Faith is the great antidote for worry. We fear because we cannot see the way. Faith sees the way.
Tis easy enough to be pleasant when life flows on like a song, But the man worthwhile is the man with a smile when everything goes dead wrong.
A troubled brain cannot think clearly, vigorously, logically. Worry clogs the brain and paralyzes the thought.
Talk health. The dreary, never-ending tale of mortal maladies is worn and stale; You cannot charm or interest or please by harping on that minor chord, disease. Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe.
The man who can smile when things go wrong has a tremendous advantage over the person whose courage collapses just as soon as he is in a hard place. The man who can smile when everything seems to go against him shows that he is made of winning material, for no ordinary man can do this.
Carlyle says that some people are rich in the power to be miserable. Such people seem to have a genius for radiating mental poison. They project their gloom into your mind in spite of your efforts to protect yourself. They insist that they were born so, that they cannot help having the “blues” and being despondent.
But this is all nonsense. No one was born to be miserable, to bring gloom into the world, or to make others unhappy. It was intended that we should all be joyously happy.
You have no more right to go about among your fellows with a vinegary expression on your face, radiating mental poison, spreading the germs of doubt, fear, discouragement, and despondency upon them, than you have to inflict bodily injuries. You have no more right to poison other people’s happiness than their bodies.
It is a strange fact that many people are always at home to the “blues.” Whenever a fit visits them, it seems to be welcome. They retail their miseries, go over and over their misfortunes, describe the symptoms of their suffering, their poverty, dwell upon all the hideous details, and tell everybody how cruel fate has been to them. They appear to have a morbid love for contemplating what has embittered their lives and hampered their progress. Thus they are always unconsciously etching these pictures of their thought enemies deeper and deeper into their character.
I know one of these victims of the “blues,” a man who has such a genius for making other people miserable that it makes one blue to look at him. You would think by his expression that he were bearing on his shoulders all the troubles of mankind. It is difficult to smile or feel serene in his presence. No matter how enthusiastic or joyful you may be, his icy expression and discouraging conversation, his doubts and pessimism, chill you. Every time I go near him I feel as though I were running out of the sunshine into a dungeon.
The Creator placed us on this beautiful earth to be glad, not sad, not to go moping, whining, complaining, spreading pessimism, and peddling misery among our fellows.
“A cheerful, intelligent face,” Emerson tells us, “is the end of culture.” Every now and then we catch a glimpse of such a face, a face which has a light that was never on sea or land, which convinces us that the possessor has been in communion with something divine; a face so serene, calm, and cheerful that it makes us feel that we have had a glimpse into “the holy of holies.” But how few such faces there are, compared with the number of sad, gloomy ones!
There is no place in civilization for the morose, gloomy, or despondent man. Nobody wants to live with him. Everybody is dejected and depressed in his presence, and tries to get away from him.
A melancholy, worrying mind encourages the development of disease by destroying the resisting power, and makes the body susceptible to it.
There is nothing more contagious than mental depression and the “blues.”
How often we have seen a cheerful, optimistic, radiant soul enter a room where there was sadness, discouragement, despondency, and revolutionize everyone present by the contagion of his irresistible humor, his laughter and fun-loving nature!
People who have periodical fits of the “blues” seem possessed by spirits of evil. It is impossible for them during such times to be civil, to say nothing of being courteous and kind, even to members of their family. They seem to think that when they are “blue” and discouraged they are excused from ordinary self-control, and they give vent to their feelings and make everybody miserable.
A great many people fail to reach a success which matches their ability because they are victims of their moods, which repel people and discourage business.
We avoid morose, gloomy people just as we avoid a picture which makes a disagreeable impression upon us. We instinctively turn to those who are beautiful, harmonious, sunny souled.
People like and believe in us in proportion to our agreeableness and helpfulness. A morbid mind usually means a warped, twisted judgment.
Sometimes an entire household becomes infected by the presence of one sour, morose, discontented member. He is never satisfied with the weather, or with the plans of the rest of the family. He never wants to go out when or where the others do; when they want to drive in one direction, he is sure to want to go in some other one. In fact, his desires and plans are always opposed to theirs. He is out of harmony with his environment; he has no pleasure in common with anyone about him. He is not only unhappy himself, but he prevents others from enjoying themselves.
That it is possible for these people to control their moods is often proved by someone unexpectedly calling upon the cross-as-a-bear person. A bad “spell” is sometimes instantly broken by the sound of a doorbell announcing company, and the victim is all smiles in a moment. It is like the habitual headaches which some women have, which are almost never known to occur on the day when they are to call upon the President or some other important personage. When necessary they can postpone their headaches for days. So “blue” people are ashamed to make bears of themselves and have tantrums when company is present.
I have in mind a man who suffers so terribly from “blue” fits that his whole appearance is completely changed while under their influence. He does not look like the same man. He is absolutely unfitted to attend to business, and even his best friends try to avoid him. His whole appearance is that of utter despair, of intense mental suffering.
Now, all this is a deplorable waste of splendid energy which might be used for something worthwhile. Isn’t it pathetic to see a strong, vigorous man, made to be a giant among the forces of the world, cowering, the abject slave of mental clouds which cast dark shadows over his life? Think of a man capable of leading hundreds or thousands of employees in a great enterprise—a man of achievement, born to do great things lying around for days, the victim of the “blues,” in the clutch of mental demons which he ought to be able to throttle in five minutes!
Everywhere we see people with great ambitions doing most ordinary things, simply because there are so many days when they do not “feel like it” or when they are discouraged or “blue.”
A man who is at the mercy of his disposition can never be a leader, a power among men. I know a brainy man who would be capable of very great things, but for the fact that he is a slave to his moods. You never know just how to approach him. If he is in a good humor he will be optimistic and in for everything that marks progress. But when he is “blue,” or anything crosses him, all his standards are down; he is pessimistic, everything is going to the dogs. He will oppose his partner in every suggestion that involves expenditure; he wants to cut down expenses, cut off advertising, discharge help,—but the very next day, perhaps, if his mood has changed, he wants to pursue just the opposite course. So he seesaws, always way up or way down, the victim of his moods, the slave of his treacherous disposition. If he gets a little discouraged, instead of resisting his mood and trying to overcome it, he succumbs to its influence and drops into the depths until his physical forces recuperate sufficiently to throw off the bondage, become positive, creative, productive, and he becomes normal, hopeful, and cheerful again.
Discouragement colors the judgment. People will do all sorts of foolish things under the pressure of fear. I have known men who own their own homes to sell property or do the most ridiculous things in order to raise money, because they were afraid they would come to grief in their business if they did not have it, when as a matter of fact there was no real cause for anxiety whatever. When you are at your wits’ end and do not know which way to turn, you are in danger, for you are in no condition to plan anything or to do the best thing. You should do your planning when you are cool and calm.
You are not capable of correct judgment, of using good sense, when there is fear or doubt or despondency in your mind. Sound judgment comes from a perfectly working brain, unclouded, untroubled faculties. Never act upon that which is suggested when you are in a state of fear and anxiety. Carry out your plans, the course laid down when your brain was clear, your head level. When fear is in the mind the mental forces are scattered and we are not capable of vigorous concentration. Calmness, poise, balance, mental serenity are absolutely essential to the most effective thinking.
One reason why so many men do not get on in the world is because they decide important matters when the mind is in no condition to decide anything, when they are full of fear that they are going to have trouble, that they are going to sustain great loss, that there is going to be a financial panic. Things done under such pressure are never done wisely. Wisdom is what we want in an emergency, and wisdom only comes from a level head, a calm, clear brain.
There are men who are usually quite levelheaded but who do the most foolish things when discouraged or suffering from the “blues,” acting under the influence of their moods, when the brain is clouded, inexact, uncertain in its processes, instead of clear, active, and well balanced.
When a person is in trouble or an emergency confronts him, that is the time he needs a cool head, a clear brain, a sound judgment. If in such a condition, the moment you find fear or worry taking possession of you, you must not decide anything of importance. But you should at once neutralize this condition, antidote it by switching on the counter thought or mood. Just think yourself into calmness, poise. Get possession of yourself, get your mental balance, then you will be in a position to do the levelheaded, sensible thing; but never act in important matters with a troubled, worried, anxious mind.
It was not intended that man should be a slave to his passions, a victim of his moods, or that he should need to consult his feelings as to whether he can perform the duties of a man, or carry out his life program. He was fashioned to rule, to dominate, to be ever master of himself, of his environment.
It is perfectly possible for a well-trained mind completely to rout the worst case of the “blues” in a few minutes; but the trouble with most of us is that instead of flinging open the mental blinds and letting in the sun of cheerfulness, hope, and optimism, we keep them closed and try to eject the darkness by main force, when one glimmer of soul-sunshine would dissipate the blackness-skeletons, the blue devils and black devils, which thrive in the darkness.
The art of arts is to learn how to clear the mind of its enemies, enemies of our comfort, happiness, and success. It is a great thing to learn to focus the mind upon the beautiful instead of the ugly, the true instead of the false, upon harmony instead of discord, life instead of death, health instead of disease, and is not always easy, but it is possible to everybody. It requires only a little skillful thinking, the forming of the right thought habits.
If you absolutely refuse to entertain these black devils which rob you of your happiness, if you shut them out and deny them admission when you once see that they only have the reality which you give them, they will cease coming to you.
The best way to keep out darkness is to keep the life filled with light; to keep out discord, keep it filled with harmony; to shut out error, keep the mind filled with truth; to shut out ugliness, contemplate beauty and loveliness; to get rid of all that is sour and unwholesome, contemplate all that is sweet and wholesome. Opposite thoughts cannot occupy the mind at the same time. Why not form the habit of entertaining your thought friends instead of your thought enemies; harmony friends, truth friends, beauty friends, instead of their opposites, which scrawl their hideous images and autographs upon your mind?
We should early form the habit of erasing from the mind all disagreeable, unhealthy, death-dealing thoughts. We should start out every morning with a clean slate. We should blot out from our mental gallery all discordant pictures, and replace them with the harmonious, uplifting, life-giving ones.
Think of a man like Roosevelt, with the ability to influence the world’s civilization, waiting round in the morning on his moods before he can tell whether or not he can do a man’s work, waiting till he “feels like it”! Think of such a man consulting some whim, some indisposition, as to whether he can perform some great task upon which, perhaps, the welfare of a nation depends!
No matter whether you feel like it or not, just affirm that you must feel like it, that you will feel like it, that you do feel like it, that you are normal and that you are in a position to do your best. Say it deliberately, affirm it vigorously, and it will come true.
Every time you catch yourself worrying or fretting or being anxious, unnaturally straining and striving and resisting, just pause for a few moments and say to yourself, “This is not living the life of an intelligent, thinking being, not the life of a real man. It is just the bare existence of an ignorant man who has never tasted the joys of normal living, broad existence.”
The coming man will not say to himself, “I shall wait and see how I feel in the morning before laying out my program. If I do not have an attack of the ‘blues’ or dyspepsia, if my liver is all right, if my body does not say ‘no’ I will go to my office and carry out my program.” There will be infinitely more certainty in such a life than at present. Man will not be a victim of his moods, a slave of his feelings, his food, or the weather.
The next time you are in trouble, or feel discouraged and think you are a failure, just try the experiment of affirming vigorously, persistently, that all that is real must be good, for God made all that is, and whatever doesn’t seem to be good is not like its Creator, cannot be real. Persist in this affirmation. You will be surprised to see how unfortunate suggestions and adverse conditions will melt away.
The next time you feel the “blues” or a fit of depression or despondency coming on, just get by yourself, if possible, after taking a good bath and dressing yourself becomingly—and give yourself a good talking-to. Talk to yourself in the same dead-in-earnest way that you would to your own child or a dear friend who was deep in the mire of despondency, suffering tortures from melancholy. Drive out the black, hideous pictures which haunt your mind. Sweep away all depressing thoughts, suggestions, all the rubbish that is troubling you. Let go of everything that is unpleasant, all the mistakes, all the disagreeable past; just rise up in arms against the enemies of your peace and happiness, summon all the force you can muster and drive them out. Resolve that no matter what happens you are going to be happy, that you are going to enjoy yourself. Just say to yourself, “This is an abnormal condition. Harmony is the everlasting fact. Discord must be an unreality, an absence of harmony, the reality.”
After a little practice of this sort you will be able to clear your mental sky of all clouds and keep it clear; keep your mind free from your enemies.
Sometimes, when we have been terribly depressed and suffering from the “blues,” something has happened to change the whole mental attitude instantly—perhaps the arrival of a dear old friend of our youth, an old classmate, or someone whose wit and funny stories have driven the “blue” devils all out of our mind; perhaps a change of scene in traveling, or some happy experience or unexpected success, which has wrought the same result. Whatever it may be, the “blues” are always driven out by the opposite suggestion to that from which we are suffering. In other words, it is the antidote to our depression which kills them. The holding of the opposite thought in the mind drives out, kills or neutralizes the discord.
When you feel the “blues” coming on, concentrate your mind vigorously upon the very opposite qualities, hold the ideals of cheerfulness, confidence, gratitude, good-will towards everybody, and you will be surprised to see how quickly the enemies which were dogging your steps and making your life miserable will disappear, just as the darkness does when the shutters are opened and the light rushes in. We do not drive out the darkness, but introduce its antidote, light, which instantly neutralizes it. When you are low-spirited and feel the “blues” getting a grip upon you, just stop whatever you are doing and make a business of driving these enemies out of your mind, neutralizing them, killing them, by their opposite suggestions. You know perfectly well that a cheerful, beautiful thought, no matter how difficult it may be for you to hold it when you are suffering, will soon bring you relief. Assume the cheerful, hopeful virtue, if you have it not, and it will soon be yours.
The next time you feel jaded, discouraged, completely played out and “blue” you will probably find, if you look for the reason, that your condition is largely due to exhausted vitality, either from overwork, overeating, or violating in some way the laws of digestion, or from irregular habits of some kind.
You should try to get into the most interesting social environment possible, or seek some innocent amusement that will make you laugh and cheer you up. Some people find this refreshment in their own home romping with the children; others at the theater, in pleasant conversation, or in burying themselves in a cheerful, inspiring book.
If you feel like it, take a good, long nap.
I have a business friend who finds a wonderful help, when he reaches home tired and weary, in taking a hot bath and putting on his evening clothes. This change seems to make a new man of him.
Somehow our tired feelings, our troubles, trials, worries, and anxieties seem to cling to the very clothing which we have worn during the day, and the mere changing of it seems to change the current of the mind also.
The country is also a wonderful refreshener and healer of our woes. An hour’s walk abroad under the open heaven after an exhausting, perplexing, soul-harrowing day’s work, will often completely change one’s whole mental attitude.
Seek the method of changing your mental attitude which is best suited to you, and you will be surprised to find the poison of fatigue fully neutralized, the whole atmosphere of your discouraged thought changed, and you will soon feel like a new person.
No matter how discouraging things look around you, learn to dominate your environment, to rise above the depressing influences; turn your back on the darkness, face the light, and the shadows will fall behind you.
How long would it take a man to cure himself of melancholia by holding the melancholy, gloomy, discouraged thought? You cannot cure a “fit of the blues” with more “blues,” more discouragement.
Give yourself a good heart-to-heart talk, just as you would if trying to help your dearest friend who was suffering from deep depression and great discouragement. Appeal to your own better nature. Try to shame yourself out of your foolishness. Show yourself how silly it is for a man to yield to such weaknesses. Say to yourself, “What would ever have become of Napoleon or Grant if they had been the slaves of their moods? What would Lincoln have done in a similar situation? Would he have played the baby and given up and gone about with a long face and dejected countenance, as though he had lost his last friend, his last dollar? If I am such a ‘weak sister,’ such a nonentity, the sooner I find it out the better.”
When you look at it squarely, it is a very foolish, almost criminal, thing to go about this beautiful world, crowded with things to delight and cheer us, with splendid opportunities, showing a sad, dejected face, as though life had been a disappointment instead of a priceless boon. Just say to yourself, “I am a man and I am going to do the work of a man. It’s right up to me and I am going to face the situation.”
I know of a woman who was prone to fits of depression, of the “blues,” who conquered them by forcing herself to sing bright, joyous songs, and to play lively, inspiring airs on the piano whenever she felt an “attack” coming on.
The expelling power of a contrary emotion has a wonderful effect upon the mind. The cure for bad moods is to summon good ones to take their places in the thought and thus force them out.
Although it may be difficult, it is not impossible to reverse the mood.
If you are a victim of your moods, push right into the swim of things, and take an active part, with a real interest in what is going on around you. Associate with people. Be glad and happy, and interest yourself in others. Keep your mind off yourself. Get away from yourself by entering with zest into the family plans, or the plans and pleasures of others about you.
Self-depreciation is one of the characteristics of those suffering from the “blues.” Most of us do not encourage ourselves enough by optimistic thinking, by autosuggestion.
Hold the thought that there is nothing too good for God’s child; that if you are made in His image you must partake of His likeness, that it was intended you should live in harmony, prosperity; that abundance and plenty are your birthright; that joy and gladness should encompass you.
Do not let anybody or anything shake your faith that you can conquer all the enemies of your peace and happiness, and that you inherit an abundance of all that is good.
The “blues” are often caused by exhausted nerve cells, due to overstraining work, long-continued excitement, or over stimulated nerves from dissipation. It is the clamoring of exhausted nerve cells for nourishment, rest, or recreation. Multitudes of people suffer from despondency, melancholy, as a result of a run-down condition physically, owing to their irregular, vicious habits and a lack of refreshing sleep.
When you are feeling “blue” or discouraged, get as complete a change of environment as possible. Whatever you do, do not brood over your troubles or dwell upon the things which happen to annoy you at the time. Think the pleasantest, happiest things possible. Hold the most charitable, loving thoughts towards others. Say the kindest, pleasantest things. Make a strenuous effort to radiate joy and gladness to everybody about you. You will soon begin to feel a wonderful uplift; the shadows which have darkened your mind will flee away, and the sun of joy will light up your whole being.
Form a habit of never allowing in your mind thoughts or suggestions which call up unpleasant subjects or bitter memories, and which have a bad influence on you.
Everyone ought to make it a life-rule to wipe out from his memory everything which has been unpleasant, unfortunate. We ought to forget everything which has kept us back, which has made us suffer, which has been disagreeable, and never allow the hideous pictures of distressing conditions to enter our minds again. There is only one thing to do with a disagreeable, harmful experience, and that is to bury it—forget it.
Dwelling on unfortunate experiences, mistakes only makes them bigger, blacker, more hideous. Forget them, thrust them out of your mind as you would a thief from your home. Say to them, “You have no power over me. You cannot destroy my peace. You are not the truth of my being. The reality of me is divine. You cannot touch principle, my real self. Only the good and the true are scientific realities, are absolutely real, all else, however real it may seem, is false, because there is only one Infinite Power in the universe. A supreme, perfect Being could not have made imperfection or discouragement. However real they seem, they are not realities, they are only the absence of harmony, the absence of truth.”
We have all had the experience of suffering from things which eventually proved to be absolutely nothing but pure bogies of the imagination. A sensitive, imaginative mind can conjure up all sorts of hideous pictures, satanic images which torture as though they were real things.
Many people drive away the “blues” by reading something humorous, encouraging, or inspirational. I know some who get great help in reading the Psalms and Proverbs and the Savior’s sayings. There is a wonderful uplift, a healing balm in these inspired writings.
A physician, who is a nerve specialist, claims to have found a new remedy for the “blues.” He advises his patients to try to smile under all circumstances, to compel themselves to laugh whether they feel like it or not. “Smile,” he tells them. “Keep on smiling; do not stop smiling; just try turning up the corners of your mouth. See how it makes you feel, regardless of your mood.” He has his patients remain in his office and smile, if only mechanically at first, and always urges them at least to keep an upward curvature of the corners of the mouth.
We were endowed with every faculty possible to enable us to enjoy life. Not stintedly, but in all its fullness, glory, completeness.
Unhappiness is as abnormal to our natures as disease. The spectacle which we see everywhere of anxious, wrinkled, unhappy faces, of gloomy, dissatisfied expressions, was never intended to mar this beautiful, glad earth. It is antagonistic to all nature. The pitiable thing about it all is that these enemies which rob us of our happiness, which dog our steps through life, are not realities at all, but merely an absence of harmony.
don’t estimate your future by the little troubles that confront you now. The black clouds which shut out your sun today will be gone tomorrow. Learn to look at life at long range and to put the right values upon things.
There are many times in the life of the youth who does things that are worthwhile, when he gets terribly discouraged, and thinks it easier to go back than to push on. But there is no victory in retreating, and we should never leave any bridges unburned behind us, or leave a way open for retreat to tempt our weakness, indecision, or discouragement. We should have courage and pluck and grit enough to push on, to keep going when things look dark and when seemingly insurmountable obstacles confront us.
Most people are their own worst enemies. We are all the time “queering” our life game by our vicious, tearing-down thoughts and unfortunate moods. Everything depends upon our courage, our faith in ourselves, in our holding a hopeful, optimistic outlook; and yet, whenever things go wrong with us, whenever we have a discouraging day or an unfortunate experience, a loss or any misfortune, we let the tearing-down thought, doubt, fear, discouragement, like a bull in a china shop, tear through our mentalities, breaking up and destroying the work perhaps of years of building-up, and we have to start all over again. Most of us work like the frog in the well. We climb up, only to fall back, and so lose all we gain.
When shall we learn that the wasteful, destructive thoughts are our great enemies? It takes but a few minutes to bum a house which it may have taken years to erect. A single stroke of the artist’s brush will ruin a picture on which he may have been working for years. It is possible for the mind, through anger, jealousy, through pessimistic, melancholy, worrying, destructive thoughts, to spoil life’s great picture which we have been many years in painting.
Try this experiment, the very next time you get discouraged or think you are a failure, that your work does not amount to much—turn about face. Resolve that you will go no further in that direction. Stop and face the other way, and go the other way. Every time you think you are a failure, it helps you to become one, for your thought is your life pattern. You cannot get away from your thought. You cannot get away from your ideals, the standard which you hold for yourself, and if you acknowledge in your thought that you are a failure, that you can’t do anything worthwhile, as other people do, that luck is against you, that you don’t have the same opportunity that other people have—your convictions will control the result.
When you turn round, your outlook will turn, and also your life.
The world has little use for the man who has not sand enough in him to brace up and be a man when he meets with failure. There are thousands of people who have lost everything they valued in the world, all the material results of their lives’ endeavor, and yet, because they possess a stout heart, an unconquerable spirit, a determination to push ahead which knows no retreat, they are just as far from real failure as before their loss; and with such wealth they can never be poor.
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