(Minghui.org) I started experiencing rapid heartbeat, frequent dizziness, and extreme fatigue in 2016. After a thorough evaluation at the capital city’s traditional Chinese medicine hospital I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder.
I received treatment and took medication for more than a year but there was no significant improvement. The frequent and intense feeling that I was about to die caused me to feel even more anxious. Just when I lost hope, my mother-in-law told me about Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) and it completely turned my life around.
Master purified my body soon after I took up the practice and I gradually regained my health. Through studying the Fa, I realized my career in physical therapy no longer served me.
Two months after I quit my job, a friend asked me to cook and do light chores for her mother. I discovered that I really enjoyed this line of work and I was good at it. One reason is that I actually get joy out of performing seemingly mundane house chores, managing, and taking care of a household. I also appreciated the relatively simple work environment. There were few politics, competitiveness or drama while working for a family, as opposed to a typical workplace. I liked it so much that I worked as a domestic helper ever since.
After the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2023, I found a job working for a family in a residential community adjacent to mine. My responsibilities included dropping off and picking up their child from school and making dinner. I worked three hours a day, Monday through Friday, and was paid 1,800 yuan a month.
A few months later, the child started an after school extracurricular class. The family asked if I could work for an additional hour each day. This was difficult as I needed to pick up my own child and get home to prepare dinner. However, Master taught us to always be considerate of others so I agreed to work longer hours.
As my hours increased, I would naturally get compensated. The family offered to pay me 2,400 yuan a month. “Isn’t that too much?” I said. The lady of the family said, “No, it’s not too much.” She showed me the numbers, “Right now you’re getting paid a little over 27 yuan an hour and that’s more than 81 yuan a day. If we add one more hour, you’ll be getting 109 yuan a day, which times 22 is 2,399 a month—let’s just call it 2,400.”
She was pleased and looked at me seeking a response. But it didn’t seem right. I remembered when I interviewed with the domestic staffing agency that matched me to this family, I was told for each additional hour worked per day, I should expect a 300 yuan increase in my monthly pay, not 600. A thought crossed my mind, “If I don’t say anything, technically it’s not lying.” If I just went with my employer’s calculation, I’d be making more than 300 yuan extra a month. But if I withheld that information for more pay than I deserved, weren’t I being dishonest and greedy? Then what kind of cultivator am I?
I told the couple the agency’s rates and the lady was surprised, “Is that so? I didn’t know that.” I suggested that she check with the agency. I told her I have my beliefs and winked at her jokingly, “If I told you what I believe in, you might get scared.” She laughed. I continued, “I practice Falun Gong that teaches the universal principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I cannot keep that information from you because our Master taught us to always consider others in everything we do. Our goal is to eventually reach the state of selflessness.” She was very impressed, “Your have very high moral standards!”
The next day, my employer said she consulted the agency and it was indeed 300 yuan extra for each additional hour per day. We decided on 300 yuan increase on top of the 1,800 I was making.
If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, how could I be so honest even when my own personal gain is at stake? How could I adhere to such high standards? How could I ever become such a considerate person? If I didn’t cultivate in Dafa, how could I not fight over petty gains? My employer already offered to pay me more money and I could have just let them. Wouldn’t it be better for me if I was compensated more? But I’m a cultivator and I couldn’t let that happen, because my goal is to elevate my realm and eventually return to my original, true self.
My previous job ended in summer 2024. By the time school started in the fall, I found my next job. My new family has four children, a middle schooler, a third grader, a second grader, and a preschooler. The family already had a live-in nanny that took care of the children, managed their routines, and transported them to and from schools and activities. My job was to come in the evening to help with dishes and clean the kitchen. Then the mother, the nanny and I helped the children with their homework.
The mother is very irritable and short tempered. She scolded and hit the kids almost daily. I found out quickly that she was diagnosed with severe depression three years ago, to the point where she needed hospitalization. She managed to pull herself out of it and gradually recovered.
I could relate to what she was going through so I explained that I suffered from anxiety disorder. I told her I was hospitalized and received treatment for more than a year but the symptoms persisted, until I began practicing Falun Dafa. I printed out articles about how practicing Falun Dafa helped practitioners recover from depression and gave them to her. I taught her, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” and told her to recite these auspicious phrases whenever she could as it would help her. When I went to work the following day, she told me she really enjoyed those articles.
The live-in nanny is also very high-strung—maybe because she has too much to do taking care of four kids, or maybe the mother’s temper rubbed off on her. Whenever the children made mistakes, she berated them or made them stand in the corner. If they did not sit properly while doing homework, she scolded them harshly. The mother complained to me that the nanny stressed her out and that she felt overwhelmed and suffocated in the nanny’s presence. She gave one example where she spent 10 minutes in the living room and the nanny shouted and yelled at the kids the entire time.
After the New Year’s holidays, I was assigned to help the third grader, a daughter, with her homework. She has a very active, wandering mind and is notorious for not being able to focus on the task at hand. While helping her with homework one day, her mother came into her room to get something and immediately started shouting at the child for slouching. After the mother left the room, I whispered to her, “Please sit up straight so you don’t get yelled at again.” She responded callously, “Well...that’s how my mother is.” I said, “That’s precisely why you should try harder and prove to your mom that you can do better. You’re a good kid and I know you can do the right thing. Let’s set a goal and work toward it together.” “Okay,” she nodded and focused on her homework.
The daughter forgot her homework assignments again a few days later because she didn’t have the habit of writing it all down. Her mother was furious. She whipped the child with a charging cable repeatedly. The poor girl curled up on the floor, and wept in pain. Still screaming angrily, the mother then tore the child’s notebook to pieces. After the mother was done, I comforted the child and explained to her why it was important to write down the homework assignments. Her notebook was in pieces now, I told her she would have to figure out a way to write down her assignments the next day without leaving anything out and I would check that first thing the next day.
When I checked her notes on her assignments the next day, I found everything written down on a piece of paper. I praised her promptly, “Wow. You did such a good job writing down all the assignments. You’ll form a good habit in three weeks if you keep this up.” She asked me innocently, “Does that mean after three weeks, I won’t have to write down my homework assignments anymore?” I smiled, “No. But when it becomes a habit, you’ll find it very easy. You will also learn the importance of writing it all down and won’t forget your homework assignments anymore.” It was not the answer she was hoping for but she was okay with it. “Fine,” she said.
I went through her pile of scrap papers and found a used notebook. I told her to use it for the time being. She smiled and thanked me. Before I left that day, I promised her, “If you stay on top of it and write down your homework assignments every day this week, I will have a surprise for you.” Her eyes brightened up, “I will!” And she did. The next week, I gave her a fountain pen in a pretty color as a reward and she was so happy, “Thank you, Auntie!” The small prize boosted the child’s confidence. She became very self-motivated and kept her homework assignments neatly written down every day. I gave her another color of the same fountain pen the following week for doing so well. Her attention span also increased and was now able to focus and finish her homework in a shorter amount of time.
Before I left one day, the mother complained to me how hard it was to discipline the children. I asked her, “Have you noticed? Your daughter has improved so much in the past two weeks. She is doing so well!” She said she did notice.
As soon as I arrived the next Monday, the mother shared excitedly, “Idon’t know what’s gotten into her but my daughter is doing so well at her English class. She used to never be able to memorize the short essays assigned by the teacher. It always took her forever to struggle through it—sometimes more than a hour. We all had to wait until she was done. But this past Saturday, she had this week’s essay memorized and passed at her first try!” I was so happy for her, “That’s great. I’m so glad to hear that.” When I worked with the daughter, I told her what her mother said and how proud she was. I told her, “You mother has noticed your improvement and her opinion about you is changing. Let’s keep working hard and do even better.” She nodded with a big grin on her face.
When she slouched in her chair, I searched for a picture of a deformed spine and showed it to her, “If you sit like that for long period of time, your spine will become like this. Your back will hunch and your shoulders will become uneven. You’re such a pretty girl. You don’t want a body like that, do you? That would not look good at all.” As soon as I finished talking, she sat up straight.
Whenever she became distracted, I gently reminded her to focus so she could finish her homework quicker and have more time to play. Her handwriting used to be messy. After I told her messy handwriting would not match her beauty, she began putting in a lot of effort to write neatly.
When the daughter was at her extracurricular class on Friday, the mother asked me to watch her youngest child. I was to help the little boy with his homework before we could play a game. When she checked back on us after a while and saw we were having lots of fun playing, she asked, “Are you all done with the homework?” I told her we finished his homework in half an hour.
This really surprised the mother as she usually has a hard time helping the little boy with his homework. She explained things once or twice and if he didn’t full grasp it, she raised her voice and scolded him. She sometimes even threw things. The prolonged process usually exhausted both the mother and the child. The mother said, “There should be more nannies like you.”
If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa I wouldn’t have such a big heart, so much patience for the children and tolerate their mistakes and bad habits. Just like the mother and the live-in nanny, I would yell, scream, and physically punish the kids as soon as they did something I didn’t like. I told the mother that I saw in her the person I used to be, before I began practicing Falun Dafa.
I practice Falun Dafa and my words and deeds represent Dafa. I want to show people how it has changed me for the better and hopefully they’ll realize how wonderful Dafa is. Through my own actions, I want to show the world, “Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa. Master is slandered by the Chinese Communist Party.”