Prologue: To Be Happy at Home
To be happy at home, said Johnson, is the end of all human endeavor.
To be happy at home, said Johnson, is the end of all human endeavor. As long as we are thinking only of natural values we must say that the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him; and that all economics, politics, laws, armies and institutions, save in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing the sand and sowing the ocean, a meaningless vanity and vexation of spirit.
- C.S. Lewis
On the very last page of this book, I will reveal to you the secret to exceptional health.
These will be the very last words I type.
This secret is real.
It is one sentence. Six words.
And it is truly a secret.
However, the secret to which I refer is right in front of your eyes at this very moment.
It’s staring you in the face.
Hiding in plain sight.
The supreme secret to optimal health is unexpected…very unexpected.
When I say “secret,” I don’t mean a trick or a technique.
I don’t mean something locked away in a textbook or known only to experts.
I mean something so ordinary and so close that most people refuse to take it seriously.
Years ago, as I flew out to Phoenix, Arizona, to start my first job, I never could have foretold this would be the ending.
But as I poured through hundreds of texts, enrolled in countless courses and debated with experts from around the world…
…all roads lead back to this one, painfully obvious, unexpected and all-powerful secret.
I’ve always felt that my greatest asset was the ability to be an objective observer.
When I was a kid, I remember growing curious about this whole Tooth Fairy thing.
I was looking at the facts and the likelihood of a flying fairy with an affinity for dentistry flying around the world, dropping a few coins under my pillow in exchange for my tooth.
“What does he do with all the teeth?”
“How am I not feeling it when he slips under my pillow?”
The next time I lost a tooth, I didn’t tell anyone.
“Surely, a magical fairy doesn’t need a heads up from my parents that my tooth fell out!” I thought.
So I slipped it under my pillow, per the directions, and simply went to sleep.
As it turns out, it is essential to the Tooth Fairy’s entire operation that I first inform my parents that the tooth had fallen out!
I’m asking you to be a more careful observer.
I’m asking you to be an independent thinker.
I’m asking you to read between the lines.
I’m asking you to watch what I do, not what I say.
I’m asking you to start asking, “What’s really going on here?”
If you ask those questions, and keep your eyes wide open, this mysterious secret will soon be yours.