstance but also how to live as if everything is a miracle, especially in your golden years.

Use Santa Claus as your role model to start believing in yourself, developing the right mindset of successful aging, and acting appropriately and positively. Santa Claus may not be a magic-bullet solution to all your life problems and challenges, but he certainly may open unexpected doors for you in your golden years.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Wisdom in Living

Wisdom in Living

This is a completely updated website on how to live your life as if everything is a miracle.

The journey of life is long and unpredictable. We all need wisdom to guide us along the way so that we will not get lost; even if we do, we may still find out way back to where it will eventually lead us to our final destination.

This new website may provide you with wisdom as your compass and roadmap on your life journey.

Wisdom in living comprises seeking God's wisdom through understanding human wisdom in order to live a meaningful and purposeful life, even in the golden years. The ancient wisdom of Tao holds the key to applying these principles of life and living in this modern world.

Stephen Lau

Another FREE Book for Better Vision

EYE EXERCISES FOR BETTER VISION

By Stephen Lau

This is a book on using eye exercises to overcome bad vision habits that lead to poor vision. The author explains that the eye is an organ of the body, which is controlled by the mind, vision health is holistic health of the body and the mind. 

Good vision is determined by the flexibility of eye muscles. If you exercise your body, there is no rhyme or reason why you should not exercise your eyes for better vision.

The author himself has poor vision due to his myasthenia gravis, which is an autoimmune disease affecting his eye muscles. He is sharing his own experience to use eye exercises for better vision.

Get this book for FREE. Click here to go to the page for your FREE download.

Stephen Lau

FREE Book for Weight Loss!

Weight loss is more than just your mind power. Download this book ABSOLUTELY FREE to lose a few extra pounds without any diet or medication!

All-Round Weight Loss

by Stephen Lau

Everybody wants to lose some weight; some even want to lose a lot more. But almost everybody gains back all the pounds that have been lost, and then some.

Why is that? Because weight loss is not just about eating less—after all, everybody wants to eat more, not less. Weight loss is about everything, just as Oprah Winfrey once said: “My greatest failure was in believing that the weight issue was just about weight.” Oprah was right. Weight loss is all-round; that is, it involves the body, the mind, and the spirit. To illustrate, weight loss is also about the thinking mind; it is the thoughts that make you fat, more than anything else. According to Esther and Jerry Hicks' bestseller "Money and the Law of Attraction," people not only want the food but also believe that the food will make them fat, and thus have created that which they do not want; unfortunately, their thoughts attract what they do not want, so their bodies respond to the thinking mind, and gain instead of losing weight.

Therefore, going on a fad diet, abstaining from certain types of food, reducing calorie consumption-all these only contribute to the weight-loss hype that sustains the billion-dollar weight-loss industry. The consumers forever lose in the battle of the bulge.

ALL-ROUND WEIGHT LOSS is holistic weight management in that it covers every aspect of weight loss, beginning with the mind, the body, and then the spirit, to make weight loss natural and permanent. Only holistic weight management guarantees lasting weight loss. Do not waste money on diets, and weight-loss products and programs that do not work. Follow the author's simple but comprehensive holistic approach to wellness and weight management. Remember, if you are healthy in body, mind, and soul, you will not have any weight problem.

Click here to go to the page to get your book ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Stephen Lau

Stop Your Mind from Aging!

Your biological clock is ticking, whether you are conscious of it or not. Your mortality has been pre-programmed into your biological organisms and you body cells. Theoretically, you may have an indefinite lifespan through their division, rejuvenation, and regeneration—if they are still healthy and functional. Although your genes may have pre-determined the speed of your biological clock, you can still slow down the speed of aging—if you still have good health, especially your mental health. Stop your mind from aging!

Whether you like it or not, your biological clock is ticking, and this will happen to various systems in your body: 

• Your heart will pump less blood, and your arteries will become stiffer and less flexible, resulting in high blood pressure—a health problem that often increases with age.
• With less oxygen and nutrients from the heart, your lungs will become less efficient in distributing oxygen to different organs and membranes of your body.
• Your brain size will gradually reduce by approximately 10 percent between the age of 30 and 70. Loss of short-term memory will become more acute.
• Your bone mass will reduce, making it more brittle and fragile. Your body size will shrink as you lose your muscle mass.

As  you continue to age, your memory brain may be overloaded with past negative emotions, such as anger, hatred, and regret, and among others, that have a negative impact on your brain. Learn to let go of your attachments to the past. It is not easy, but is doable if you use Tao wisdom, the ancient wisdom from China to help you let go of your ego-self in order to let go of you attachments, not just emotional attachments, but also material attachments to the physical world you are living in. Let go to have a healthy mind.

“YOU JUST DON’T DIE!” T

his 155-page book is about how to live your life as if everything is a miracle if you just don’t die in your senior years, despite the many changes and challenges confronting you.

Human existence is meaningless without life purpose and human happiness. The pursuit of longevity has been going on since time immemorial. Consciousness holds the key to the success of this pursuit. Consciousness is wisdom of the mind to understand the self, others, as well as how and why certain things happen. 

The objective of this 155-page book is neither to convince you to crave longevity, nor to show you how to live to one hundred and beyond. It simply presents you with the consciousness of living the rest of your years—if you just don’t die!

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

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How to Have a Photographic Memory

Are you having problems with your memory? As you continue to age, your memory naturally deteriorates. But you can stop your memory loss. As a matter of fact, you can even increase your memory. After all, humans use only a small fraction of their brain cells. Use it or lose it! It’s just that simple! Develop a photographic memory at any age, even as you step into seniority.

Memory has everything to do with awareness and mental associations. You must be able to associate the information and input it in your brain, so that you can retrieve the information later. To facilitate the mental processing of the information, you need to do the following:

Concentration

Try not to do too many things too quickly at the same time. This not only creates time-stress but also disorients the mind. Forget about multi-tasking; most probably, by now, you have passed that age!

Visualization

Visualize the information in your mind's eye, which is essentially the process of remembering. Seeing is believing, and a picture is worth a thousand words. If you can vividly visualize something in your mind's eye, your memory of that becomes more vivid, and that memory will be retained much longer.

Creativity and Imagination

Being creative and imaginative is an indispensable asset in good memory. The explanation is that with a creative mind, you can come up with mental associations that are totally outrageous and therefore unforgetable. The more absurd your mental associations are, the longer they will stick in your memory. You can learn to become more creative and imaginative through more practice. If you can think of something extraordinary, you can create out-of-the-ordinary mental associations that you will not easily forget. For example, when you are introduced to someone by the name of “Dustin”, you can create the image of a dustbin, and associate the features of that person with a dustbin. The more ridiculous that image is, the more you will remember that person’s name.

Repetition

Give the information a sound so that you can hear it as well as see it. Repeat the information as much as possible. For example, if you are introduced to a person, repeat the name of that person several times to register it in your brain. However, the process of repeating and remembering may not be as simple and straightforward as you wish: there may be obstacles to hindering the process. These obstacles may include distraction, lack of focus, inadequate motivation, and a stressful environment.

Compartmentalization

Finally, you need to store the information in an organized and systematic way in a mental folder in your memory. The human mind has a great capacity for storage of information. In fact, you have probably used up only about ten percent of brain storage space. To help you remember all types of information as well as to retrieve  the stored information, you need to think logically and categorize systematically the information in your mind's eye. The brain is like a file cabinet, where you put different types of information according to different categories or headings.

The bottom line: to protect and preserve a photographic memory, you must have a healthy brain.  What is good for the heart is always good for the brain because good blood circulation is essential.  Also, live a stress-free life: read my book No Ego No Stress. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Is Depression Synonymous With Unhappiness?

“The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.” Fyodor Dostoevsky

Is depression synonymous with unhappiness? Naturally, when you are depressed, you become unhappy. 

Depression is no more than a personal struggle against unattainable happiness, which is the essence of life and living. Therefore, almost everybody is always in quest of happiness. Sadly, to many, the quest for happiness is forever unreachable—just like a carrot-and-stick in front of a mule; the more pain inflicted on the mule by the stick, the more desire the mule demonstrates to reach out for the forever unattainable carrot in front. In many ways, a depressed individual is just like that mule with self-inflicted pain, which is the depression—the more unhappy that individual feels, the more depressed that individual will become, and the longer that vicious cycle of depression will continue, only plunging that depressed individual deeper into a fathomless black hole of despair and hopelessness. Depression is no more than a mental manifestation of the forever unattainable happiness that an individual strives to seek.

But why is human happiness so elusively and evasively unreachable and unattainable? The answer is, surprisingly, quite simple: happiness has to do with one’s perceptions of life experiences, and thus the thinking mind plays a pivotal role in that respect. That is to say, human happiness and the human mind are inter-related; without profound human wisdom, the pursuit of happiness is like wandering in the wilderness without a compass and a road map. Indeed, true human wisdom holds the key to opening the door to understanding true human happiness.

Given the close connection between depression and happiness, understanding true human happiness may help a depressed individual overcome his or her depression.

 TAO is looking at life not as a series of both happy and unhappy episodes, but simply as a journey of self-discovery and self-awakening to the real meaning of life existence. You are defined not by your words and thoughts, but by the ways you act and react, as well as the impact you may have on others around you. You exist not because you are simply here; you are here in this world to love and to learn how to live, as well as to help one another do the same."

To get your Amazon digital copy, click here; to get your paperback copy, click here.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Your Amazing Brain

The human brain is a miracle. You have an amazing mind! Your brain is made up of about 100 trillion brain cells. These nerve cells called neurons are responsible for releasing chemicals known as neurotransmitters. They are all inter-connected, and, as such, the more connections you have, the greater is your brain power. Yes, you do have an amazing brain, which is a miracle in itself!

Your brain is like a recorder, which records all information on a tape (your neurons). A good memory means your brain knows when to turn on and turn off the recorder. This is crucial. However, the "when" factor is no more than your basic memory skills, without which, you just turn on the recorder all the time. The problem is that you may have just too many tapes: when you want to look for a certain tape, you may have problems finding it right away -- which is reflected in your forgetfulness, or inability to retrieve the desired information when needed.

When you are in your forties (the beginning of senility, whether you like it or not), it takes you longer to recall things. As you continue to age, you will take longer time to process new information. Things could get worse with time: you develop the common tip-of-the-tongue problem in remembering a common word, or a familiar name. Mental deterioration will continue if you live long enough: for example, you don't remember directions, or recall lists, among other daily annoyances and frustrations. Poor memory is associated with old age and the elderly. But you can retard, if not reverse, your mental deterioration, as if everything is a miracle, because you have used up only 10 percent of the billions of your brain cells. This is the good news.

Another piece of good news is that you may not have dementia or Alzheimer's if your brain is still healthy. But you do want to avoid, or at least defer, for as long as you possibly can the occurence of the above-mentioned memory-lapse problems.

Yes, you have an amazing brain. Just learn to harness its power and potential. Mind Fitness Resources:provide everything you need to turn your brain into a miracle.

1. Memory has to do with your senses: sight, sound, smell, and touch. They are your memory skills, that is, tools for you to remember, store, and process information. Therefore, sharpen your senses to sharpen your mind. Protect and preserve your senses, for example, take care of your vision health, which is critical to having good memory, because sight is an important tool for remembering, storing, and processing information.

2. Avoid emotional upheavals, such as depression or stress, which can adversely affect your brain power. Practice daily meditation to calm your nerves, and let your brain relax and rest. Meditation is a powerful tool to optimize your memory skills. Learn how to meditate. 

3. Avoid pharmaceutical drugs wherever possible, especially over-the-counter ones, such as cold remedies and sleep aids. Drugs are dangerous chemicals that may damage your brain cells. Remember, brain cells, unlike other cells, do not regenerate, although you have billions and trillions of them. Use natural herbs and home-made medicine, which are less toxic and have fewer side effects than the chemicals of pharmaceutical drugs.

4. Good nutrition enhances brain health. The rule of thumb is: What is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Eat a diet low in animal fat.

5. Try not to do too many things too quickly at the same time. This not only creates time stress but also disorients the mind. Learn to develop the presence of mind, which is focusing your mind on the present moment. One way to do this is to the mindful of your breaths, that is, consciously aware of your breathing in and breathing out. You can practice this at any time, such as while waiting for the bus or the train.

Your brain is amazing. And you can keep it amazing for as long as you wish. If there is a will, there is a way.Read my most recent book publication: You Just Don't Die! to find out how you can rethink your mind to harness its wisdom to live the rest of your life, if you don't die, and turn it into a miracle. \

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Increase Human Wisdom

The Complete TAO TE CHING in Plain English

TAO wisdom is the profound human wisdom from ancient China more than 2,600 years ago. It is expressed in TAO TE CHING, one of the most translated works in world literature.

There are many translations and interpretations of Lao Tzu’s ancient classic “Tao Te Ching.”  Given that the Chinese language is often capable of multiple meanings, following the exact Chinese translation may make the flow of the language uneven and even difficult to understand. 

The book contains not only the complete 81 chapters of Lao Tzu’s immortal classic but also the author’s own interpretations of the essentials of TAO  wisdom (which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu) for easier intuition and assimilation.

Get this book of wisdom for FREE up to May 8 2017!

To get your FREE digital copy, click here. 

Manage Your Memory Problems

The brain is one of the most important body organs because it controls your life and well-being. But it may deteriorate over the years, causing memory loss. Besides aging, memory loss can be due to many other factors, such as brain damage, alcohol, constipation, dehydration, depression, and drugs.

Learn to manage memory problems:

• Learn to process new information step by step, and one step at a time. That is, allow yourself to get the hang of it before you store it in your mind.

• Get off the beaten track from time to time in order to stimulate your brain. Do something out of the ordinary every now and then.

• Engage in challenging endeavors, such as a crossword puzzle, learning a new musical instrument or a new language., 

• Reduce stress, which interferes with concentration and staying focused.

• Use meditation to quiet the mind and to avoid compulsive thinking.

• Avoid the principle of "present-mindedness" to avoid absent-mindedness. Practice concentration, and appreciate living in the present moment.

You may have a great body, but you also need a great mind to go with it. To have a great and powerful mind, you need to exercise your cognitive faculties. Writing (writing a blog), reading, sleeping (you store your memories in the deepest dream state, known as Rapid Eye Movement)), gardening (sharpening brain power with plant names, growth characteristics, soil conditions, etc.), music listening and playing  (changing neuron activities and enhancing sensory skills).

Memory has everything to do with mental awareness. Therefore, learn how to improve your memory through concentration, creativity and imagination, and visualization.

Of course, memory has also to do with nutrients, such as iron deficiency, which may affect your brain chemicals, and antioxidants to prevent the formation of free radicals that may damage brain cells.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © Stephen Lau

Spiritual Wisdom to Ask the Right Questions

“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Ronald Reagan 

To empower the mind, we must ask ourselves many questions and seek answers to the questions asked. When we ask, we may also receive—just as Jesus said: “Seek and you shall find.” That said, many seek but still do not find, just as many ask questions but do not receive answers because they do not have spiritual wisdom to guide them in what they seek and in the questions they ask. To illustrate, millions of people lined up for the Power Ball lottery, but they did not find what they were looking for. So, asking questions and seeking answers require not only human wisdom expressed in the intent to ask, but also, more importantly, spiritual wisdom manifested in the willingness to receive the answers. Without both, there is no true human happiness.

The word "happiness" has its origin from the Icelandic word "happ" meaning "chance" or "luck." That is to say, there is no absolute guarantee in life that the search for happiness will result in finding it, although nearly everyone seeks happiness as one of the main goals and life purposes.

Seeking answers to all the questions asked requires spiritual wisdom to show us that we are all living in a material world full of problems, that solving others' problems does not help us solve our own, and that solving our own problems does not guarantee we will not have any more problems to be solved as we continue our life journey. Spiritual wisdom can only be intuited in the presence of God.

The Human Flaw

Human unhappiness comes from the human flaw, which is human attachment to the many material things in the physical world they are living in. Attachment is only natural and instinctive, but too much attachment may also become a burden to the mind and the soul—the human flaw that leads to asking the wrong questions and thus receiving the wrong answers. Letting go of human attachment may help knowing the right way to finding both human wisdom and spiritual wisdom, which may ultimately point the pathway to attaining true human happiness.

It is also important to know that we all have a body, a mind, and a soul living in the physical world. They are all inter-connected and inter-dependent on one another for co-existence in order to live and survive in the physical world. The mind, the body, and the soul all work together as a system of life energy. The free flow or stagnation of this life energy is dependent on the “state of being” of the body, the mind, and the soul at each moment. It is this moment-to-moment alignment in the body, the mind, and the soul, as well as their alignment with one another, that creates the unique state of being, which is a miracle in itself.

On the other hand, the misalignment of the body, the mind, and the soul may stem from the human flaw of attachment, which may adversely affect the body; given the close body-mind connection, the mind contaminated by the body may ultimately infest the soul too.

The body is like a wild horse, unbridled, running here, there, and everywhere. The mind is like the horseman, riding on its back, trying to rein it in and bringing it back on the right track; to do just that, human wisdom is required of the horseman. The soul, existing in a totally different dimension with its inherent spiritual wisdom, supervises both the horse and the horseman, providing the latter with a compass and a roadmap so that both the horse and the horseman may continue the journey on the right track and reach their final destination.

What role does the human flaw play?

The human flaw may negatively affect the behavior and personality of the horse, and thus challenging the skill and horsemanship of the rider. This may lead both the horse and the rider onto the wrong track and get lost. 

The bottom line: without the wisdom to know what true happiness is, we will never find it no matter how hard we may try; without the wisdom to understand who we are, we will never be happy because true happiness comes from the true self with both human and spiritual wisdom.

Read my book: The Wisdom of Letting Go. Find out how and why human attachments are obstacles to living a life of balance and happiness. Get the wisdom to let go of your emotional and material attachments in order to live as if everything is a miracle.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Seeing With Your Eyes, Not With Your Brain

If you are seeing with your eyes, and not with your brain, you may not have depression. 

Millions of people are suffering from mental depression, and you are not alone. There are millions of people all over the world who have this disorder.  Just don’t deny it, and don’t stigmatize it!

Depression is one of the most devastating mental illnesses. Unlike other physical ailments, depression deprives an individual of an identify:  the individual can go on for years without getting anything done, or having any idea what to do with life; drifting from one thing to another, and not knowih ng what to want from life. Spiraling down into a black bottomless pit of despair, the individual simply loses the capability to live well. This is what happens to a depressed individual.

In depression, you tend to see things with your brain, instead of with your eyes; similarly, you hear with your brain and not with your ears. Perception is all in the mind. But, unfortunately, these deceptive perceptions become so "real" to you that you begin to "believe" in them, especially when they continually talk to you as internal dialogues. Changing your thoughts to change your mind is the only solution. This is not easy, but that is the reality.

People with mental depression usually have muddled thinking: there are too many thoughts filtering through their minds. That is, they have a tendency to analyze or to explain their perceptions so as to make some sense of or to draw some conclusions from what is going through their minds. Unfortunately, analyzing or thinking through what is in the mind will only create more mental blockages or internal dialogues that only perpetuate the inertness and aggravate the sense of loss, which are the characteristics of a depressive mind. Getting rid of your many internal dialogues may help your depressive mind. Once the mind becomes uncluttered, depressive thoughts may dissipate. If you wish to heal your depression, you need to heal your mind first. It is always mind over matter.

Those suffering from mental depression must have undergone some traumatic life experiences that triggered their depression. Depression does not just happen to any individual without a reason. Letting go is the answer: Instead of explaining or striving to explain any given situation or event, just learn to let go. The ability to let go of what you are desperately holding on to holds the key to recovery from depression.  Unfortunately, letting go is easier said than done. The good news is that you can use self-suggestions to change your subconscious mind, thereby changing your conscious mind to let go of any negative emotions and thoughts you may have. Your conscious mind might have relinquished all depressive thoughts of past experiences, but your subconscious mind may still be clinging on to them like leech.

The bottom line: learn the wisdom of letting go—letting go of all your attachments, of your negative emotions and feelings in the bag and baggage you have been carrying with you all these years. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Empower the Mind to Heal

Healing always begin with the mind first, and not the body. Empower your mind to heal any disease, in particular, depression.   

The human brain has about 15 billion cells, and you may have utilized only 10 to 15 percent of your brain power, so there is still plenty of room for enhancing your mind power. In other words, your brain has great potential power for mind healing.

You can significantly increase your brain power with practices and exercises to train your brain. Although everyone's brain differs, everyone can empower the mind, given the proper tools and training.

The mind—the consciousness of the brain—has two components: the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind.

Remember, your conscious mind makes decisions, but it is your subconscious mind directs your conscious mind. That is to say, in your conscious mind, you are fully aware of your actions and their respective consequences; in your subconscious mind, you only respond spontaneously to repetitions of words and images in the form of affirmations and visualization.

Always use positive affirmations and creative visualization to change your subconscious mind, instrumental in changing your conscious mind to begin changing your lifestyle to initiate the healing process, or to change the prognosis of your disease.

The laws of nature determine how things happen. One of the laws of nature is habitual stimulus: a certain stimulus, habitually applied time after time, may prove to produce a certain predictable result. Therefore, you can shape your thoughts into definite patterns, and act accordingly through consistency and regularity. In that way, you can control what you think in order to change your habits, that is, consciously changing your thoughts. Unlike animals following only their natural instincts, you have the capability to control your mind by manipulating your thoughts through repetitions of self-suggestions in the form of both words and visual images.

Use your subliminal messages to conduct an internal dialogue with your subconscious mind in order to achieve your personal goals in life, to enhance your well-being, and to your promote physical and spiritual wellness. In short, use subliminal messages to benefit your living for life.

A subliminal message or self-suggestion is an idea or notion that elicits a response in thought or behavior. It can derive from another person, such as a comment or criticism by that person; it can stem from an object, such as a bill requiring some action. A suggestion can, of course, come from the self in the form of self-talk or self-persuasion, such as when you are telling yourself that it is all right to eat junk food occasionally (which, incidentally, is a negative self-suggestion).

A subliminal message is an effective means to communicate with the inner or subconscious mind, which is powerful in that it not only runs the autonomic functions of your body but also controls your immune system. It can bring about a positive change in your thoughts and thinking through the production of endorphins (feel-good hormones), thereby making you feel happy; or it can induce negativity, adversely changing your general outlook of life and the self.

Life is full of choices, and a self-suggestion can indeed affect your choices, and hence the quality of your life.

For a subliminal message to be effective and powerful, however, it has to be repeated over and over again until the intention is absorbed and registered in the subconscious mind.

Subliminal messages have to be simple, relevant, and realistic. You must strongly believe in the veracity of those messages. In other words, you must be honest with yourself in believing that those subliminal messages are achievable goals in your life. Buying a lottery ticket and believing that it will ultimately change your life is not a realistic subliminal message.

Subliminal messages in the form of words have to be repeated over and over again until their powerful intentions are deeply ingrained and etched in your subconscious mind. Simplicity, consistency, and persistency are the characteristics critical to their success.

Subliminal messages in the form of powerful images and symbols are most effective and powerful when your body and mind are in a relaxed state, such as in a deep meditation, during which your mind is free from any five-sense activity.

Mental commitment is mental responsibility, without which nothing can be accomplished. In life, there is no free lunch: you must work at it in order to achieve it. Use subliminal messages to promote mental commitment to change your thinking:

I am a responsible person and I am totally committed to changing my thoughts.

I am staying committed until I reach my goal to change my thinking through daily subliminal messages.

I am committed to empowering my mind with subliminal messages in words and images.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Right Choice of Thoughts

According to Descartes, the great French philosopher, your mind thinks, and you create your thoughts, which are then expressed in language or words. You can choose your words, just as you can choose your thoughts.

As a simple illustration, here are some plain facts about my grandfather:

He came from China to the United States at the end of the 19th century. He studied at Cornell University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in economics. He became a successful banker, and started his own banking business in New York City. He made a great fortune, and began investing in real estate, making millions of dollars Then came the Great Depression, and he lost everything because he had to pay tax for all his real estate investments.

With an implicit presumptive mindset, my predictive thoughts with expectations could be: "If it hadn't been for the Great Depression, he might have become a real estate billionaire. He could have left my father—his only son—a  great fortune, and we would have been very rich. . . . . .How unfair that he had to pay all the land and real estate taxes that bankrupted him!"

With a different mindset, my thoughts could be: "Wealth and good fortune are unpredictable, and nothing in this material world is permanent. So, we should be grateful for whatever we presently have."

We all have a choice when we process data and information in our minds: with consciousness, we can always add or delete our own assumptions, expectations, and predictions. Again, with consciousness, we can choose to think about it, or simply reject it. For example, if my thoughts about my grandfather tend to be negative, then I could reject them whenever they pop up in my mind; on the hand, if my thoughts about my grandfather are positive, then I could  share the story of my grandfather with my friends.

The bottom line: we all have a choice about what is happening in our minds. If an unpleasant past experience pops up in  the brain, make a conscious effort to distract it by thinking about something else instead. We all have a choice.

If You Just Don’t Die!

If you just don’t die—"How should you live the rest of your life to overcome your daily problems and life challenges?" To do just that, you need the right choice of thoughts

The objective of this book is neither to convince you to crave longevity, nor to show you how to live to one hundred and beyond. It simply presents you with the consciousness of living the rest of your years as if everything is a miracle—if you just don’t die!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau