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The TAO of Living for Life

This book is about the art of living well, which is being in the material world we are all living in, but without being of this mundane world. This daunting and challenging task requires profound human wisdom, which comes from TAO wisdom, the ancient wisdom from Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, more than 2,600 years ago.

Lao Tzu was the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, made up of 81 short chapters of Chinese poetry on human wisdom, one of the most translated books in world literature.

This book explains the essentials of TAO wisdom, based on Stephen Lau's own translation and interpretation of Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching with his comments after each of the 81 chapters. Living for life is the wisdom of living in this contemporary age. It is not easy, so you need TAO wisdom.

For more information, click here.

The TAO of Living for Life shows you the wisdom of living not just for yourself, but also for others as well --  just as the famous English poet John Donne says: "No man is an island."  Once you perceive this intricate inter-connection between people, you will self-intuit the wisdom of Lao Tzu.  After all, according to Lao Tzu, there is no word or blueprint for human wisdom -- it is all about self-intuition.

Stephen Lau

Sleep Deprivation and Vision Health

Vision health is important because your eyes are the windows through which you see the world. Unfortunately, vision may deteriorate with age, especially if you don’t take care of your vision health.

Sleep deprivation is damaging to health, not just that of your body and mind, but also of your eyes. Good sleep means you get at least 7-8 hours of natural sleep. If you don’t have adequate sleep, you may damage your optic nerve due to a restricted blood flow into your eyes. This condition is known as ischemic optic neuropathy, which may affect the clarity of your vision. Remember, your eyes need oxygen and nutrients just as the rest of your body organs do.

Sleep deprivation may cause eye spasms, which make your eyes twitch uncontrollably. This irritating eye condition, though not serious, can be avoided if you sleep well. Another uncomfortable eye condition due to sleep deprivation is the development of dry eyes. If you experience red, swollen, and bloodshot eyes that are sensitive to light, resulting in blurry vision, you may have dry eyes caused by inadequate production of tears by your tear ducts. Sitting in front of the computer over a long period of time, driving at night without much rest, or simply not getting enough sleep may cause eye strain. Chronic eye strain may damage your vision, causing pain and blurry vision. Therefore it is important to take a break every now and then to give your eyes a meaningful break. The best and the most effective way is to do eye-palming, which is a simple exercise that you can perform any time during the day. You simply place both palms over the eyes but without touching them, and then gently close your eyes; your eyes seem to be seeing “blackness.” Another way to relax your eyes is to do meditation.

If you have sleep apnea that interrupts your breathing while sleeping, you have increasing risk of developing glaucoma, which is a serious eye condition that may result in loss of vision or even blindness due to damaged optic nerve.

All in all, your vision health has much to do with your lifestyle: what you eat, what you do, and how you sleep. Remember, if you have a compulsive mind that forever puts you in the past or in the future, except in the present, you are living a stressful life that prevents you from getting a good sleep at night. Stress is the underlying contributor to disease, including loss of  vision. Take care of your mind to take care of your body,  including your eyes.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Why Eye Exercises?

Are you tired of wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses? Is your vision deteriorating? Can eye exercises really correct eyesight?

If you have vision problems, eye exercises can benefit, just like physical exercises benefiting the body and the mind. Like physical exercises, eye exercises may not cure or heal your eye problems, but they certainly can improve your vision health , Natural healing always takes time, especially natural vision self-healing.

Although eye exercises can improve vision, many are unwilling to try them. For one thing, many are still skeptical about the body’s capability to heal itself. For another, many consider poor vision a handicap rather than a physical disorder that needs to be addressed; to many, given that their poor vision can easily be fixed with eyeglasses or contacts, so why bother with eye exercises to correct vision? Indeed, many people would prefer a quick-fix rather than the tedious and troublesome eye exercises.

Without a doubt, natural vision improvement through eye exercises takes time. Eye exercises are instrumental in both relaxing and strengthening eye muscles in order to correct eyesight.

However, practicing eye exercises has to be diligent and consistent. In addition, it is recommended that you stop wearing glasses or contacts as much as possible in order to facilitate the healing process. That means you must get yourself accustomed to blurry vision around you as a result of not wearing your eyeglasses or contact lenses. In addition, you must not strain to see clearly when your vision is blurry. The only promise is that you will see clearly only when your vision improves, and not before. All these pre-conditions may turn many away from the use of eye exercises to correct their vision.

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, leading to nearsightedness and farsightedness. Dr. Bates strongly believed that eye relaxation holds the key to improving vision. Given that vision health is holistic health, which means it includes the health of the body, the mind, and the spirit as well, the eye exercises recommended by Dr. Bates may help only partially to correct eyesight. 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 many organs of the body. That is to say, eye exercises can relax the eye only when the body is also completely relaxed. You can relax the body and the mind through guided meditation.

That said, eye exercises in conjunction with bodywith body and mind relaxation can indeed improve and correct eyesight. You have nothing to lose, even if you cannot completely dispense with your eyeglasses or contact lenses—at least your vision may not deteriorate any further with age. The bottom line: wearing eyeglasses or contacts will never improve your vision; they will only make it worse, not better.

If you really want to improve vision, go for eye exercises. If, on the other hand, you want a quick-fix, maybe you should go for eyeglasses or contact lenses. The choice is yours. Remember, if you do not want vision self-healing, you may not want self-healing in other health problems that you may have—you may end up being another victim of the sickness industry, which also includes the optical companies.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Greater Eye Energy for Better Vision Health

According to the laws of physics, there is energy in everything, and everything gives out invisible energy, including the sun, the moon, and the human body. As a matter of fact, everything is some form of energy, which is either positive or negative. For example, even your thinking involves energy, without which the mind cannot function. Therefore, if you "think" you can heal yourself, your mind sends out positive energy to your body for self-healing.

Strange as it may sound, energy healing has been around for over 5,000 years. As a matter of fact, energy healing has been the foundation of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for many centuries. 

In ancient China, some soldiers who received minor wounds inflicted on their bodies soon discovered that their physical pains and ailments had miraculously disappeared, and that led to the discovery of energy healing. The ancient Chinese physicians began to believe that there was an energy system in the human body, within which there was energy communication between different cells and organs. For centuries, the Chinese have believed that "qi" (the internal life energy) is responsible for transmitting energy information within the body. Accordingly, the smooth flow or stagnation of "qi" accounts for health or sickness.

That also led to the development of acupuncture and acupressure—methods to stimulate acupoints in the art of natural healing. The former uses hair-thin needles, while the latter uses pressure of the hands to massage those acupoints. The human body has many acupoints that have similar internal organ or system affinity, and that they are all joined together by invisible channels (known as meridians). Along the meridians, both internal life energy (“qi”) and bio chemicals that influence cellular activities of the body organs and tissues are transmitted. More importantly, stimulating this signaling system can create healing response that initiates the natural healing process.

To deal with your eye problems, such as eyestrain, vision clarity, or even glaucoma, the acupoints are located not just around the eyes (the inner corner of the eye close to the tear duct) but also 2-finger width above the middle of the eyebrow on your forehead, as well as on the back of your skill (feel the indentations about 3-finger width from the back of your ears), and on the inside of your foot near the ankle.

Massage these acupoints continuously without stopping for a few minutes using your thumb or forefinger, or both. You will feel the soreness. This is a natural way to improve your vision health and relax your eyes, especially after working on the computer for a while.

Acupressure is easy to learn: all you need to know is the map of the acupoints in your body and then apply pressure to those acupoints to bring about healing.

Energy Healing for Everyone: This mind-healing program contains all the information you will need to help you remove energetic blockages, improve your immune system, heal minor and major health problems, and eliminate bad habits or patterns permanently, without the adverse side effects of drugs, herbs or other supplements. This is a complete, holistic health system for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of energetic imbalances. This groundbreaking work turns complex healing methods into the simplest, most accessible tool — your mind.

                                

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

My Newly Published Book on HUMAN WISDOM

The TAO of Living for Life

This book is about the art of living well, which is being in the material world we are all living in, but without being of this mundane world. This daunting and challenging task requires profound human wisdom, which comes from TAO wisdom, the ancient wisdom from Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, more than 2,600 years ago.

Lao Tzu was the author of the immortal classic Tao Te Ching, made up of 81 short chapters of Chinese poetry on human wisdom, one of the most translated books in world literature.

This book explains the essentials of TAO wisdom, based on Stephen Lau's own translation and interpretation of Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching with his comments after each of the 81 chapters. Living for life is the wisdom of living in this contemporary age. It is not easy, so you need TAO wisdom.

For more information, click here.

The TAO of Living for Life shows you the wisdom of living not just for yourself, but also for others as well --  just as the famous English poet John Donne says: "No man is an island."  Once you perceive this intricate inter-connection between people, you will self-intuit the wisdom of Lao Tzu.  After all, according to Lao Tzu, there is no word or blueprint for human wisdom -- it is all about self-intuition.

Stephen Lau

Basic Principles of Good Vision

Basic Principles of Good Vision 

Eye relaxation holds the key to correcting vision problems.

The normal eyeball is round. Therefore, if you strain to see, your eyeball becomes distorted. As a result, you cannot see clearly. Because you cannot see, you strain your eyes even more. The more you strain your eyes, the less you will be able to see, and thus forming a vicious circle of poorer vision. To break that vicious circle, stop your eyestrain.

Unfortunately, you cannot consciously control your eye muscles. That is to say, you cannot tell your eye muscles not to squeeze your eyes out of shape. What you can do is to control them unconsciously through awareness.

Fact: Weak vision is due to incorrect refraction—either in front of or behind, but not directly on the retina. Distorted shape of the eyeball, due to weak and un-relaxed eye muscles, causes the incorrect refraction on the eye’s retina.

Solution: Strengthen and relax eye muscles to prevent them from squeezing the eye out of shape when focusing.

Recommendation: Corrective lenses only create the desire for clear vision but deprives the eye from naturally adjusting to the constant changing conditions of the eye, and thus causing eyestrain as a result. Stop wearing your corrective lenses. Instead, relax your eye muscles to improve your vision such that you can ultimately do without your glasses.

Practice the following basic principles of good vision:

Central fixation: Train the eye to focus on only one point one at a time. To illustrate, let your eyes look at a printed page: Focus on only one word on the printed page, allowing other words in its vicinity to become blurred; then, try to see one letter of that word better than the other letters of that word; then, look at the other letters, one by one; now, look at the blank space between that word and the next; focus on the next word, and repeat the process.

The objective of this training is to help you focus on only a very small area because the macula (responsible for detailed vision) can see only a very small area. Stimulate the macula to enhance vision improvement.

Shifting: Train the eye to look from one object to another frequently, from a close object to a distant one, and then back again in order to relieve tension and eyestrain, which impair good vision. Reinforce shifting with constant blinking to clean and to rest the eye.

Sunning: Train the eye to adapt and adjust to bright light to avoid squinting, which causes eyestrain. Close your eyes and look up at the sun. Then, turn away from the sun, opening your eyes, and look at some clouds. Close your eyes for a moment, and then open your eyes at look at a point a little nearer the sun, but without looking directly at the sun. Sunning sharpens your vision, as well as prevents squinting.

Relaxation: Visualizing “black” induces complete relaxation of the eye. A completely relaxed eye will see only black when it is closed; seeing the field of vision grayish or light-golden in color means that the eye is not totally relaxed.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How to Cope With Your Aging Eyes

Aging may cause common eye problems, which are related to how your eyes are shaped and which accordingly affect how you focus with your eyes.

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 very well, but have difficulty focusing on 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).

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.

Macular degeneration is another serious eye problem affecting 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. 

The macula is a small central part of the retina that enables detailed vision. As such, it is critical to your vision health. Unfortunately, the macula may degenerate due to various reasons, such as heredity, hypertension, high cholesterol, sun damage, and smoking. 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.

Like many other diseases, macular degeneration can be treated with high doses of antioxidants and minerals. With the exception of vitamin D from sunlight, your body does not make your own vitamins and minerals; they must be obtained from your diet. Antioxidants and vitamins and minerals are critical to vision health in preventing and treating generative diseases, such as macular degeneration. 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.

Natural physical health requires exercise and nutrition; by the same token, your natural vision health also requires regular eye exercises and nutritional therapy to maintain and sustain its quality.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© Stephen Lau

Visual Impairments

Visual Impairments

The visually impaired and the blind may be able to receive Social Security Disability benefits. There are two different benefit programs that are offered to the visually impaired and those who do not qualify for one are generally able to qualify for the other, and some people are even able to qualify for both programs.

The first program is called Social Security Disability Insurance or SSDI and this is based on the work history of the individual. In order to qualify for this program, the individual had to have earned a certain amount of what are referred to as work credits. The SSA will then figure up the amount of benefits the individual is eligible to receive based on those work credits.

The other program is called Social Security Income or SSI. This program is not based on work credits, but there are particular financial requirements that the individual must meet in order to qualify for this program.

Of course, it is best to avoid visual impairments in the first place. There are many several ways you can do to avoid visual impairments:

Eat eye healthy foods – Fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and fish are not only good foods to eat for your overall health, but they are also excellent for strengthening your eyesight.

Do eye exercises to improve certain vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatisms, and even a combination of those eye problems. They are easy to do and only take a few minutes of each day to do in order to begin to have a positive effect on your eyesight.

Take vitamin supplements – There are an abundance of vitamins and nutrients that are beneficial to your eye health and while you can find most of these properties in the foods you eat, it’s also a good idea to take a vitamin supplement so that you can ensure you are getting the recommended amount of each of those vitamins and nutrients on a daily basis.

Get regular eye exams – This is an important step to take. Having your eyes examined on a regular basis – every two years in most cases – is essential for making sure that there are no issues with your eyes or your vision, and if there are issues, they can be detected early on so they can be treated right away before any major damage or other issues arise.

Stephen Lau

Copyright©2018 by Stephen Lau