Enjoy Life: To Be Abundant, to Be Happy, to Be Healthy

By Fu-mei Chen

Life is too short and unpredictable. When we try to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I have had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles do not have to stop us.
Each chapter of this book tells the challenges, experiences I have encounterd and overcomed. This book also includes some self-massages and my visions
for a better world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669852599

Fu-mei Chen

We never know how much time we have left. Enjoy life to the fullest while we can. Everybody desires to have an abundance, a happiness and a helathy life. After reading this book, you will open your mind for something new and reach your goals.

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Fu-mei Chen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/21/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

832653

THE STORY ABOUT MY BOOK COVER

Front

E NJOY HAS SUNGLASSES on its smiley face. Sunglasses are usually looked at as nothing more than a fashion accessory. And while there’s no doubt that they’re an integral part of your wardrobe, they also serve an important function in protecting the health of your eyes.

Life has a smiley face on top of its head with green and red circles. It suggests thinking about abundance and health.

Life is better with a beachfront view. Enjoy life to the fullest; we never know how much time we have left.

To Be Abundant - Red suggests abundance.

To Be Happy - The gold color should have been used, but it cannot be printed out.

To Be Healthy - Green suggests health.

Back

A gold leaf with GA suggests Goldleaf Avenue; it is a logo for any items produced by Goldleaf Avenue, such as T-shirt and shorts. A hot pink Goldleaf Avenue is the sign used for the store.

Cover design by Avanguard Publishing House, Taipei, Taiwan

Photograph by Oliver Chen on 9/15/2018 in Fire Island, NY

To my loving husband, Ron Chen, for his advice, guidance, and support

in all that I do. He also gave me four filial children, STOP (Sonya,

Tonya, Oliver, and Patricia). For that I am grateful.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1     To Be Abundant

1.1. Have a Dream and Luck

1.2. Three Amazing Five-Dollar Bills

1.3. Opportunity Knocks

1.4. Saving or Investing

1.5. Choose the Right Field in College

1.6. Be An Entrepreneur without Money

1.7. Try Not to Overspend

1.8. Learn Money Skills

1.9. Self-Competition

1.10. Giving My Children Good Education

1.11. My Ultimate Goals

Chapter 2     To Be Happy

2.1. Find the Right Mate

2.2. Giving Is Better than Receiving

2.3. Always Aim High

2.4. A Big-Age-Gap Marriage

2.5. To Love versus to Be Loved

2.6. Happy in Love

2.7. Happy or Unhappy with Children

2.8. The Simple, Happy Life

2.9. The Value of Friendship

2.10. Express Your Feelings

2.11. Smile to Change Your Luck

2.12. Pursue a Hobby

Chapter 3     To Be Healthy

3.1. Meditation

3.2. Improve Your Image

3.3. Healing Stone—Hematite Stone

3.4. Acupoints for Well-Being

3.5. Constipation

3.6. Emotions Cause Diseases

3.7. Inflammation

3.8. Ear Massage

3.9. Prevent Leg Deterioration

3.10. A Small Help

3.11. Weight Loss

3.12. Sleeping

1.13. My Full-Body Self-Massage

3.14. Magnetite Rod Therapy

George H. Kerr Memorial Foundation/ Acu-Hematite Foundation

Bibliography

About the Author

PREFACE

I WILL BE SEVENTY-NINE years old in January 2022. I desperately want to do something meaningful with my life before I go. I thought writing a book would be an accomplishment in my late life. I wrote three Chinese books, one in English, which has 2,259,706 views as of January 27, 2020, at a Goodreads campaign since May 2, 2015. The name of the book is Self-Help Acu-Hematite Therapy .

I have one son and three daughters. My son, Oliver Chen, and second daughter, Tonya Mezrich, have been making a name for themselves on TV. Oliver is probably the most visible face today on Wall Street because of his frequent CNBC appearances. Sometimes he is interviewed twice a week for stock market information. Tonya Mezrich is a cohost of Boston’s Red Carpet on NESN and an author of children’s books.

One of my longtime best friends, Jane Gaar, encouraged me to write a book about the experiences of bringing up my children. I thought it was a good idea. I was very proud and told my son that I raised him well. After a few minutes of thinking, he answered, Mommy, I raised myself. I couldn’t say anything since we sent him to boarding school when he was only a seventh grader, and we did not raise him anymore since then, only paid for all his expenses.

My husband thought all my children should get a good education to be able to withstand this country since they were born by Taiwanese parents. One of my college classmates wondered why Oliver and Tonya showed up in big screens all the time, but they talked about very different subjects. My brother-in-law asked me why all my children were so different in their performances. I told them I let them take private classes after school for the subjects they would like to learn. Tonya liked art, so she would learn how to draw and is good at it, and Oliver loved the computer. We bought him a PC Jr. when he was a third grader, and he read the manual and figured out how to operate that small computer. He became a computer expert at young age, which helped him analyze stocks very well. Patricia practiced tennis after school and became captain of her high school team.

I love children, and I am blessed to have four children, who have grown into successful, happy adults. Raising my children and helping them become the happy, healthy, self-confident children they are is undoubtedly one of the most important tasks of my life. Their excellent successes are beyond my expectations. My friends always admire my children’s accomplishments. I tell them I believe it is my fate or destiny’s path, not my hard work.

When I was a child, my maternal grandmother told me about my lunar birth date and time, and I used that data to make a chart of Zi wei dou shu (Purple Star astrology), which is a form of fortune-telling in the Chinese culture. There are twelve palaces in Zi wei dou shu, and there are fourteen major stars. Some palaces have two major stars inside them. Some have only one. I made my chart at least thirty years ago, and I did not pay too much attention to its meaning until recently, when I read the information in a Chinese book. I found out my fate is very good.

For example, my self palace has Tiantong (the lucky star, pleasure seeker), and the rating is A. It shows that I am a good-looking lady, my smile attracts a lot of admirers, and I am a good mother and a good wife. I love this comment! My spouse palace has Taiyin (the moon), and the rating is average, but it shows that my personality is tender and calm and that I will marry an intellectual, handsome man. To my surprise, it is true. My property palace has Tianfu (heavenly mansion) in it, and the rating is AA. I never asked for any properties, but I got a beautiful house, a business building, two plots of land, and an apartment in Boston. My children palace has Linazhen in it, and the rating is A; all my four children love me dearly. Overall, I am grateful I have everything I need. One day when Mrs. Chang and I talked about our children, I explained my Purple Star astrology to her. She exclaimed that my children took advantage of my fate.

On January 17, 2020, I waited in our van for my husband to deliver walking canes to a store on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. I saw two homeless white men sharing a folding chair; the younger one walked across the street to look for something in the garbage can. He took out a beer can and shook it and found that it still had some beer inside. He immediately poured the beer inside a plastic cup and brought it back to the old man. They looked like father and son wandering together.

I felt sorry for them and recalled that I came to America in September 1967 with only $2,500 and attended the Pittsburg State University in Kansas. I graduated in January 1969 with a master’s degree in mathematics. I was introduced to my husband by one of my friends. My friend Mr. Lee told me my husband, who was a Taiwanese, was a visiting assistant professor. At that time, my soon-to-be husband was involved in the Taiwan independence movement deeply. He declared his status as a happy, single, and childless man and that he would devote his whole life to the Taiwan independence movement. We were married in Los Angeles, California, on November 25, 1969, for the sake of his mother. He did not want any children, but I love children so much that he gave in, and we have four children.

My husband is six years older than I am. He became the head of the family, and I always refer all household issues to my husband. I always handed my paycheck to him. He realized I was not good at housecleaning, cooking, or even raising the children, so he hired a housemaid to assume all those jobs for me. For that I was grateful.

In 1973, my second child was born. My mother came from Taiwan to take care of her. Since my mother was against our union, my husband and my mother could not get along very well. I tried to please everyone but turned out pleasing no one. I felt very depressed till I finally pulled myself out of depression and felt happier and happier each day.

My two daughters loved to go to the mall to shop at children’s dress shops. They would tell me, Just looking, not buying. After trying on the dresses, they looked very cute, and I would buy the dresses for them, even though I knew it was a little bit outside our budget, having only two paychecks from the university. I encouraged my husband to get some extra money, so he bought two trailer parks. Very soon, the rents from trailer parks surpassed the two paychecks, so we lived a rather comfortable lifestyle. But the income would not be enough to send all my children to private school. I would sit in my office and racked my brain for methods to improve our economic status. One day a Taiwanese lady who got married to an American soldier came to visit us and told me about how she bought her own new car by bringing expensive American items back to Taiwan and reselling them for profit. I thought if she could do the business, so could I.

In October 1979, we bought an existing brass shop for $8,000 with a $6,000 loan from the bank at a 16 percent annual rate. The shop made money in November and December. My husband was very excited, and I could see him grinning when he counted the money.

The following January, February, and March, we almost could not pay the rent. My husband would tell me that we needed to close the shop immediately. I begged him to give the shop a chance. Fortunately, I received a check for the amount of $8,500 from my mother, so my husband could not insist on closing the shop. In November 1980, we started our wholesale business in brassware. The retail and wholesale businesses were both running very well, so we could afford to send all four children to private schools.

I weighed 85 pounds when I graduated from National Taiwan University in 1965. I majored in economics, and my nickname was Petite Beauty. I was weighing 92 pounds while pregnant with my first daughter, Sonya. I weighed 110 pounds for a while until after my youngest daughter, Patricia, was two years old. I did not pay too much attention to my weight gain, and it kept climbing up until I felt cold and tired all the time. When I visited Dr. Harris, he told me I had underactive thyroid. In 1985, when I had my twentieth Eco ’65 reunion in Los Angeles, my friends from Taiwan were surprised I was bigger than them and figured I ate too much American foods. It was true; now I still enjoy eating steak, fried chicken, desserts, and ice cream. One time I even weighed 145 pounds, and my belly was extremely protruding. I knew it was time to do something.

After working nonstop for years, I had acquired a series of health problems, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and aches and pains all over my body. But I would not let the pains slow me down. In fact, I found hematite stones and gave them away to people who needed them. The feedback was very good. One lady told me her spine hurt since she fell off a hill, and the doctor advised her to have an operation. She decided to sleep with four hematite stones on her back, and she is well now. I could have bought new clothes, or I could have helped someone relieve their pain. I chose to buy the stones to give away. Thanks to my friends Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Sun, who have been advocating the use of hematite stones to rub around body pain areas. They requested donations for George H. Kerr Memorial Foundation. I told them a $700 per year donation from them would be enough to cover the cost of the hematite stones they wanted me to send to them to give away. The most important thing was that the receivers needed to believe the powers of the hematite stones and use them.

I am a kind of laid-back person, and I advocate enjoying life. I love to dress up, eat dinner with our close friends, and after dinner go to one of friends’ house and drink, eat more snacks, and talk about any subject until the wee hours of the night.

Do not just try to cope with past regrets; learn how to be abundant, happy, and healthy. In this book, I will candidly share my own trials and triumphs so that you may learn from my experiences. I will also invite my daughter Tonya’s husband, Ben Mezrich, and Oliver to share their unique experiences to you all.

All net profits of the book go to George H. Kerr Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit charity that works to provide a set of two hematite stones in a green velvet bag to people who suffer from pain in their bodies. Those hematite stones serve as a tool to alleviate pain, numbness, insomnia, migraine, and arthritis. It also increases energy and balances emotions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I N OCTOBER OF 2010, I started to give away hematite stones. The response from those who received them was very good. I decided to publish a book to fund those hematite stones. My Chinese book Brass House Collection was published in November of 2011. My first English book, Self-Help Acu-Hematite Therapy , was published in December of 2014.

I want to thank my followers who listened carefully to my oral instructions for using those two stones. Mrs. Lu, a sister from the New Orleans chapter of North America Taiwanese Women’s Association (NATWA), advised me to write a guidebook. My dear friends Mrs. Pat Bedenbaugh, the late Dr. Patricia Behler, Mr. J. S. Woo, and Mrs. Jean Gaar helped edit Self-Help Acu-Hematite Therapy in earnest. One of my closest friends for more than thirty years, Mr. Walter Wu, helped organize the photos and articles of this book. In 2014, it was published by Avanguard Publishing House in Taipei, Taiwan.

This second English book was a dream come true for me. This book would not have been possible without the support and care from my editors, Diana Slocum, Scott Lumry, and Dr. Stephen Bailey.

Thanks to my submissions representatives, Hazel Taft and Vanessa Diaz from Xlibris, who help guide me in my journey toward my book’s publication.

Thank you to my publishing consultant, Milane Ramirez from Xlibris, who believes in me and encourages me to publish my book when I almost gave up.

Thank you to our sisters from North America Taiwanese Women’s Association who bought my three Chinese books, especially the sisters from the New Orleans chapter.

A special thank you to the generous donors for printing this book: John Bult; Cheng Hsiung Chang; J. L. Chen, MD; Oliver Chen; Cossette Sun; Stanley Sun; Ben Mezrich; and Tonya Mezrich.

And last, thank you to all my four children and their spouses, who are my endless sources of inspiration and lovingly supported me and hired the helpers Jessie Benjamie, Sharon Gay, and Harry Walker to maintain my household while I concentrated on writing this book.

CHAPTER 1

To Be Abundant

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

—Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

L IVING AN ABUNDANT life is everyone’s dream. We all want to live a prosperous and satisfactory life where we can be happy and content with what we have for mind, body, and soul. An abundant life is a contrast to feelings of lack, emptiness, and dissatisfaction.

Seeking the abundant life belongs to people who dare to dream, to believe that it is possible. They do not let negative thinking discourage them.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British business magnate, investor, author, and former philanthropist. He attributes his success to luck, speed, and hard work that includes nights and weekends. His books and biographies cite his daredevil ideas, originality, willingness to buck norms, and persistence. Branson never allowed inexperience to discourage him from being a dynamic and daring entrepreneur. In fact, he named his company Virgin because he and his employees were all new to the business. Branson’s companies include or have included airlines, wireless communications, radio stations, hotels, health clubs, financial services businesses, the nightclub Heaven, renewable technologies, a Formula 1 team, and even a space tourism company. As of April 2020, the sixty-nine-year-old Branson’s net worth stood at an estimated $4 billion, according to Forbes.

You do not need to have a big dream like Branson, but dream of the possibilities for yourself, your family, and others. If you had a dream that you allowed to grow cold, reignite the dream! Fan the flames. Life is too short to let it go. Once you commit to living your dreams, the lids blinding your eyes will be lifted. A completely new world will be opened to your view. Sometimes the dream takes a long time to come true, but believe in your own dreams. I dreamed of becoming a Chinese writer when I was a sixth grader, and I always was very good at composition through my high school years, but my mother who was an elementary school teacher was against me becoming a lady writer. She thought it was hard to compete in a man’s world. I chose to major in economics in college instead of literature and did not write any article until in 2002, when I translated a CNN article, The Weight Watcher, into Chinese, which was sent to a weekly newspaper, Taiwan Tribune. I was thrilled to see that article published, and it took me almost four months to write another article published in another newspaper, Taiwanese Pacific Times. Later, I wrote quite often about my children, my grandchildren, and everything around me. Gradually, I got enough articles to publish my very first Chinese book in November 2011. It took fifty-seven years for me to fulfill my first dream. How about you? Or do you have any dream? If not, search for one.

I love children, and in 1978, my son was born. I had three children. I was worried about their educational expenses if we tried to send all the children to private boarding school for good education. I did not have any ideas on how to increase our income. In October 1979, a small gift shop in our small town was for sale, and my husband got the information; he told me the news, and I was very excited to see the opportunity of making money. I encouraged him to buy it with only $1,000 in our savings. We needed to put up $8,000 for that store. We were lucky to borrow $6,000 from the bank and $1,000 from my father-in-law. Since it was near Christmastime, without any experience, our business was great, and my husband grinned when he took the money from the cash register.

In January 1980, the store was very quiet, and we had a rent problem. My husband would suggest closing the store. In March, I got $8,500 from my mother, so my husband did not have any excuses to close the store. We got a lot of business during Christmas again, and in October, we thought