The Depression Basics

Depression is no respecter of persons. Millions and millions of people worldwide are afflicted with this mental disease.

You must understand the complications and complexities of this as-old-as-age mental disorder. First and foremost, you must know the depression basics.

The Depression Basics 

Depression is a serious medical illness affecting more than 15 million American adults, and nearly twice as many women (6.7 million) as men (3.2 million) suffering from depressive episodes each year.

Depression can occur at any age, including childhood, the teenage years, and adulthood. This debilitating disorder is more than an abnormal emotional experience of sadness, loss, or hopelessness – it can interfere persistently and significantly with an individual’s thoughts, behavior, mood, activity, and physical health. We are living in a world of depression.

Depression may include anxiety attacks, panic attacks, mood disorders, such as bipolar depression. Different types may have different symptoms and varying degrees of severity, and there are significant individual differences in the symptoms and severity.

Risk factors

Some of the risk factors of mental depression may include:

• A life-changing event, such as the loss of a loved one or divorce.
• Chronic illness.
• Certain medications, including some high blood pressure drugs.
• Alcohol abuse.
• A history of child abuse.
• Sustained problems at home or at work.
• Physical trauma.
• Other family members with a prior history of depression.
• Chronic stress or anxiety.

 Causes of depression

There is no single cause of mental depression. Psychological, biological, and environmental factors may all contribute to its development. Generally, depression may be caused by one or more of the following:

Genetics

There is scientific evidence of a genetic predisposition to mental depression. When there is a family history of the illness, there is an increased risk for developing depression. However, not everyone with a genetic predisposition develops mental depression.

Brain chemical imbalance

Norepinephrine,  serotonin, and dopamine are three neurotransmitters (chemical messengers that transmit electrical signals between brain cells) are implicated in the cause of mental depression.

Diseases

According to a recent study, half of all people with advanced or terminal cancer suffer from some form of depression, anxiety or adjustment disorders. According to researchers, medical management of cancer has improved significantly over the past 10 years, but mental health care has not been fully integrated into cancer patients’ treatment plans. Research studies show that depression and anxiety can adversely affect a cancer patient’s quality of life and attitudes towards living and dying even more than physical pain.

Hormones

Your mood, memory, and other cognitive functions depend on the efficiency of your neurotransmission, which is the communication between brain cells. Hormones in your body play a pivotal role in regulating chemicals in your neurotransmission —norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine — which in turn regulates your moods. 

Your estrogen level has significant impact on your brain not only in enhancing the growth and survival of your brain cells, but also in regulating your emotional states, such as anxiety and depression.

As women age, their estrogen levels decline, and they are more vulnerable to depression. As men age, they, too, are at greater risk of major depression due to declining testosterone.

Your thyroid hormone regulates the metabolism of your entire body. Low thyroid hormone levels are both a cause and effect of low estrogen, thus leading to mental depression and mood disorders, such as bipolar depression.

Nutritional deficiencies

Depression may be caused by nutritional deficiency. For example, magnesium deficiency is responsible for neurotransmission abnormalities. All chemical reactions in the body require an enzyme system to initiate the biochemical reaction, and magnesium is a critical co-factor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions in the human body. In addition, magnesium is responsible for neurotransmission abnormalities — the precursors of different types of mental disorders.

 Environmental toxins

Research studies have linked environmental toxins, such as chemicals, pesticides, pollutants, to depression.

Even some commonly prescribed drugs, such as sleeping pills, high-blood pressure drugs, antibiotisoics, and painkillers are implicated in neurotransmission abnormalities.

New Perspectives of Depression

Is depression really a mental disorder? Are antidepressants the only solution to the disorder?  Can one use the mind to control the disorder? According to Lao Tzu, one has to go "through" the depression in order to get out of the depression. 

.Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

How to Weather Your Life Storms

How to Weather Your Life Storms

As you continue to age, you will inevitably encounter many life problems and challenges—this is the reality of life and living. As a super-ager, you need the wisdom not only to weather these life storms but also to create the life you want in spite of their life storms.  

When your life changes abruptly, it can be like a huge storm that shakes you to the core. Your first task is to weather the storm that has happened to you.

First and foremost, you will have to learn to cope with shock, avoid emotional meltdown, and alleviate stress.

Always remember the wisdom of the wise:

”When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”

~ Henry Ford

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

 - Napoleon Hill

Here are some of the strategies that will help you weather your life storms:

1. Keep warm. When you experience shocking news, your body may get very cold and you start to tremble and shiver. Make sure you feel comfortably warm.

2. Let others care for you. When you are in a crisis situation, it’s important to allow friends and family members to care for you.

3. Seek medical help if necessary, especially when you can’t eat or sleep over several days.

4. Talk to your friends. Empty what is inside you, and llet it all hang out in front of your friends.

5. Don’t make big decisions at this stage. Defer any major decision until you feel more in control.

Weathering life storms may also prevent the devastating impact of any emotional meltdown, resulting in mood changing, irritability, a weakened immune system, loss of appetite or food addiction.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Wisdom of Letting Go

The Wisdom of Letting Go

The pursuit of human happiness is forever elusive and evasive. Why? It requires human wisdom to ask the right questions, and spiritual wisdom to seek self-enlightening answers to the questions asked throughout our life journey. It is all about the thinking mind. Increase your mind power to let go of all emotional and material attachments, without which happiness is forever unattainable.

Human wisdom comes from the mind: an empty mindset with reverse thinking; mindfulness living in the present with no expectation and no picking; and spontaneity with understanding of the natural cycle of all things, that is, what goes up must also come down. The ancient Tao wisdom from China may enhance human wisdom.

With human wisdom, one may see the wisdom of letting go of all attachments in the material world. Attachments are the raw materials with which we often create the self-delusive realities of the ego-self. Letting go of the ego and all its attachments may let us see the true nature of everything: who we really are, not who we wish we were, and what we really need, not what we desire.

The ego is the human flaw that not only undermines the natural human wisdom but also distorts the lens through which we see the world around us. Therefore, we need spiritual wisdom to complement the inadequate human wisdom, to guide the soul on our life journey. Spiritual wisdom can only be attained through trust and obedience to the Creator, which is letting go to let God.

The above is what this book is all about.

If this book is right for you, you can get it from AMAZON. Click here for the digital copy and here for the paperback edition.

Stephen Lau     

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Empower the Mind with Subliminal Messages

Empower the Mind with Subliminal Messages 

To live long to be a super-ager, you must empower your mind with subliminal messages to live a positive life as if everything is a miracle.

Life is always min d over matter. After all, the mind controls everything: how you think, how your experience what happens to you, how you perceive your past and present experiences, how you anticipate your future expectations, how you make decisions and take actions that affect your future experiences.

You are who you are and what you have now become is all in the mind; essentially, you are the sum of your thoughts. But how does one control one's mind? Or how does the mind think?

You mind responds to your experiences from your five senses: sight, sound, small, taste, and touch. These sensations are then embedded in your mind, which is made up of a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. Theoretically, you are in perfect control of your conscious mind; that is, you consciously decide what experiences you want to remember or to be stored in your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind, on the other hand, simply absorbs indiscriminately all your mental perceptions and reactions to all your experiences; in other words, it does not reason or analyze your mental input. In actual life, your conscious makes decisions about how you think and what you do. However, it is your subconscious mind that directs your conscious mind; in other words, your subconscious mind controls your conscious mind, although you may not be totally aware of it. 

Therefore, it is critical that you know how to control your subconscious mind, instrumental in directing your conscious mind. To empower the mind is to control your thinking mind by providing it with an optimum environment for it to function efficiently and effectively.

Empower the mind with subliminal messages, which work as a mild form of self-hypnosis—slowly and gradually sending suggestions into your subconscious mind to change any incorrect self-beliefs, wrong ways of thinking, and even undesirable patterns of behavior. These subliminal messages not only allow you to bypass your "logical" conscious mind but also to overcome any resistance that may hold you back, thereby enabling you to access your subconscious mind with positive messages for mind empowering. Because of this state-of-the-art technology, you can develop in ways which would not be normally possible with your conscious personal development alone. Subliminal messages are powerful tools for mind empowering. Science and technology have made it possible to increase mind power to live a better life.

Once you have mastered the subliminal messages, you can master your mind by controlling its thoughts. Remember, you are your thoughts, and your life is a byproduct of you thoughts. As Napoleon Hill, the famous writer, said: "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Yes, you can achieve success in your career, weight loss, relationships, or just about anything. The possibilities are limitless.

Subliminal MP3s

With over 200 subliminal MP3s for immediate download. Get your FREE copies to change your life for the better. 

Change your life with subliminal messages! 

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Coconut Oil to Prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases

Recently, research scientists have come up with significant findings indicating the potency of MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil in fighting Alzheimer's disease. 

Alzheimer's disease is also known as diabetes of the brain; that is, the degeneration and dysfunction of brain cells due to insulin deficiency and resistance, just like diabetes with its malfunctioning insulin affecting the body. 

Recently, scientist have discovered that the liver can turn MCT oil, when consumed in abundance, into an alternative fuel for the brain, known as ketones. Given that MCT oil is extracted from coconut, scientists believe that coconut oil is capable of providing an alternative fuel to insulin for the brain to help fight and reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

A Simple Coconut Meal

Pour 2 Tbs of coconut oil into some raw oatmeal. Add some fresh coconut milk, and soak the oatmeal overnight.

Next morning, eat your oatmeal; you can add a hard-boiled egg, fruits, and nuts, or anything that is your favorite to your oatmeal.

Preferably, stop eating for 6 to 8 hours; that is, skip your lunch; or fast at least once a week.

Use coconut oil in your cooking; add coconut oil to your tea or coffee; make fruit smoothies with coconut oil or milk.

It is important to start your coconut diet slowly and gradually. Begin with one-half spoon, and increase up to 3 to 6 Tbs of coconut oil.

Bottom line: coconut oil is beneficial to your overall health.

According to the book "Coconut Oil Secrets Exposed" by Charles Chou and Debbie Ng, both a patient with breast cancer, and a patient with diabetic rotten leg were completely cured after consuming one to two cups of coconut oil daily for several months.

Prevent or reverse Alzheimer's disease with a coconut oil diet. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, including a better memory to be a super-ager.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Aging and the Mind

Aging begins as soon as you reach the peak of your performance curve in your life. In general, men peak their performance curve in their late twenties, while women peak theirs in their mid-thirties. That may be one of the reasons why women live longer than men. The performance curve is a turning point in the body when it just does not grow any more and, instead, starts the aging process. It is believed that after the age of thirty-five, each biologic function declines by approximately 5 percent every 10 years. Over time, deterioration accelerates, resulting in diseases and disorders.

Scientists have striven to measure the rate of aging in humans. They have been able to come up with an average number, but averages cannot take into account the significant variations among individuals; even the variations in the elderly are so great that there is no meaningful average at all. In other words, numbers are not only unreliable but also misleading. A case in point, according to a study at Harvard University, there was a 5 percent decrease in IQ every ten years; however, another scientific study indicated that some individuals actually improved their IQ even at the age of eighty. So, how could one explain that apparent contradiction?

Does the speed of human aging have to do with genes? Yes, absolutely! But the genetic factor accounts for only about 25 percent of your aging process: the rest has to do with your lifestyle and behavioral choices. The older you are, the more your choices determine how long and how well you are going to live—in other words, the speed of your aging process.

If you wish to live longer with a better quality of life, focus on your lifestyle and behavioral choices. You are your choices, and you become what you choose. Living is all about your choices—a sum of all the good and bad choices you have made. Truly, we all make bad choices every now and then, but there is no reason why we should continue with the bad choices we know we have made. Understandably, you may have the will to make the right choices, but your mind is weak. This is where you need to learn how to harness your brain power to turn things around in your favor. 

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How and Why Meditation Can Change Your Life

There are many reasons why you should practice meditation every day: meditation can relax your body and mind, as well as enhance your spiritual connection. But, perhaps, the most important reason is that you can use meditation to change your perspectives—or rather, to see things as they really are.

Here is the explanation:

The human mind—the consciousness of the brain—has two components: the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind. All your experiences and your perceptions of what happens in your life impacted by your five senses are stored in both your conscious mind and subconscious mind. But there is a big difference in how the conscious mind and the subconscious mind may affect you positively or negatively. 

Your conscious mind filters all your thoughts—what you think is appropriate or relevant for your mental storage. In other words, your conscious mind consciously chooses what it wants to remember. Your subconscious mind, on the other hand, simply absorbs all your mental perceptions and reactions to all your experiences; it does not have the power to reason or to analyze any mental input. That is to say, it may not be able to tell the myths from the truths, or half-truths from the whole truths. Yet, it is your subconscious mind that controls your whole being, because your subconscious mind dominates your conscious mind. 

 What has the subconsciousness to do with meditation?

In meditation, you enter the subconscious mind, and give yourself an opportunity to rummage all your thoughts absorbed and stored in the conscious mind, and to validate them. In meditation, you still your distracted mind, riddled with thoughts of the past and the future by focusing your mind on awareness—mindfulness of what is happening around you, such as your breathing, your bodily sensations, and your thoughts. Meditation is all about re-focusing the mind on what is important and discarding what is irrelevant or insignificant in the subconscious mind. In other words, meditation helps you see things in perspective.

In meditation, you find the quiet or stillness between sounds and thoughts and experiences. It is this underlying quietness—so quiet that you can almost hear it—that forms a link between you and your sensations and thoughts. 

In addition to sitting still to meditate, you can also learn how to apply meditation in almost anything you do in life. To illustrate, you can meditate while you are walking, instead of listening to the radio or your CD. This is how you can meditate while you are doing your daily walk:

• As you begin walking, let go of the outside world.

• Focus on your breathing: listen to the relaxed sound of your breathing in and breathing out.

• Make you walk slow and purposeful. As you walk, observe each step that you are making. Notice the physical sensation of your feet, as well as the way your arms are swinging back and forth, brushing against your body.

• If distracting thoughts come, do not deliberately dismiss them; instead, re-focus your awareness on your breathing and physical sensations. Continue to walk.

 In this way, you can turn almost any everyday activity into meditative nature to enhance your awareness and clarity of mind, which can be life-transforming in that it changes your perspectives about almost anything that happens to you. Your senses will come to life; you will see how things change from moment to moment, so you have a better understanding of what is important and what is “real” in your life; you will also find it easier to let go of things you found difficult to let go in the past.

Yes, meditation is life-changing in that it changes your perspectives of how you view your life and what is happening to and around your life.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How to Communicate with God

How to Communicate with God

To find faith, we need to communicate with God. Good communication is always two-way communication.

To communicate with God, we need to talk to God in joy as well as in sorrow. Quite often, we talk to God only in sorrow, when we feel depressed and no-way-out; we petition our requests to make God give us what we want. Seldom do we share our joy with God; we expect our blessings from Him to be our rights as His children.

Have a heart of gratitude when you communicate with God.

To communicate with God, we need to talk to God as well as to listen to Him. In prayer, we want everything our way, instead of God’s way. We see only the projected result in our mind’s eye, and we stubbornly refuse to listen to what God has prepared for us.

Learn to will all things He wills, to seek His will and not your own.

Your Relationship with God

Good communication with God can bring about friendship, and friendship leads to intimacy. If we are intimate with God, faith is within our reach. God would not hold something out to us, beckon us to receive, and then gradually withdraw or withhold it from us. It is we who half-heartedly back out in our friendship and intimacy with God.  

Learn how to improve your relationship with God, no matter what your current relationship is.

Stephen Lau