How Your Breath Can Heal You

Human breath can heal. For one thing, breath is the gift of life. When you wake up in the morning, if you find you are still breathing, then you should be thankful. Without breath, you are going to die within minutes. Breath is critically important not only to life and living, but also to healing. However, it is equally important that you are mindful of your breath, because your awareness means you are aware of many other things in life, such as your heath, your diet, and, in particular, your thinking, which is mindfulness. This awareness will let you make changes in your lifestyle, such as giving up smoking and drinking.

Unfortunately, like many people, you may have become totally unaware of your breath because breathing is so spontaneous that it is second nature to you that you no longer pay any attention to it..

Every day you may also be bombarded with hypes by the multi-media and modern technology; they become toxic thoughts in your mind, controlling how you think. Your thoughts may have become toxic, affecting your everyday decisions that may lead to your capability to heal over the long haul.

How your breath can heal you.

First of all, correct breathing is critical to your health. Babies breathe naturally. But as they grow up, their breath may have becomes compromised and incomplete.

Correct breathing affects your posture, which affects your physique, including your physical health. Correct breathing means you breathe in sufficient oxygen and breathe out as much as possible all the toxic fumes and carbon dioxide from your body. Breathing is a natural rejuvenation and detoxification process. Unfortunately, you may have incomplete or compromised breathing, leading to shortness of breath and accumulation of toxins inside your body. To have correct breathing (which means the breathing out should be longer than the breathing in) and complete breath (which means you use your diaphragm—the muscle between the lungs and the tummy—to push air and fill up the upper lungs), you have to be mindful of your breath—the breath to heal.

According to Chinese medicine, the two most important health regulators of the body are breath and blood flow. Optimum breathing brings oxygen to every cell in your organs and tissues; while smooth blood flow carries nutrients to nourish them. Without the efficient functioning of breath and blood flow, the overall health of an individual is compromised, resulting in imbalance and disharmony, which are the obstacles to healing.

The Chinese breath is healing breath: it helps you effectively and efficiently use oxygen 24 hours a day. The Chinese breath, as demonstrated by Tai Chi and Qi Gong exercises, lowers your blood pressure, calms your nerves, and alleviates your body pain. In addition, the Chinese breath improves the overall emotional health through clarity of the mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Doctor, You're Fired!

A friend of mine recently went to a local pharmacy to get her regular anti-depression medication prescribed by her doctor. The pharmacist, who could hardly believe his eyes, hesitantly told her that the charge would be over $1,000 (mind you, just one prescription drug for only 30 days). For years, she has been getting her medications from the same pharmacy without having to pay a dime because they have been covered by her insurance. The pharmacist also knew that there must be a mistake, so he checked and found out that the computer did not include the insurance coverage. He immediately apologized. That the depression medication without the insurance would cost that much was a shock to my friend, who said to the pharmacist: “Anybody would become depressed if he or she had to fork out that much for a depression medication.”

The point here is: the pharmaceutical industry is making huge profit at the expense of the patients; worse, the doctors are often too willing to prescribe anything as if they, too, get a percentage of the profit.

From my own experience, more than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease. As a result, I was prescribed some steroid medications, one after another, to treat my disease symptoms. Worse, I was also prescribed other medications to deal with the side effects from those steroid medications, such as prescription drugs to cope with bone loss, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and among others. Had my autoimmune disease symptoms improved significantly, I would have continued my prescribed medications. But I had only some improvement, and, worse, the doctor told me there was no ultimate cure. So, after months of consultation, I decided: “doctor, you’re fired!”

I did not stop all the medications right away, but gradually and slowly I eliminated all the medications after intermittent fasting for months to cleanse my internal system. Eventually, I became drug-free.  For more than one decade, I have been completely drug-free.

Have I cured my myasthenia gravis? Occasionally, I do feel some of the symptoms, such as weakness in the eye muscle. But I have learned to cope with them through eye exercises. The bottom line: do what you can with what you have, but no toxic medications.

Stephen Lau

The Book of Life and Living - FREE copy

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The Book of Life and Living is a 190-page book on wisdom in living, based on the integration of conventional wisdom, the ancient Tao wisdom from China, and the spiritual wisdom of the Bible. The art of living well is holistic living with balance and harmony of the body, the mind, and the spirit.

Tao wisdom is based on the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China some 2,600 years ago. Lao Tzu was the author of Tao Te Ching, the immortal classic on human wisdom, which has become one of the most translated works in world literature, probably ranking with the Bible as one of the top ten in popularity.

Without the true human wisdom expressed by Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to live in this day and age as if everything is a miracle.

Inflammation and Autoimmune Disease Symptoms

Inflammation is a natural immune response to injury, toxins, allergy or infection. Because 70 percent of your immune system cells are located on the lining of your digestive tract, your immune response is greatly affected by the foods you ingest, especially foods that may cause inflammation. Unfortunately, inflammation may worsen symptoms of an autoimmune disease.

Eat a moderately low-calorie diet with emphasis on weight loss or weight control. Foods that are high in calories are linked to higher amounts of inflammation, and the greater amount of fat tissue you have, especially around your midsection, the more inflammation you are going to have.

Most fresh fruits and vegetables are anti-inflammatory. Eat red, yellow, or orange fruits and vegetables that are particularly loaded with antioxidants such as carotenoids, vitamin C, and quercetin. However, if you are sensitive to food allergies, avoid all “nightshade vegetables” that include eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes because they contain a chemical called solanine that may trigger an inflammatory response in some individuals who have food allergies. Eggs, dairy products, and wheat are also associated with food allergies in some individuals.

Eat high-fiber whole grains, seeds and nuts to reduce levels of C-reactive protein.

Avoid all highly processed cereals, sweets, fruit juice, white breads and pasta that increase blood-sugar levels that may trigger the release of insulin and pro-inflammatory chemicals in your body.

Cook with anti-inflammatory herbs and spices, such as ginger, cayenne, clove, feverfew, nutmeg, oregano, and rosemary.  Avoid charred or over-grilled foods.

Drink anti-inflammatory beverages, including white, green, and black tea (they contain antioxidant polyphenols), and red wine (no more than 2 drinks per day).

An anti-inflammation diet enhances your immune system to enable you to live longer and healthier.

The body lives in the physical world. Its fitness affects both positively and negatively the mind and the spirit. Get the resources to take care of the body to take care of the mind and the spirit.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © Stephen Lau

Healthy Eating Basics

Myasthenia gravis is one of the many autoimmune diseases. To reduce the disease symptoms, eat a healthy diet to enhance the immune system. There are some basics of healthy eating; with a little discipline, they are simple to follow, and may go a long way to improving your immune system.

Eating to Live, Not Living to Eat

You become your food, and your food becomes you, because you are what you eat. What you eat and drink becomes your body chemistry.

Eating Less, Not More

Follow the “three-quarters” rule of eating: stop eating when you are three-quarters full. Never overeat.

Eating Frequently, Not Three Times a Day

You need not follow the habit of eating three times a day. Eat only when you are hungry, not because it is time to eat. Eating smaller meals more frequently is less taxing on your digestive and metabolic systems.

Eating Living Foods, Not Dead Foods

Eat only living foods: fresh, whole, and, preferably, organic foods.

Do not eat processed foods (supermarket foods), which are loaded with colorings, preservatives, and taste enhancers.

Do not eat empty-calorie foods, such as white flour and white sugar: foods are supposed to give you energy and nutrients, not just empty calories.

Also, stop eating foods that damage your thyroid, which is critical to your immune health.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

An Empty Mind to Begin Healing

To be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease is a devastating experience for many, especially when the doctor says that there is little or no known cure, except managing the disease symptoms with medications and other undesirable procedures. Self-efficacy, which is self-belief, is critically important in healing and coping with a disease or disorder. You have to believe that humans have a built-in mechanism not only to fight against diseases and disorders but also to get healed from them. As a matter of fact, for thousands of years, physicians and sages all over the world have acquired and assimilated this profound wisdom in healing.

Wisdom is the ability to interpret information in order to influence one's choices in actions that will ultimately transform the body and the mind. Wisdom in healing is therefore the use of right choices for right actions to facilitate the natural self-healing process innate in humans.

To have that wisdom, you must, first and foremost, have an empty mind.

"An empty mind with no craving and no expectation helps us let go.

Being in the world and not of the world, we attain heavenly grace.

With heavenly grace, we become pure and selfless.

And everything settles into its own perfect place."

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 3)

The above is taken from the translation of the famous ancient Chinese classic Tao Te Ching.

According to Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, who was the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching on human wisdom, we must have an empty mind before we can attain true human wisdom. An empty mind means we let go of any pre-conceived concepts and ideas before we can receive new ones. The human mind is often "conditioned" or "programmed" into a certain way of thinking because of the regular input into the subconscious mind, which controls the conscious mind.

It is not easy to have an empty mind because of the presence of the ego-self, which is made up of many attachments that may self-delusively identify who you are. So, to have an empty mind begins with letting go of all attachments, which include emotional and material attachments that are the raw materials with which you have created your ego-self.

How do you let go in the first place?

Letting go is an involuntary surrender; the opposite of conscious holding on. Letting go is a simple and natural process of the human mind. It provides you with real freedom--it is the absence of that feeling you may have of being trapped; it is having no strong feeling about something, whether it happens or does not happen to you.

Over the long haul, letting go may lead to an empty mind. With an empty mindset, you may have reverse thinking, which is not only thinking out of the box but also creating your own box of thinking.

With an empty mind, you may look at your autoimmune disease with totally different perspectives regarding prognosis and treatment. Use your empty mind to heal—just as I used my empty mind to heal my myasthenia gravis.

To find out more about what true human wisdom is, read my published article on Ezine entitled: The Differences between Tao Wisdom and Conventional Wisdom.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2016 by Stephen Lau