22. Physically Weak And Suffering From Insomnia For Decades,

My Life Changes For The Better

　　I was born into a doctor's family. I heard from my Mom that I was born pre-maturely and was very weak physically from my infancy. She told me that I even had chicken pox twice. The second time I had chicken pox, the disease spread to my eyes. Due to the fact that my father was a doctor, I was rescued in time.

　　Under the influence and education of my father, I have always enjoyed taking part in physical exercises. Ever since primary school, I enjoyed running and playing basketball. I kept up this habit for years. As a result, during my school years, I did pretty well in my physical education classes. However, I did very poorly in activities that required strength and endurance. I looked very thin and my appetite was poor. During studying, I lacked energy. In 1959 when I was set to take the entrance examination for college, I started suffering from insomnia. It was a heavy burden that I would carry for 38 years. After finishing my university study, I continued to keep up the physical exercises. Since I was young, I could still manage to handle the heavy workload from my studies. Throughout all of this though, I was unable to shake the insomnia.

　　In 1964, when I was waiting to graduate and be assigned a work unit, every day I went to the swimming pool in my school to swim for 1,000 meters. I understood that since I had a poor constitution, I had to work hard to have a strong body. After I went to work, I paid close attention to nutrition, and I also kept doing physical exercises. However, having a strong body that was full of energy remained out of reach.In 1970 when I went to the Wuqi Cadre School located in Xichan, besides playing basketball, I swam during the winter. I remembered that it was snowing heavily when I went to swim. My classmates at the Wuqi Cadre School came out to have a look. I swam for almost 100 meters before I came ashore. I felt proud of my accomplishment and went back with a smile. I was able to play two basketball games back to back, so I felt pretty good about myself. However, the severe insomnia came back to haunt me. I again lacked the energy and appetite of a young person.

　　In 1971, I returned to the factory and got married. My insomnia became worse after having two children and an increased load at work. I was in my 30's, and I could still get by with a low dosage of sleeping pills to get the rest needed for work and study. I then decided to try out Taichi instead of the usual physical exercises, and I continued doing it for more than twenty years.

　　However, the persistent insomnia got worse with the passage of time.

　　Before I retired in September 1997, in order to get a good night's sleep, I had to take five sleeping pills and drink a bottle of beer at dinner. It was like this almost every day. The beer and the tablets were damaging my liver and heart. When I was young, I had chronic hepatitis, which was cured; however, my liver functioned very poorly for a long time. My energy level was so poor that if I slept a little bit less in the evening, I would get bad headaches the next day without doing anything. I also had digestive problems and would have trouble going back to sleep if I woke up during the night. It seemed like any disruption at all in my routine would prevent me from sleeping. At that point, I had tried so many different treatments to no avail, and I was only 57 years old. I thought that after I retired, the only thing left to try was Qigong.

　　In September 1997, when I learned that I could retire early, I filled out the application. At this time, my cousin and her husband had started practicing Falun Gong. After learning that I had retired, they invited me to go to the practice site of the 930 Factory to do the exercises. In the beginning, I only did the exercise at night, and later we went to the practice site at Jinhua Park. This was during the Spring Festival, and I experienced amazing changes after practicing Falun Gong for only three months. I did not need to take the sleeping pills that I had relied on for decades. I suddenly possessed the energy that I dreamed about in my youth. Once I went to the railway station to pick up my niece, and because the train was delayed, I slept for only three hours that night. The next day, I felt perfectly fine and did the exercises and studied the Falun Gong teachings with no problems. This would never have been possible before. After being weak and unhappy for decades, my life changed completely. I felt so much better and could eat all kinds of foods that I dared not eat before. My wife remarked over and over on how much better I looked. When I rode my bike to my brother's place, I did not feel as tired as I was before. The next day, I could still ride my bike to go to my other brother's place. My face turned a ruddy color, and my weight also increased to a healthy level. Everyone around me was amazed by my dramatic improvement. When one co-worker met me on the street, she was surprised and said, ”If you did not say something to me, I wouldn't have recognized you.” She said that I was a completely new person.

　　I am one of many, many examples of how Falun Gong improves the lives of its practitioners. Because of the amazing benefits that I have personally experienced, I will never stop practicing it.