Learning to Relax

To be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease is a devastating experience, given that there is no known cure for autoimmune diseases, only control of the disease symptoms. Be that as it may, a diagnosis is not the end of the world. You must learn how to live as if everything is a miracle. To do just that, relaxation of the body and mind is important.

The human immune system is a complicated built-in mechanism equipped with antibodies for self-protection and self-healing from any disease or disorder. When this innate system becomes compromised or dysfunctional, its immune defenses may mistakenly attack the body’s own healthy cells, resulting in autoimmune diseases. There are over one hundred autoimmune diseases affecting different body organs. The causes of autoimmunity are complex. All in all, stress is Stress is one of the triggers of many autoimmune diseases because it affects the immune system.

Stress is your body’s natural response to increased tension. Stress can increase your production of hormone epinephrine (and thus wearing out your hormonal glands). After the initial stressful stimuli, your body should be able to relax, slow down, and return to a state of equilibrium. However, this may not happen, and, as a result, you become distressed with many adverse health effects, including blood sugar elevation, breathing rate acceleration, muscle tension, pulse rate and blood pressure increase, excessive sweating to cool down the body, among others.

Stress is caused by the mental interpretation or anticipation of a stressful event or incident, which has occurred or is about to occur. Of course, to effectively control stress, the root cause of the stress must be addressed or its related problems must be resolved first. If the underlying stress problem is not resolved, coping with stress is even more difficult.

Coping with stress has to do with the mind—after all, stress is what is commonly known as the “fight-or-flight” response of the mind to an event or circumstance.

Mindfulness

To effectively cope with stress, you must, first and foremost, be mindful of your the existence or presence of your stress. Mindfulness is the capability to see how your body, mind, and soul are intricately interconnected with one another. Failure to see this intricate relationship means the inability to live in the present moment. Living in the now holds the key to natural health because that present-moment mindset provides balance and relaxation for holistic wellness of the body and the mind.

The truth of the matter is that many of us are not mindful, given the fact that we are living in an age of speed, which fosters a compulsive mind. Our minds do not and cannot stop because our minds are obsessed with past and future thoughts. Our past thoughts dictate our future actions: we wish to avoid past failures and repeat past successes, and thus creating our desires and expectations. Unfortunately, this is how we have created our stress.

Mindfulness enables us to stay in the now, that is, in the present moment. The past was gone, and the future is uncertain; only the present is real—a gift, and that is why it is called a “present.” Practice mindfulness by focusing on your breaths—notice how you breathe in and breathe out, how your diaphragm rises and falls during your inhalation and exhalation. This simple practice can be performed anytime: while waiting for the bus or train; in the office. Mindfulness slows down a compulsive mind. You may have a compulsive mind if you talk on your cell phone while walking. A compulsive mind is a source of stress.

Meditation

Meditation is an extension of mindfulness. It is most effective for stress control. Meditation is a proven mind-body therapy for body-mind relaxation.

The healing power of meditation lies in its capability to focus the mind solely on the very present moment for an extended time, thereby removing memories of the past and worries of the future. Meditation helps you focus your mind on the present moment to the exclusion of past and future thoughts. The mind in its natural and perfect stillness relaxes completely and totally.

In contemporary living, your mind is often riddled with thoughts of what you just did, what you will do, or should have done. Nearly all your thoughts, including your desires and fears, are based on either the past or the future. Your desires are no more than recollections of the past pleasures and hopes of repeating them in the future. Fears are also memories of past pain, and your efforts to avoid the pain in the future. All these rambling thoughts in your subconscious mind indirectly affect your conscious mind, and hence your body and your eyes.

The mental focus of meditation is not quite the same as the mental concentration on solving a difficult math problem or while performing a complex mental task. Meditation is focusing on something seemingly insignificant (such as your breathing) or spontaneous (such as eating and even driving) such that your mind can be conditioned to focusing on only the present moment. In this way, your mind concentration excludes all past and future thoughts, thereby instrumental in giving your mind a meaningful break. It is in this sublime mental state that you are capable of understanding the true nature of things, and their relativity to the meaning of life and existence. Meditation awakens you to what is real or what is quasi real.

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 How to meditate

Here are some important points to remember during meditation for stress control:

Sit comfortably in a relaxed position. A full lotus position is not required. However, it is important that you maintain a consistent position or posture with your thumb tip and forefinger tip of each hand touching very lightly, while the other fingers are either curled or extended out. A consistent posture and hand position will promote a meditative mind to practice your meditation techniques.

Focus on an object as your focal point of concentration: your own breathing; looking at a candle flame; listening to a sound, such as the sound of running water from a fountain, or just about anything that can easily draw you back to your meditation.

During your meditation, if your mind wanders away (which is quite common), gently direct your mind to re-focus on the object of your concentration. You learn how to focus through your act of noticing that your mind has wandered off, as well as through your repetitive efforts of returning to your meditation.

Remember, relaxation has to do with the mind; a relaxed mind relaxes the body as well. Relaxation is not about taking a vacation or watching a movie. Taking a vacation is simply changing your daily work routine; sometimes it can be as stressful as going to work.

Guided Meditation: A guided journey into the recesses of your subconscious mind for deep relaxation and stress control! Over 100,000 copies sold!

For more information on meditation, visit my web pages:

How To Meditate

Meditation Healing

Why Meditation.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau

Be Your Natural Healer

Natural healing is holistic healing. It is a process by which a person’s health is restored in the most natural way without the use of conventional medicine throughout the healing process. The human body is blessed with divine gifts in the form of natural resources that enable not only the enhancement of health but also the freedom from any type of illness.

Natural healing is effective because it uses the power of the mind through affirmation and visualization, meditation, the goodness of nature through natural herbs and healthful foods, and the energy of your body through hand massage, yoga, and acupuncture to bring about healing of the body, the mind, and the soul. In order to prevent any future relapse and to guarantee long-term cure, the healing has to be complete and wholesome. In addition, in natural healing, there is no need to take any form of chemicals or to undergo any invasive procedure, which may not only produce negative side effects but also interrupt with the natural healing process.

Natural healing has long proven to be a very good alternative to the traditional way of healing practiced by medical doctors. As a matter of fact, many natural healing clinics have sprung up across the United States. People are using natural healing techniques more than anything else mainly because they are highly effective with minimal or zero side effects, and they are less expensive than treatments of conventional medicine.

Be a natural healer of your own disease.

First of all, you must know the difference between healing and treatment: treatment originates from the outside, whereas healing comes from within; treatment aims at removing symptoms of disease, while healing tackles the source of disease.

Next, natural healing begins with the mind first. Your mind controls your body, and everything you do and think. Therefore, to heal, your mind must express the intention to heal, without which there is no cure or healing. Your intention to heal is then manifested in focus, which directs your mind towards the goal to heal. To reach that goal, you need resources; that is, you must empower yourself with knowledge so that you may know how to heal yourself. Knowledge is power: it may establish a connection to your true self, and thereby instrumental in allowing you to make the right health decisions and to live your life in a lifestyle in accordance with your higher purpose. Through the many facets of mind power, such as affirmation, visualization, and meditation, your mind begins its healing process. Healing begins with the mind, and mind healing is always mind over matter. Natural healing is always slow: it does not happen overnight. You need to set your goals, and make your commitment, which is your mental responsibility. Living is a challenge, and so is healing. During the healing process you may have to face different challenges before you can overcome the illness, or your autoimmune disease. Be your natural healer.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Lau 

Mindfulness for Stress Relief

Stress adversely affects the many symptoms of myasthenia gravis, especially the weak eye muscles that lead to drooping of the eyelids. 

Stress may come in many forms, and one of which is pain. Whether physical or emotional, pain is stressful. Somehow, we cope with that stress. Humans learn how to deal with, for example, the pain of loss by staying busy, such as busily planning a memorial service for the death of a loved one. As a matter of fact, we all learn at an early age that being busy is one of the ways to deal with stress.

Getting busy has immediate payoff in that it takes one’s attention from the stress. In life, many of us use the same strategy of getting busy to deal with difficulties in our lives: we keep ourselves busy to avoid unpleasant or difficult experiences. For example, we keep ourselves busy to earn more money, to gain more respect, or both, because we may have an unfulfilled love relationship. We often get busier and busier until it has become addictive. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, everything falls apart, and we become distressed and disillusioned. So, getting busy is but a temporary solution to stress.

Be mindful of your busyness. Mindfulness requires you to take time to explore your inner self—that is, what is the most important to you, or your core values in life. You can be busy, while maintaining your mindfulness.

A Buddhist teacher once said: "When you are washing dishes, wash dishes. When you are talking on the phone, talk on the phone." But many people are talking on the phone, while driving! That, unfortunately, is not mindfulness.

Mindfulness is "concentrated" relaxation because your mind focuses only on the present moment, not the past, and not the future. Remember, only the present is real to you. Mindfulness is what meditation is all about. Meditation focuses on mindfulness of the present moment to relax both the body and the mind.

For more information on mindfulness, go to my web page: Meditation Healing.

"NO EGO NO STRESS" is a 134-page book by Stephen Lau on ancient human wisdom for stress relief. Specifically, it is about Tao wisdom, which originates from the ancient Chinese sage Lao Tzu, the author of “Tao Te Ching”—one of the most translated works in world literature. “Tao Te Ching” is popular due to its profound and unconventional wisdom, which is both intriguing and controversial. Learn how to let go of the ego-self to remove all the stressors in modern living due to finance, career, relationship, etc. and live as if everything is a miracle.

NO EGO NO STRESS

This book is made up of 4 parts.

PART ONE An Introduction to Stress:

It explains how and where stress comes from; the damage and devastation of stress to human health.

PART TWO Conventional Wisdom:

The major life stressors come from career, money, relationship, adversity, and time. Conventional wisdom offers many strategies for stress relief, such as exercise, herbs, medications, meditation, and psychotherapies, among many others. Conventional wisdom may reduce stress levels, but it does not eradicate stress completely. Conventional wisdom only complements the ancient Tao wisdom for ultimate stress relief.

PART THREE Tao Wisdom:

This part not only explains what Tao wisdom is all about, but also contains the complete translation in simple English of all the 81 short chapters of “Tao Te Ching” which is one of the most translated works in world literature. Going through the whole script, interpreted and translated by the author, will enable you to understand the essentials of Tao wisdom for stress-free contemporary living.

PART FOUR No Ego No Stress:

Stress originates from the human mind: how it perceives and processes life experiences. What is stress to one individual may not be stress to another. This part explains in detail how having no ego can eradicate all stress related to career, relationship, money, adversity, and time.

Get your copy of NO EGO NO STRESS

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Lau

Dealing With Life Problems

Life is always riddled with problems. Don’t strive to solve them—or even attempt to understand them. Remember, many of your problems will somehow resolve by themselves, if you would just give them time. Just learn to let go of your life problems.

Problems inevitably create stress and tension—often a strain on your emotions. Worry, stress and tension are negative emotions that will often make a bad situation worse. Learn to control your emotions, instead of letting your emotions control you. When you find an inner calm within yourself, you will be able to take better control of your life and live by your choices rather than by your reactions. Above all, learn to manage your anger and other negative emotions.

Remember, life is always going to throw difficulties in your way; learn to take them in stride. One of the most important life lessons is to learn to let go. According to Buddha, attachment is the root cause of all human miseries, and hence the source of stress and distress in life. Letting go is the readiness and willingness to let go of all attachments in life:

Attachment to the ego-self

Attachment to the ego-self is most difficult to let go of, given that conventional wisdom focuses so much on the “self,” such as the emphasis on the importance of “self-esteem,” that we become not only “self-conscious” but also “self-centered.”

Attachment to material things

The mind identifies with material possessions to create the ego-self. Many of us identify ourselves with a certain social status when we belong to a certain social group or drive a certain luxury car.

Attachment to time

Many of us think that time is precious, and wish that we had more than 24 hours a day. We no longer have the time to appreciate the beauty of nature, because we have become overwhelmed by our daily problems and the time needed to solve them. Indeed, many of us are forever time-stressed.

Attachment to time also means the reluctance to live in the present moment. Unfortunately, the present moment is the only reality in life, and the only moment during which one can objectively validate past thoughts and future projections that continuously filter through the subconscious mind, enticing it to form identities—which become the components of the ego-self. If you let go of your attachments, your burden in life will become less stressful.

According to Jesus, the burden in life will never be too much for you.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:29-30)

A yoke is not an instrument of torture—rather, a special device to lighten the burden.

Remember, your Creator will never give you too many problems in life that are beyond your capability to deal with them. Just remember that, and you will be free from undue stress of contemporary living.

Read my book: The Book of Life and Living to understand the art of living well to relieve the everyday stress in contemporary living..

Without the stress, many of your myasthenia gravis’ symptoms will disappear.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Let go + Tao Te Ching+BHY

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Letting Go to Heal

Stress is your body’s response to increased tension. Stress is normal. Stress is the No. 1 factor not only in the cause of many human diseases, but also in the trigger of many autoimmune diseases.

Stress and anger often go hand in hand. They causes hormone imbalance, which may trigger the development of an autoimmune disease.

Chronic stress, which causes your body to maintain physiological reactions for long periods of time, especially with respect to the release of hormones, can lead to depletion of vital nutrients in your body, particularly DHEA (a hormone critical to aging and the autoimmune system), vitamin C, and the B-complex vitamins.

During stress, your body uses its DHEA supply and impairs the functioning of your body’s hormonal glands. According to scientific research, your DHEA levels decrease with age. Therefore, stress is only adding insult to injury.

Vulnerability to stress increases with age. Robert Sapolsky, author of Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, says you lose your ability to cope with stress as you age, due to elevated blood pressure, which adversely impacts your hormone secretions, thus creating a vicious cycle of stress and ill health.

To avoid or to decrease the symptoms of an autoimmune disease, you must learn to cope with stress and deal with anger, which is usually a concomitant result of stress. More importantly, you must learn how to let go of many of your attachments in life.  

The Wisdom of Letting Go

This 111-page book provides inspiration from ancient Tao wisdom to enhance human wisdom to believe in spiritual wisdom of letting go to live as if everything is a miracle. It explains how the human ego is the origin of stress, and how letting go of the ego-self is the only pathway to releasing stress.

Stephen Lau

My Myasthenia Gravis

If you are a healthy individual, the immune defenses protect your body cells from outside invaders. On the other hand, when you develop autoimmunity, your immune system may mistakenly attack your body's own cells instead of protecting them. Autoimmunity can affect almost any of your body organ or body system. The exact problem you may have with autoimmunity depends on which of your body tissues are targeted by your immune system.

                           

This concept of autoimmunity as the cause of human illness is relatively new, and it was accepted into the mainstream medicine only about half a century ago. At present, the medical community is still very much at a loss as to how autoimmunity develops in an individual, although there is increasing evidence linking environmental agents to autoimmune diseases. These include infectious agents, such as viruses, pharmaceutical and chemical agents, heavy metals, dietary factors, as well as a number of biological agents, including genetic disposition. However, medical scientists are still unable to pinpoint the exact cause of autoimmune diseases. As a result, many experimental drugs have been developed to treat autoimmunity. Unfortunately,  many of these experimental drugs may be toxic to the body with long-term adverse side effects on the health of the patient.

My Myasthenia Gravis is based on the author’s own battle against myasthenia gravis, one of the many autoimmune diseases, which, according to contemporary Western medicine, offer no known cure, except controlling or suppressing their many disease symptoms. This book is about the author's own experience of different strategies against his myasthenia gravis disease symptoms: how he stopped all his medications through a holistic approach to controlling and managing the disease. This book provides insight and well-researched information that he would like to share with those who are afflicted with myasthenia gravis or any other autoimmune disease.

Albert Einstein once said: "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." Believe in the miracle of self-healing. Healing comes only from within, and not from any external source. Every individual should avail every opportunity to initiate the self-healing process, which is innate in the human body. Just believing in the miracle of self-cure, however, is not enough; you must also empower yourself with knowledge and information to overcome myasthenia gravis through a holistic approach to the wellness of the body, the mind, and the spirit.

This book also covers every aspect of holistic health to cope with autoimmunity: body detox, diet, lifestyle changes, exercises for muscle weakness, and mental relaxation techniques for vision problems associated with myasthenia gravis. Click here to get the digital copy, and here to get the paperback edition.

Stephen Lau
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