This is an important one because small niggly symptoms are easily lived with. We can easily get used to them so that we don’t even notice them so much.
And then when they worsen that little bit, the difference is so slight that we easily live with that too. And so it goes on. It’s like a drip, drip damaging effect on your health.
But these little niggles are signs of a body in distress. They are a “warning light” — a sign that most often means your lifestyle is not maintaining your health.
Often I hear things like “He was perfectly OK before he had the heart attack.” The perception is that something just broke. But that is never the case. Health or disease is the result of decades of lifestyle “choices.” Continue reading “Health warning signs”→
Happy Guide will empower you to become happy and healthy if you put your attention to it.
The best way to start is to read Happy Guide over and over until it crystallizes in your mind. It’s been kept as short as possible without leaving anything out. One read won’t do it, knowing is not enough, you have to mentally own it.
A map will tell you where the end destination is — and the quickest route…
If you want to be happy and healthy you also need a map.
The end destination is “happy and healthy.” Simple enough. But if you try to get there without a map I can tell you from experience, it’s a rocky road with many obstacles and pitfalls…
Your body parts don’t break and need fixing like a car. Your body is incredibly complex and works as a whole.
So whatever your health problem, you need a whole solution. Health isn’t one thing, it’s everything.
Address your whole lifestyle: nutrition, sleep, stress levels, drug and stimulant intake — and many other critical parts of the whole health equation…
But underlying these “what to do” parts is something of greater and more profound importance. And that is your habits… Continue reading “You are not a car”→
I wanted to tell you about what happened to a Happy Guide reader called Matt because it’s a great case study, showing how quickly things can turn around.
It shows what’s possible when you start giving your body what it needs!
Here’s what happened…
We first heard from Matt when he left this comment on Mike’s unwanted thoughts article…
Today I realized how out of control my mind has become. Over the last few months It feels as though I’ve lost control of my thoughts and I’ve slowly slipped into the beginning of a deep depression. I spent much of my teenage years in that rut so I don’t want to go back. Somehow I got over that, but it took years. I can feel the darkness once again and it is almost enough to make me want to knock myself out and not wake back up.
Reading what you have said on how to stop the problem has given me that hope that I can stop it before it destroys me again. I was doing exactly what you said not to do to try and stop it. I was so terrified I was going to get taken down again and this time not get out. Just seeing how I am suppose to help myself in print makes it a lot easier for me to believe that it can actually help me. You and your website and the methods you explain are my weapon against my unwanted thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Matt, 29 August
Although I was pleased that Matt had found the article so helpful, I was well aware that in terms of lifestyle, everything affects everything else. This was just one of the six lifestyle elements for a happy, healthy life.
“I’m still feeling a bit melancholy a good deal of the time. I often think I might be in a bit of a mid life crisis. Even though I have a beautiful family, I often think ‘What’s this really all about?’ Like nothing seems to do it for me anymore, where’s the joy/excitement?
The anxiety isn’t there nearly as much as it used to be (or the thoughts), but you’d think I’d be super happy all the time. Perhaps this is REALLY where meditation comes in? Very confused!”
I can tell you with noooooo doubt that if the six lifestyle elements are in place, you cannot NOT be happy. A well functioning body, high energy and living in the moment allows joy — which is really your natural state.
I’m so sure of this that I know that you are lacking in one or more of these areas.
Sleep, diet, live in the moment and organization spring to mind in your case…
I say organization because you worry and worry is not joy. And worry becomes a habit — everything does. The organization and “tidy your soul” information in Happy Guide is to take you away from worry…
Are you happy? If the answer is YES, then you’re successful. Happiness is the only valid measure of success, because the reason people believe they need lots of money for example, is because they think it will make them happier.
Having lots of money is a nice thing — it means you don’t have to worry about money. But having a fatter wage check, a bigger house or a better car… these things alone won’t make you happy, not in the long run.
I’ve known millionaires who were desperately unhappy, despite having every possession they could ever want. Is that a successful life?
There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with having beautiful things or being rich. The point is whether we are seeking the material to fill an empty void within that can’t be filled with these things. That just doesn’t work.
One day at work something HIT ME like a ton of bricks. It was one of those pivotal moments we have in life. I was soldering — I was an electrical engineer and my head started swimming.
In only a couple of seconds I became disoriented and straight away was lost in a fog that was to last for 13 years…
I was scared; suddenly I couldn’t function, couldn’t focus and couldn’t do normal things like drive the car.
I shut MY WHOLE LIFE down. It was a knee-jerk reaction that was probably the wrong move but I didn’t know what else to do. I lost everything and I mean… EVERYTHING… Continue reading “How did Happy Guide come about?”→
This is a very important thing to understand about overcoming anxiety and worry:
It’s impossible to control thinking when you’re anxious.
Anxiety is a “fight or flight” state. It’s do or die, survival…
It’s a state that is intended to save your life. In the modern world we have so many pressures on us that just were not there as human beings evolved.
Anxiety has nowhere to go
And so we become anxious when we cannot fight or run. And all that anxious energy has NOWHERE TO GO. That’s very important background information to know before you can deal with this… Continue reading “How to overcome anxiety and worry”→
Depression is one of the worst afflictions anyone can suffer because no matter what the outer circumstances of life, the EXPERIENCE of life is dark, painful, hopeless.
Words can’t describe the awful pain that is depression. It’s torture…
The reason I’m so desperate to speak about this is that the truth about depression is just not common knowledge.
Depression, like so many other health conditions, is treated as if something suddenly went wrong with your brain. Anti-depressant prescriptions are taken en-masse…
These drugs attempt to alter the chemistry of your brain to try to FIX a lack or excess of brain chemicals like “serotonin.” The SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) anti-depressants for example aim to stop serotonin being lost from the brain and therefore keep you happier. But there’s a real lack of evidence that these drugs help, and even short-term benefit seems likely to be the placebo effect.
Drugs can only ever treat symptoms
The short-sightedness of this whole approach makes my blood boil. I feel angry about it. Very angry. Because MILLIONS of people are being duped into thinking that they need drugs which can only ever MASK an underlying problem… Continue reading “How to beat depression without prescription drugs”→
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