Always Think Like Santa Claus

Always think like Santa Claus no matter when. 

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©2018 by Stephen Lau

Change of Lifestyle

Depression, irrespective of the type, can wear you out: sapping both your mental and physical energy, leaving you with the painful feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Once you accept that you have an illness that needs lifestyle changes, the next step is to rethink your current lifestyle. This is hard and it may take some time, but recognizing the need for lifestyle changes is the first step. Remember, if you are not aware of the need, you will continue to become what you have been for the rest of your life.

The next step is deciding to make the lifestyle changes. Make the decision now.

Lifestyle management holds the key to managing your depression. Understandably, you are adamant to changes. It is not you but your brain that does not want to make lifestyle changes. Your brain simply cannot regulate the chemicals needed to keep you stable through these changes. Admit that a depressive brain does not like changes of any kind. However, make the lifestyle changes anyway.

Forget the time it may take you to change, focus on what you can do, and just do it every day, step by baby step. Your future will show you the way. 

If you feel too sick to make significant lifestyle changes, then make just one.

Stabilizing Brain Chemicals

If you recognize and believe that your depression is due to imbalance of your brain chemicals, then you should stabilize those brain chemicals.  

Many people can drink coffee and alcohol, and smoke, but not an individual with depression, in particular, with moods disorder. Any stimulant, such as caffeine, will de-stabilize your brain chemicals. 

Caffeine is a seductive chemical, which gives you energy. The problem is that you need to keep having the caffeine in order to keep you energized. Caffeine de-stabilizes your moods by affecting your sleep patterns. Caffeine is especially bad for bipolar disorder mood swings.

If you think alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, think again! Alcohol reduces your time spent in deep sleep, thereby instrumental in affecting your moods adversely by making your more depressed. Never use alcohol to self-medicate.

The sooner you accept that your brain is different and make the lifestyle changes you need to stabilize your brain chemicals, the better you can stabilize your moods. 

Structuring Your Lifestyle

A well-structured lifestyle makes a significant difference in managing depression of any type. Consistency and regularity hold the key to regulating your brain chemicals. 

How you start your morning can make a big difference in your moods. Start the day with a plan for wellness for lifestyle changes:

The morning routine

To stimulate your endorphins and serotonin, do a twenty-minute exercise immediately after you wake up. Go for a walk if the weather permits. If not, do some exercise indoors, such as stretching or yoga. Exercise your body right after you wake up, before you do anything else. Putting it off to some time later in the day may mean not doing it at all. Go to my website Body Fitness Resources and Mind Fitness Resources to get all your resources to reduce stress and promote mental health.


Yoga may help you not only relax and exercise your body, but also calm your mind and spirit. The techniques are simple and easy to follow.

Use the Chinese Qi Gong exercise to awake yourself to a healthy body and mind.

Take your daily vitamins, such as omega 3 fish oil, multi-B vitamins, and daily multi vitamins and minerals to boost your immune system.

Understandably, it may be difficult to get out of bed, if you are depressed. This is normal. However, when you are not depressed, always start you day off right. Soon, you will start to see substantial results. Make your morning session your daily routine. 

The daily sunlight

Make time to get yourself exposed to bright sunlight each day. 

Your body is designed for exposure to sunlight through your eyes and your skin. Your pineal gland, which governs your endocrine system, responds directly to light and darkness.

Remember, the sun is a great natural healer: its eternal sunshine not only gives you solar energy to kill germs, but also provides you with vitamin D.

Like exercise, bright sunlight has a significant impact on your neurotransmission. On entering the eye, sunlight activates your retinal-hypothalamic nerve, thereby stimulating your moods, sleep cycles, appetite, and sex drive. Bask in morning or evening sunlight for ten to twenty minutes will do wonders to your brain. Let sunshine massage your skin and relax your body and mind. 

Dealing with Sleep Problems

Sleep is a potent regulator of your brain chemistry. Sleep is essential to good mental health. Unfortunately, the difficulty to sleep is one the main problems of mental depression, especially in bipolar depression. 

Sleeping too much or too little is a characteristic symptom of depression. Monitoring your sleep patterns may help controlling your sleep problems. Taking prescription or over-the-counter sleep medications do not alleviate your sleep problems. Only lifestyle changes can change your sleep patterns.

Any one or all of the following may have triggered your sleep problems:

Your depression: anxiety; hypersomnia (sleeping too much) leading to extreme daytime fatigue, and insomnia.  

Your medications: decongestants; weight loss medications; over-the-counter sleeping aids.

Yourself: irregular sleep-and-wake-up time; taking long afternoon naps; caffeine and other stimulants, such as alcohol.

Recognize triggers of your sleep problems, and make the necessary lifestyle changes.

What makes you sleep

You are put to sleep by two processes: sleep homeostat, which tells you to go to bed after a certain amount of time awake, and to wake up after a certain amount of time asleep; and biological clock, which is a daily cycle unique to each individual.

However, your biological clock can overcome your homeostat—unless your “sleep debt” is much too huge. Therefore, if you force yourself to stay awake, you may actually be able to stay awake but at the expense of making you more prone to sleep problems down the road, a characteristic of depression.

A completely dark environment is essential to a full deep sleep. Your body is not completely shut down until there is complete darkness, which is conducive to a healthy deep sleep.

How to obtain a deep sleep

Make simple lifestyle changes to obtain a deep sleep to benefit your major depression.

Always keep a regular bed and wake time, even on holidays and weekends. Do not upset your biological clock.

Maintain a relaxing daily routine prior to sleep, such as a hot bath, a massage, or some relaxing music.

Create a sleep-conducive environment, such as a quiet and complete dark room.

Do not eat or even snack at least three hours before bedtime: a full stomach often makes deep sleep more difficult.

Get some natural sunlight in the afternoon each day to promote deep sleep.

Regular exercise may enhance deep sleep. However, do not exercise right before bedtime.

Natural sleep, without the use of medication, is not an option.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau 

  

Discipline the Mind

Discipline and Your Smart Baby

Children need discipline, including babies and toddlers. Discipline is a process of teaching your baby to be an independent being through self-control and self-regulation by establishing certain boundaries and reinforcing them so that he has a mental pattern of what he should or shouldn’t do.

Studies have shown that the way parents handle discipline can affect positively or negatively the IQ of their children. Children growing up in a hostile and restrictive home tend to have a lower IQ than those who come from a loving and democratic one. Drawing the fine line may not be easy, but it is not impossible. 

Do establish discipline based on your beliefs and values.

Do explain the rules, and why those rules are there. Do make sure your child understands them.

Do make your instructions clear and authoritative. Don’t put them in the form of a request, such as “Can you, please, stop that?”

Don’t give out too many rules at one time. Saying “No” is ineffective; your baby might even think that his name is “No.”

Do be firm. A loud “No!” or “Don’t do that!” is okay with a toddler or child; for a baby, use sign language.

Don’t spank your toddler. Why not? It only shows you’ve lost control yourself, and you’re also showing your child that it’s okay to use force to dominate others. Don’t let your child model your improper conduct.

Don’t inflict any physical punishment. Don’t shake your baby or toddler. There are many instances of death resulting from shaking babies and toddlers. Shaken babies may experience brain damage, resulting in mental retardation and even blindness.

Do be consistent with your reaction to certain unwanted behavior. Any inconsistent discipline only confuses your child.

Do discipline immediately, and not after the fact.

Do give your child a good reason to obey, such as “Go to bed now, and I’ll tell you a story.” But don’t make it bribery.

Do show yourself as a loving and affirming parent. Do offer reassurance to your child that you still love him even though his behavior may be unacceptable, requiring discipline.

Discipline plays a pivotal role in the emotional and intellectual development of your baby, toddler, and child. Remember this: babies are egocentric, and they think the world revolves around them. Introduce discipline at around nine months of age, and not before that.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

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