(Clearwisdom.net) Before I started practicing Falun Gong in December 1998, I was very sick. I had practiced other qigong for about one year and did experience a slight improvement in my health, however, the improvement was negligible, so I gave up. Thus, I lost faith in qigong and I did not believe that it could cure my illness.

From then on, I started to take injections, pills, traditional Chinese medicine, and Western medicine. However, nothing worked. I graduated from medical school and had a habit of recording the name of every medicine that doctors recommended to me. When I got home, I would check a Western medical dictionary to learn about these new medicines. If I was prescribed Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, I would check the Traditional Chinese medical dictionary. I managed to record about 80 percent of the medicines listed in the dictionary.

I even resorted to taking toxic medicines to cure my illness. Although they did help, I still could not completely get rid of my illness. After being so sick for so many years, I became very worried and uptight.

I was not happy with my husband. I was very picky and got angry at him all the time. I almost felt too tired to live. Once, I had a dream in which I committed suicide, just to get rid of my pain. When I awoke, I realized that my child was too little, so I stopped thinking about taking my life.

When I first heard about Falun Gong from a practitioner that I met, my reaction was: “Don't talk to me about it. I practiced many different kinds of qigong and they're all useless. Now, I don't trust anything but injections and pills!” After I firmly refused her suggestion that I try Falun Gong, she became silent. I continued taking injections and pills.

At that time, I spent over 2,000 yuan in a private clinic, per month, but my monthly income was less than 2,000 yuan. That was in 1990 when China's yuan was doing well and inflation was very low. So spending 2,000 yuan a month on medical expenses caused me a lot of stress. I simply could not afford it.

When another practitioner mentioned Falun Gong to me again, although I didn't strike out against it like I did before, I didn't have a desire to study it, either. Finally, the head of the nursing department in our hospital helped me get started in the practice. She introduced Dafa to me and brought me Teacher's lecture videos. I listened to her because I respected her very much. I believed she was not the kind of person who would practice something if it were not good for her. She took the time to practice Falun Gong in such a busy work environment. She told me emphatically, “Dafa is good.” I thought to myself, “It must be good, then!” So I decided to start practicing. Now, I realize that Teacher was giving me lots of hints, all along the way.

The first time I visited a local practice site was in the last week of December 1998. Although I only wanted to practice because I was sick, I did not have any hope that practicing Falun Gong would restore my health. So I did not have any pursuit when I initially started. Now, when I look back, I realize that this attitude may have been the right approach, under the circumstances.

I used to have neurasthenia which caused me to fall asleep after 10:30 p.m. and wake up after midnight, tossing and turning in bed until morning. If I went to bed after midnight, I would be in a daze until morning, not knowing whether I'd slept or not. I was even in a daze for the whole next day at work. I then resorted to sleeping pills, but after using them, I could not close my eyes for two whole days and nights.

However, to my surprise, I could sleep very well after the first day of practicing the Falun Gong exercises. Thereafter, I practiced on and off for three months. During that time, my whole body experienced huge changes. I then began studying the Fa very diligently.

Several years have passed. I have experienced a lot. I deeply feel as if Teacher is always holding my hand, helping me through my tough times. I known Teacher encourages me. Teacher takes care of me.