Category Archives: Happy, Magazine

Pier (pierre) ALBRECHT – The pursuit of happiness – Chap 5

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“During many years of professional experience I know that my patients are seeking – through its physical improvement – achieving happiness. This is why I decided to write about this topic and present it in the form of chapters to the readers of Transform Magazine. “

Peace and inner joy

Happiness does not exist, we could only find in books, stories, movies. Then Jesus said “it is useless to pursue happiness in this world.”

As stated in previous chapters, the problem is that happiness depends on factors external to us. And these factors control bit. In theory it seems that we work hard to earn the money necessary to our happiness, we can develop qualities needed to be seduced and find love, we can monitor our health to maintain a life of good health, but very few do.

The truth is that the current trend of people is much work and care through sports, medicine and cosmetic surgery, which is slowly changing its way of being. With the money, beauty and health get seduced, but not love.

Becomes the search for health in an egocentric behavior to achieve a beautiful body and very effective. Becomes the pursuit of happiness in the pursuit of fun, finding love in search of sex. All magazines for men and women play the issue of sex several times a year. Instead of developing the success of a sexual partner through the tenderness and sweetness, makes people believe that it is “purely technical”. As the rest of modern life, to learn good technique and returned in good time, would guarantee success. The problem is causing a general anxiety. People think that if not mastered the technique well, will not do anything, apart from a failure. Well I say that you can have sex with the body and achieve an orgasm, but is a thousand times better when the body follows the heart, making love with feelings, tenderness and sweetness.

If one opens, and gives your partner, sharing more subtle things that can heal the soul.

All magazines for men and women play the issue of sex several times a year.

Giving and sharing feelings instead of taking subtle and keep the physical pleasure. Today you can see that people have come to confuse happiness with fun and satisfaction of desires and impulses of the body.

Unfortunately we are further away from happiness when developing all sports and activities to meet the body immediately, here comes the famous adrenaline. This drug has an endogenous and rapid action in the short time, and like any drug, is addictive and always needs more. Techno music, the use of crack cocaine or ecstasy, but also many other sports at risk, with many feelings, such as Kyte surfing, etc, provided that adrenalin. Feature is that all these activities are not shared. Can be done in groups, but the individual is left alone, without physical or spiritual contact with others.

In the past, dance in particular, were always in pairs and an introduction was very erotic to know the other before having sex …

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Albrecht Pierjean,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

Pierre Albrecht -The quest for happiness – Chapter 2

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In this new chapter on the quest for happiness, we shall continue to delve deeper into thisimportant item that is of interest to everyone. We will attempt to define concepts such as “happiness” “interior joy” or “wellbeing”, and also to discover how this subject has been dealt with during the course of humanity.

What happened when I asked someone to read this chapter on definitions could serve as a good example of how difficult it is to give a precise meaning to these words.

It involves a patient of mine, Ana Mª V…, a 36 year old psychologist who read this chapter on the quest for happiness. Her comment was “It’s not bad… I agree with what you say, but from my point of view, joy is something momentary whilst happiness is something more lasting”. As happens all too often in our personal and professional lives, her opinion is based on the words used and not on their significance. To avoid this kind of problem and to not give so much importance to words, you could try to invent a more fluid concept, imagining a continuous interior state of well-being that makes you feel good whenever and wherever you are. Therefore a deep interior feeling of continuous wellbeing exists, or might exist. Again I have used the word “well-being”, and each of you can interpret it as you wish, but to me it seems to be the most neutral expression. This is what I would call “interior joy”.

So, apart from this permanent feeling of wellbeing, we can also experience moments of “well-being that are more intense than usual”, which would contrast with the normal state of wellbeing. This condition is characterised by the implication that it cannot last for long because it depends on one or several external factors that are not permanent.

For some people the external factor that generates those famous endorphins released by our brain to make us feel good will be artificial, such as the use of drugs, alcohol or tobacco. For others it could be natural, through sex, music or sports. For me, this feeling of intense, specific well-being is what I would call pleasure, I do not consider it to be happiness. But for most people, happiness still depends on external factors like, for example, the fact of having money, a partner, a house, children, material assets, travelling, or not doing anything, lying on the beach, enjoying the sun, the sky and the birds. When I mentioned joy in the introduction to this article, I was referring to the concept of joy that is used in religious books. These books make reference to joy, not to happiness. The scholars and the prophets who have dwelt upon this subject claim that it is not possible to find happiness on this earth, although you can find interior joy. As you see, different names can be given to it – the concepts can even be confused – by calling joy what others call happiness. The essential thing is to understand that it is possible to attain an interior state of permanent wellbeing that does not depend on the external conditions of life, and that this deep, permanent state is more intense and will fulfil us more, bringing us peace. It would be impossible to achieve this if our state depended on external factors, that we could call stimulants (either physical or emotional). We all have friends or relatives who are full of “joy” and transmit this to others. Always happy, they are extremely positive, they like everyone and almost everything.

Well also know other people who are never happy, there is always something that they are missing, something they need to be able to fully enjoy life. They complain constantly, they criticize the world, life and everyone else. It’s always the world that is to blame if they are not happy, because they do not receive what they think they deserve.

Between these two extremes there are thousands of different cases, like ourselves. Scientists and brain specialists claim it is a question of chemistry and that the solution lies in medication known as “happiness pills”, such as Prozac. Others, like psychoanalysts and psychologists, think it depends on the early years of our lives, and they propose sessions of regression, either with patient being conscious or under hypnosis. Freud would have said it depends on the subconscious and others would say it involves the tendency of the soul.

The fact is that the quest for happiness continues and we all take part in the search, even those who try to hide it behind physical and/or mental hyperactivity. I don’t think there is one answer, but many answers. In any case, anyone who manages to love himself and others, without expecting anything in return and with compassion, comes close to achieving his own personal and permanent happiness.

The quest for happiness, an age-old concept.

Since ancient times, Man has been trying to improve his quality of life. In the beginning, to protect himself and to have a regular food supply. Little by little, once the essentials for his day to day life were more or less guaranteed – i.e. his basic needs – he began to have time to think and redefine his life. From that moment on, the notion of happiness appears. It could almost be said that the search for happiness appears once the fight for survival disappears.

In other words, once the dangers are removed, temporarily or almost permanently, he can start to look for ways in which to improve his living conditions : food, housing, dress, love, play. From this, first the concept, and later the philosophy, automatically emerges.

The division of the world

At any period in time, the world has always been divided into two categories of people: those who have tried to find happiness through material belongings, and those who have remained either partly or completely on the outside of the material world, trying to find a spiritual evolution.

Since the most distant times, and in all civilizations, politicians have co-existed alongside the holy men. The politicians organized the world and daily life. The priests were there to guide us, acting as intermediaries between the visible and the invisible worlds, between the world from where the soul comes and to where it goes.

In certain periods of history, these two worlds have sometimes come close, bringing spiritual and political power together in the same hands. On other occasions they become distant, like at the present time – at least in the Western world – when the spiritual leaders do not enjoy any political privileges other than, very occasionally, acting as mere advisors.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

Pierre Albrecht – The 3 hours diets

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As in previous editions, TRANSFORM magazine brings it readers the latest “in” diets, including an objective criticism of them. Today we present the one based on the book “Timing makes you Thin” by G. Clous, also known as “the 3 hour diet”.

The new diet called the “3 hour diet” or in other words “Timing makes you Thin”, by George Clous, assures us that it is not what we eat that makes us slim, but how often we eat. It promises a weight loss of 2 pounds a week without giving up your favourite food.

It’s true that in spite of the number of diet books, diet pills and TV programmes, there are more and more people with problems of excess weight. George Clous is emphatic in saying that diets do not work….he is not the first nor the last person to say so….and he adds that eliminating and going without your favourite food is not the solution.

At the beginning you lose weight, then there is a stage when the weight loss stabilizes, and afterwards all the weight is regained within a year, and this is what happens in 90% of the cases. According to him, the secret for losing weight and not regaining it is not to let more than 3 hours pass between each meal. Following this pattern, you should lose 2 pounds per week.

Why would it be necessary to eat every 3 hours?

The first answer would be because this cancels out the survival mechanism that protects us against hunger. Clous assures us that if we let more than 3 hours pass between two meals, this survival mechanism, known as the Starvation Protection Mechanism or SP M, is activated, making the body accumulate fat and burn muscle to conserve body fat, and thus help us to survive in the event of a food shortage. At the same time as this process takes place, the metabolism is also reduced, which is a problem in itself when you are trying to lose weight, and this is when the SP M comes into action and the body uses the muscles rather than fat to obtain energy.

This is not advisable because muscle controls the basic metabolism, i.e. how many calories are being burned when you sit or sleep. In a state of repose, each pound of muscle burns approximately 50 calories. Which means that if you lose 5 pounds of muscle, your metabolism will burn 250 calories less each day.

This diet raises the level of basic metabolism.

If the calories are better distributed throughout the course of the day, the supply of energy to the body is more regular. This enables the cells to obtain sugar more quickly from the blood and to make it available immediately for converting to energy. If the meals are more spaced and you take in more calories in each meal, the body cannot burn them, therefore it stores them as fat. The result is that you gain weight, even if your calorie intake is the same for the whole day.

This diet improves the energy level.

If you sometimes you ask yourself why you feel so tired at the end of the day, it is because you have been too long without food. The sugar level is reduced and you notice that you can no longer think clearly, and you feel like sleeping a siesta. If you eat every three hours, the sugar level of the blood remains stable and therefore provides a flow of amino acids (and sugar) to supply the muscles and the brain tissue. This also enables your energy and moods to be more regulated, because you are receiving a continuous energy supply throughout the day.

This kind of diet naturally curbs the appetite.

If you provide your body with food every three hours, you are maintaining a stable sugar level, which automatically shrinks your appetite. Research has shown that people who eat more frequently do not feel hungry, nor feel the need to eat.

Eating every 3 hours reduces your cholesterol level

Eating every 3 hours helps to regulate your cholesterol level. A report published in the British Medical Journal indicates that the cholesterol level of people who eat 6 or more times a day is around 5% lower than people who eat less frequently.

eatin every 3 hours reduces your cortisol level.

A high level of the cortisol hormone is associated with abdominal fat. Research has demonstrated that people who eat smaller meals and more often, as compared to those who eat three large meals a day with the same number of calories, could reduce their cortisol level by 17% in two weeks

should I eat?

Meal-times are calculated from when you wake up in the morning. – Rule 1. Have breakfast within one hour of waking up, to get the metabolism going. – Rule 2. Eat every three hours. – Rule 3. Have your last meal at least 3 hours before going to bed so the food is digested before

The key is to eat 5 times a day plus, if you wish, a small, 50-calorie snack, at 3 hour intervals. For example, breakfast at seven, a snack at ten, lunch at one, tea at four and finally dinner at seven. This would be the perfect distribution of eating times.

What should I eat?

In this diet you eat 3 meals, 2 snacks and one good meal per day. The author, George Clous, recommends several diets, or you can follow the one you like best, providing that you have an intake of around 1,450 calories per day, this being the ideal amount for shedding 2 pounds of fat per week.

But never less than this number of calories so that the body does not compensate by lowering the basic metabolism level. The diet must be balanced, providing the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats needed to maintain normal levels of sugar and insulin in the blood.

The 3 hour diet could be planned for breakfast, lunch and dinner as follows : According to the author, half of the plate should contain vegetable (fruit is recommended for breakfast), the other half of the plate is divided into two equal parts, one for carbohydrates and the other for protein. You can also add a spoonful of oil to help regulate the appetite. If you are still hungry afterwards, you can add another half plate of vegetable.

My opinion :

This diet, like the Atkins or The Zone diet, is planned around what people eat. You could say it is like advising someone on the type and quantity of petrol they should use for their car without taking into account what type of car it is. Obviously you would not use the same quantity or the same category of petrol for a diesel engine, a normal engine or a Formula One engine.

The diet is not everything….for this reason there is so much failure in this field. The diet should be adapted to each individual, not just in the amount of calories, but also the type of food, and taking into account not only the everyday life-style, but also any momentary changes in life-style. each person’s metabolism is different, and a doctor should not recommend the Atkins diet, The zone, the south beach or the 3 hour diet with the guarantee of personalizing it for each patient. Generally speaking i am not in favour of diets that oblige people to organize their life around food. quite the contrary, i think food, and therefore diet, should be adapted to our life-style. i am sure that eating every three hours could be effective for some people, but on a practical level it is not very realistic, and another kind of diet could be equally as effective. Like any plastic surgeon, every day i see patients who, after having tried as many as 10 different diets and even more “miracle” products to try and lose weight, with only temporary success, in the end decide to undergo a liposuction, which is usually the best solution.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

Pierre Albrecht from Marbella Clinic – The abdominal muscles

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Masculine aesthetic attributes

Visible abdominal muscles are one of the aethetic attributes usually associated with

men. How beautiful to see the body of an athlete or a male model with a “six pack”

or a “chocolate bar”. But more than beautiful, in the mind of a woman this is related to

the willpower that a man needs to not let the fat accumulate around his tummy. The

will to look after himself, both through physical exercise and through diet.

It’s a shame that in recent years, women also want to develop their abdominal muscles.

More and more women come to my surgery with the idea of eliminating their

abdominal fat, even if there is very little, so that the muscles can be seen. They even

ask for a liposcultpure. It is difficult to convince them that it is natural for a woman’s

body to have more fat than a man’s, and that the softer curves of a woman are related

to femininity and maternity, and to tenderness.

I think that this strong desire of those women is taken from the example set by their

instructor at the gym where they are sculpting their bodies. I have also received some

of the instructors in my surgery. They have fantastic bodies, to the point of perfection,

but I’m not sure that it is still the body of a woman. Their faces are all very much

affected by the lack of fat, which causes the skin to become very flaccid and lined.

Usually they like to be well tanned, which makes their appearance even worse

Health benefits for everybody

Whatever your eating habits, if you are overweight due to an excess food intake, you

cannot maintain the benefits of a diet if you do not reduce your stomach size. In reality,

the stomach has a tendency to relax over the years because people eat more and

take less exercise, especially in this area. It is essential to take up doing abdominal

muscles exercises again every day, as soon as you get up and on an empty stomach,

in order to gradually reduce the tendency of the stomach to expand. You can begin at

your own pace, even doing ten a day, without forcing or stressing yourself. By doing

this every day, you will progress, inevitably, and you could end up doing a thousand

a day by the end of a year, if you wish.

The exercises should be short and repetitive, moving the bent legs towards the body.

If you can, it is also advisable to make oblique movements, trying to touch the right

knee with the left elbow, and viceversa. With this simple exercise, the abdomen will

generally end up diminishing in size and this will enable you to eat less, giving you an

earlier sensation of being full, but also with the effect of stimulating the passage of

food through the intestine, which helps against constipation.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

Pierre Albrecht form Marbella Clinic – The zone “The hormonal theory”

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Glucagon

Glucagon releases glucose from the liver. What stimulates the release of insulin is the blood sugar, and what stimulates the release of glucagon (also from the pancreas) are proteins. 25% of the population does not suffer from this reaction of hyperinsulinism when eating carbohydrates and do not put on weight. This is a genetic factor (see the interesting opinion of Peter J. Adamo in his theory about blood groups and eating habits)

Eicosanoids

These are the superhormones that control the production of other hormones and form “the molecular cement that holds the human body together”. They also control our vital physiological systems: the cardiovascular system, the immune system, the central nervous system, the reproduction system, etc..

Amongst these are: prostaglandins, prostacyclins and thromboxanes (related to heart disease), leukotrienes (constriction of the lungs and allergies), lipoxins and fatty acid hydroxylase (controls inflammatory reactions and regulated the immune system). The  could be considered as the “ultimate regulators of cellular function”

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Good & Bad Eicosanoids

Eicosanoids are controlled by the fat in our diet that is convertedinto essential fatty acids, which, controlled by insulin,will produce bad eicosanoids, and controlled by glucagon,will produce good eicosanoids.

*Good eicosanoids act :

– to inhibit platelet aggregation as vasodilator

– to control cellular proliferation

– to stimulate the immune system as anti-inflammatory

– to reduce the transmission of pain.

*Bad eicosanoids have the opposite action:

– According to Sears, “the well-being of the body is achieved once it starts producing more good eicosanoids than bad ones”

But Sears goes further than a basic definition of well-being or health, as I mentioned above when talking about the great French professor, Claude Bernard, who said: “Health is the silence of the organs”; although it might sound poetic, this rule is very primitive. Nowadays we know that silent organs could be developing lethal tumours in silence up until just a few months before inevitable death. We are searching for optimum health, greatest efficiency of our body and mind, with the prevention of illness and aging. He also says that with the Zone, we can prevent, or at least reduce, the impact of genetic diseases. Sears, therefore, looking at health from a molecular point of view, arrives at the theories of traditional Chinese energetic medicine, that thousands of years ago called “constitution” what nowadays we could call the genetic makeup with which we are born, and called “condition”, what nowadays we could call acquired behaviour, qualities and characteristics.

In other words, the Chinese doctors said that our constitution could be balanced by a healthy way of life, and in this way we could improve our condition. The opposite says that a bad condition could even be passed on to our descendents in the form of an unhealthy constitution. The molecular definition of the Zone is therefore: “a favourable dynamic balance between good and bad eicosanoids.”

How to enter & remain “in the zone ”?

By respecting a strict distribution of carbohydrates, fats and proteins at all times and in each meal, which would be in the following proportion: 40% carbohydrates, 30% fats, 30% proteins. Sears claims that food and exercise are “hormonal modulators”, and that “the main energy source for the muscles is fat and not carbohydrates, and this is achieved through intensive aerobic exercise”.

Why is IT good to be “in the zone ”

I believe, like Barry Sears, also that we should “use food as if it were medicine”. We should control what we eat, and eat in appropriate proportions, as if it were through an intravenous drip.”

The Zone is a diet based on the advanced science of the proportions between foods. It has short term success with some people and it has been proven to be effective in the short term with athletes. Eight gold medals for American swimmers during the Olympic Games of Barcelona are a clear example

What does the Zone Diet promise ?

– The Zone allows you to lose weight, with “ a loss of body fat”.

– The Zone allows you to live with “increased energy, vitality and performance, both in work and at play and in personal relationships..”

– The Zone acts upon arthritis, cardiovascular and mental diseases, the premenstrual syndrome, chronic fatigue, even on infections produced by HIV…. could be the best defence against cancer”.

Why is it not recommended for everyone ?

Many of the recipes proposes contain dairy products, and many people are allergic to these.

It is not natural, it is not healthy in the long term for everyone, it can only be used with a large amount of dietary supplements. And what would happen if tomorrow the supply runs out? Dr Barry Sears has done some very serious research, and with a good motive: to live longer than his father did. But when he comes to using his diet, he proposes a list of industrially manufactured products. Much of the success of the Zone Diet is due to marketing in the US. as its creator, Dr. Barry Sears, has made and marketed his own products. These are energy bars containing chocolate, cereals, dairy products and many chemical components such as artificial flavourings, instant soup that is taken with milk, soy proteins or powdered milk, omega 3 oil in liquid form or in capsules. The Zone might be suitable for athletes and maybe many others, but it cannot be healthy in the long term because, as Dr. Barry Sears himself says “I have worked out and created this diet”, it is a hormone diet, for energy and wellbeing. It would have to be a completely natural diet for the effect to be guaranteed in the long term, for a life-time. As with the Atkins diet, the Zone has an original version and a version that is “adapted” to the Mediterranean diet. How can we have faith in a diet that is linked to a large business enterprise. Barry Sears himself says “The Zone is identified exclusively with the brand Enerzona throughout Europe”. In the second version, or the version adapted for Spain, it would be interesting to study the menu that is proposed for a Spanish woman : she is to have 250 ml of milk, 90 gr of cheese (not very convenient for most people), she has to mix dairy products and fruit or proteins and fruit, which will cause indigestion (see the chapter on natural diet), but above all, she is recommended to add 2.5 gr of Omega-3 RX sold by Barry Sears (no other brand), to have an Enerzona snack bar mid-morning, she can substitute lunch by an Enerzona “instant Meal” milkshake made with a further 250 ml of milk (making 500 ml together with the 250 ml at breakfast).

Conclusion

There is no doubt that The Zone is a successful diet, but it cannot under any circumstance be recommended for everyone, nor can it be advised as a life-time diet. The fact that athletes from the University of Stanford won eight gold medals during the Olympic Games of Barcelona is not scientific evidence. Athletes from other countries also won gold medals without having followed the Zone Diet. And if the Zone Diet had been the determining factor for the success of the Stanford athletes, why has it not continued to be used in subsequent Olympic Games? Why have the same number of medals not been won ?

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

The Quest for Happiness – 06

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By Dr. Pier Albrecht

I will not try to rewrite a thesis about happiness; I will just share my experience and thoughts about some topics that are sometimes addressed at my practice.

The hope of finding true love, getting married and having a family is universal. Almost every culture and civilization has considered marriage to be one of the pillars of social stability, individual and community happiness.

Individually speaking, there are two individuals that love each other, long to share the same life and start a family. They want to share every aspect of their lives with their soul mate, have tenderness, support and guaranteed sex. Generation after generation, people fail to realize that their parents went through difficult times, sometimes unbearable, and want to reproduce the image of ideal family they have. In the best case scenario, those parents who have suffered throughout their marriage for ages hope that life will be better for their children. Otherwise, parents just want their children to move out so that they will not have to feed them any more.

Socially speaking, it is in the community interest that individuals live together to have a peaceful life and achieve development. Firstly, this may be due to economic reasons: Family favors wealth creation. Second, there may be reasons of civil peace and balance: If relationships are developed within a legal framework, men and women cannot exchange each other (theoretically speaking) at will, preventing conflict with high economic impact: When we are fighting, we do not work. Thirdly, there may be public health reasons: With steady relationships, sexually transmitted diseases are less likely to spread like a plague. Finally, there may be religious reasons: To prevent people from living in sin.

These schemes were discontinued at the end of the twentieth century. These days, couples start dating and split up so easily that marriage is not even justified. In other words, people keep on liking the idea of getting married; however, they are often conscious that it may not be for good.

Living together can be considered the paradox in a relationship, for it may lead to divorce or separation. I repeat that I am considering general ideas in this book, for I know perfectly well that there are exceptions. However, the evolution of the past few decades has provided us with extraordinary material to analyze many aspects of our lives.

When a couple lives apart and only shares some moments, it is like living for hours or days in a loving and happy bubble. Their working lives are left aside; they only share the best of themselves. They feel a burning desire. They have missed each other for a while. Each individual wants to project the best image. Every time they meet is like a having party.

HAPPINESS, LOVE & COUPLES

When they begin to learn more about each other, the desire to live together gradually appears. If they decide to take the step to live together, they discover new things about each other, things not related to desire or love but to the most practical aspects of their daily lives. One is too fast and the other too slow. One loves watching the news at the same time everyday, the other thinks it is a silly thing to do. One takes a one-hour-shower, the other only takes a five-minute-shower. One is stingy, the other throws the money away. One does the washing-up perfectly, the other leaves froth and soap. These details start to gradually affect the couple’s life until they both begin to think: “How can he live that way? I believe it is impossible, foolish or ridiculous”.

Those details mark the beginning of the deterioration of the relationship, but the end comes quickly when lovers begin to say: «You shouldn’t do this that way; I don’t like it that you are always following me, and so on.” Daily life commingles with feelings and the result is usually negative. Love dies little by little.

I always advise my friends not to forget the reasons why they have loved their partners. I further suggest them to try to imagine what would happen if they were to meet their couples again today: wouldn’t they love them again? Focus on the essential. You cannot expect your loved one to have all the qualities that made you fall in love with him/her and yet try to gradually change him/her to become more like yourself.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

The Quest for happiness – 04

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>>> Over my long years of professional experience I have come to see that my patients, by improving their appearance, hope to find happiness. Because of this, I have decided to write about this subject and present it, in chapters, to the readers of Transform Magazine.>>> Today we will analyze how to differentiate happiness from pleasure. I hope these lines will help you in your quest for happiness.

Happiness & satisfaction

From childhood we are aware of the tyranny of our desires. From the moment when we cry, asking for mother’s milk, and we are soothed when we are given it, we are aware of that feeling of satisfaction that causes us to confuse it with happiness.

To be able to achieve what we desire seems to alleviate our suffering and the tension that this produces. If we spend our life placating our desires, we will never achieve happiness. Quite simply because as soon as we satisfy the first desire, another one will appear in one form or another. It is a mistake to think that we will feel happy after obtaining something. We will only be temporarily comforted.

Happiness & pleasure

The very essence of pleasure is that it does not last. Pleasure is related to a beginning and an end. The strongest physical pleasure, an orgasm, is very short. It is the peak of tension, followed by deep relaxation. Any kind of pleasure can be defined as an outof- the-ordinary condition, with an increase of endorphins in the brain and sometimes more adrenalin in the body. Man tries to achieve the maximum moments of pleasure during the course of his, or her, life and often believes that the happiness level of his life is related to the number of moments of pleasure: how many orgasms, how many delicious meals, how many concerts, how many dances, how much travelling, etc…

We live in a time that is so centred on multiplying those moments that young people spend most of their time with earphones, listening to their favourite music. Many enter an unreal, digital world in front of a Playstation that permits them to live a virtual life that is not theirs. They spend the rest of the time sending text messages (SMS) on their mobile phone.

When they eat or drink, they prefer sweet, fizzy drinks like Coca Cola rather than water and soft food, like pasta, chips, hamburger buns, etc. It is obvious that the new generation is no happier than the previous one, quite the contrary.

The absence of motivation and ideals condemns the new generation to pay attention only to their pleasures and the way in which to achieve them, which usually means through money.

This is really the modern ideal. The modern western democracies have already attained all the freedom possible. They know that people can now think as they wish, speak, write, sing, film, criticize, dress and move as they wish. There is nothing more to fight for. The only thing remaining is what’s left once you have achieved all of the above : pleasure. The problem is that an excess of pleasure kills off the pleasure itself, and then more and more stimulation is needed in order to feel good.

Modern life consists of obtaining the maximum pleasure possible, whether physical, intellectual, emotional, in primitive or in higher forms. The fact is that daily life might seem to us to be easier, but the effort is not so much physical, but mental. People suffer from a mental overload that prevents them from being happy. Pleasure can be the enemy of happiness.

On the other hand, happiness is not the enemy of pleasure. Once we achieve a stable condition of happiness – based essentially on a feeling of internal peace and joy, and after several years of conscious efforts to attain this – we develop a capacity to be able to feel pleasure with a minimum of stimulation. Nature, the birds singing, contemplating the sky, the clouds, the sea, the children, these are situations that will bring us moments of intense pleasure and happiness. A dense, fluid pleasure that lives in the heart and in the flow of energy and emotion through our body.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

The Quest for happiness – 03

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By Dr. Pier Albrecht

In our last issue we talked about the concept s of happiness, joy and inner welfare. We started to raise the issue of how the quest for happiness evolved along man´s history. In this chapter we deal with the vision of some philosopher s and how different civilizations give happiness a different meaning.

The Asian Era .

As the modern man does, ancient civilizations almost certainly attempted to find happiness. In India, China and Japan, the ancient world of the Orient defined a series of principles related to spirituality – not to find happiness – but rather to evolve, improve and attain a state of serenity. The basis for this search was not materialist. It was centred on strict rules and techniques, the purpose of which was to maintain the body healthy and the mind concentrated on spiritual matters.

In India

For many centuries, the greater part of India lived with the belief in reincarnation: the journey of the soul through time, bodies and lives, with the objective of becoming more perfect and evolving towards liberation from this cycle of earthly life, based on suffering. Due to this, they felt it was unnecessary to change the social organization of the castes as, according to them, the soul is born where it has to be born in order to be able to continue its journey. Throughout the course of a man’s life, he should not struggle to change his caste, but to live the best way possible, so that in the next life he may be born again, in a higher caste. For this reason, in India, as in other ancient societies, earthly life was not aimed at increasing material happiness, but towards a better spiritual life and future reincarnations.

The Era of the Egyptians

The Egyptians, like the majority of Asian civilizations, led a material life aimed at a spiritual life. Their life on earth was completely dedicated towards attaining eternal life. In this sense we could say they were not looking for earthly happiness in itself, as it was considered to be a phase that would lead us to eternal life, after death. Of course, as with all ancient societies, the problems of material or spiritual happiness were strictly for the elite, as the greater part of the population had to contend with problems of a more practical nature, like survival.

The Greek Era , after Socrates .

Socrates spoke of the philosophy of happiness and takes it to be a supreme asset. It is hardly surprising that this appears in Greece, in the 5th century before Christ. This philosophy tries to bring together the maximum happiness with the maximum virtue. In other words, a life full of pleasure, joy and satisfaction, together with a life that is just, wise and virtuous. Two visions of happiness are put into contrast : the mortal vision, through virtue (which is within reach of the common people) and the immortal vision, through meditation (within the reach of the scholars and the mystics).

The Happiness of Epicurus

Later on, Epicurus made the basic affirmation that man should “enjoy to the maximum and wish for the minimum”. His message has been altered since then and nowadays people make the mistake of using the word “Epicurian” to express the concept of having to enjoy everything to the maximum.

Quite the contrary, Epicurus teaches us that to be happy, we have to increase our pleasure and reduce the motives that are the source of that pleasure. That is to say, we should know how to distinguish between what will bring us happiness and what makes us search indefinitely for that happiness, which in the end becomes a source of dissatisfaction.

Epicurus continues by categorizing three types of desire : Desires that are natural, like eating, drinking, having clothes and roof over our head, friends and being able to philosophise, so that we can achieve a better understanding of ourselves, of other people and of life.

Desires that are natural but not necessary, such as sexual desire, desire for the aesthetic, good food, things that can be enjoyed, but taking care to not become dependent upon them. Desires that are unnatural and unnecessary, like the desire for glory, fame, riches and power. He considered these desires to be unlimitable, because we will never be able to achieve all of them and therefore, according to him, they will not be able to make us happy but, on the contrary, they only serve to complicate our lives.

Epicureanism is therefore the art of enjoying the simple things, like bread, water the beauty of nature, instead of indulging in excesses of food, alcohol or sex, which only creates a sensation of repugnanceand dissatisfaction. We could almost say it is a form of asceticism, but not as an end, only as a means.

After the birth of the religions known as “religions of the book”, such as Judaism, Christianity or Islam,the notion of religious happiness appeared, as could be enjoyed in the Garden of Eden after living a life ofvirtue, organized on a religious basis. In France especially, during the 18th century, the philosophers conceived a political organization of happiness, based on the art of life, of communicating, sharing, within the games of love and sex, food, etc. An ideal world where we would all be equal. But while the philosophers were launching their ideas, the aristocrats were enjoying themselves, taking advantage of the sweat and toil of the poor.

The revolution was the immediate consequence. This arose as an attempt to allow everyone a chance to enter this new world of happiness and equality. It has reached our times converted into sick democracies, due to the failure of the Communist and Socialist utopias. In effect, happiness has not always been an ideal in life for everyone. Sometimes Man has preferred to seek love or wisdom, as happens in India, Tibet, Japan or China. In the West we chase after success, money or beauty, whilst in the East they pursue serenity, peace or harmony. The paradox of our era is that we are aware of and promote inner happiness, but at the same time we develop more and more consumer products that are mere playthings and tools for pleasure.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic