Here's how to make it a good year

Just one line of advice:

Face every experience that affects you with this attitude. I will embrace it and let it pass.

Eating right all the time

Much has been said about diet and the road to a longer life span.

According to what I have seen and learnt, there are some foods to be considered if you want your body to be a constant state of good health.

1. Try one clove of raw garlic during at least one meal of the day.

2. Take fresh soya drink.

3. Eat more of your favourite greens.

4. Force yourself to get used to a diet of more liquids. That doesn not mean alcohol.

5. Take bananas. Eat more persimmons. Try grapes or cherries.

6. Eat always in moderation. In other words, don't be a glutton.

7. Always stop eating when you think you can still have two more mouthfuls.

8. Don't eat when you are in a stage of mental unrest. That is when you are uptight.

9. Take a walk after a meal whenever possible.

10. There's great benefit in having a cheerful spirit around the dining table.

Feel alive, every second of the minute and every minute of the hour

Everybody, apart from the insane, wants to live as long as possible. The trouble is they always avoid the path that is right for them.

Longevity is not that holy grail that Indiana Jones is still looking for. Longevity means you take note of all that is good for you and embrace them.

Can you learn to move away from self-inflicted guilt? Can you admit that everything that happens to you was due to you, and you alone?

Once you know that you are the centre of the universe and everything good and bad is your responsibility, a small window of opportunity will slowly open for you.

See the world as your oyster. It is yours to own and play with. Begin to know that you hold the future in your own mind.

Learn to love everything you do. Do everything you love, and love everybody who crosses your path.

The world of sorrow is reserved for those who is afraid everything that belongs to others must be theirs - yesterday.

Longevity has no room for selfishness. It does not tolerate anger. It will shy away from fear. It recognises that nothing on earth is permanent and all that is permanent belongs not on earth.

With that truth in your heart, your soul can then be awakened to do its work.
Good luck!

Here's something not so big a secret

The problem with most people is that they want to live a long life but when you ask them why, they can't come up with a proper answer.

Just live as long as possible until they are sick and tired of it or just plain sick and very tired. One of those things that people who live long lives have neglected to tell you is that they have learnt to "let go" of a lot of things that we personality type are still steadfastly hanging on to.

For example, if we can't get what we want, we kick up a fuss and make sure everybody within earshot hears about it. We do not know how to let go. It's not the physical act of unclutching something but rather the mental process of not giving that particular thing any importance so that we won't lose any sleep over it.

There have been times when all of us professionals become uptight and highly strung, so much so that everybody near us become nervous and restless.

Letting go is a good habit. It helps to relieve stress. People just don't want to let go. For some people when a loved one dies, they are in mourning for long stretches. Why?

It doesn't benefit the one who had passed away. It also brings nothing but pain to the one who mourns. Of course, there's a time for grief but sorrow like everything else is not supposed to go on and on.

When a person lies on the bed of sorrow for too long, it will paralyses his happy mechanism. This is where letting go comes in. For example, if your parents pass away suddenly, there will be shock, followed by pain and sorrow.

The time of bereavement will be a dark period for you and your family. That is natural and eminently understandable. But when you hold on to their memories for too long, the darkness will become your shroud.

Why indulge in misery and prolonged grief when it's totally unnecessary? As there is life, there must too be death. Both are two sides of the same coin called life.

We do not live as long as some animals on earth. Ours is a passing fancy. It is a light that lits up the lives of others and is soon extinguished.

Part of the process of maturing in the spirit of life is letting go on proper occasions. Man was not created to grieve endlessly or to mourn incessantly for people who have limited lifespans.

We are spirits living in bodies, and not bodies with spirit.

Learn to let go. The time will come when such an act is more of a balm than that of a shackle.

Hold that thought!

THE SEED of good health lies in a good thought. From that single thought sprouts other thoughts.

Thought is energy. If you think hard enough and properly, you shall in time improve your mind, your heart and eventually your health.

Life couldn't be simpler. But we are all human beings. In other words, we subject ourselves to the most ridiculous conditions even though we could freely not indulge in such practices.

For example, we choose quitely willingly to prey on others, instead of praying for others.

We think we are superior to others who may or may not be lesser than us. But the truth remains that all are created equal under heaven.

If you are physically more well endowed than others. It just means you have a phhysical advantage over some people. At the end of the day, the others may overtake you on other aspects.

They may have more pleasant personalities, or they may have greater patience, or even more diligent than you.

They could be more persistent, more determined, kinder, more loving and generally more optimistic than you. So if you are born good-looking. That doesn't go very far because the years will make you lose that advantage in due course.

So what is the secret to a long and happy life? Even though, it sounds preposterous right now, the answer is actually your state of mind.

If you hold on fast to a single thought of goodness and polish it every day like you are polishing it in water, soon enough, it will sparkle.

Just a diamond in the rough will shine through relentless polishing, a single good thought will lead you down the path to good health.

Millions ruin their own health with unkind thoughts. They dwell in the painful past. They speak unkindly of others. They plot other people's downfall so that they can advance unfairly.

These are the potholes in the highway of life. If there are many potholes in your path, created by nobody but you, you will soon find the going a bit rough.

Why make your own journey a bumpy one? So hold that thought and make sure it's a good one.

The REAL secret to longevity

Actually there's no secret. Just be one with everything.

For some people, it takes a lifetime to understand this precept. For those rare few, they got the answer 10 seconds I have uttered that sentence. Amen.

Don't be a prescription drug addict

There's something not quite right in the medicine world. It's my personal opinion so bear with me.
During my grandfather's days, medicine was not as plentiful as today. Whatever a man couldn't afford in the old days, he simply improvise.

These days, there's a drug for almost every ailment that afflicts man. The drugs come mainly from the developed countries where giant pharmaceutical companies produce some of the best and most expensive drugs known to the rest of the world.

My friends and I sometimes debate over this issue of prescription drugs. We came to one conclusion - too much dependence on those chemically produced stuff is bad for our bodies.

This conclusion comes from a lifelong experience with these medicines. So my take on this is DON'T take medicine unless you absolutely need them.

If it's just a simple cold, just rest in bed. If you have a slight ache, bear with the discomfort.

Often, city folks just can't stand pain. If there's a slight ache, they reach for the medicine cabinet.

In the end, some of them become dependent on these prescription drugs and begin a lifelong affair with the little pill that may or may not eventually do them in.

The common sense approach towards medicine is: Take only when the situation demands it, not when you demand it.

Life's too short to be wasted on these little boosters. If I may, the best things in life are still free. As you may have realised, prescription drugs can burn a big hole in your pocket.