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Purposely Live to120

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Tag Archives: Happiness

Post #60 – 10 Books on Health and Wellness I Read Over the Last Year

06 Sunday May 2018

Posted by purposelyliveto120 in Aging, Life-Span, Living to 120, meditation, Mental Health, Nutrition, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Puposely Living, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Stress, TM, Uncategorized, wellness, Yoga

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Aging, Biomarkers, Chronic Disease, Happiness, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Stress, Telomere

I thought I would share titles, quick summary and my takeaways of the books I recently read on the subject of health and wellness. May be one or more might intrigue you or inspire you for you to explore further. Or, even adopt some practices recommended in these books to improve you health and wellness.

How Not to Die Cook Book As I mentioned in my previous post #58, I consider Michael Greger’s website http://www.NutiritionFacts.com as the go-to site for all information related to nutrition. This cookbook is a good companion book to the website and his earlier best-selling book How Not To Die. Recipes are practical way of adapting to the latest in nutrition science. I have tried few recipes. They are very good.

The End of Heart Disease In my blog post #9 – When it comes to health, vitality and aging what is really possible?, I had discussed the book, Prevent and Reverse Hearth Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. M.D. In this book, Dr. Fuhrman’s has updated research on preventing and reversing heart disease. Case studies are mind blowing. He not only gives research but actually prescription on what you should actually eat and even very specific meal plans.  Dr. Furhman promises his patients to let him decide what they eat for six weeks and then based on the result they can then decide what to eat. Most of them become converts to his prescription of nutrition after seeing the results.

Super ImmunityI did a series for posts #51-#54 on How to Optimize Your Immune System. In this book, Dr. Fuhrman offers a lot more research and very practical ways to build immunity so your body can fight whatever comes its way – not only flues and colds, but also other infections and even cancer. Cancer after-all is just DNA mutation that body fights all day long. Only when our immune system is NOT capable of handling the mutated DNA, it starts to take over the organs unchecked. Again, the book includes nutrition meal plans, recipes to put into practice his philosophy – not just eat food that is packed with desired micro-nutrients, but eat a lot of it.

The Telomere Effect In blog post #50, I discussed how to optimize your health by maximizing your telomeres. Elizabeth Blackburh received Nobel Prize for her research in telomeres. Telomeres are the end-caps at the ends of our DNA strands like little plastic wraps at the end of shoe laces. If the little plastic wraps are damaged shoe laces become useless, so is the case with the DNA. The length of telomeres correlate with the remaining lifespan. Dr. Blackburn shares the latest research in lay-person language and shares the different methods by which we can increase the length of our telomeres. Reading this book, it should not come as surprise to you that the  lifestyle choices I discussed in my Post #59, all help increase the lengths of your telomeres.

The Science of ExerciseTime did a fantastic job in summarizing the latest in science of exercise in this special Time Magazine publication. If you needed any further evidence how exercise impacts health and lifespan, I believe this publication will deliver, without having to read some big tome. The issue spans many diverse topics: cardio vs. weights, high intensity interval training, running, swimming, yoga and other exercise modalities.

The Science of Being and Art of LivingIn my blog post #17 – Is meditation an effective antidote to stress, I talk about Transcendental Meditation or TM as a very effective and well-researched means for combating stress. Science of Being and Art of Living is book compiled based on lectures by Maharishi Mahesh, who introduced TM to the West. He also founded the TM movement that has established TM Centers pretty much in all major cities throughout the world. While first part of the book serves as evidence and motivation for TM, the later parts are more for the practitioners and advanced students of TM and Yoga.

Heart Health KitA few months ago, I got a chance to meet and attend a work shop by Dr. Levy, who has spent all his life building bridges between Western medicine and Eastern philosophies of yoga and meditation. Dr. Levy talks about how to prevent and reverse heart diseases by tackling the most insidious of the issues that impact heart health, i.e., Stress. This manual is accompanied by CDs on which you will find and can actually use his hypnosis techniques for relieving stress and anxiety.

The Happiness SutraIn this more recent publication, The Happiness Sutra, Dr. Levy further delves into the four different types of stresses humans face and how best to deal with all four types of stresses. This book also has a CD that you can listen to to get the benefit of Dr. Levy’s hypnosis methods for relieving stress.

Mind over Medicine Lissa Rankin, M.D.’s  book Mind Over Medicine is a great case study of extreme stress brought on modern living and by our current medical system. Dr. Rankin, a practicing OB GYN, quit her practice of medicine  because of the numerous health and personal issues brought on by stress from her profession. She eventually found ways to heal herself and then learned to apply her new found knowledge to become a true healer,  without becoming slave to the medical system.

 

Have you read books on health and wellness that you would like to share?

I would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

 

 

 

Post #34 – But are you happy?

01 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by purposelyliveto120 in Living to 120, Puposely Living

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Contentment, Happiness

During the early years of our marriage (we are celebrating our 30th anniversary this month!), I used to bristle anytime my wife Kimberly wanted to know if I was happy. Or, if whatever-happened-to-be-the-subject-of-conversation would make me happy?

My typical response used to be, “Why is it important to be happy? What does it mean to be happy any ways?”

I would relate to her the story, probably umpteenth time, how I learned in my Pre-Engineering College days from my Physics teacher, Professor Sood, what became my golden rule, “Always be content, but never be satisfied.”

I have spent much time pondering over that advice and have been living my life with that as my motto.

After a while she changed her tactics and gave up trying to make me “happy”. So she would instead ask me, “So are you content?” “Does whatever-happened-to-be-the-subject-of-conversation make you content?

In response, initially I used to launch into my pontification that she was missing the point. But over time I learned to hold my tongue. She was, after all, making the effort with my best interest at heart.

I always did and still do appreciate the fact that it is important for her to see me happy. As much as it is important for me to always be content yet not satisfied.

Later on, from Tony Robbins’ training, I learned that happiness is just a state of mind that can be triggered by a combination of three things: how we use our physiology, what we focus on, and the biochemistry of our bodies.

If I stand or sit like I am happy, look up, put a grin on my face, breathe deeply as I breathe when I am happy, I do feel happy.

If I focus on thoughts that make me happy, ask questions such as ‘what am I most grateful for?’, ‘who loves me and who do I love?’, and ‘what am I most proud of?’ I do feel happy. If I meditate, set aside thoughts of anxiety I feel happy.

If my blood sugar is even, I am well hydrated, my tummy is sated, and I am well rested again, I feel happy.

This simple yet profound lesson from Tony Robbins further reinforced for me that achieving happiness or being content is well within the reach of everyone at all times.

Pursuit of Happiness, seemingly a lofty goal, enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America, which could be called not just a fundamental right but more like a duty or obligation to oneself is so easily achievable.

As I have learned from Tony Robbins and in turn, taught to some of my friends and family, with just a little bit of practice we can all change our state of mind from any state of mind to Being Happy or Content in really a heartbeat.

So then, what does Pursuit of Happiness really mean?

May be what it really means is the Right to be Dissatisfied.

Like my Physics professor told me forty five years ago, “Always be content but never be satisfied.” If someone takes away my right to be dissatisfied, all my personal progress will probably come to a screeching halt.

What, after all, drives me to be more? In what area would I like to be more or better? What will cause me to evolve, if I feel that I am perfect as I am and everything in my circumstance sis perfect as it is?

Extrapolating this thought to a group of people, if we take the right to be dissatisfied away from a society, then progress of the society will come to a screeching halt. What new frontiers will a society choose to tackle next, if it is already satisfied on all fronts?

Bottom line:

The way I see it, contentment is our birthright, our fundamental duty or obligation to ourselves, and the most natural state of our being.

On the other hand, being dissatisfied or pursuit of happiness, the fundamental right our constitution endows us with is our raison d’être, the very reason and justification of our existence.

What is your view of happiness?

How do you define and achieve happiness?

I would love to hear. Please feel free to leave your comments or questions to this post, so others can participate, share and learn.

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