LOVE and MARRIAGE

LOVE and MARRIAGE
A happy marriage helps you live a stress-free life.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Letting Go Is the Way to Go

Letting Go Is the Way to Go

To be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, such as myasthenia gravis, is a devastating experience. Having said that, letting go is the way to go.

“Letting go is emptying the mundane,
to be filled with heavenly grace.

Blessed is he who has an empty mind.
He will be filled with knowledge and wisdom from the Creator.
Blessed is he who has no attachment to worldly things.
He will be compensated with heavenly riches.
Blessed is he who has no ego-self.
He will be rewarded with humility to connect with the Creator.
Blessed is he who has no judgment of self and others.
He will find contentment and empathy in everyone.

Letting go of everything is the Way to the Creator.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 9)
 
“Not of the world” means letting go of all mundane matters in the physical world.

Attachment only reinforces your identification with the world, while detachment empties your mind of its invisible control and manipulation. Letting go is the beginning of humility.

With humility, comes enlightenment, and letting go becomes simple and spontaneous.

Stephen Lau        
Copyright© by Stephen Lau


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Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Be Grateful for Everything


Reconnect your soul or spirit to gratitude. If you are grateful to the Creator for what you have, you may look at the behavior of another individual with more tolerance, or even with a totally different perspective.

Blessings in life, such as the gift of life, are generally overlooked or even taken for granted. For example, if someone takes advantage of you, do not become angry immediately; instead, be grateful that you are the victim instead of being the person who victimizes others.

Gratitude enables you to develop the mindset for a positive outlook toward your soul. Smile more often. Keep complaints about people, things, and life in general only to yourself—unless voicing them will help bring about positive changes in others or in society.

Gratitude helps you see the good in others, letting you give them the benefit of the doubt. Try to remember that all people are created in the image of God. Focus on the individual as a person, rather than on the behavior or belief of that individual, which may not be appealing or pleasing to you.

Always be grateful that you have been given the opportunity to become either a teacher or a student in whatever circumstance you may find yourself in, and turn it into a miracle of life.

An illustration

At the end of 2007, John Kralik, an attorney who owned a law firm, experienced debts and disasters in both his life and career.

One day, after a walk in the mountains, Kralik became enlightened: as his 2008 New Year’s resolution, he decided to write a thank-you note a day for the rest of the year to everyone he knew.

Kralik’s  2008 “gratitude project”  had changed  his life completely. Instead of his feeling of discontent regarding his lack, and his envy of those who had what he did not have, he had learned to be grateful for his law firm, his practice, his friends, and his family, despite the many disasters and drawbacks he had previously experienced. Kralik’s gratitude began to change every aspect of his life. His relationships with his family, his friends, and his staff improved significantly; his law firm avoided bankruptcy, and turned around completely.

Gratitude is something that you get more only by giving it away more. Expression of gratitude generates happiness that overcomes the unhappy feelings of lack.

Are you grateful for what you have, and not getting what you rightly deserve? Even being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis may be a life lesson for you -- you can always learn something from your disease.






Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Monday, May 6, 2024

The Miracle of Self-Healing

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." So, believe in self-healing, and live your life as if everything is a miracle—including the miracle to heal yourself of myasthenia gravis. Yes, self-healing is a miracle of life.

Ironically enough, modern Western medicine has led many of us to believe that healing is a complex process, involving high technology, complex drugs, and state-of-the-art procedures. It is human nature to learn belief systems, theories, and facts without challenging them. Truly, medical professionals are experts in their respective fields, and, obviously, they not only know more than we do but also have more experience than we have. However, that does not imply that we should readily accept their opinions without fully understanding what they are. Unfortunately, many of us are doing just that—going along with what they say, despite the many mistakes, even fatal ones, made by these professionals. As a matter of fact, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 100,000 Americans died in hospitals from dangerous drugs or from their dangerous medication side effects in 1998. 

To make the miracle of self-healing a reality for your immune disease, understand the essentials of self-healing.

The Power of the Mind

Healing begins with the mind first.

The mind is powerful in that it is the origin of all your thoughts, which determine not only who you are but also how you experience life. Life is a journey of experiences, throughout which the mind plays a pivotal part. Whether an individual is going to be healthy, successful, or happy in life depends on the power of mind. Mind power is the essence of being. Mind power holds the key to recovery from any disease, including your from your immune disease. Every thought counts in self-healing.

If you wish to combat, if not to cure yourself of, an autoimmune disease, you must first of all have the intent to heal, without which there is no self-cure or self-healing, and your battle against the autoimmune disease is already half-lost.

With intent, come concentration and focus to seek self-help to empower yourself with knowledge of self-healing, without which you may be at a loss as to what to do. Out of ignorance, many simply turn to conventional medicine for treatment; unfortunately, it may be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Mind power is also evidenced in its capability to create "reality." Yes, it is all in the mind, and it is always mind over matter.

A powerful mind can produce positive thoughts, which affect not just your body and your emotions, but also your genes. According to scientific studies, how your mind processes your daily experiences can turn on or turn off a particular gene responsible for a particular ailment or disease. In other words, there is a close body-mind connection with respect to health and healing.

Utilize your mind power to create the “reality” of healing for your autoimmune disease. That is, you need visualization, which is the ability to see “reality” in your mind’s eye. Seeing is believing: “seeing” the positive result of your efforts through positive images reinforces your “believing” that you will be cured of your myasthenia gravis.

The road to health and recovery from an autoimmune disease is never direct or smooth: it is always paved with roadblocks and obstacles in the form of relapses and remission. As a result, you will need determination and perseverance before you can reach your goal of self-healing.

Given the uniqueness of each individual's physical and physiological makeup, you must use your imagination and creativity to devise your own methods of self-cure for your myasthenia gravis.

Visualization is a powerful tool for enhancing your mind power for mind healing to initiate the subsequent body healing. That is,  manifestation of the mind may begin to manifest itself in the body healing. 

Visualization Power: shows you how athletes, healers, scientists, businessmen, yogis achieve their success through their thinking mind.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau




Sunday, May 5, 2024

Overcome Anxiety Overcome Stress

Anxiety

Pay attention to your thoughts: see if they are changeable throughout the day. If they are, probably you are suffering from anxiety, which often results from nutrient deficiency, toxins, and food allergies, according to Dr. Abram Hoffer, an expert in orthomolecular psychiatry. Dr. Abram Hoffer recommends the following:

Eliminate processed foods loaded with additives, artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners, and food colorings and preservatives. These chemicals may be responsible for food allergies in certain individuals. A healthy diet should eliminate these toxic chemicals.

Eat whole foods, such as brown rice, green vegetables, which seldom cause food allergies. Your healthy diet should be made up of whole foods, not artificial or processed ones.

Avoid all the sugar: blood-sugar disorder (hypoglycemia) is the basis of most anxiety disorders, such as panic attacks, and food allergies.

Check your food allergies. Yeast infection may lead to food intolerances and food allergies.

Over the years, your body may have accumulated heavy metal toxicity: lead, cadmium, and arsenic put in animal feed to remove germs; aluminum in baking powder, table salt, vanilla powder, and emulsifiers in processed foods; and mercury in dental filings.

Perform simple hair test to determine the level of toxicity in your body.

Other metal toxicity from foods and the environment may result in depression, headaches, lack of concentration, and forgetfulness.

Water has pesticides and heavy metals. Drink only filtered tap water or distilled water from glass bottles, not plastic ones.

Keep your body allergy free.


Get all antioxidant vitamins from your healthy diet, preferably not their supplement counterparts.

Vitamin B complex

The vitamin B complex consists of eight water-soluble vitamins. The B vitamins work together to boost your body’s metabolism, enhance your immune system and improve your nervous system. Brewer's yeast is one of the best sources of the B vitamins.

B1 enhances your mental functioning. Rich food sources high in B1 include liver, heart, and kidney meats, eggs, leafy green vegetables, nuts, legumes, berries, wheat germs, and enriched cereal. Include them in your healthy diet.

B2 is abundant in mushrooms, milk, meat, liver, dark green vegetables, and enriched cereals, pasta, and bread.

B3 may help avoid irritability and mental confusion, which are often symptoms of mental depression. Food sources rich in B3 are chicken, salmon, tuna, liver, nuts, dried peas, enriched cereals, and dried beans.

B5 deficiency may result in allergies, fatigue, and nausea, which are often associated with mental depression. B5 is most abundant in eggs, whole grain cereals, legumes, and meat.

B6 helps your body absorb and metabolize amino acids and omega 3 fatty acids. Whole grains, bread, liver, green beans, spinach, avocados, and bananas are rich food sources of B6.

B7 (biotin) helps your body release energy from carbohydrates. Generally, your body has no deficiency in B7.

B9 (folic acid) deficiency may lead to mental depression. Studies have shown that more than 30 percent of depressed patients have folic acid deficiency. Good food sources of folic acid include leafy green vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes, and organ meets.

B12 is critical to the optimum functioning of your nervous system. B12 can be found only in animal sources, such as eggs, milk, fish, meat, and liver. Therefore, vegetarians are strongly encouraged to take B12 supplement if they cannot obtain it from their healthy diet.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E, according to a previous scientific study, had been implicated in depression: patients suffering from major depression had lower levels of antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin E. However, it was not known whether it was due to inadequate antioxidant vitamins, or a result of the depression itself.

Other scientific studies found that the lower vitamin E in blood not only increases physiological stress as well as oxidative stress during mental depression, but also protects your brain against damage caused by free radicals and other reactive oxygen species produced during basic cellular metabolism. Antioxidant vitamins are potent against free radicals for optimum mental health

Good sources of vitamin E include egg yolk, green leafy vegetables, whole grains, and vegetable oils.

Remember, it is often difficult to obtain sufficient vitamin E from foods even in a healthy diet. A daily supplement containing 400IU is highly recommended.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C, another one of the important antioxidant vitamins, plays an important role in the synthesis of neurotransmitters, which enable efficient nerve impulse transmission between nerve axons. Vitamin C is important and necessary for the synthesis of the neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and serotonin. It catalyzes the conversion of dopamine to norepinephrine and the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin.

Vitamin C can be found in many fruits and vegetables. Remember, vitamin C cannot be stored in your body, and is easily destroyed in cooking.

Copyright© by Stephen Lau



Saturday, May 4, 2024

Discovery and Recovery


The Discovery and the Recovery

Hippocrates (460 - 370 B.C), the father of medicine, once said: “Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.” Take a step further: Let food be the “only” medicine. If you have developed a degenerative disease, start thinking of food as your medicine, in fact, the best medicine, if not the “only” medicine. Your body is designed to digest and utilize food to get its nutrients and energy. But only wholesome food can do just that—not even supplements, because all supplements are just what they are called.

If food is the “only” medicine for you, you will empower yourself with knowledge about food, and you will then pursue a proper diet with high quality, non-toxic, and nutritious food. That means, you will refrain from eating the commercially-prepared and chemically-loaded food obtainable at supermarkets. When food becomes the “only” medicine, you will also learn to trust your body; that is, you will learn what your body is telling you, and how it responds to real and wholesome food.

When you do become sick, you should also learn how to use herbs as medicine. Herbs from different parts of plants have different therapeutic values that promote self-healing without the use of dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. As a matter of fact, many common herbs, such as cinnamon, garlic, and ginger, have been used as “food” medicine for thousands of years.

If food is your “only” medicine, you will make good use of it to improve your health and heal yourself of any disease, including myasthenia gravis.

Hippocrates had also said: “Healing is a matter of time, but it is also a matter of opportunity.” Therefore, give your body that opportunity for natural self-healing by going drug-free, although it may take more time.

Your life is a journey through which you make many choices—some good ones and also some bad ones—that contribute to your health or illnesses. Life has a purpose with a unique destiny for each individual. Therefore, it is important that you know yourself, and self-healing is "knowing the self" as a part of your destiny. Sometimes and somewhere along your life journey, you may hit rock bottom and begin to despair. You may even ask the frequently-asked question: "Why me?" But that may also be the time of self-awakening for you. You may then begin to question how and why you have found yourself in that difficult and despondent situation. True self-awakening will make you take a different path—a detour from that journey you have been prodding along. Taking a different path creates the energy for self-healing.

Your self-awakening can be physical, such as a change of diet or taking up an exercise regimen. Your self-wakening can be emotional or spiritual, such as self-awakening to the power of love and compassion. Self-awakening may give you the desire and intention to heal, precipitating in changes that will ultimately heal not just the body but also the mind. Your very desire to heal is the healing energy for the body and the mind.

If you know yourself well, you will empower your mind with knowledge to heal yourself, and that empowerment generates more healing energy. If you know yourself more, you will make more right choices, than wrong ones, regarding your health. In making those right choices, you are well on the path to your own self-healing.

The bottom line: self-healing begins with knowing yourself through self-awakening to generate internal healing energy
         
The TAO

According to the TAO, the ancient wisdom from China, your discovery in life is your effortless search for learning and teaching from unexpected people in unexpected places; your recovery is your subjective perception of all the connections of life with your own spontaneous flow with them. Embracing everything and everyone with no judgment and no preference is the way to the discovery and the recovery of your health.

“The Way is paradoxical.
Like water, soft and yielding,
yet it overcomes the hard and the rigid.
Stiffness and stubbornness cause much suffering.

We all intuitively know
that flexibility and tenderness
are the Way to go.
Yet our conditioned mind
tells us to go the other way.

We accept all that is simple and humble.
We embrace the good fortune and the misfortune.
Thus, we become masters of every situation.
We overcome the painful and the difficult in our lives.
That is why the Way seems paradoxical.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78)

The recovery journey is never smooth and straightforward; it is always long and winding, with many detours and even setbacks. Healing is invisible, inaudible, and intangible:

“Look, it is invisible.
Listen, it is inaudible.
Grab, it is intangible.

These three characteristics are indefinable:
Therefore, they are joined as one, just like the Creator—invisible, inaudible, and intangible.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14)

Discovery and recovery are part of your healing journey.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
  

To download the e-book, click here; to get the paperback copy, click here.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Breathing Right for Myasthenia Gravis

Autoimmune diseases are complex disorders involving a compromised immune system. To date, the Western medicine has not been able to come up with any effective cure, except recommending toxic pharmaceutical drugs to control the symptoms. One of the underlying causes of autoimmune diseases is stress, which also plays a pivotal role in aggravating the disease symptoms.

Surprisingly, stress has much to do with breathing—yes,  the way you breathe can adversely affect your whole body system, including your immune system. In addition, breathing right can also reduce your stress, both the physical and the mental stress.

Your Creator has given you powerful lungs, which are capable of taking any strenuous workout well into your seventies. But your respiratory system may be severely compromised due to cigarette smoke, alcohol, gallstones in the liver causing allergies, disorders of the nose and nasal cavities, and diseases of the bronchi and lungs.

Your body wellness replies on breathing right.


Breathing gives you invisible food to all your body cells and organs by supplying them with life-giving oxygen. Your intake of oxygen depends on the quality of the air as well as the how deeply you breathe in and out. All centenarians have one thing in common: they all breathe deeply and slowly. Conscious deep breathing may calm and integrate your body and mind, contributing to overall peace of mind, which is important to your physical and mental health.

The secret of breathing right is to take your lungs everywhere and breathe deeply and slowly. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, many people simply take breathing right for granted.

The wrong way to breathe

  • Hold in your stomach or have a flat stomach while breathing in and out.
  • Take rapid, small, and shallow upper-body breaths (leading to aches and pain). 
  • Exhale carbon too quickly (disturbing the balance of acidity and alkalinity in your body–known as the pH level).
  • Use your neck and upper-back muscles to breathe (resulting in high blood pressure and racing heartbeats).
The right way to breathe

Breathe with the diaphragm: breathe deeply through your nose; your belly and diaphragm should move noticeably while breathing.

How to breathe right:

  • Sit comfortably in a relaxed mode with your feet resting comfortably on the floor.
  • Place your hands on your stomach.
  • Breathe in slowly through your nose on a count of five, while gently pushing your hands up on your stomach.
  • Hold your breath for a count of five.
  • Breathe out slowly through your mouth on a count of five, while pushing your hands down on your stomach.
  • Repeat. Allow your eyes to close as your breath deepens and your belly begins to rise and fall.
  • Begin your 10-15 minute breathing session several times a day until your breathing becomes second nature to you.
Optimal breathing benefits the flow of qi (internal vital force). In the Orient,

Yoga, Qigong, and Zen meditation, all teach correct breathing as the basic principle for practice.


Breathing right leads to correct posture, which also affects the natural flow of qi, which is the internal life force energy responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrients to different organs and tissues in your body. Good posture contributes to breathing right. Incidentally, rodents, with the shortest breaths in the animal kingdom, also have the shortest lifespan. Therefore, breathing right is an important component of your body's overall  wellness.



Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

The TAO in Anything and Everything

 


The Bible says wisdom is everything. "Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding." (Proverbs 3:13) 

Without wisdom, there is no understanding. 

But why is understanding important?

Without understanding, anything and everything in life may seem paradoxical and inexplicable. It is this mindset that may make many people "not living in reality" -- in their minds they only see "unfairness" and "inequality." This distorted mindset may even lead many to committing crimes and violence: "Why shouldn't I rob them who've the money that I don't have?" or "They too have broken the law, so why shouldn't I do the same?"

Biblical wisdom is about "accountability" to God, which will give you spiritual "understanding." But if you are not a believer, that "understanding" may be irrelevant to you.

Having said that, human wisdom is indispensable in contemporary living. Human wisdom is not the same as acquisition of knowledge; human wisdom is the application of what you feel and understand to your everyday life and living. So, being knowledgeable does not necessarily mean being wise.

The TAO is the profound wisdom of Lao Tzu, an ancient sage from China more than 2,600 years ago. The TAO has survived and thrived for thousands of years for a good reason: it is applicable to anything and everything in contemporary daily life. The TAO shows you all the hows and the whys of anything and everything happening in your life, including the following: growing up, receiving education, earning a living, making money, getting married, starting a family, raising children, staying healthy, growing old, and dying.

The TAO helps you confront all your daily challenges, and live in balance and harmony.

TAO in Anything and Everything

Stephen Lau

Monday, April 29, 2024

Payback Anger

     In Houston, Texas, a man using his gun robbed diners in a taqueria restaurant. The robber was on the verge of leaving that restaurant when he was shot 9 times by a vigilante diner, who then helped diners recover their money robbed at that Houston taqueria restaurant before disappearing.

     The police later discovered that the suspect’s weapon was only a “plastic gun.” Texas police began searching for that vigilante diner, with that “you-take-my-cash-I-take-your-life” mindset out of anger.

      Anger is more than a feeling; it’s a functional emotion. Its objective is to stimulate your mental awareness and direct your physical attention to something important going on in your own psychological world. Emotions are informants. Positively experienced emotions bring gratitude in appreciation, joy in fulfillment, and pride in accomplishment. Negatively experienced emotions bring anger, anxiety, danger, fear, frustration, worry, and even violence.

     Anger is about threats and violations to your wellbeing. So, being able to feel anger and use anger to safeguard your own personal wellbeing is important. People who can’t get angry often end up accepting aggressions and violations of their wellbeing. Many victims of family abuse simply adjust to verbal threat or even physical violence and accept mistreatment as an unhappy fact of life. They learn to deny its emotional impact, to rationalize its harm, and even to avoid upsetting the abuser. Adults, who’ve learned these “survival” skills as children, often end up marrying into abusive relationships not because they want to, but because they unconsciously feel the abuse comfortably familiar and even normal.

    Angry No More: A new book on how to control and eradicate your anger.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Take Good Care of Your Vision

Given that myasthenia gravis is a neuromuscular disorder, the muscles and the nerves that control vision are often adversely affected, causing vision blur, double vision, and other vision problems.

To illustrate, the muscles that create movement and vision are normally under your conscious control. However, the involuntary muscles (such as the muscles of your heart and many other organs, including your eyes) are beyond your conscious control. In myasthenia gravis patients, weakness occurs because the nerves that activate your eye muscles fail to stimulate them because your immune cells (which normally attack foreign invaders) target and attack your body's own healthy cells—known as an autoimmune response.

VISION SELF-HEALING SELF-HELP

“Vision Self-Healing Self-Help" is a 147-page book on vision health based on the my own experience of vision impairment due to my myasthenia gravis, which is an autoimmune disease affecting eye muscles and thus vision.

The book is also based on the Bates Method of vision improvement through eye exercises, as well as body, mind, and eye relaxation.

This book covers various types of eye disorders, including macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts, among others. It also includes vision nutrition.

Improve your eyesight through awareness of good vision habits, such as blinking, shifting, eye palming, and soft vision, among others. It is never too late to improve your vision and to have better eyesight. This is a holistic approach to better vision.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Healthy Pregnancy

 


All About . . . .

Pregnancy is a nine-month period during which a baby develops and becomes a human being. The mother-to-be and the father-to-be have many dos and don'ts in order to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. This book provides not only a list of all the dos and don'ts, but also all the whys and why nots because as a mother you would like to know why there are certain things you should do and why there are things you should not do to guarantee a safe and healthy pregnancy.

This book is concise with a holistic approach to a safe and healthy pregnancy through the mind, the body, and the spirit.

Click here to get your copy.

An Excerpt from the Book . . . .

THE PRE-PREGNANCY

Pregnancy is more than just nine months; it is a lifelong project that requires adequate preparation to ensure better results.
   
The Dos

Do physical checkup first for both you and your partner. (why: to resolve all health issues and problems, e.g. chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.).

Do blood tests to check your immunity to German measles (why: it can cause malformations in the baby) and chicken pox (why: immunization before conception if you have not had it before); to check your antibodies from toxoplasmosis (why: an infection that may affect conception and pregnancy).

Do discuss medical conditions with your doctor: previous pregnancy problems, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, premature baby; genetic disorders in family; current prescribed medications.

Do dental checkup (why: gum diseases may lead to premature birth), and dental work (why: avoiding filling or extraction during pregnancy).

Do weight management (why: overweight may lead to diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy; underweight may result in a small baby, problems during labor, and after birth).

Do find out your ideal weight: to determine that, you need to know your height, and weight, as well as your waist size (i.e. your waist circumference between your rib cage and above your belly button). A waistline of 35 inches or more for most women may indicate overweight.

Do find out your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a measure of your body fat based on your weight and height. Your BMI is determined by this formula: BMI = (body weight in pounds) divided by (body height in inches x body height in inches) multiplied by (703). To illustrate, if you are 5’11” tall and you weigh 165 pounds, your BMI will be: (165/71x71) x 703 = 23   The BMI numbers have the following implications:

Any BMI that falls between 19 and 24.9 is considered ideal and healthy.

Any BMI that is below 18.5 is considered underweight.

Any BMI that ranges from 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight; any BMI that is above 30 is considered obese.

You should be within 15 pounds of your ideal weight before pregnancy, and that also applies to your partner (why: an overweight partner may have decreased testosterone leading to depressed libido).

Do birth control until you are ready for pregnancy. Hormonal contraception may take months for fertility to return to normal. Natural family planning is the way to go.

Do boost nutrients for a healthy pregnancy. Important nutrients include the following:

Calcium (why: avoiding back and leg pain, insomnia, and irritability)-eat figs and raw leeks.

Folic acid (why: avoiding structural defects) -- eat chives. Chives are a nutrient-dense food low in calories but high in nutrients. Always use a sharp knife to cut chives (why: avoid bruising the herb), and add chives to any dish near the end of cooking (why: avoid losing its flavor).

Iron (why: healthy growth of baby) -- eat chives.

Magnesium (why: cellular development; over-coming early pregnancy discomfort, such as constipation) -- eat chives.

Manganese (why: baby’s normal skeletal development) -- eat raw leeks.

Vitamin B6 (why: avoiding nausea and morning sickness; metabolizing proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) -- eat raw leeks.

Vitamin C (why: proper absorption of iron) -- eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin K (why: healthy bone growth and proper blood-clot formation) -- eat raw leeks.

All the above nutrients and vitamins are especially important not only for pre-pregnancy but also for the first trimester of pregnancy.

Do get sufficient sleep (why: research has shown that the more sleep you get,  the less time of labor may ensue; getting less than 5 hours of sleep may even increase the chance of having a C-section for delivery. Do set a schedule for your sleeping hours to help your body get on a set schedule of sleep. Do go to bed earlier.

Do take herbs to increase fertility (why: drink clover flower tea and nettle tea to increase female fertility).

Do avoid unpasteurized milk and blue-veined cheeses.

Do cook all your food thoroughly.

Do help your partner to enhance his fertility. According to a Danish study, overweight men have fewer sperms. According to State University of New York, placing laptop computers on laps may decrease sperms (why: due to accumulation of heat). Certain drugs on men’s hair loss, high blood pressure, and ulcers may also affect the quality of sperms. Do increase his intake of folic acid, vitamin C, and zinc to enhance the quality of sperms.
   
The Don’ts

Don’t start a teenage pregnancy (why not: pregnancy between age 15 and 19 may result in many emotional traumas, such as difficulty in keeping up with peers, financial problems, and health and life challenges).

Don’t contact mold (why not: harmful to fetus, leading to birth defects, such as paralysis, developmental problems, and even miscarriage).

Don’t eat bacteria-harboring foods (why not: increasing the chance of developing food-borne infections during preconception stage and in a developing embryo).

Don’t stress out, develop anxiety or depression in pre-pregnancy stage.

Don’t eat raw, such as sushi, raw clams, and oysters.

Don’t eat undercooked meat and eggs (why not: avoiding bacteria growth; do refrigerate food below 40°F/4°C).

Don’t take certain herbs (why not: some herbs, such as echinacea, ginkgo biloba, and Saint-John’s wort may prevent conception).


THE DOS AND DON'TS DURING PREGNANCY

Friday, April 26, 2024

Let Go of Human Attachments

All human attachments are the raw materials with which one both consciously and subconsciously creates one’s identity through a period of confusion and uncertainty that inevitably leads to the identity crisis. Without human attachment, there will be no identity crisis, no stress, and ultimately no human suffering.

In the course of human life, diseases are as inevitable as death. You may want to attach to the good old days when you were strong and healthy, and refuse to let go of the current adversity, such as being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. Adversity and the good-old-days attachments stem from the ego-self, which simply refuses to let go.

But letting go of all human attachments is the way to go. It begins with letting go of the ego that generates all the attachments in the first place.

Letting go is the natural surrender of the human mind to any involuntary reactivity aimed at removing anything that might threaten or undermine the ego-self. Letting go should be a natural instinct, and not a technique that one has to learn and master; it is simply a spontaneous human ability to give up all human attachments that create the unreal ego-self.

It is letting go, and not holding on, that makes us strong because it overcomes the fear of the unknown and the unpredictable. Let go of yesterday to live in today as if everything is a miracle; let go of the world to have the universe.

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” Thich Nhat Hanh

An autoimmune disease diagnosis is not the end of the world; it might be a blessing in disguise—helping you change your lifestyle to live a better life in order to become a better you.

Stephen Lau     
Copyright© by Stephen Lau