Empower Your Mind to Live Longer

Empower your mind to live your life as if everything is a miracle in order to stay younger rand healthier for longer.

Aging is difficult to define, but you will know it when you see it or experience it yourself. Aging is a steady decline in health, which is instrumental in shortening lifespan; and the aging process is the duration during which such changes occur. Aging occurs throughout most of lifespan. Such a process is an accumulation of changes, which may be subtle or even drastic, that progressively lead to disease, degeneration, and, ultimately, death.

Scientists have come up with different theories explaining why and how you age. Daily living wisdom is an understanding of the theories of aging so as to defer and delay your own aging process.

The free radical theory of aging

This theory is based on the damage of cells due to cumulative free radicals, leading to disease and, ultimately, death.

Free radicals are molecules within the human cells. Due to regular oxidation (e.g. breathing), and other environmental factors (e.g. tobacco smoke), these molecules become damaged and unstable, and begin to affect other healthy cells close by, creating many more similar unstable free radicals, and thus initiating a chain reaction of cell damage by free radicals.

Damaged cells lead to disease and ultimate death.

The genetic theory of aging

This theory is based on the pre-programming of human genes to induce aging and death—your Creator ensures that you will not be immortal. Therefore, aging is not the consequence of wear and tear over the years. The fact of the matter is that you are not meant to live forever.

Other than disease and other environmental factors, there is no great variation in the lifespan of humans, and this may partially explain the role of genes in aging.

The hormone theory of aging

This theory is based on the gradual changes in the human body due to the decline and degeneration of the endocrine system, which is responsible for producing hormones to regulate many body functions and processes. Changes in the human hormone production, such as menopause, account for the changes responsible for aging.

The immunity theory of aging

This theory is based on the failure of the immune system to give adequate protection against contaminants, viruses, and stress, among other agents contributing to a weakened or compromised immune system.

This theory attests to the important role of the immune system in longevity health and overall wellness.

The rate of living theory of aging

This theory is based on the rate of breathing: faster oxygen metabolism leads to a shorter lifespan. In the animal kingdom, rodents, with the fastest heartbeats have the shortest lifespan, while tortoises with the slowest breaths live the longest.

This theory vindicates that breathing right is one of the key factors in longevity in humans. Learning to breathe right is critical to remaining younger and healthier for longer.

To sum up, the human aging process is best explained not by one single theory but by a combination of these theories.

You may live to 100 and beyond, if you just don’t die! But no matter how long you may live, learn the art of life and living and live as if everything is a miracle.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Empower Your Mind to Ask Questions

Human Wisdom to Ask Questions

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” Thomas Berger

Albert Einstein once said, “Thinking is difficult; that’s why so few people do it.” Thinking is a process of self-intuition through asking relevant questions to create self-awareness and self-introspection. It is the natural habit of the human mind to try to solve problems by asking questions. Through solving problems, the mind can then make things happen. Asking relevant questions is self-empowering human wisdom because it creates the intent to learn, to discover, and then to change. Without change, life becomes static, boring, and ultimately unhappy.

Know the importance of asking questions, and continue to ask meaningful and relevant questions throughout your life.

“Am I happy?” This may be one of the most important questions that nearly all of us ask ourselves every now and then throughout our life journey. After all, happiness is one of the most important elements in the art of living well.

To live well, we need to ask ourselves many other self-probing questions as we continue our life journey in order to find out: who we really are, and not who we think or wish we were; what we really need, and not what we want from life; why certain things happened while certain things did not happen to us. Without knowing the answers to those questions asked, we can never be genuinely happy because we will always be looking for the unreal and the unattainable.

In many ways, the human brain is like a computer program. Your whole being is like the computer hardware with the apparatus of a mind, body, and senses. The lenses through which you see yourself, as well as others and the world around you, are the software that has been programmed by your thoughts, your past and present experiences, as well as your own desires and expectations. In other words, you—and nobody else—have programmed your own mindset; all these years, you may have been trapped in a constricted sense of the self that has prevented you from knowing and being who you really are. That is to say, your “conditioned” mind may have erroneously made you "think" and  even "believe" that you are who and what you are right now; but nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, by asking relevant questions, you may have the human wisdom to "change" that pre-conditioned mindset, enabling you to separate the truths from the half-truths or even the myths that you have created for yourself voluntarily or involuntarily all these years.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

How to Seek God's Wisdom

As you continue to age, you may want to seek God's wisdom. But how do you seek God's wisdom in a secular world?

The Bible is the Word of God. Through the Bible, God speaks to each and every one of us. But God's wisdom is often beyond the understanding of man. Jesus often uses parables to explain Biblical truths because it is not readily available to the human mind; God's wisdom is always profound and unfathomable to many.

To pursue God's wisdom in the Bible, understanding human wisdom is the "first" step. 

It is true that if we diligently and fervently pursue God's wisdom, such as reading the Bible, God will use the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds. However, we may require human wisdom to overcome our disbelief first before there is further understanding.

To seek God's wisdom, first and foremost, we need to know who we really are. Unfortunately, many of us do not really know who we are, let alone what we want in our lives. 

Why is that? It is because human thinking is imperfect. According to the famous statement "I think, and therefore I am" of Descartes, the great French philosopher, we think and therefore we become what we think we are, that is, the product of our thoughts. However, that statement is only partially true: due to flawed human thinking, we may not be the sum of our thoughts, because our thoughts are only partially true. Therefore, we are not really  who and what we think we are.

"True" human wisdom is an endeavor to understand who we are and what we need. Understanding the self helps us understand the true nature of things, or the laws of nature. Without understanding the natural laws of this world, human sufferings and ordeals in life often become stumbling blocks to understanding spiritual wisdom. Indeed, many of us find ourselves often asking the questions: Why me? Where is God?

Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching explains the essentials of human wisdom, which involve "reverse" thinking from the "conditioned" mindset of conventional wisdom. He explains how to acquire "true" human wisdom, without which it there is little or no intent to seek God's wisdom, let alone understanding the wisdom of God expressed in the Bible.

Understanding human wisdom begins with the mind -- an empty and inquisitive mind with the intent to ask questions to find out who we are and what we want. Asking questions enhance awareness, which is an important ingredient of human wisdom. With acute awareness, we develop clarity of mind. Heroes in movies often know the right thing to do because they have clarity of mind. In life, no amount of training can compensate for clarity of mind, which enables you to separate the truths from the half-truths or myths

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Empower Your Mind to Avoid Drug

Empower Your Mind to Avoid Drugs 

Empower your mind to avoid taking any drugs, including those over the counter. Drugs may give you instant relief from any disease symptoms you are suffering from, but they do not cure the disease. Worse, they may be the underlying cause of many other diseases.

Millions of people are suffering needlessly as a direct consequence of the unconscionable zeal of the pharmaceutical industry to rake up billions of dollars of profit aided and abetted by scientists and researchers who have been paid handsomely, even to the extent of falsifying test and research results in some cases.

To illustrate, three of the top executives of Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misleading the public on the risk of addiction and abuse associated with the painkiller drug OxyContin. That was yet another scandal of pharmaceutical companies doctoring research findings of the safety of drugs and masking their undesirable side effects.

For decades, unreliable drug tests have abounded in the medical and pharmaceutical research community.

It is not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to "influence" researchers through coercion, incentive, and even threat, to produce the desired results in clinical trials. Fabricating data, such as in the case of OxyContin, is no surprise to the pharmaceutical industry.

Clinical trials, usually involving a small number of people, may not truly reflect the outcome of those who will ultimately be using those drugs after their approval.

In addition, drugs tested on animal models may be biased and even irrelevant. An artificially induced disease in non-human animal models may yield results incompatible to a spontaneous, naturally occurring human disease. In short, there is no absolute safety or reliability of pharmaceutical drugs.

The pharmaceutical companies and the FDA have convinced not only the medical establishment but also the gullible public that costly drugs are the answer to all their health problems, despite their dubious track records and often-deadly side effects.

The use, misuse, and abuse of drugs account for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths each year in the United States. And do you still believe that pharmaceutical drugs provide all the answers to your health problems?  

Dr. O. W. Holmes, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, had this to say regarding pharmaceuticals putting you in harm’s way: “If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be bad for the fish and good for humanity.” Dr. Holmes’ statement speaks volumes of the potential harm of pharmaceuticals.

When you give your body a drug that replaces a substance your body is capable of making itself, you body then becomes weaker, not stronger, and begins not only to manufacture less of that substance, but also to become more dependent on the outside source, which is usually the drug.

Unfortunately, no drug can give you insight into the circumstance that created your problems. At best, it can only temporarily reduce the physical pain created by your situation. A drug "cures" your symptoms at the expense of creating more potential symptoms down the road. For a while, you may be symptom-free, but soon enough new symptoms may emerge, requiring yet a more potent drug to deal with them.

According to Dr. John Tilden, author of Toxemia, the first and only cause of disease is toxemia, which is the accumulation of toxic wastes over a long period of time. In other words, toxicity retained and stored in our bodies is the common denominator for the causes of all human diseases. 

Stephen Lau

Copyright©2018 by Stephen Lau

Empower the Mind to Deal with a Cancer Diagnosis

To be diagnosed with cancer is a traumatic experience. Empower your mind to deal with a cancer diagnosis.

Conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, may not work for long-term cancer recovery. The reason is simple: they are toxic.

The conventional treatment-remission-treatment-remission approach to cancer healing often results in many adverse side effects that further aggravate the disease, leading to a vicious cycle of treatment and remission. When a cancer patient is in remission, the clinical signs may indicate that the patient is cancer-free. However, in reality, the dormant cancer cells may still be hidden somewhere in the body of the patient. The toxic environment created by the toxic treatments only help cancer cells come back with a vengeance.

Alternative cancer treatments, on the other hand, have the advantage over conventional cancer treatments in that they are non-toxic, so they can be administered continuously even long after the confirmation of clinical signs of remission. Therefore, a paradigm shift of cancer treatments from toxic to non-toxic is necessary for long-term recovery. Remember, cancer is a disease with multiple causes due to internal imbalance and disharmony. A holistic approach to cancer holds the key to curing cancer. Focusing exclusively on eradicating cancer cells from the body is not conducive to long-term cancer recovery.

There are several reasons why many cancer patients are reluctant to opt for alternative cancer treatments.

The most obvious reason is that many people have been indoctrinated with the concept that conventional medicine can work wonders, especially in this day and age with the advancement and state-of-the-art of medical science and technology.

Another reason is that Western medical doctors seldom recommend alternative cancer treatments to their patients for fear of lawsuits and challenging their own medical expertise. In addition, many doctors know little or nothing about alternative cancer treatments.

Yet another reason is that it is a myth that many alternative cancer treatments are non-scientific and never validated by qualified physicians. Nothing is more further from the truth. For example, Essiac tea, one of the most popular and efficacious cancer herbs, was clinically proven by Canadian and American doctors, including Dr. Charles A. Brusch, the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy. There are many other alternative cancer therapies, such as the Hoxsey Therapy and Dr. Gerson Therapy, among many others, which were clinically evaluated by the medical community in different parts of the world. 

The bottom line: keep an open mind when it comes to cancer treatments.

Read my book: Congratulations! You’ve Got Cancer to understand how your mind can cope with cancer. A cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. Empower your mind with knowledge; help your mind help your cancer cure.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Consciousness to Increase Mind Power

Consciousness to Increase Mind Power

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” Lao Tzu

Consciousness is everything; if you are not conscious, you are not living your life, if not already dead.

What is consciousness? Being conscious is a "special quality of the mind" that permits us to know both that we exist and that the things around us also exist too. Surprisingly, many of us may not have this consciousness.

Life is an inner journey that often requires conscious-ness of the body and the mind, together with that of the soul or spirit, to continue making its progress in the right direction in order to reach its final destination. Sadly, since the beginning of time, many people have traveled on the same journey of life but without reaching their desired destinations because they simply lack their consciousness of the body and the mind, not to mention that of the soul or spirit, to guide them along that long and winding life journey with its many detours and sidetracks.

Consciousness comes from the mind, which is created by the brain. Hippocrates (460 - 370 BC), the father of modern medicine, was one of the first scientists to observe and notice that people with brain damage tended to lose their mental abilities. He realized that the mind is created by the brain, and the mind crumbles piece by piece as the brain dies.

The human brain creates the consciousness of the mind, and thus giving all humans their pleasures and displeasures, happiness and unhappiness, as well as other positive and negative feelings and emotions. These human perceptions then become their experiences which are stored in their minds as memories generating their subsequent thoughts—together they then become the byproducts with which they weave the realities in their lives.

Consciousness is the capability of your thinking mind to see how and why certain perceptions occur and affect  your thinking mind. Without this consciousness, which is knowing what is happening in the mind, you just obediently follow what your mind tells you to do. That is to say, you have become a slave to your thinking mind, instead of being the master of your own thoughts.

Are you conscious of your mind, or what your mind is thinking right now?

You may be conscious of your thinking mind if you are also conscious of your breathing. Life is made up of many breaths. Therefore, the consciousness of your breaths is a reflection of your own consciousness of life, as well as of many other things in your life.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau 

A Zen Mind

A Zen Mind

To live younger and healthier for longer, you need a Zen mind.

What is Zen?

Zen is about spontaneity, which is internal peace and harmony of the body, the mind, and the soul or spirit. Specifically, it is about quietude of the mind. Zen is not a religion, although subsequently it became the source of Zen Buddhism. Zen is just a way of life, with its origin from the wisdom of Tao, which is based on the profound wisdom of the ancient sage Lao Tzu from China. 

The human mind is most powerful in that it controls everything the body does, and therefore determines the quality of life of an individual. Descartes, one of the great philosophers, made his famous statement: “I think, therefore I am.” In other words, your thoughts shape you into who you are and transform you into what you have now become. If you can effectively control your thinking mind, you can then turn your mind into a great asset. The pivotal role of mind power cannot be overstated.

Unfortunately, the human mind is also a dangerous place where truths may become distorted, and where self-delusions are also spun. The human mind generates self-doubt when you try to excel; it confuses and distracts when you try to concentrate; it pushes you back and forth between the past and the future when you try to focus on the present moment. In reality, most of us seldom live in the present moment because our minds are constantly obsessed with past thoughts, which are often projected into the future as desires and expectations. In this contemporary world, many of us have a compulsive mind, instead of a Zen mind, and have become addicted to speed; so much that we want everything right away, A compulsive mind, as opposed to a Zen mind, cannot let us quiet down, and therefore cannot let us live younger and healthier for longer.

Are you afraid of the sound of silence? Your fear of the sound of silence means that your mind cannot quiets down, because once it does, it begins to generate doubt and fear of what you are going to do. To avoid that, you simply rush your life forward, creating stress that is an enemy of longevity. Once you have acquired a compulsive mind, you will begin to hear many overpowering voices from within that may become your demons, controlling and manipulating your thoughts and hence your actions, and subsequently your life.

To fully increase mind power, you must develop a quiet mind—a Zen mind.

A Zen mind is a mental condition in which the mind is totally relaxed, without regretting the past and worrying about the future. It is relaxed because it focuses on the present moment. Focusing on the present not only relaxes the mind and the body, but also enables the mind to gain access to the subconscious mind to find out what is going on, with no judgment and no expectation. It is mindfulness of self and everything around—without that mindfulness, there is no clarity of mind, no wisdom, no love and compassion for self and others. Mindfulness is everything, and only a quiet mind holds the key to unlocking the door to mindfulness.

Holothink Meditation can change your life forever. It is one of the best Zen meditation products in the market. Try it for free and see how and why it can change your life forever..

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Increase Mind Power with Tao Wisdom

Increase Mind Power with Tao Wisdom

Mind power is human wisdom, which plays a pivotal role in how your think, leading to how you make your life choices and decisions. 

Increase your mind power with Tao wisdom, which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, who was the author of Tao Te Ching, the immortal classic on human wisdom

The interpretations of Tao Te Ching are as many as its translations. They are all based on their own interpretations of Lao Tzu’s masterpiece with respect to their own views, just like the three blind men touching different parts of the same elephant and describing what an elephant looks like..

Tao or the Way is a means to an end, but not an end itself. That is to say, we follow Tao to some destination, but Tao is neither a destination nor the destination.

Tao is above and beyond human wisdom, but it is not divine wisdom. Simply, Tao may be the Way between human wisdom and divine wisdom. It helps us understand the true nature of man and his role in the world of creation, and thus connects us directly or indirectly to the Creator.

Tao is about the thinking mind. We are human, and it is human nature to follow and cling to human wisdom as a beacon of light to show us the way. As a result, we have developed a conditioned mind of thinking, which only further impairs human wisdom, already frail and fragile as it is due to human imperfections. In contrast to conventional human wisdom, Tao is about reverse thinking that renders the human mind more receptive to spiritual wisdom.

Tao is not a religion, although it has been associated with religions, such as Zen, Buddhism, and Taoism. Tao was never meant to be an object of human pursuit or worship; that is why Tao is also called “the Way” to show us a direction or pathway to divine wisdom. It is just a means to an end, and the end is spiritual wisdom.

Tao is not God’s wisdom; at best, it is only distilled human wisdom that may lead to the ultimate understanding of spiritual wisdom.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Emptying and Changing Your Mindset

Emptying and Changing Your Mindset 

The human mindset is often programmed. As an example, a while ago, shopping for men’s tee-shirts was geared towards buying “ugly” tee-shirts for men. You would wonder why on earth people would consider buying an “ugly” tee-shirt just because they might have something to talk about. The ugly truth is that many people would indeed fall for that “programmed” mindset for the new fashion trend for men this holiday season.

It is like the computer hardware with the apparatus of a mind, body, and senses. The lens through which you see yourself, as well as others and the world around you, is the software that has been programmed by your thoughts, your past and present experiences, your own expectations as well as those of others. In other words, you and nobody else have programmed your mindset; all these years, you may have been trapped in a constricted sense of self that has prevented you from knowing and being who you really are. The power of the mind is that your thoughts can make you “think” and “believe” you are who and what you are; but nothing could be further from the truth than that. Now, you must harness your mind power to change that conditioned mindset. There is wisdom in changing your mindset so that you will know your true self, and not what you “think” who and what you now become.

Changing mindset means emptying the mind of conditioned thinking, which is a common characteristic of the contemporary human mind. There was the well-known story of a professor visiting a Zen master to get more information about Zen, an ancient Asian philosophy. The Zen master kept pouring tea into the overflowing teacup held by the professor, who had kept on talking. The moral of the story is that you must have an empty mind first before you can receive new and transformative ideas. Having an empty mind is surrendering your mind to transformation in order that you may think differently—a prerequisite for true human wisdom.

In addition to emptying the mind, you must also give your mind a meaningful break so that it can think with clarity, without which it is sometimes difficult to separate the truths from the half truths or even myths. The human brain is like a computer program, which will stop running when the computer is turned off. Meditation is training your mind to switch off your brain for a while to give your mind some rest and mental attention to sharpen your awareness of what is going on in your mind. Seeing clearly what is going on in the mind, you can then choose to ignore or to act upon what you are seeing through your mind. Meditation is the most effective way to achieve clarity of mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

A State of Mind

No More and No Less Than a State of Mind

“Happiness is a state of mind” Walt Disney

Happiness or unhappiness is no more and no less than a state of mind of an individual. It may or may not involve the five senses, although they often play a pivotal role in creating the happiness or unhappiness state of mind of an individual.

Remember, your state of mind is always different from that of others; everyone’s state of mind is uniquely different, just like the uniqueness of human fingerprints.

So, it is important to know the difference between happiness and pleasure.

Happiness is a feeling of contentment, of personal conviction that life is just as it should be; unhappiness is just the opposite feeling. But how do you gauge your own level of contentment? And what convinces you that your life is what it should be? Happiness or unhappiness, to you, is only your own state of mind—uniquely yours and yours alone.

Pleasure is having fun at a party, the excitement of new experiences, the thrill and passion of sex, or the delights of a fine meal. They are all wonderful life experiences to be cherished and cultivated by any individual, but they are only life pleasures, not human happiness.

The truth of the matter is that all our wonderful life experiences are only to be enjoyed, and then to be let go of, just as a delicious meal is to be enjoyed, savored, and then to be digested, and ultimately eliminated from the body. Therefore, any life pleasure is fleeting and must be so—if it is to continue to please again in the future.

Happiness, on the other hand, may be less fleeting and more enduring than pleasure; but, still, happiness never lasts forever because nothing in life is permanent, and every thing remains only with that very moment, whether it is happiness or pleasure.

Just remember this: Happiness and pleasure are life experiences to be enjoyed, cherished, and remembered—but they do not last forever.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

How to Empower Your Mind to Become Happier

How to Empower Your Mind to Become Happier

“Thinking is difficult; that’s why so few people do it.” Albert Einstein

Thinking is a process of self-intuition through asking relevant questions to create not only self-awareness but also self-introspection. It is the natural habit of the thinking mind to try to solve problems by asking specific questions. Solving problems with relevant questions is self-empowering the human mind to attain human wisdom because it creates the intent to learn, to discover, and then to change for the better. Without the ultimate change, life often becomes static, boring, and ultimately unhappy.

Know the importance of asking questions, and continue to ask more meaningful and relevant questions throughout your life journey; this is the only pathway to attaining true human wisdom.

Human life is complex, and living is always complicated. To truly understand what life is all about, you must distill life to one simple but difficult question: “Am I happy?”

This is a simple question, but the answer may not be as simple and straightforward as you may think. This simple question is about living your life, which is never simple; living for life may, indeed, be very complicated, especially for those who are always unhappy.

If your life is getting more complicated, you may have problems with you life and living. If, on the other hand, you never have problems with feelings of anger, fear, frustration, or you never have felt that life is meaningless, you are probably not human.

Right thinking plays a pivotal role in human happiness. If you think right, you may become happier.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

My Newly Published 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