Journalled on Thursday, 29 January 2026 | Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 31 degrees, very hot, sunny, and slightly overcast.

It’s Thursday, and I am suffering from an excruciating toothache.

It began two days ago. I initially took paracetamol on the first night, but it did little to help, and on the second night, I took Ibuprofen, which provided some relief. I think I have had five or six hours’ sleep in total over the past couple of nights.

I was contemplating either contacting my old dentists, whom I used before going to England, or finding a dentist near where I live in Santo Cristo.

Next to the bakers I like to go to, there is an entrance to a dentist’s practice for the floor above. I found it on Google, but when I called this morning, I couldn’t reach anyone. I called several times.

As for contacting my old dentist, it is a good idea, but since two of the three implants had problems in the first couple of months, I thought it might be better to consider another option, and it came. The universe is alive and a living organism; it conspires with your state of mind, for or against you, depending on yourself and on what and how you are thinking.

Antonio, my 9 o’clock pupil, was talking to me while he was on the ferry heading to his dental appointment in Niterói, on the other side of Guanabara Bay.

Niteroi is a small town on the other side of the Bay. On one side, you have the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro with all its chaos. On the other side, Niteroi, a significantly smaller town, not a city like Rio, where supposedly the quality of life is better.

It has beautiful beaches just like Rio’s, and many people who move from Rio to Niteroi prefer to stay there rather than return.

Antonio had often talked about his new dentist in Niterói, so I seized the opportunity, noticed the signs, and asked him to check whether his dentist had any availability, as I was not willing to endure much more pain.

I can stand one more night or two at the maximum of pain, but any more than that would be impossible.

Antonio kindly called me back shortly afterwards from inside the dentist’s practice, telling me he had spoken to his dentist and asking whether I could come at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. I have classes at that time, but I will cancel them to sort this out and relieve the pain, and my pupils will understand. I usually don’t cancel unless it’s an emergency, and this is one.

He introduced me to the female dentist via WhatsApp video call, a lady of Japanese origin with a pleasant face and broad smile. We both confirmed the 1 o’clock appointment for tomorrow.

Antonio sent a photo of her business card so I could find the address; it was easy, it’s literally in front of the ferry station, just a matter of leaving the ferry and walking for about 5 minutes.

It can’t be any simpler than that!

I thanked them both for their kindness, and we all hung up. Now I have a dentist appointment for tomorrow; how good is that?

Sometimes I joke about the universe and how it conspires. Still, before my tooth problem appeared, I had ignored past treatments due to other priorities and distractions, but now I wanted to make it a priority. I was thinking about it more and more, manifesting, and now it is a reality.

Carl Jung, the famous psychologist and psychotherapist, often talks about how our reality is what we have previously thought and manifested in our minds, so our lives and what we consider to be our reality are the direct result of our previous thoughts.

So, what we think eventually becomes the reality that we perceive!

Our thoughts are incredibly powerful; they are like dynamite, so be cautious about what you think, because whatever it is will manifest. The signs, the effects, and the happenings are small synchronicities that are the direct result of our thoughts.

If you think positively, good things will manifest, not necessarily in the way you expect or want them to, but they will come. Similarly, negative thoughts will return to you and worsen what you already have, so be cautious. Appreciate what you have, even if you believe you deserve more; your thoughts are powerful, so use them carefully.