How to Feel Like a Teenager Again

Would you like to feel like a teenager again?

Would you like to experience the unlimited and boundless energy teenagers seem to have?

What about experiencing the world around you with fresh eyes?

Imagine seeing nature and beauty everywhere, even in the middle of a city.

What about feeling relaxed, able to unwind and chill out at will, instead of holding onto all of life’s little problems?

And what about your health, that tired old sluggish body, wouldn’t it feel great to have a subtle and healthy body, saying goodbye to aches and pain?

Mind you when I say feel like a teenager, I do not mean hormones out of control and doing the teenage things we all did and now watch in horror at our children doing the same. When I say feel like a teenager again, I am talking about feeling younger, refreshed, energized, youthful and able to tackle all of life’s problems with ease, not to allow stress to get us down and instead live life fully and openly without worry, and to regain that healthy body we once had.

You might be a teenager reading this, or in your early 20's and wondering what is the point of reading any further after reading this far. But life is very short, and the older we become the more we realise this. Looking after your mind and your body will go a long way in protecting you from future problems, and give you a high probability of a long and healthy life. Illness will slow you down very quickly. Many people from middle age onwards are on medication, and heart disease and other ailments many people succumb to is almost entirely self inflicted by lifestyle. Staying active with healthy eating and maintaining a good mental attitude will keep you youthful and retain your energy levels into old age, allowing you to enjoy all that life has to offer.. We only have one body so far, maybe in the future they will give us another, but this technology is a long way away, so for any young person reading this, I wish you a long and happy life, and hopefully you can obtain some useful information to retain your youth into older age.

To the older people reading this like myself, we can reclaim our youth again, regain that energy, and enjoy all that life has to offer.

This book is really about happiness, how to be happy and carefree, combined with some nutrition advice, and let’s face it, if one is unhappy then life becomes a struggle.

Happiness means living a full and rewarding life and enjoying all that life has to offer, however this does require some effort and a change in our thinking. It requires a different mindset and a willingness to learn. But life is about learning, we are born naked and knowing nothing, and over a lifetime we acquire information, some good, some not so good, that sets us up for our lifetime journey. Learning continues to the grave, because we continue to absorb new information day after day, the brain continues to form memory right up to the day we die.

The secret to learning is absorbing and knowing how to use this information to our advantage. As an example of an adult learning something new, most people over 40 will own a mobile phone, yet 20 years ago would have lived their life without this technology. Remember your first phone, how difficult but also exciting learning this new technology. Remember sending your first text message and the excitement in knowing it was received and read by the person you sent it to. Then you had to learn all over again as smart phones were released, but now it is a part of you, so easy and it becomes part of your life where you can communicate at will with friends, colleagues and children. This book is no different. All it takes is a wiliness to learn, and in no time many of the lessons in this book can become part of your life leading to a more happy and fulfilled life.

The choice is yours.

The book will cover many different topics because life is complex and to acquire lasting happiness change needs to occur on many different levels.

Part A talks about happiness and how doing small exciting things each day leads to daily happiness. It also covers relationships and love, relaxation and learning to let go of past emotions, and show how one is able to live a full happy life now, without worry or regret, in harmony with yourself and those around you.

Part B talks about health and offer ways to improve health through exercise and nutrition.

Healthy eating not only improves your health physically, it also improves your mental health.

Research in the U.K, looking at data from over 14,000 subjects, found that people who ate the most daily servings of fruit and vegetables had around a 30% higher mental well being. They identified with feeling good about themselves, had higher energy levels, and were more optimistic about their futures. They were less depressed and had a better outlook on life.

Research in Australia is also showing this, saying that eating 8 or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day improves mental wellbeing as well as physical health. It makes you happier.

The research is showing that fruit and vegetable intake may play a potential role as a driver, not just of physical but also of mental well being. And being active, doing some exercise also increases happiness by releasing endorphins that boost your mood. I talk about this in detail in part B and give some examples of highly dense nutritious fruits and vegetables.

This book is showing you how to live a full and happy life without regret.

Do you want to feel like a teenager again?

Every great dream

begins with a dreamer.

Always remember,

you have within you,

the strength,

the patience,

and the passion

to reach for the stars

to change the world.

Harriet Tubman

Chapter 2

Introduction to Happiness

Why are we here?

The answer to this question depends on who is asked.

A scientist will say we evolved over millions of years and our primary role is to procreate the species and continue to evolve. A religious person will say God made us and our purpose in life is to serve God.

My belief is it doesn’t really matter how or why, what matters is we are here and here for a very short time, and while here we should do our best, for ourselves and to those around us, and to enjoy a happy and fulfilled life.

Life is short, so let’s make the most of our life and make this journey worthwhile.

Happiness is living, being alive and enjoying all that life has to offer.

Many books are written about happiness, and there are varying points of view on how to obtain happiness.

We are all unique and individual with different personalities. Some people seem to be always happy, positive and easy going while other people do struggle more with emotion and emotional situations. So what applies for one person might not apply to another.

Some parts of this book might not appeal to you while other parts you might relate to, so please take what feels right for you.

Happiness is not about always being happy no matter what, because life will give us challenges, struggles and disappointments, as well as laughter and good times. We are human, no one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and we all suffer at times. Sometimes it is better to feel the emotion of sadness and sorrow, to release the pain and anguish, because holding it inside will only create future problems.

The secret to a happy life is not about always being happy and smiling, it is about being able to recover quickly from things that frustrate and annoy us, and doing this will reduce the stress in our lives. Less stress means more happiness, and if we also balance our lives between work and play, doing what we enjoy rather than caught up in working long hours for more material things, then our lives will be mainly stress free and we will feel more relaxed, life will seem easier.

We are emotional beings, we express ourselves through emotion, we feel emotion, and our memories are really remembering the emotion (the feeling) we felt at the time. So keeping our emotions balanced, in other words controlling our emotions rather than our emotions controlling us, will go a long way towards a stable and happy life. The quicker we can recover and release any negative emotion we might feel, the less problems we will face in life because we will make better decisions, be more relaxed and our happiness, energy and vitality will increase.

An example of not allowing our emotion to control us is being cut off in traffic while driving, this can produce feeling of frustration, and some people even anger resulting in road rage. But when you can control your mind you will quickly release this negative emotion, not even care, and continue driving with the same feeling of happiness. In fact the more you do this the easier it will become and one day very little will bother you, and your life will become bliss, happy and full of energy. Negative emotions take away your energy, even the energy of anger will eventually tire you, making you feel old, and lead to bad decision making.

Another thing that causes us problems in our present life is holding onto emotions from the past. Perhaps someone cheated on you, or lied to you, or did something else that hurt you; this can influence current thinking resulting in a loss of trust, insecurity, and many other emotions leading to unhappiness.

I will teach you to let go of negative emotions, to stop living in the past and instead learn from this experience resulting in better decision making.

Everyone makes mistakes, I have made so many I could not count them all. But by learning rather than blaming, there will be fewer problems in the future. Also by learning instead of dwelling on the problem, the problem will go away leading to increased happiness and less stress. By dwelling on what happened, and blaming instead of learning, we are running a high risk of the same thing happening again in the future.

The journey of life is about learning and growing, and over time we will make less and less mistakes thus increasing our happiness. And as we learn to think and resolve why, instead of blaming and feeling sad, the quicker we will bounce back when confronted with new difficult and emotional experiences.

We will enjoy a more relaxed, more productive, happier lifestyle.

Feeling happier will result in more energy, thus allowing you to do new and exciting things and gain beautiful lasting memories.

Life will seem easier, fresher, and more vibrant.

You will indeed begin to feel like a teenager again.

Everything has beauty

But not everyone sees it 

Confucius

Chapter 3

Writing the book

I have travelled around many countries in South East Asia, it is close to Australia and I love learning new cultures, experiencing a different way of life and meeting new people. This opens and expands my mind, making me a better person. It also makes me feel more youthful because each day is a new beginning, something new to see, to explore, and to do.

I have come to the Philippines to write and relax. I find it very peaceful here and I am also away from distractions at home. I can write anywhere, but this time I decided to write in another country and perhaps some of the experiences I have here can be used in this book.

It is beautiful, tropical and magical with friendly people and amazing food.

I also exercise each day by walking and exploring, and this day I decided to walk to the lookout in the mountain and take some photos. The view overlooks Samal Island where I am staying, and I have a great view of Davao City in the distant with the mountains rising steeply behind. And on clear days I can see Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines. It was perhaps a 30 kilometre return walk and in the hot sun, but what an amazing experience.

As I was walking up the mountain an old lady came out from a house and opened her arms. A young girl who lives on the opposite side of the road had gone to see her grandmother, and the grandmother waited, arms open, her mouth had the biggest smile. The little girl was greeted with a huge hug, a loving grandmother embracing her granddaughter. I witnessed the human emotions of unconditional love and gratefulness. All they knew at this moment was each other and love for each other. It was a touching site watching this frail old lady showing so much love and affection for her granddaughter and the granddaughter giving all her love to her grandmother.

They were poor, so poor both lived in a single room and very run down wooden house in the country side, and they would have had almost no material possessions. But they had love and they had each other and they had something that many people in developed countries seem to be lacking, they had happiness. They were happy because happiness is created by the mind, created by showing and expressing love, compassion and gratitude. They were not thinking of me, the self, the ego was not there, just love for another.

My point to this story is; we are all the same emotionally.

We are all human and we all have the same emotions.

The colour of the skin only reflects climate. Hot climates need a darker skin, dry desert climates need an almost black skin to protect from the sun, and cool climates need a white skin to allow the skin to absorb vitamin D from a cooler weaker sun, because vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium and without calcium the bones will become weaker. Many white people now live in hotter climates, and over time and many generations the skin will slowly become darker. The same with dark skin people now living in cooler climates, over many generations the skin will slowly become whiter. When we first left Africa over 70,000 years ago our skin was dark, and as humans spread around the planet the skin changed to reflect the warm or cool conditions where humans now live.

Yes, we are the same, and we all express the same emotions.

Do you remember running to your grandmother as a child?

The same affection felt towards you is the same affection I witnessed today. No one is better than anyone else. No country is better than another. The country you now call home did not even exist long ago? A country is nothing more than imaginary lines drawn in the ground and this will change, names will change, but what remains is humanity.

No matter where you live, where you work, what language you speak or religion you follow, you are human and you are the same emotionally as every other human on the planet.

Yes you are unique, no one else is you and no one else can be you, but this book is about happiness and happiness comes from our emotions, how we feel, and emotionally we are all the same.

We all crave love and happiness, family, security, and safety for our loved ones.

You might think you are smarter than a poor farmer because you live in a city, but without the farmer how would you eat. All types of people are needed to make humanity. All countries and races will have good and bad people, and more developed countries will have better education but this does not make you smarter, all it means is you are privileged, in having been born in a wealthy country allowing you to have a decent education. But having the education, the wealth, the technology, does not always make you happier. America is the richest country ever to exist, yet the use of anti depressants has increased over 400% during the last two decades, and around one in every ten Americans are taking an anti depressant. 23% of females in their 40’s and 50’s are taking an anti depressant. These figures are alarming and are showing wealth does not make you happier.

I often travel around South East Asia, and I see societies with far less wealth than developed countries, but I see happy smiling faces. What do they have that we wealthy countries seem to be lacking? They have family, strong family connections and a day would not pass without a family member calling and talking to another family member. The family structure is strong, the elderly are respected and looked after, not pushed away and forced to live in a nursing home. The elderly have wisdom gained from living a long life and this is respected. Being surrounded by family means you have support. You are not alone. You might not have a large car or a large house, but you