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        <title><![CDATA[Stories by TopicVerse on Medium]]></title>
        <description><![CDATA[Stories by TopicVerse on Medium]]></description>
        <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
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            <title>Stories by TopicVerse on Medium</title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
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        <generator>Medium</generator>
        <lastBuildDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 22:34:51 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How your iPhone screen can be better than it already is]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse/how-your-iphone-screen-can-be-better-than-it-already-is-52aa04c0fc6f?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
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            <category><![CDATA[iphone-themes]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[icons]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[icon-theme]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[iphone-icon]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[TopicVerse]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2022 16:32:34 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-10-19T07:09:20.185Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img alt="Aenon — a minimal aesthetic iOS icon set" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*nPpmkz0xqSgxwph2somrmg.png" /></figure><p>Improving something that in itself aspires to be perfect is difficult. Especially since every aspect of the iPhone is perfect in detail.</p><p>Every aspect, except one: the homogeneity of the icons.</p><p>Each iPhone icon is different in theme, color, and appearance. Each icon must represent something. And thus must be different from others that perform other functions.</p><p>What is missing, but, is a basic theme that can standardize the graphic appearance of the desktop.</p><h3>Shortcuts app</h3><p>For a couple of years, more or less, it has been possible to bypass the need to keep the icons linked to the app. Shortcuts app made this possible.</p><p>Shortcuts allow you to create “links” with an app and to choose the icon (image) you want to identify the link.</p><h3>Icons theme</h3><p>On the market, there are already a lot of themes that can standardize the appearance of the iPhone.</p><p>As far as I’m concerned, I bought several themes for the personalization of my iPhone. But I was always dissatisfied with what I had purchased.</p><p>For me, the main concept behind graphics when making iPhone icons is that you need to follow a minimal style. The iPhone is the apotheosis of minimal style. And thus making icons for such an iconic object means making minimal icons.</p><p>Often, this leads to the creation of icons that are minimal for sure, but “too” minimal for my tastes.</p><h3>Minimalism = thin lines?</h3><p>Making minimal icons doesn’t mean making icons with thin lines. Most of which are difficult to interpret. Minimal doesn’t always mean subtle, even too subtle.</p><p>So, not satisfied with what I bought, I decided to take on this challenge myself. And so I made my first set of custom iPhone icons.</p><p>I started from 3 essential points: the icons must be in a minimal style — how could it be otherwise? — and they also had to be clear in their function and visible.</p><p>In my case, being “clearly visible” meant using thick lines. With a well-defined proportions relationship.</p><p>On a basis of 1,024 pixels, the icon lines had to be at least 1/6 of the width, or 170.6px. Where possible, and it has not always been.</p><figure><img alt="Icons proportions" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*qlxIdFKMUivaVoS4ciL7yw.png" /></figure><p>The construction took place on more compatible numbers. On a basis of 24x24 pixels, the lines had to be 4 pixels.</p><p>In this way, I was able to build icons that were clear as I like, even at a small size.</p><p>A further purpose was to give the icons the right dimension. Icons did not have to take up all the available space in the square in which they were.</p><p>My icons had to be well-defined.</p><p>The greatest optimal size (horizontal or vertical) of the icons was about over half of the square. On a 24px basis the icons could be up to 12.75px in size.</p><p>At the base of my calculations, there was the need to have the right ratio between thickness and size. If I made more “visible” icons I could make them smaller. So small that when used with a themed background, they still had to be recognizable.</p><p>For obvious reasons, non-Apple apps (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) had to stay as they were. It was not possible to modify the LinkedIn logo to my liking.</p><p>For the native iPhone application icons, I found the optimal ratio. That optimal ratio would also be the same for external apps</p><h3>The first icon I drew…</h3><p>The first icon I drew was the calendar icon. In minimal simplification, I performed there was everything.</p><figure><img alt="Aenon — icon set black and white themes" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*6UA2glt0Fwks1XihXE669g.png" /></figure><p>The rectangle, the central rounded squares, and the extended semicircles. All seemed to me to be elements that I could replicate in the logic for the following icons.</p><p>The app that gave me the most satisfaction was one of the last ones created: Maps.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*1qZrwmtSWs-h486cB5seYg.jpeg" /></figure><p>The original was too elaborate to simplify. So I reinterpreted everything trying to keep the spirit of the original icon. I did it? Did I fail? Who knows!</p><p>The fact is that I like that feeling of clear minimalism that the icon expresses.</p><h3>The name</h3><p>The choice of the name of the icons was essential. Not so much and not because they had to have a name anyway. But above all, because it was the name that had to identify my project.</p><p>As I was drawing the Photos icon, it came to my mind in the name of Anemone.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*FsFmpUnq6ebZh69ghXe-yQ.jpeg" /></figure><p>It seemed to me that the anemone was very close in concept to the image I had represented.</p><p>The anemone then became Aenon with a few fall of letters which then, looking, found references in</p><blockquote>Aenon is the Hellenized form of the term for ‘spring’ or ‘natural fountain’ in many Semitic languages. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86non">Wikipedia</a>)</blockquote><p>Perfect for my purposes.</p><p>Aenon is now available in 7 different colors on Gumroad.</p><p><a href="https://topicverse.gumroad.com/l/aenon">Aenon | Original Icon Pack | 99+ Aesthetic Minimal iOS 14+ Icons in 7 Gorgeous Colors</a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/TopicVerse">https://twitter.com/TopicVerse</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=52aa04c0fc6f" width="1" height="1" alt="">]]></content:encoded>
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            <title><![CDATA[A Pet Therapy Story — How I recovered from a serious car accident / 2]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse/a-pet-therapy-story-how-i-recovered-from-a-serious-car-accident-2-3c2ad4d1ee83?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
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            <category><![CDATA[mental-health]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[mental-illness]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[pet-therapy]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[therapy-cats]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[mental-recovery]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[TopicVerse]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 2022 09:19:23 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-08-29T09:29:10.037Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*lOsMbIsIfpj35yuh" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@christinhumephoto?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Christin Hume</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h3>A Pet Therapy Story — How I recovered from a serious car accident / 2</h3><h3>Part 2. The recovery with Pet Therapy</h3><p>After the <a href="https://medium.com/@topicverse/how-i-recovered-from-a-serious-car-accident-1-75a401c6c236">serious accident</a> I suffered, I was very disheartened. Not so much for the accident itself. But rather for the phase in which I should have returned to the so-called “normality”.</p><p>I had managed to escape a serious accident. My body knew this because it was recovering. But my mind couldn’t make sense of what had happened to me.</p><p>Why did the accident happen to me? Was I responsible for failing to force myself to slow the driver down? How had I been able to get out of the accident alive? But, above all, what would happen to me later?</p><p>The biggest problem I felt I had to deal with was anxiety. The anxiety of no longer being able to live my life in a “normal” way.</p><p>The accident had marked me. And not a little.</p><p>At that time, I had a cat. Benjamin was his name. Like all cats, he did almost nothing all day long.</p><p>What little he did was damage. He was a cat and, like all cats, he found it hard to follow any “advice” you wanted to give him.</p><p>In short, he was a cat with a rebellious personality.</p><p>He had always been a rebel, ever since he first arrived inside my family home. Over time he had further accentuated this characteristic of being against any rule. Indeed.</p><p>Despite everything, I was very fond of my cat Benjamin. In his constant rebellion, I saw the true spirit of the cat.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*tRqG0LXTVOT3g_zi" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/es/@karishea?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Kari Shea</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>The cat is a feline, a tiger. Try dealing with a tiger. You will hardly be able to assert your arguments. A tiger is a tiger. And a cat must be closer to a tiger than to a meek animal.</p><p>It is not like a cat to be meek and indulge in the wishes of others. It is the others who have to indulge the wishes of cats. Period.</p><p>I spent a short time in the hospital. And then I went home.</p><p>My father wanted to take me home. He thought that I could receive better treatment among family members. Then in the hospital. And so I could recover sooner.</p><p>At home, I could have overcome this difficult period with more haste than by staying at the hospital. According to him.</p><p>He might as well be. In the hospital, everything reminded me of the accident. The people in the beds, including myself, had all escaped some accident. More or less serious.</p><p>And so we were all survivors. All survived something.</p><p>At home, after all, I would have had to deal only with my memories. And not with the reality of others that would bring me back to square one every day.</p><p>And the memories I had to deal with were too many. And bad memories.</p><p>When I got home after the accident, I noticed radical changes in Benjamin’s attitude. His “rebellion” had disappeared all at once. Out of the blue. And in a way that would have been difficult to predict. And to count on.</p><p>My physical state had surprised him at first.</p><p>Seeing me trapped in bed, cast and immobile had struck him as odd. I saw him surprised and fearful.</p><p>For the first few days, he looked out on the edge of the door without any elaboration and observed. He observed. Without fail, he did not understand why that human was always lying in bed. And with that weird white armor on.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*sEfgYB_6mCZJ6VbI" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@bogdanf?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Bogdan Farca</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>After a few days, he concluded that I would not get out of that bed for much longer. And his attitude changed without warning.</p><p>It was as if he realized I needed him to get back on my feet again. And he was right.</p><p>My depression was at its peak. Benjamin sensed this and decided to intervene.</p><p>The first time I found him on the bed as soon as I woke up. I was a little scared because I didn’t know what he was up to. As I knew him, it could be that he was pondering one of his usual ambushes.</p><p>He had thought for a few days, and then he had decided. He had to give a concrete hand. Otherwise, that annoying human, would not have been able to come back to torment him again. That annoying human who tormented him with all that affection.</p><p>When I woke up and saw Benjamin, he looked at me with ease, as never before. And in that look I understood. Yes, I could see right on, that Benjamin was on my side.</p><p>That he, as a cat, would do anything to see me on my feet again. So that I can return, as usual, to haunt him again. As I had always done until then. As was the nature of our unspoken pacts.</p><p>The tiger had subsided. He waited for the opponent to return to the best of his ability again. Before starting to confront again. He didn’t know what Benjamin would do with a depressed opponent. And, above all, with compromised mental health.</p><p>Nor did I know what I could do with myself in those conditions.</p><p>Benjamin a few times shifted from that position of control over my bed. He was having a hard time getting out of there. Even when I had to change the sheets, or medicate. Benjamin was the owner of the bed. And mine too, after consideration.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ctaRVsaOlSFLiHXP" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@miklevasilyev?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Mikhail Vasilyev</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>It was as if a relationship of interdependence had begun: I depended on Benjamin and he depended on me. We were in a relationship of mutual symbiosis.</p><p>The hermit crab is a crustacean with a soft abdomen. Due to this characteristic, it needs to protect itself from something very resistant. Tough protection must prevent enemies from attacking him where he is most vulnerable. Often, the hermit crab can find shells large enough to house it. But he doesn’t always find them. Also because as it grows, it has to find bigger and bigger bodies.</p><p>When he is unable to find a large enough shell, or he no longer wants to look for it, the hermit crab asks for help. And he asks the sea anemone. The sea anemone is a marine creature with stinging cells, capable of keeping all enemies away. Even those of the hermit crab.</p><p>The hermit crab establishes a helpful “pact” with the sea anemone. You feed me and I guarantee your survival by defending yourself. Where you are most vulnerable.</p><p>Benjamin did the same to me. He was my sea anemone, protection from the outside, with constant guarding of him. He protected the most defenseless part of me: my mental health.</p><p>His closeness of him gave me the confidence that I had lost after the accident. Benjamin was my certainty. My faith in tomorrow. Whatever had gone wrong until that day, well, from that day forward it would straighten out. Thanks to him. Thanks to his perseverance and his tenacity.</p><p>He didn’t ask me for anything, not even for sustenance. He ate in a flash when they brought him his daily meal. Because he knew he couldn’t leave his checkpoint over the bed unguarded. Not even for a second.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*tgdWjjGjEaRleA0H" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@eduardmilitaru?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">eduard</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>One thing is certain. If it hadn’t been for Benjamin, I wouldn’t have been able to get through all the stages of the trauma I received.</p><p>The thought of the accident, before Benjamin’s therapy, was my constant thought. About the serious condition in which two other passengers were. Due to the accident that night.</p><p>With Benjamin’s support, inch by inch, I began to live again. My mental distress began to subside. And it faded more and more every day with that faithful companion who always remained by my side.</p><p>Benjamin was my horse, my squire, my rock because I was the one who ever needed him at that moment. And he was there. Quiet, worry-free, and hassle-free.</p><p>It wasn’t me and Benjamin. Two separate beings. We were one entity, indissoluble in full. Bound together by a mental connection that transcended reality.</p><p>Unfortunately, Benjamin is gone today. It has been a few years since he decided to cross the threshold of reality. To continue his existence somewhere else. In some other parallel universe, it is likely.</p><p>What is certain is that for me, my cat Benjamin never died. When I have a negative thought or something is wrong, Benjamin is still there. On top of my blanket, with me.</p><p>The choice to tie his existence in full to mine was a choice that cannot end. It is not destined to end. The bond that has united us from the day of the accident onwards is a bond that will unite us forever. In whatever universe we are.</p><p>When I decided to create my first NFT collection, it had to be for Benjamin. He could only be the subject of my first digital artwork.</p><p>Also, I want more from an art project. I also want my art to support those who find themselves in mental situations of distress. I felt I had to do it right after the experience with my cat Benjamin.</p><p>If you want to know more — about BenjiCat Therapy and my NFT project roadmap — please visit my <a href="https://twitter.com/TopicVerse">Twitter profile</a>.</p><p>If you enjoy this article clap and respond below. Thanks to all my readers who have had the patience to read this far!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3c2ad4d1ee83" width="1" height="1" alt="">]]></content:encoded>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How I recovered from a serious car accident / 1]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse/how-i-recovered-from-a-serious-car-accident-1-75a401c6c236?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">https://medium.com/p/75a401c6c236</guid>
            <category><![CDATA[recovery-from-accident]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[mental-health]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[recovery-success]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[mental-illness]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[car-accidents]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[TopicVerse]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Fri, 26 Aug 2022 12:47:22 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-08-26T12:47:22.749Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*afU5dx3Eawoej56z" /><figcaption>road nightPhoto by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@eugenetriguba?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Eugene Triguba</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h3>Part 1. The accident</h3><p>When I was a teenager, I had a serious car accident.</p><p>I was going home with some of my friends. One of them, the driver, had recently obtained his driving license. We had gone to a concert by a popular singer and, after a short relaxing time on the beach, we were on our way home.</p><p>It was shortly before dawn. The light of the new day was about to arrive.</p><p>The driver, inexperienced in driving, had recently obtained his driving license. He had had cautious driving all evening. But as he approached the goal of the homecoming, he had begun to go quite fast.</p><p>I was sitting in the front seat.</p><p>We all knew the road from having traveled it so many times to go to the beach by any means. But when you are driving, it is quite another thing. And above all, it is quite another thing when you have been driving the car for such a short time.</p><p>The driver was going fast enough, too fast for what I could perceive as I was sitting in the front. I could see it from how fast the world was moving around us</p><p>My concern was visible. Shortly after he started to push the gas pedal he turned to me and told me.</p><p>- Don’t make that worried face, the road is not that dangerous. And I know it well. And then, who is it that goes around at this hour? Only wolves and wanderers like us!</p><p>But, unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone but us, that morning, driving around that road.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*G4_Zf9RtdY51FNSP" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@yespanioly?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Yousef Espanioly</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>At a right-hand, undemanding curve, the driver decided to further increase the speed. Sure he could manage it. He did so to overtake another vehicle that was ahead of us. The vehicle proceeded at a slower pace than ours, but not so slowly that we had to overtake it at all costs.</p><p>Especially when cornering. Especially when it was so close to home. Especially when it was so close to the beauty of dawn.</p><p>Here, in Italy, many roads are quite narrow for a reason. Many of the Italian roads, the most important ones, trace the route designed by the ancient Romans. The curves that narrow road draw, are light lines placed on the landscape, that follow the slopes of the land.</p><p>We, that morning, were traveling along such a road, quite narrow and with slight curves. But, despite being slight curves, they did not allow full visibility beyond the end of them.</p><p>And we were about to overtake a car on a curve. Which was not going very smoothly, with no visibility around the curve.</p><p>Realizing immediately what the driver was about to do, I tried to mutter a “careful”. But I could not say more, because the next “slow down” I did not have time to get it out of my mouth.</p><p>For what happened next. And for the speed with which everything took place shortly thereafter.</p><p>From behind the curve, in front of us, another car appeared, moving in the opposite direction. A few tens of meters away.</p><p>It could have been someone who was on his way to work, in that almost cool midsummer dawn. Or it was someone who was returning home. Who will ever know?</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*f4ef9E29iCB6kou9" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@tirzavandijk?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Tirza van Dijk</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>To avoid a head-on collision, the driver instinctively chose the only possible way out. Although inexperienced, he looked for a way to get out of that unexpected situation. And he did. He dodged the oncoming car and threw himself to the left, off the carriageway, that is off the road.</p><p>What we were in at the time was a road point run by a small farm. It was a particular cultivated area. There were no buildings, as there were a few kilometers before and after. Nor was it open countryside. Some small greenhouses made with steel structures and light plastic covers were there. The greenhouses alternated with vineyards that came almost close to the road.</p><p>We ended up in an off-road area where there were vineyards.</p><p>In the area where I live, at that time, at the ends of the vineyards, farmers there were small concrete pillars. Tho which served to ensure better stability in the vineyard. The pillars, despite being small in size, were still driven into the ground very firmly. And therefore offered very strong resistance to impacts.</p><p>Even today, I don’t know why farmers used those stubborn pillars to hold such a light vine plant. Today they no longer use them. Or they use lighter ones.</p><p>What made it worse was that the car we were in was a very powerful, all-wheel drive car with a very heavy engine.</p><p>The pillars followed the line of the road and there was one for each row of vines. The rows of vines started from the road and extended perpendicularly inward. The car continued to run on the line parallel to the road, in the middle of the fields. We began to impact head-on against the lined concrete pillars.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*F3uZVWcVMUJp0CLM" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@timmossholder?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Tim Mossholder</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>If the driver had been an experienced driver, he would have stepped away from the row of pillars. A more experienced driver would have tried to go where the vineyards were. Much lighter than the pillars. A few meters away would have been enough. But the driver was not experienced.</p><p>The first concrete pillar we collided with, broke due to the force of the impact. By the high speed at which we were traveling.</p><p>The car, after that first hit against the concrete pillar, was seriously damaged, but it did not stop. The energy accumulated due to the high speed of travel was too much to dissipate at once.</p><p>The second pillar continued the damage of the previous one, but it could not stop the run of the car.</p><p>The third pillar, which we hit immediately after, finished the work the first two had started. We stopped shortly after hitting the third pillar.</p><p>The concrete pillars impacted the car from the front, but not in the perfect center. The impact of the three pillars had occurred on the left side of the car front, where I was sitting.</p><p>After the first impact, the car reduced its speed a lot. But not enough.</p><p>In the second violent impact, the engine broke away from the position it was in. From the front bonnet, it began to slide towards us.</p><p>At the third pillar, the engine entered the passenger compartment of the car and came very close to my seat. The engine pushed my seat towards the passengers who sat in the back.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*cowCgb34cPFnd4fv" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@matnapo?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Mat Napo</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>When help arrived, the doctors were shocked. The scene that appeared before their eyes was terrible. Everyone feared they would have to extract five corpses from inside the car. But it didn’t happen that way.</p><p>We were all alive. We were all saved. Inexplicably and miraculously.</p><p>Each, however, from that day on, with their dose of pain to be loaded on their shoulders.</p><p>From that moment on, and throughout one’s existence.</p><p>The driver reported “only” a broken leg in a not-so-serious way. The remorse for what he had done I learned still haunts him today, many years after the accident. They told me, because since that day, I have never met him or looked for him.</p><p>The greatest damage was sustained by me and two other passengers who sat behind, on my side, on the left. The fifth passenger, sitting back on the driver’s side, was practically unharmed. He was my older brother.</p><p>The movement of the engine had pushed my seat against the other two passengers sitting in the back. On the left and in the center of the rear seat.</p><p>The first passenger, the one sitting in the center of the rear seat, reported a broken right foot joint. He was shattered by the Achilles tendon attack on the heel bone. He still walks badly today, many years later, barely putting his right foot on. He is already fortunate that the foot can support him again. After an almost endless series of surgeries, his problem is still not solved. When I meet him, even today, he tells me that he is finally returning to normal. This time he has found a phenomenal surgeon who will heal him completely. This time he is sure. But for several years I have heard him repeat the same confident phrases. And I see him always walking with difficulty on his right foot.</p><p>The other passenger, sitting right behind me, reported the compression of the spine. Because of the disastrous impact, the car seat had on him. He still walks with a movement that, to those who do not know what caused it, might seem like a bad habit of rubbing the feet. It is an indelible sign of an evening that ended badly. Very badly.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*XnAe6NoB2LZV4wW-" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@tomjur?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Tom Jur</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>And me? What happened to me?</p><p>I suffered damage, all in all, less serious than one might have thought. Given the nature of the accident and where I was sitting. Especially about what had happened to the other two sitting behind me.</p><p>The car was a racing car, used in Rally races. It belonged to the driver’s father, a sports driving enthusiast. The car was completely identical to those used by professional drivers in races</p><p>I don’t know if, in these cars, there is some structural reinforcement to protect the passenger. Or — hypothesis not entirely to be discarded — if some extra-natural entity has intervened for me. From any part of the universe, it could have come.</p><p>The engine had hit me, sure, but not head-on. The impact had occurred on the right side of my seat where my legs were not. My body was almost completely turned to the left, on the driver’s side. For the impact, the engine had undergone a clockwise rotation. My seat had been hit by the lower end of the engine on the left side.</p><p>I had broken a few bones and both legs, but I had not suffered any compression from the impact of the engine.</p><p>The engine had entered the passenger compartment of the car and pushed my seat backward. From below. The upper base of the actual engine had stopped a few feet away from my torso.</p><p>Besides to the legs, I had had some other widespread trauma, to ribs and skulls, but nothing serious after all. In consideration of the severity of the accident.</p><p>Not even the doctor who treated me was able to explain my “luck”, as he called it. I had escaped the accident, alive. And I was able to have less physical damage all in all than those who sat behind me.</p><p>The description of the dynamics of the accident is the one they told me. I don’t remember anything.</p><p>A few days later my recovery phase began. And that’s where my little friend comes into play. My cat Benjamin, my real, only therapy.</p><p>Science healed me in the body. Completely.</p><p>Benjamin did what not even science could do with drugs and plaster. My cat healed me from the mental distress caused by the accident.</p><p>The healing that Benjamin gave me was the hardest one to achieve: that of the mind.</p><p>Something happened. My mental health seemed to have been irremediably compromised by that terrible accident. On that occasion, that little friend did a lot more than I ever did for him. Until that time and from that moment on. Caring for and taking care of him for life.</p><p>But that’s another story I’ll tell aside because Benjamin deserves it. For the love and respect, I still have today, after a long time, for my precious lifelong friend, the cat Benjamin.</p><p>Unfortunately, Benjamin is gone today, but I have found a way to continue rewarding his memory. Still today and after a long time.</p><p>When I started my NFT artist path I decided that my first project would be a tribute to my cat Benjamin. And so it is.</p><p>Follow me, on <a href="https://twitter.com/TopicVerse">Twitter</a> too, if you’re curious to find out more about me and my BenjiCat project.</p><p>If you enjoy this article clap and respond below. Thanks to all my readers who have had the patience to read this far!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=75a401c6c236" width="1" height="1" alt="">]]></content:encoded>
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            <title><![CDATA[Chromotherapy: is it possible to use the Theory of Colors in mental illness treatments?]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@topicverse/chromotherapy-is-it-possible-to-use-the-theory-of-colors-in-mental-illness-treatments-998cb4b6120b?source=rss-b4826f7aa311------2</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">https://medium.com/p/998cb4b6120b</guid>
            <category><![CDATA[nft]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[chromotherapy]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[natural-treatment]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[mental-illness]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[pet-therapy]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[TopicVerse]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:12:03 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-08-22T16:12:03.679Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*xLsJp64pRjZmZXeO6VoDTg.png" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@taelynnmae?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Taelynn Christopher</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>Chromotherapy, also called Color Therapy, Colorology or Light Therapy, is an alternative medicine method for the treatment of diseases or physical ailments using the visible spectrum (colors) of electromagnetic radiation.</p><h3>History of Chromotherapy</h3><p>The history and practice of chromotherapy are very ancient. The use of color as a therapy is a truly holistic, non-invasive and powerful therapy that dates back thousands of years; evidence of this can be found in ancient texts from India, China and Egypt.</p><p>The use of sunlight, combined with color, for example, was a concept believed to be essential for healing by the ancient Egyptians.</p><p>It is possible to trace the concept of color healing as far back as 2000 BC.</p><blockquote>The ancients built great halls of color healing, where the individuals entered and were bathed in light, that was filtered through various colored glass panels or windows.<br>[<a href="https://imanagerpublications.com/assets/pdfDownload/JNUR/2016/01JNUR_January_16/JNURJanuary16Art02.pdf">Chromo therapy: healing power of colors</a>]</blockquote><p>While not aware of any relevant scientific facts about the possibility of using colors as medicine, at that time those who practice color healing still had a shared confidence in the possibility of significant improvement of patients’ symptoms through the use of colors.</p><p>Considering colors as a healing mechanism, or at least symptom relief, was a widely used practice when medicine did not have the tools we have today. The treatment through chromotherapy evidently provided results capable of being handed down as an efficient and effective treatment system.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*RBw4e6nzyvz9D-1O" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ro_ka?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Robert Katzki</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>If there had not been significant benefits from using colors to promote the healing of a patient, science or non-science, a practice deemed ineffective would certainly have been discarded and abandoned and therefore forgotten. The fact that the cure by means of colors has gone through all antiquity to reach us, empirically means that there must be some benefit in this healing practice.</p><blockquote>Being a centuries-old concept and used successfully over years, chromotherapy is the method of treating diseases using coloured food, coloured clothing, colour saturated oils, coloured water and visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. The basis of chromotherapy depends on the fact that illness is caused by an imbalance in the basic chakras of the body. Colour therapy rebalances the chakras using specific colours. Being a part of complementary and alternative medicine systems, it proves to be effective for various systems of the body and affects neurohormonal pathways.<br>[<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8963609/">The untold saga of chromotherapy in dentistry</a>]</blockquote><h3>Can chromotherapy be effective for us too?</h3><p>What remains to be understood, possibly today, is how it is possible to use the practice of color treatment for some specific pathologies.</p><p>Chromotherapy finds multiple fields of application that involve both the physical and emotional fields of the person.</p><blockquote>Useful in treating emotional and physical problems related to sleep,<br>chromo may involve exposure to colored lights, massage oils or ointments colored, meditation and visualization of certain colors or wearing certain clothing colors.<br>[<a href="https://imanagerpublications.com/assets/pdfDownload/JNUR/2016/01JNUR_January_16/JNURJanuary16Art02.pdf">Chromo therapy: healing power of colors</a>]</blockquote><p>It is clear that with the theory of colors it is not possible to obtain scientific evidence that can refer to the cure of physical diseases, at least not until today. But it remains a substantial field of application in which color theory can be effectively integrated into other treatment methodologies.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*3rkoVjvg8Ek_G4qE" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@yogidan2012?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Daniele Levis Pelusi</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>Color therapy is certainly to be combined with types of pathologies that require further attention than traditional methods of treatment.</p><p>For example, studies document the effectiveness of chromotherapy applied to reduce math anxiety stress among elementary school students, and which represents a widespread stress in that delicate phase of school age.</p><blockquote>Chromotherapy is a treatment designed with the foundation that any color contains healing energy. The effect of color affects the work of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves and improves mood. Chromotherapy provides an element of relaxation, which from various studies found to reduce anxiety in individuals.<br>[<a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1175/1/012183/meta">Chromotherapy: An alternative treatment for mathematics anxiety among elementary school students</a>]</blockquote><p>Chromotherapy has also been tested for the improvement of the cognitive abilities of the elderly with results that provide interesting bases on which to build further analyzes.</p><blockquote>The chromotherapy is effective in improving the cognitive ability of older adults. Specifically, the red and green lights are better than the white light in increasing the cognitive ability of older adults.<br>[<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550830718301721">Effects of Chromotherapy on the Cognitive Ability of Older Adults: A Quasi-Experimental Study</a>]</blockquote><h3>Chromotherapy used in mental illness treatments</h3><p>The reference of the benefits of chromotherapy for the treatment of mental disorders remains however the field of greatest interest.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*2W7bMxH4FC_yYfr0" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ninjason?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Jason Leung</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p>A study reports the results made in the field of the effectiveness of chromotherapy on the level of depression among patients with head and neck cancer.</p><blockquote>A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of chromo therapy on level depression among head and neck cancer patients in selected hospital at Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. Twenty samples have fulfilled the criteria were selected by using purposive sampling technique. Pre- and posttest level of depression was assessed by using Beck depression inventory. Chromotherapy was administered 20 minutes per day, three sessions per week for a period of one month. The ‘t’ value of depression was 21.36, which was significant at p&lt; 0.05 level. The result of the study revealed that chromo therapy was effective in reducing the level of depression among head and neck cancer patients.<br><strong>[</strong><a href="https://nursing.journalspub.info/index.php?journal=IJON&amp;page=article&amp;op=view&amp;path%5B%5D=506&amp;path%5B%5D=0"><strong>Effectiveness of Chromotherapy on Level of Depression among head and Neck Cancer Patients</strong></a><strong>]</strong></blockquote><p>Anxiety and depression then. Chromotherapy reveals all its effectiveness in particular in the fields that involve the psyche and the general psychological aspect.</p><blockquote>The complex process of neurohormonal regulation of cicardian rhythm in humans is essential for synchronized interaction and coordination of internal body function with the environment. Given these facts it is clear that any shift in cicardian rhythm results in neurohormonal imbalance which consequently could lead to various psychiatric disorders affecting humans. Studies on sleep disorders, depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggested that symptoms, signs, and biologic markers associated to these psychiatric disorders are due to marked alterations in melatonin and serotonin levels. The main hypothesis of chromotherapy is that specific colors of the visible spectrum are activators or inhibitors of complex physiological, biological and biochemical processes in human brain such as synthesis of various neurohormons.<br>[<a href="https://scholar.google.it/scholar?q=mental+illness+chromotherapy">Chromotherapy in the Regulation of Neurohormonal Balance in Human Brain — Complementary Application in Modern Psychiatric Treatment</a>]</blockquote><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Chromotherapy is a method of alternative medicine or pseudo-science seen, in many cases more as quackery than as an alternative method of wellness or treatment.</p><p>If science has already expressed its cutting opinion, the practice actually reveals that in particular situations of distress, particularly in a mental way, even a practice deemed unscientific can have its effectiveness in its application.</p><p>The important thing, from my point of view, is that those who find themselves in a state of discomfort, mostly mental, can also find, in alternative methods of treatment, their own form of recovery and well-being from issues not otherwise treatable in other way.</p><p>The information in this article is for illustrative purposes only. This article does not give medical advice, but takes its cue from published sources to propose a supportive natural treatment methodology in cases otherwise treated with scientific evidence.</p><h3>How can an NFT collection be at the forefront in the promotion and diffusion of Chromotherapy?</h3><p>BenjiCat Therapy is an NFT project born from the need to combine the NFT world with natural treatment and care techniques.</p><p>Like Benjamin, my cat, it was for me a very effective therapy that helped me in a difficult period of my life, I would like to make Pet Therapy, Chromotherapy, and other equivalent natural techniques, can be known by everyone and practiced effectively in the treatment and in the cure of physical and mental illness.</p><p>Thanks to the exceptional physical recovery I had, I decided to include these issues within my NFT project.</p><p>To find out more about the BenjiCat Therapy NFT project, visit my <a href="https://twitter.com/TopicVerse">Twitter profile</a>.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=998cb4b6120b" width="1" height="1" alt="">]]></content:encoded>
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