Prayers Not Answered

<b>Prayers Not Answered</b>
Your “prayers not answered” means your “expectations not fulfilled.” The TAO wisdom explains why: your attachments to careers, money, relationships, and success “make” but also “break” you by creating your flawed ego-self that demands your “expectations to be fulfilled.”

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Improve Posture to Improve Vision


Improve Posture to Improve Vision

Vision is inter-connected with body posture. Therefore, to improve eyesight, you must also improve posture.

The explanation is that vision health is holistic health, which means it includes the health of the body, the mind, and the spirit. Eyesight is an integral part of vision. Your eyesight determines how you see the world at large; your perception is your reality. Therefore, your perception becomes the raw materials of your life experiences, which will directly or indirectly affect your physical, mental, and emotional wellness. By the same token, your physical, mental, and emotional health will have a bearing on your vision health, and hence your eyesight.

According to Dr. William Bates (1860 - 1931), the founder of natural vision improvement, poor vision is the result of eyestrain, due to mental and physical stress on the eye, and hence the distortion of the eye shape, causing nearsightedness and farsightedness. Dr. William Bates strongly believed that eye relaxation holds the key to improving vision.

But eye relaxation begins with the mind first, not the eye. The mind must be completely relaxed before it can relax the body—and then the eye, which is only one of the organs of the body.

Improve posture to relax the body and the mind, and hence the eye. After all, posture health is overall health: it affects your whole being in many different ways.

Improve posture to improve your breathing. Incorrect breathing results in compromised lung functioning, leading to inadequate oxygen intake by all body organs and tissues, and hence a host of health issues, including vision health. Improve posture to optimize breathing for vision health.

Improve posture to avoid debilitating body pain, such as neck pain, leg pain, and even headaches. In addition, an arched back exerts undue pressure on the joints and nerves, causing joint pain and rheumatism. Due to poor body posture, all the muscle groups supporting the crooked spine may become stretched and strained, causing wear and tear, resulting in lower back pain. Chronic body pain often interferes with natural sleep, which is a major factor in relaxation of the body and the mind, in particular, the eye. Therefore, it is important to improve posture for eye relaxation to improve eyesight.

To successfully improve posture, you must develop an acute awareness for good posture at all times.

Good posture does not mean "jamming your shoulders back, tucking in your tummy, and standing stiff"; this posture does not align your body, nor is it practicable in that you can maintain that position over an extended period. Good posture means that in any standing position, you body posture should be as follows:

Your head is directly above your shoulders.

Your chin is tucked in.
Your ear, shoulder, and hip are in a straight line from a side view.
Your upper back is straight, not slouched.
Your shoulders, relaxed and straight, are flat against your back.
Your pelvis is in a neutral position.
Your knees are unlocked.

Be mindful not just of your standing posture, but also your sitting and sleeping posture—they all play a pivotal part in eye relaxation, which holds the key to improving eyesight.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

 

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Wellness Wisdom and Vision Health

Health is one of the greatest assets of your being, and your eyes are of the most important organs in your body. For without vision, you see nothing, and your perceptions of the world and your experiences will be totally different. The importance of vision health cannot be overstressed.

Many people don’t pay much attention to their vision health as long as they can see. But vision health, like the health of any organ, may deteriorate over the years; worse, the deterioration will be gradual and subtle, but permanent and devastating long term.

The overall health of an individual is often ignored, just as Dr. Deepak Chopra, M.D. bestselling author, and founder of the Chopra enter for Wellbeing, once said: “If you don’t take care of your health today, you will be forced to take care of your illness tomorrow.”

To take care of your overall health and wellbeing, you need wisdom, and not just common sense. The explanation is that health and wellness have to be holistic: that is, it includes, the body, the mind, and the soul. For example, in vision health, it is not just relaxing your eyes when you work for too long on your computer; your mind can stress you, and the toxic desires of the body can adversely affect the mind and the souls as well. Wellness wisdom is about the body, the mind, and the soul—they all play a pivotal role in your overall wellness, which ultimately affect your vision health as well.

Look beyond what your eyes can see, and that is wisdom in living.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Using the Mind for Better Vision

Poor vision is often caused by poor vision habits, such as eye fixation and eye strain.

But how do you change your bad vision habits?

There is a saying: “It is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.” The conscious mind is often reluctant and resistant to any change. Believe it or not, most of us are stubborn creatures—more like an old dog—who do not want to get out of own comfort zones. The only way to overcome this obstacle is through changing the subconscious mind.

To initiate any meaningful change, you must rely on your mind, specifically, your subconscious mind. Give your mind the tools it needs to change for the better.

Your thoughts pre-determine how your eyes function. Use positive affirmations and creative images to change your thinking in order to change how your eyes should function.

Affirmations and visualization

Affirmations and visualization are powerful mind-power tools to change your subconscious mind in order to change your conscious mind. They are effective in changing bad vision habits that inhibit vision self-healing. Remember, these bad vision habits may have become long-term memories in your subconscious mind. You must eradicate them!

For affirmations or self-suggestions to be effective, they must meet the following criteria:

They must be simple and easy to remember (Always use the present tense!).

They must be practical, realistic, and achievable. (Do not visualize yourself as a billionaire!)

They must be what you strongly believe in, not just what you wish for. (Always know the difference between what you need and what you want!)

They must be repeatedly constantly and consistently in order to have an impact on your subconscious mind. (Always be consistent and persistent!)

You can repeat to yourself daily the following positive affirmations or self-suggestions (of course, you can always make up your own self-suggestions):

I am willing to accept any change in order to heal my eyes.

I am learning how to correct my bad vision habits in order to see better.

I am working diligently to achieve my goal in vision self-healing.

I am committed to improving my vision.

I believe one day I do not have to wear glasses.

I possess the mind power to overcome any challenge in my pursuit of vision self-healing.

Creating your visualization

Visualization is the use of positive images to create the “reality” in your subconscious mind such that “seeing” the positive result of your efforts reinforces your determination and perseverance to reach your goal of vision self-healing.

Visualization plays a pivotal part in your vision improvement: you visualize what your eyes can see through your efforts, as well as how your eyes can improve through regular practice.

Vision research has attested to the close connection between the mind (visualization) and vision (focusing). If you visualize seeing a distant object, the focusing mechanism of your eye can physically respond to your imagination; that is, your eye can actually change its focus through visualization.

In visualization, you close your eyes in your imagination, you relax them in your imagination, and then you re-open them in your imagination. It is all in your imagination.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Monday, January 14, 2019

Good Habits for Better Vision


The following are some good habits for better vision:

MENTAL HABITS

Make no comparison between vision without glasses and vision with glasses. Learn to be comfortable with blur. Do not strive to see clearly. Clear vision will automatically come with improved vision.

Clear vision has to do with the strength of the eye muscles, and the shape of the eye. Mind power has this capability.

Harness your mind power for self-affirmations and positive visualization for vision improvement.

VISUAL HABITS

Develop good visual habits to enhance your vision improvement.

Blinking: Blink constantly to relax the eye. Blinking has to be soft and complete, not rapid.

Shifting: Shift your eyes constantly (the healthy eye sends more than 50 images per second to the brain) and rapidly by changing your eye focus frequently. Your eyes move more rapidly when they are relaxed.

Peripheral vision: Be aware of your total field of vision whenever you focus your eyes. Use BOTH central vision and peripheral vision at the same time.

Natural sunlight: Spend more time outdoors instead of indoors to reap the health benefits of sunlight in nourishing your visual system.

Palming: Relaxation of the eye cures all vision problems. The eye rests completely only in total darkness. Practice palming (covering your eyes with your palms but without touching them), and visualize blackness even for as little as 1 to 2 minutes per session. Of course, the longer you palm, the more relaxed your eyes become.

Vision without glasses: See without glasses to bring back your eye’s natural “accommodation” for better vision. However, remember not to strain to see without glasses. Reduce your time of wearing glasses, and delay the time you put on glasses in the morning. Use under-corrected prescription to slowly and gradually wean yourself from wearing corrective lenses.

VISION AWARENESS

Vision health is all about awareness—awareness of what you should do and what you should not do. Your conscious mind may want to change the bad vision habits that continue to impair your vision, but it is constantly held back by your subconscious mind.

Form the habit of awareness. Always be aware of the following good vision habits:

To heal the eye, change your vision habit!

Your mind determines how your eyes see!

Use your subconscious mind to change your vision with affirmations and visualization!

Breathe right to relax both the mind and the mind!

Consciously train your eyes for distant vision!

Regularly look up from your computer or your book!

The shape of the eyeball determines the power of vision. The relaxation level of the eye predetermines the shape of the eyeball.

See only selectively! Never STRAIN your eyes in order to see better! A blurry image is OK!

Look without blinking (soft vision) for 10 seconds or so!

Do not STARE! Blink to stop frozen gaze!

Do not let a day pass by without palming your eyes!

Always BLINK—soft and complete! Form the habit of constant blinking!

Always train your eyes for peripheral vision to see what is on both sides of your eyes!.

Swing and shift your body with clear and soft vision of your eyes!

Edge and track a distant object with your eyes anytime and anywhere!

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Better Vision for 2019

Vision is how you see the world. Your perceptions become your realities, and thus they are the substances with which you weave the fabrics of your life. If you “rethink” your mind, you change the way you “see” the world, and accordingly your “realities” change too. No matter what, your vision holds the key to how you live your life, especially as you continue to age. Your vision changes with age, especially in the golden years. Therefore, it is important to have healthy vision at all time.

Your eyes are one of the most important of your body organs. Without healthy vision, your life in the golden years will be greatly compromised. Your vision deteriorates as early as in your 30s, but its decline is slow and gradual. However, as soon as you are approaching your golden years (65 and above), your vision declines rather significantly.  

Some of the obvious signs and symptoms of vision deterioration are your difficulty in focusing as well as in seeing either long or short distances. These common problems include nearsightedness (an eye condition in which your eyeball is too long, such that light rays fall short of achieving a point of focus on your retina, which is the sensory membrane at the back of the eye), farsightedness (also known as hyperopia, a condition in which you can see distant objects but have difficulty focusing objects that are up close) and astigmatism (a condition in which your eyes have an irregular shape, causing light rays entering your eyes to split into different points of focus, and thus resulting in blurry vision).

Macular degeneration is another eye problem that cmay come with age. Macular degeneration affects as many as 30 million Americans aged 65 and above. If you are 65, you have 25 percent of developing macular degeneration; and your risk increases to 30 percent if you are over 75. Macular degeneration is a devastating condition because it may lead to blindness.

The macula is a small central part of the retina that enables detailed vision. As such, it is critical to correct vision. Due to various reasons, such as heredity, hypertension, high cholesterol, sun damage, and smoking, the macula may accelerate its decline, which might have started even at an early age. Macular degeneration is a slow, progressive disease that affects both eyes, typically one after the other. Due to its slow development, macular degeneration may take years to become noticeable. By the time you notice it, the onset is already well underway. Therefore, prevention is always better than cure. Vision health is an important component of self-healing of the eye.

Another change in vision due to aging is the inability to see in dim light. Vision is possible only when light passes through the lens to the retina at the back of the eye. Through years of wear and tear, your lens becomes denser and less sensitive, and thus decreasing the amount of light getting to the retina. On average, a 60-year-old person needs 3 times more light to read than a young adult. This explains why you may react more slowly to changes in light. In addition, if you have developed cataract, which is a cloudy condition of the eye, you may have increasing sensitivity to glare.

Perception of colors is yet another change in you golden years. The reason is that your lens tends to yellow slightly; this may cause you to have problem reading black letters against a blue background or reading blue letters.

Other vision-related problems include floaters, which are tiny solidified fluids within the eye, and dry eyes due to decline in tear-production cells.

Consider the use of eye exercises to help correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness or presbyopia. Eye exercises are easy and simple to do and you can even do them anywhere and anytime. A few exercises each day can really help you improve your vision significantly.
When you “exercise” your eyes, you move your eye muscles to create up-and-down, side-to-side or circular motion. These movements “work” the muscles controlling back-and-forth movement of your eye’s natural lens, to help achieve sight at multiple distances. In addition, eye exercise can change the basic shape of your cornea, thereby instrumental in changing the angle of light entering your eyes for better and more correct focus.

To maintain natural vision health, eat a healthy diet. Antioxidants and vitamins and minerals are critical to boosting vision health.  You need high doses of beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and zinc. Nutritional therapy is an important component of natural self-healing and vision health. Beta-carotene facilitates your body to convert plants into vitamin A, thereby instrumental in boosting normal cell reproduction in the eye, protecting the eye from free radicals, and enhancing night vision, Vitamin C is an important immune system booster, and an agent for making collagen to maintain healthy blood vessels in the eye. Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant to protect cell membranes. Zinc is a mineral required by more than 300 enzymes to repair wounds, to optimize vision health, and to protect the eye from free radicals. 

Nutritional therapy also includes supplements of lutein, Taurine, DHA, and ginkgo biloba. Lutein is a carotenoid found in vegetables and fruits, such as collard greens, kale, and spinach. Lutein promotes vision health through its potent antioxidant properties. Taurine transports nutrients to the eye as well as eliminates toxic accumulation in the eye; it promotes retinal health and night vision. DHA, which is an essential Omega-3 fatty acid, enhances the development of the retina. Ginkgo biloba is an ancient Chinese herb for vision health.

Most vision problems, whether nearsightedness, farsightedness, or presbyopia, have to do with eye stress and strain affecting the shape of the eyes, and hence their capability to focus correctly. Of course, the eyes cannot be relaxed if the body and mind are not. Therefore, it is important to have a holistic approach to vision self-healing.

If you are in your golden years, it is important to have a holistic approach to your health and wellness, which is the wisdom in happy and successful aging. Read my book Your Golden Years and Santa Claus to find out how to live your life in your golden years asif everything is a miracle. Indeed, life is full of challenges, and you must learn how to overcome those challenges, especially in your golden years.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Friday, January 11, 2019

Vision for Smartness for Your Child or Grandchild?

Do you have the vision for smartness for your child or grandchild?

This book provides simple guidelines and a blueprint for all parents who wish to make their smart babies super smart.

After months of pregnancy, your baby has finally arrived. This has also opened a new challenging chapter in your life: how to help your baby grow and develop both physically and intellectually to the best potentials. You may easily become overwhelmed by the exhaustive information on the Internet with respect to raising a smart baby. Simplicity holds the key. Be simple in your approach to your everyday activities and interactions with your baby. Make the best and the most out of the first three years of your baby’s life to enhance and optimize brain growth with super intelligence.

This book focuses on simple games and daily activities and interactions to stimulate your baby's brain to develop language skills and spatial intelligence, even as early as one-month- old.  

Stephen Lau 

Monday, January 7, 2019

Anxiety and Vision

Anxiety

Anxiety gives you stress, which may affect your vision health. 

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 loa ded 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



Friday, January 4, 2019

Vision Improvement

VISION IMPROVEMENT

Vision improvement is based on the four principles of good vision:

Relaxing the eye
Strengthening the eye
Adjusting the eye to light
Balancing the eye
Relaxing the Eye

Eye relaxation begins with the mind first, not the eye. The mind must be completely relaxed before it can relax the body—and the eye, which is only one of the many organs of the body.

Relax the body to relax the eye

Practicing Oriental exercises, such as Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and Yoga, can significantly relax the body because these exercises focus on “soft” movements of the body. Western-style exercises, on the other hand, focus more on building physical strength and muscles rather than on relaxing the muscles.

Do some, if not all, of the following exercises to relax the body, and hence prepare you for exercises to relax the eye.

The neck

Stand with your feet slightly apart, and knees at ease.

Firm your lower abdominal muscles, and straighten your upper back.

Loosen your shoulders, and let them face forward.

Let your head fall backward for a count of 10.
Slowly turn your head to the left and then to the right, each for a count of 5.

With shoulders facing forward, move your head to look up and down, each for a count of 5.
          
With shoulders facing forward, move your head sideways, bringing the left ear to the left shoulder, and then the right ear to the right shoulder, each for a count of 5.
       
Repeat the above.

The neck exercises can be practiced at any time—even when you are at work or waiting for the bus. Always keep your neck muscles relaxed and supple.

The upper torso

Interlace your fingers of both hands, with palms towards you.

Slowly move your arms in a large circle, reaching as far as you can without straining your arm and shoulder muscles.

Repeat a few circles in a clockwise direction, and then in an anti-clockwise direction.

The chest, neck, and head

Stand facing and leaning against a wall, with extending arms and elbows locked in a straight position, and your palms flat against the wall.

Consciously move your chest backward and forward without moving the rest of the body. Your elbows should remain straight throughout the movements of the chest.

Slowly move your head from side to side as your chest puffs out and caves in during your inhalation and exhalation.
          
Stretching and curling

Stand with your feet close together.

Inhale deeply and stretch up, and then from side to side.
Give yourself a big yawn.

Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly as you relax your head forward and down, right and left. Open your eyes and “notice” the world around you.

Stretch up your hands above your head as far as you can go. Feel the stretch on your sides. Breathe slowly, and count 10.
       
Keeping your knees a little bent, curl your body forward until your hands touch the floor. Keep your neck, hands and shoulders relaxed. Look upward with your eyes to keep your spine straight. Remain in this position for a count of 10.

Repeat the whole process several times for deep relaxation of the body.

This exercise aims at strengthening your lower back as well as your kidneys, which have a relationship with your eyes.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Thursday, January 3, 2019

What Is Vision?

What Is Vision?

Vision is all about light. Without light, there is no vision.

“In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the power of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, ‘Let there be light’—and light appeared.” (Genesis 1-3)

Given that vision is a gift from God, do not abuse it; make the best and the most of your vision power. Improve your vision at any age!

Vision is about how your eyes make use of light to see the world around you:

How much light is available to the eye?

How efficient is the eye lens in refracting the light?

How sensitive is the eye (macula) in receiving and transmitting the light to the brain?

How proficient is the brain in processing the visual data from the eye?

Vision involves more than just the eye: it includes the body and the mind.

So, never strain the eye to read or to see when the light is insufficient.

So, relax the eye in order to avoid distorting the shape of the eye, which will squeeze the lens out of shape, and thus causing the refractive error.

So, protect the macula (for detailed vision) on the retina (the back of the eye) by increasing peripheral vision (on both sides) to avoid overusing the macula.

So, improve brain power through affirmations and visualization to help the eye focus and process visual information efficiently.

Good Vision

Good vision means the capability to look clearly into the distance, but nearsightedness causes blurry distance.

Good vision means having peripheral vision, but the grim reality is that there is only central vision, with little or no periphery.

Good vision means the eyes shift constantly, but the problem is that the eyes are constantly staring, or have developed eye-fixation.

Good vision means the eyes can adjust easily to light, but the truth of the matter is that the eyes tend to squint at different light conditions.

Good vision means the eyes can look close up and far away almost instantaneously, but farsightedness prevents the instant shifting of the eyes.

In other words, the characteristics of the eye with good vision are:

It will “naturally observe” or “notice” what is around.

It will never “strain” to see “everything.”

It will relax and rest even when it is “looking.”

To improve vision is to enhance and to maintain these characteristics at all times.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau