Lost in the City
How long have you been living in your town? Have you already familiarize the streets, jeepney routes, and the places which are crucial when you go to city halls or other facilities to get documents or have an outing with your family? Well as for me, I’ve been in our town for a long time already, it’s been 8 years since we migrated here from the province but aside from the route of going to school and back, I don’t really know other things about the city's streets and jeepney routes.
It's not that I haven’t been in the city ever since coming here, in fact, I've been there a lot of times already but in all of those times, I have someone with me it's either my brother, father or a friend/s. I have someone to rely on in terms of directions and what jeepney routes to ride on.
But yesterday I'm all on my own, nobody to rely on. My first destination is going to my school. It was my second time going to school this week, the first was to check any updates as to why I still don’t have my class schedules and it turned out that I still need to complete my medical tests. I came to school again to pay for my medical tests and then I was instructed to go to the school’s affiliated clinic in the city. I scratch my head thinking where on earth is the clinic located at. I check the papers that were given to me by the school and was delighted to see a sketch of where to find the exact location of the clinic. Only one problem remained, what route of the jeepney to ride on? I messaged my father but didn’t receive any reply, message my cousin and brother and still no reply, after 30 minutes of waiting for a reply the third friend I asked on finally replied and save me. Lol
When I arrived at the clinic, I have to do the 9 medical tests but unfortunately, I arrived way too late for the last one which is the eye test. They instructed me to go to the other clinic, they only give the name but didn’t provide directions. I asked the guard and she said *“Diretsu ka lang dyan at may makikita kang green na building, punta ka duon”* (Just head straight into that direction and you’ll see a green building, go there) I followed the guard’s instruction and after walking for 15 minutes I arrived on the corner of the street and found green building in both left and right directions.... now where to go next?
I decided to go in the right-direction because it was the... right direction? ( hahaha I don’t really know what I’m thinking that time lol) and so I walk for 15 minutes under the scorching heat of sunny afternoon again. I was so tired but still didn’t see any clinic, and I suddenly thought that I could actually use google map to search for directions(dumbass) and it turned out that the clinic is just 1-minute away to the left from when I had decided that the right-direction is the right direction.😬
I finally arrive at the clinic, took a rest again, and feel the coolness of the clinic’s A/C. After a while, I go to the reception counter and ask for the optha eye check-up. Unfortunately, they’re on a cut-off already... what an unlucky day for me!
And now time to go home, I also don’t know where’s the exact location of the assigned jeepney terminal route back to my place I only remembered it was on the back of a known college university here so I opened the google map again and search for directions. Thankfully it’s just a few minutes away from the clinic.
Final thoughts
This is the problem of someone who always prefers to be at home. Someone who won’t go out unless it’s really needed. It may not be a problem when you’re young, but as you grow older and need to handle things all on your own, you need to memorize the city's places, routes, and streets because almost all of the important facilities are there. Thankfully we are now in the modern era where with just a click on your phone you can now find directions, you can even travel the world and loiter on the streets with google earth.
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THANK YOU FOR READING!
Thank you so much @Happyboy for the sponsor. Thank you for the support and encouragement
Covid-19 Vaccine Nocebo Effect
I guess most of you are familiar with Placebo effects and for those who don't know, it is when there's an observable improvement to a person condition without any "actual" medical assistance or in some rare cases when the doctors failed but still the patient turned-out well and got healed, religious people may call this a miracle given by God and some may say it's a "**Placebo Effect**" resulted from a strong feeling of hope.
https://pixabay.com/vectors/colorful-optimist-motivation-1643273/
According to Professor Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard
*"The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work. It's about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together"*
It's more like a Psychological treatment, positive thinking would result in a positive outcome, guess this not only works when talking about goals and success but also critical in our health. The constant belief and hope for healing would result in actual relief.
Our brain is very powerful, aside from its ability to create, remember, perceive, and swift processing of information it can also heal ourselves just by thinking about it. But with such power but lack of resolution could lead to a backlash.
What am I'm going to talk about now is the opposite of the Placebo Effect, the **Nocebo Effect**. While the former would make you feel a lot better just by having an optimistic mind then the latter makes your condition worse. The Nocebo effect aligns with the idea of ***"Negative thinking leads to a negative outcome".***
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/words-doubtful-pessimistic-pessimist-679914/
These are the factors that may result in a Nocebo Effect that we can relate to the Covid-19 vaccine.
The rumored side effects
Trust of the vaccine
The Rumored Side Effects and Trust to the vaccine
There are so many rumors about the scary side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine circulating in social media instilling fear in the masses, and John is one of them. But the company where John is working required him to get them vaccinated, though scared John doesn't have a choice. When it's about his time to take the dose, the vaccine he's supposed to be taking run out of supply and need to take the other available which was produced from the country he hated the most, he's a bit hesitant to take the dose, but as I said he don't have a choice.
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/person-anxiety-autism-confused-5812871/
The next day he felt headaches (which is normal because John's body is building protection) and he's already getting apprehensive of what might happen and the fact that he doesn't trust the vaccine, anxiety dwells inside his mind. And on the second day, he's getting delirious because the headache is still there, he's thinking "Will this turned out into a scary side effect just like what I've seen on Facebook the other day???" "Am I going to become a Titan? a Zombie? a Donkey? Or am I going to die with this??" And what was just supposed to be a mild headache, John is now experiencing shivering chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, sweating and pounding of the heart, and the hallucinations all caused by his extreme anxiety and delirium which also resulted in him not functioning well to his work.
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/people-desolation-portrait-solitude-388328/
The body will always react based on what we think, may it be consciously waving your hands, moving your fingers, rolling your eyes to subconsciously breathing in and out. That's why it's extremely important what kind of information you put into it. Always seek the truth behind those rumors. Choose carefully whom to believe, will you believe in the doctors and scientists that have gone through a lot of strict clinical trials or will you just believe from the rumors and gossips of your neighborhood?
https://mca.essensys.ro/campaigns/world-immunization-week/2020/campaign-materials
Lead image source https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/feature/nocebo-the-placebo-effects-evil-twin
Source https://www.healthline.com/health/nocebo-effect#takeaway
Source https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
Also, read my other articles:
**How I relieved GERD naturally** https://read.cash/@Oz_/how-i-relieved-gerd-naturally-987b27b9
**The secret to Diamond Hands** https://read.cash/@Oz_/secrets-to-diamond-hands-40050cbc
Just I promised, I bought it all with Pizza
On May 22nd, 2010, when Bitcoin was just a year old, programmer ***Laszlo Hanyecz*** prove to the world that Bitcoin can be used in a **commercial transaction** as he transferred 10,000 Bitcoins to ***Jeremy Sturdivant*** in return for 2 **Papa John's Pizza**.(Let's do little math with it and it would worth $370 million based on the current price) Hence, everyone in the crypto space celebrated May 22 as the **"Bitcoin Pizza Day"**.
And on May 22nd, 2021, as we all celebrated the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day. In solidarity with Hanyecz, Bitcoin.com was giving away $3000 in Bitcoin Cash to continually prove that Bitcoin is money, 60 lucky people will receive $50 in Bitcoin Cash. https://mobile.twitter.com/BitcoinCom
Of course, I didn't let myself miss this once-a-year opportunity to earn $50 in Bitcoin Cash and quickly participated in the event. It was very easy to join and it wouldn't even take 10 minutes to finish all the tasks: *follow Bitcoin.com's Instagram and Twitter account, subscribe to their Youtube channel, Retweet, and reply on the thread with your QR code from Bitcoin.com wallet*. The deadline was on May 28, 2021
And on May 31, 2021, the deity of fortune had blessed me with luck as I received a message from Bitcoin.com itself saying that I am one of the **"Twitter Pizza Day Winners and the $50 worth of Bitcoin Cash is on its way to my wallet"**. I was surprised and very happy as I never expected myself to win the event. (It was because of my mindset in terms of giveaways, **Join but never expect)** It was the first time in my life that I ever won a giveaway event.
As the message stated, I won in the "**Twitter**" Pizza day event, a thought came to my mind saying "maybe they let me won because I said I would spend it all on pizza??" And so I planned to spend it all on pizza at the 2nd week of June because someone precious to me will be celebrating his special day. But, I send a portion of it to coins.ph (and it took too long to arrive), converted it in our fiat(Peso), and bought 2 pizzas on the next day to satisfy my cravings.
And today, June 10th, 2021, I'm celebrating my special day in reaching the realm of legal age and as I promised, I spent the remaining balance from my $50 worth of BCH to buy another 5 pizzas and drinks. Which I also bought from my friend's new family business so that I can at least help and support them. I tried to convince them to accept bitcoin cash as payment but unfortunately they declined. Though I didn't purchased it using either Bitcoin(no way!) or Bitcoin Cash, still happy late-*₿*itcoin Pizza and *₿*irthday to me.
It was just a simple happy celebration with only my family. My grandma and my friends couldn't even come, but I understand knowing we're in this pandemic and the positive cases in our place have increased. It's better to be safe than sorry.
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I don't know whether I should change just because my age was added 1 unto it tho. But I kept hearing things every year like "*You're at that age! you should change already...blablablabla*" I'm not that irresponsible person tho, just procrastinating a little bit... (Okay fine, sometimes...)
I will not try to change what I am anymore but just strive for improvements.
Source https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCUSD/history-timeline/#pizza-the-action-2021-05-21
Also read my other articles:
**How I relieved GERD naturally** https://read.cash/@Oz_/how-i-relieved-gerd-naturally-987b27b9
**Secret to Diamond Hands** https://read.cash/@Oz_/secrets-to-diamond-hands-40050cbc
How I relieved GERD naturally
I was always been a coffee lover after the first day I savored and smell the bittersweetness of it. At first, I was having a coffee a day, then two, and then weeks go by I'm drinking 5 cups of coffee per day. I've become addicted to it that my day won't be complete without having a few cups of it. A coffee a day has become a daily normal life to me for 5 years.
Everything is good until I noticed some changes in my body. At first, it was just heartburns in which I didn't put in mind that much because I thought it will just subside. The next day it happened again, felt this uncomfortable heavy feeling on the chest resulting in the urge to burp constantly to ease that uncomfortable feeling. I was still drinking coffee at that time as I was still ignorant of what's happening in my body even though it gets worsen day by day.
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/104356916355386221/
Then a sore throat added to my sufferings, it so hard for me to swallow food because there's something like a lump in my throat that's blocking the food. Which had resulted in extreme anxiety because I mistakenly thought it was a **Covid-19** (intense chest pain + soar throat) but there's no way I could believe it tho, I haven't gone outside that time ever since the lockdown was announced. So, I type the symptoms that I'm experiencing with my hands still shaking: Acid Reflux, Heartburns, Chest pains that get worsen at night, and when I lie down, sore throat that feels like there's a lump blocking in it.
I found the answer, luckily it wasn't Covid-19 but a ***Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)***. It is a chronic disease where the acid from the stomach comes up into the esophagus. The symptoms are difficulty in swallowing, heartburns that tend to get worse when a person lies down, it matched! The cause of GERD is frequent acid reflux in which also the result of me drinking a lot of coffee. There's also other factors that could trigger GERD like lying down after you eat, High fats foods, chocolates, etc...
Though I learned that it wasn't a Covid-19 but a **GERD**, I wasn't happy at all. I'm still suffering from the pain day by day, I didn't take any medications because I'm afraid to get near the hospitals and clinic, and the fact that I told no one from home what I'm suffering. Also, I learned the home remedies to treat my GERD and relieved it naturally, number one is to stop drinking coffee even though it's so hard to end an addiction I need to endure the headaches and cravings of it. Avoid foods that may trigger the disease like High-fats foods, Citric Fruits, and Carbonated beverages. Also elevating the head of my bed to let the stomach acid easily escape on the esophagus and reduced the acid reflux.
Days and weeks passed by, I'm slowly recovering from it and on the 6th month finally noticed the changes. I'm not having any acid reflux anymore, the intense chest pain and the urge to burp have also **subsided**. And now, a year later, I could say my body is back to normal again like all of those things never happened. My patience and disciplined to follow the home remedies gradually paid off. And now I can drink my beloved black coffee again but I have it in control this time. **Just 1 cup every two to three days**.
I hope you learn something from my experience especially for those coffee lovers here. If you have experienced the acid refluxes already then it was the start of it, you better minimize your caffeine intakes before it gets worst.
Source https://www.healthline.com/health/gerd#complications
Source https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/14085#_noHeaderPrefixedContent
I'm back
On September 2020, while scrolling and reading posts in our local internet forum I encountered this referral post subjecting to read.cash. It had piqued my interest since the post said you can earn just by reading and writing articles and the fact that I love to read. I clicked the link quickly created my first account, read the rules, then explored the platform. And I quickly fell in love with the site seeing it's 10 billion percent legit.
A few days later, I began writing articles even though it's not really my forte. But later on, I seem to realize it was so hard much more I don't have any passion for it. That's why I rarely published an article and just spent all of my time reading and interacting with other users.
And the update to wipe out all of the spammers in the platform happened. The points system was removed and a newly born holy robot replaced it. It was a huge dilemma for me even though I'm not one of those pests who copy articles from the Internet because there's no more earning in just reading articles or interacting with other users.
So I worked hard and put a lot of effort to write an article but the results weren't good. Then it started, I began doubting myself. They say that "If you can read and understand the language easily then you can also easily write using it" but, I don't know why, I seem to understand mostly everything but still it's hard for me to write sentences and construct paragraphs. Maybe I'm not really fit into this kind of thing.
Overthinker Perfectionist
After seeing the bad results of my past works and doubting myself, I become **stagnant**. Though I still haven't stopped writing but the problem is I couldn't publish anything. I keep saying to myself *"This is not enough, I know there's still something I can add to this one" "this isn't perfect yet, the result will just turn out the same as last time"*. I keep overthinking things such as perfection and when I can't find a solution to it I become **stagnant**.
Anxiety
My anxiety at that time was an effect of my chronic digestive disease. I was suffering from **GERD** or *Gastroesophageal reflux disease* which was caused by taking too much caffeine (coffee). Having intense chest pain and extreme anxiety every single day in like 6 months, was a hell-like feeling! The anxiety added fuel to the fire if before I could still read articles every day just to keep my account active, I slowly becoming demotivated to read and eventually stop visiting the platform even though too many ideas are popping in my head I couldn't get myself start writing at all.
And now I'm back...
After contemplating with myself for 3 months and the fact that my GERD finally healed naturally and was relieved from the sufferings. I'm back with my new self, full of motivation and goals. Although I'm still a perfectionist in terms of my works, I guess it wasn't bad at all. Just as Vince Lombardi said, "If we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
But why are you motivated now? What's your motivation?
My answer will be **Goals**. I realized that what I'm lacking before were goals, it is what keeps me going forward and stay on the path. I could think of it as the guiding light ahead from the dark tunnel. And of course, I don't set my goals way too far to be unreachable as the stars nor way too short for it to be unchallenging. I set my goals while also taking into consideration of my limits and the things I want to improve.
Closing thoughts
As I said above, even though I stopped publishing articles I still haven't stopped writing articles it was all put into drafts. And now I'm back and ready to publish them. I want to share my experiences on these past months like how I healed my GERD naturally, my first spot trading on Binance, and how I was so excited about it but was busted by my emotions, share my freshly learned knowledge about crypto trading with beginners like me, my exploration to NFT world that caused me a lot of headaches because of how complicated it was for me, and the creation and minting of my very first NFT, the BCH Tree in which I'll be droping it for free here. I'll just need some editing on my articles and they will be good to go.
Lead image https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/77476056068812831/
@JonicaBradley It was really a good timing for me to see the 2nd prompt. Hope you like it sir.
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Read my other article:
Secrets to Diamond Hands https://read.cash/@Oz_/secrets-to-diamond-hands-40050cbc
Secrets to Diamond Hands
Emotions of an individual are the greatest enemy in trading and also in another way around, a group of emotional people is the nemesis of the market. We call it FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).
A FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information and the manifestation of the appeal of fear.
Source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt#:~:text=Fear%2C%20uncertainty%2C%20and%20doubt%20(,of%20the%20appeal%20to%20fear.
FUD is nothing new especially in cryptocurrency where the market is emotionally driven and is very volatile. In fact, it happens many times that it looks like it's the common strategy the higher-ups used to drop the price and buy at the bottom.
This time, it all started with Elon Musk's tweet of Tesla's suspension of using Bitcoin as payment because of how environmental-unfriendly it is. And then China didn't miss this perfect opportunity to add fuel on the fire and for nth time release the news of banning cryptocurrency to its country that had resulted in the markets bloodbath.
But the one to be blamed for your loss is not them but yourself. Because you let yourself get played in on their hands and were overcome with your emotion resulting in selling all of your coins at a loss.
But there's no helping on it, are we? After all, were just humans we are so vulnerable in terms of emotions and could easily lose our composure with such negativity around, especially that most of the affected people or the FUD participants were just beginners in crypto trading.
So here is the trick, the secret to **Diamond Hands–Buy and Forget.** People with Diamond Hands will stay HODLING to their coins no matter what happens because they set their minds for long-term success. They're the type of people who won't get shaken by short-term downfalls because they think it's pretty normal for the price to go down temporarily for it to go up in the long run.
Choosing a Coin
Don't just buy any coin just because your friend is investing in it, or a celebrity is promoting for it, and more importantly, don't buy a coin because of hype (it will eventually go down). **Always do your own research** (DYOR) for you to see if the said coin has its potential growth. You can use the *Fundamental Analysis* and check its *Projects* to ensure the future of the coin.
Let's say you've already chosen a coin that you think it will grow in the future.
Place it in a Trusted Wallet
Always remember ***"Not your keys, not your coins."*** Make sure to send your coins only in a trusted wallet that will provide you full control with your coins, especially that you're HODLING them for the long term. Because there's a possibility that your coins might be lost forever if the exchange where you put your coins got attacked by hackers. And make sure you write those 12 words phrase in your notebook and keep them safe because they will serve as your keys.
Forget and Focus on your Life
Forget about cryptocurrencies, delete your wallet *(Note: It's okay to delete your wallet as long as you have your keys*), and other exchanges. Live your life like how you do it before you've known about cryptocurrency. Make yourself busy with other things like studies, bonding with your friends and family. Go, have fun and enjoy your life to the fullest.
And after a year or two go back to cryptocurrency, install your wallet again and import your wallet using the seed phrase. And see how rich you are, easy 20x turn if your fundamental analysis were right on the money.
Conclusion
Trading is one of the most stressful courses of all. This is not only a battle of probabilities and strategies but also an intense battle of our rational mind and emotional heart. So, if you think you can't handle the psychological impact of the crypto market, you might as well take the path of being a HODLER and equip the hands of a diamond.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice, always do your own research and make the right decisions on your own.
@Oz_
