"Things" Don't Make You Happy
A few years ago, my family and I went to a resort on the beach in Mexico.
When we were leaving at the airport in Detroit, the kids' sealed packages of soy pudding and organic apple sauce were deemed a serious threat to homeland security.
You know what I mean… such liquid snack food may indeed be cleverly disguised explosive chemicals that my son Alek would ignite with his digital watch.
When the officer took away the snacks, Alek and Ella became teary eyed as we walked away from the security station. Next thing I know the same customs officer had caught up to us.
"Are your kids allergic to dairy?"
"No," my wife Natalia said.
"Are you sure?" said the officer with a wink.
"Okay," I said. "Yeah, they are terribly allergic. Milk can throw their digestive tract into a frenzy in less than 30 seconds. Last thing we want happening at high altitudes, but I guess there's no choice. I would have brought some homeopathic remedies, but..."
"Okay, okay," she said. "If they're allergic to milk… "
She immediately handed back the soy puddings. Alek and Ella lit up as if she'd given them an ice cream sandwich.
Not sure what they did with the organic apple sauce but maybe they sent it to the Pentagon for analysis.
That got me thinking about the nature of what makes us happy and what makes us sad. I mean, if you look at it, nothing really changed for my kids. One moment they were holding pudding in their hands, the next moment they weren't. Holding a plastic container is hardly a pleasurable experience. If anything, it's awkward.
Their happiness was totally in their mind. I mean, the customs officer may have handed them back containers full of water, yet they would have been just as happy (until they opened them up of course).
I ask my patients what their goals are by coming in to see me and the responses I hear most often is "I just want to be happy."
"Why not just be happy right now?" I ask.
I'll Be Happy When...
"Oh, I can't," they say. "I'll be happy when I get out of debt… When I pay off my house… When the kids finish school… When I have kids… When I get married… When I get a better job… When I retire… When I lose 20 pounds…"
They invariably use the word "when" in their answer.
"When" is the one word that stops you from being happy NOW.
If you're only happy "when…" then you've sentenced yourself to being unhappy all the time — because the only reality is "now."
It's too bad… you see, people come to me for treatments using herbs, homeopathics, acupuncture and lifestyle guidance to help them be more healthy. Yet, being happy would be rated higher on my list than diet and exercise for producing health (all things being equal).
Cheerfull Rule Breakers
We've all seen the type who eats junk food and doesn't exercise, but manages to have a cheerful disposition all the time and seems like they'll live forever.
Of course, once extreme improper diet and lack of exercise start catching up with such a person, they soon find it more and more difficult to be happy. So, I think my recommendation would be to practice being happy by living healthy.
In fact, most people don't eat right or exercise because they think the process will make them unhappy. They associate the result (thin, strong, healthy body) with happiness, but not the means (proper nutrition and exercise). Most of that is in their mind.
Personally, I find a fresh, colourful green salad with an herb dressing more enticing then a bland looking "happy meal" at McDonald's. When I play soccer or spend a Saturday evening playing golf with my son, I feel alive and invigorated… much better than how most people feel after a day loafing around the house.
Is Conditional Happiness Sabotaging Your Life?
You see, happiness isn't something that happens to you. It's something you yourself do and determine. Don't wait for it… you'll have a long wait.
I'm finding, more and more, that happiness is a mental habit. If it's not practiced in the present it is never experienced. It cannot be made dependent on solving some external problem. When one problem is solved, another appears to take its place. Life is a series of problems.
Money is often a big problem for most people.
We've been taught that we can't be happy until we are making X amount of dollars. Yet there are families in Mexico and many other countries who live in deplorable poverty who are always smiling. You might say that's because they don't know any better… but it sounds to me as if they know a lot better.
If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy... period! Not happy "because of." You can't be a victim. Sure there are extreme examples that should be avoided… but I'm talking about day-to-day life.
You must take personal responsibility for being happy. It puts you in control. With control comes the power to make changes.
You cannot change many facts about your life but you can alter your opinions on how you feel about those facts. It's far easier to change (or simply get rid of) opinions, then it is to change your environment.
Sure, it might seem a little crazy. But, have you ever noticed that the crazy ones are the happy ones?
Honestly, the following scenario sounds more crazy to me…
It's a fact that you may have to get a loan for your mortgage and have to pay it off for the next 15 years. It's your OPINION, however, that the world is coming to an end.
Look, when the world comes to an end, it's pretty incomparable to your loan payments…
The end of the world will probably involve the sun going supernova or something astronomical like that. The oceans will boil up before it even hits us. Earthquakes will rip continents apart. Lava and volcanoes will spurt upward. Finally, the entire planet will become debris dissolving into the infinitude of space.
THAT, my friend, is the end of the world.
Your bank loan, is nothing close.
That's a big example. There are a hundred little examples happening all through the day. You expected something to be some way, and it didn't turn out that way.
Bottom line, don't let outward events and other people dictate how you shall feel and how you shall react. Don't think they'll make you feel happy, angry, bored, sad, excited… whatever.
But for now, remember quite simply, "things" don't make you happy.
Yours in Natural Health,
Dr. Karlo Mauro, BSc, BA, MSEd, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Constipation Relief Strategies For Women
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Over the last 12 years Dr. Karlo Mauro has helped thousands of patients with their gastro-intestinal issues. He works out of his clinic near Windsor, Ontario on the border to Detroit. For more information on his naturopathic practice, go to www.theNaturopath.ca.
In 1992 Dr. Mauro began training in the martial art of Aikido Yoshinkai. In 2003, he earned a 3rd degree black belt. It was Aikido that originally opened his eyes to living a more natural lifestyle -- staying more balanced physically and mentally.
In 1995, he began receiving help from a Naturopathic Doctor for some digestive trouble he was experiencing. This first introduction to natural medicine resulted in him meeting other Naturopathic Doctors and finally making a life-changing decision.
Despite the fact he had just completed 6 years of university, including a Masters degree in Education, Dr. Mauro abandoned his teaching career, entered Naturopathic College, emerging four years later an ND.
Dr. Mauro lives in Windsor, Ontario with his wife Natalia, son Alek and daughter Ella. When he's not at the clinic, he's either watching Alek play golf, watching Ella in gymnastics class or coaching Alek's soccer team.Though he's helped patients with a wide variety of disorders, he's found the most success helping people with gut trouble. "I like the fact it's so easy to see an improvement," he says. "If you're constipated, only going once a week, and you start going everyday, you KNOW you're getting better."
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Eva V., a 52 year old
woman drove 3 hours (one way) to come to
my clinic to tell me her story. She had bowel troubles since she was a child...
Many fertility specialists have seen a definite link between constipation and the inability to conceive or carry a baby to full-term. It makes perfect sense... "If your colon is overloaded with toxins," explains Dr. Mauro, "those toxins will back up into your liver and then into your bloodstream. It's less than ideal circumstances for balancing hormones and bearing a healthy child." Though Dr. Mauro makes no guarantees that having one bowel movement a day will ensure fertility, it should nonetheless help make getting pregnant much easier. You should consider regularity a natural component of any fertility program. |
Dr. Mauro's credentials and experience back up his expertise. He has successfully completed TEN years of university studies...
Doctor, Counsellor, Sensei, Teacher and Coach all in one! You can visit his clinic's website or phone his clinic at (519) 739-2402. Yes, Dr. Karlo Mauro is the real deal! |
Sometimes, even if you are going once a day, it's difficult because your stools are too hard and dry.
Ideally you want your stools to be about the consistency of a ripe banana. Anything looser or thinner is undesirable.
One of the problems with laxatives is that they don't produce this banana-like quality. Instead they bring on diarrhea. Diarrhea is dehydrating and depleting of valuable nutrients (such as potassium and sodium).
Dr. Mauro's 7-part email series and his collection of 37 Constipation Relief Strategies for Women help produce this ideal consistency because they help you retrain your bowels to work properly. When your colon is in good health, it will naturally make sure your stools are neither too dry nor too hard.
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Are you confused about how much you should be eating? Do you feel like you're already full after your first bite of food?
It's no wonder," says Dr. Mauro, "that so many women suffer eating disorders. If you're not evacuating, it's hard to make room for more food. If waste can't find its way down and out, it's going to make your stomach bulge outward and upward.
In fact, your colon can expand three times its regular size (along with your stomach). The secret to a normal appetite is making sure you are emptying your bowels every 24 hours."
You should have no problem achieving one or two bowel movements a day, if you make the simple changes outlined in 37 Constipation Relief Strategies for Women. This should happen in less than 30 days of using these strategies.
Some medical doctors will prescribe birth control drugs to help with constipation. They believe this will help balance the hormones. Like most synthetic hormones, birth control pills come with complications.
Many women experience breakthrough bleeding, decreased appetite, depression, headaches, low libido, urinary tract infection, skin problems, gum inflammation. They also have an increased risk of contracting viral diseases.
Considering all the risks, is this really a good way to "balance your hormones?" Especially when natural methods may produce far superior (and economical) results...
Oftentimes hormonal imbalance is caused by a high consumption of white flour and sugary foods. These same foods turn into a glue-like substance that further clogs up your bowels.
By following the natural remedies and lifestyle changes in 37 Constipation Relief Strategies for Women, you'll be helping to bring your hormones into balance, naturally. Likewise, getting your bowels moving will stop toxins from backing up into your bloodstream, which will further knock your hormones out of whack.
"Many medical experts today agree that most illness begins in the colon and that the colon may be the single most critical organ in the body. As the colon becomes a stagnant cesspool, failing to move the poisons from food waste out of the body on a regular basis, the toxins back up.
"It is estimated that there are 36 different poisons that come from the colon, and as these accumulate in the bowel over a period of weeks, months or often years, they spread into your liver, gallbladder and other organs; into your blood; into your tissues and finally into your cells."
-- Women's Menopause Health Newsletter, October 2007
"A lot of elderly people are taking senna," explains Dr. Mauro. "It's an herb that causes your colon to flush itself out. Many people must drink it as a tea everyday in order to keep on going. The nerves and muscles in their colon are totally zapped and dependent on the stuff. It's a nightmare trying to get them off it."
Senna is one of the few herbs medical doctors prescribe. Unfortunately, it's harmful to use on a daily basis. Once a week as part of a colon cleanse is okay, but more frequently is impairing.
The effects of senna can be fairly drastic," explains Dr. Mauro. "They tend to flush out too much of the healthy bacteria. It's like having diarrhea. It's dehydrating and depleting of your electrolytes (potassium and sodium)."
I don't know about you but I don't want to be dependent on an herb to make me go. Worse still, you have little control over your bowel movements. You go when the herb is ready to make you go. There's not much warning.
That's fine if you're 80 and don't leave home. That's not great when you're on your way to soccer practice to pick up the kids.
Senna is also dangerous for people with high blood pressure, kidney problems or edema.
Healing and strengthening your colon so it can function on its own, as described in 37 Constipation Relief Strategies For Women, is the way to go.
Over 4 million Americans, each year, are affected by constipation, according to the The National Institute of Health. That works out to about 2.5 million doctor visits and $725 million in over-the-counter laxatives. The majority of those visits and purchases are by women.
As you can see, there's a lot of money in keeping people constipated and reliant on laxatives. No wonder Dr. Mauro's 37 Constipation Relief Strategies are not more well known.
Digestive disorders account for the largest amount of lost time from work; they are the number one cause of disability absence; they comprise one-sixth of all hospital admissions. It is acknowledged by conventional medicine that at least 40 percent of all cancers originate in the gastrointestinal tract. Many alternative practitioners would say the number is much higher."
— Women's Menopause Health Center Newsletter , October 2007
"And yet, as the old expression goes, death begins in the colon. Don't believe it? Ask any coroner. Autopsies often reveal colons that are plugged up to 80 percent with waste material."
— Martin Zucker,
Vegetarian Times,
March, 1998
"[Toxic waste that built up in the colon turns into] a sinister world of monstrous creatures that feed on living flesh: parasites..."
"In fact, parasites have killed more humans than all the wars in history."
Find out how to kick parasites out of your colon in Strategy 33, on page 35, of 37 Constipation Relief Strategies For Women.
Investigators in the United Kingdom conducted a study on 34 women with chronic constipation. The investigators found a direct demonstrable link between certain aspects of central brain activity -- anxiety, depression, feeling 'unfeminine' -- and gut dysfunction. —Gut, August 2001 |
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