A Dream World

What can be a dream world? Many would imagine it to look like a paradise, but more people would be contented to imagine a world without wars, and just wait to see the paradise in heaven.

Realistic people, however, might say that wars will always be a part of the world, and they can even be a part of a dream world since it is sometimes after the wars that the world becomes a better place to live in because disputes are settled.

A dream world can be a place where nobody is hungry, I bet everyone would agree. There was a movie in 1973 titled "Soylent Green", one of the first eerie movies that I've watched. The year is 2022. New York City has become overpopulated with 40 million people and pollution has caused the temperature to be risen and all natural resources have been destroyed, leaving 40 million people starving. The Soylent Company has created a new food product, Soylent Green. It was later discovered that a component of Soylent Green is the processed body of a dead person.

I'm just glad that the "Soylent Green" fiction will never happen because there is now a so-called "21st century food", Spirulina, a blue-green algae that will save the world from hunger and malnutrition. Like in the movie, cookies can be made from it. It will even save the world from epidemics because this superfood can kill viruses.

Now we can imagine a true dream world of the future, a world with healthy people, and movie producers planning to produce a movie similar to "Soylent Green" should think twice because the movie will surely flop.

The Daily Dozen

To help make our dreams come true, John Maxwell recommends a dozen exercises:

1. Examine your life at the moment. The first step toward making your dream come true is to find out where you are.
2. Exchange all of your little options for one big dream.
3. Expose yourself to successful people. Birds of the same feather flock together.
4. Express your belief in your dream. Write it down or talk about it frequently.
5. Expect opposition to your dream.
6. Exercise all of your effort, all of your energy, toward the dream. It’s worth it. Pay the price!
7. Extract every positive principle that you can from life. Constantly be on the lookout for anything that will enhance that dream.
8. Exclude negative thinkers as close friends.
9. Exceed normal expectations to make your dream come true. Dreams are not achieved by average energy.
10. Exhibit an attitude that is confident.
11. Explore every possible avenue to reach your dream.
12. Extend a helping hand to someone who has a similar dream, and both of you will climb together.

A "therapist"

Early in September last year, I published a post in this blog about a new dream, which is simply to learn a person's acupoints. This was the last paragraph I wrote in that post:

"Among the dreams I ever thought of, this seems to be the simplest, but can be a most challenging one because of what it can achieve after I learn. I can save lives, even my own life! Isn't that wonderful?"

I'd like to say now that on the contrary, it is not that simple. There are 2,000 acupoints, so when can I ever get to learn all of them? The only way I know is to immediately apply through actual therapy, whenever a group of acupoints is learned. Using the Tiens Acupoint Treasure or "Tong Bao", which is a needleless acupuncture gadget with a 400 gauss magnetic tip or beam, I started with myself. With a pressure that is bearable, the tip is pressed on the acupoint for 5 seconds, rotated clockwise for 10 seconds, pressed steadily for 5 seconds, and then rotated counterclockwise for 10 seconds. That process is one cycle lasting for 30 seconds, and 6 cycles should be completed for each acupoint. The action of this magnetic tip simulates that of an acupuncture needle as the process is performed. Though I was taking supplements which I knew helped a lot in my wellness, I believe that the procedure hastened my expelling of phlegm, when I had cough and colds during the cold months late last year.

Becoming a professional therapist was never in my thoughts, not even in my dreams, until this year. The irony is I cannot find time now to perform the acupuncture therapy on myself. I usually do it for my special child to clear her liver "chi" (qi), since she regularly takes drugs for her cerebral palsy, and now for my sister-in-law who has cataract. The treatment for cataract involves several acupoints, so that the whole treatment takes one hour and four cycles are done for each acupoint instead of the usual six.

I am not yet a professional therapist, but I'm on my way to become one.

Fitness as a goal

A totally normal blood test result will make my dream to be healthy come true, since I've seen that the supplements I've been taking are helping me, but probably some changes in my activities also helped, like my once a week commuting and walking to and from a church. Since the rest of our household share the same dream to be healthy, we have resolved to schedule an at least once a week serious walking for fitness. Fortunately, the best place to do that is just near our house, and I'm talking about the University of the Philippines compound in Diliman.

My husband, sister in-law and I have started walking last Saturday, and tomorrow, which will be our second Saturday to do that, my daughter will join us. Next week, we definitely have more time for walking since Monday is a holiday here in the Philippines, but more members of the household would like to join us.

That goes to show that fitness as a goal, which can benefit every person, can be contagious and motivating, and that means there is a big chance for that common goal to be successfully achieved.