Every art is but the result of some trained faculty of man.
The majority of people who make a failure in life do so because they never learn to guard and strengthen their weak points.
To correct deficiencies, remedy defective faculties, overcome peculiarities, and bring the mind into symmetry and poise so that it will express its maximum of power, will form a large part of the education of the future.
Years ago, Central Park and other parts of upper New York City were made very unsightly by “squatters,” people who camped on vacant lands and built all kinds of unbeautiful shanties on them. They made a great deal of trouble for the real owners of the land, especially those who resided abroad, because, after a protracted occupation, they would often dispute the ownership.
Many people are troubled with mental squatters, such as prejudice, bigotry, superstition, cowardice, jealousy, and all kinds of little peculiarities, which seem harmless at first but which gradually become so entrenched in their lives that it is very difficult to dispossess them.
One of the hardest lessons we have to learn is that we build our bodies by our thoughts; that they are discordant or harmonious, diseased or healthy, in accordance with our habitual thought and the thought of those who preceded us. There are those who, having learned this lesson, have had their countenances so altered in a single year by persistent right thinking that one would scarcely recognize them. They have changed faces that were lined with doubt, disfigured with fear and anxiety, and scarred by worry or vice, to reflectors of hope, cheer, and joy.
Saint Paul showed scientific knowledge when he said: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”; that is, the changing, ennobling, purifying, refreshing of our thoughts.
Growth everywhere neutralizes decay. So long as we keep growing, renewing the mind, constantly reaching out for the new and progressive, the retrograding, disintegrating, aging, deteriorating processes cannot be operative.
There is a law of perpetual renewal, a recreation constantly going on in us which is only interfered with by our adverse thought and discordant mental attitude.
The majority of us have had startling experiences of sudden mind renewal which have come unexpectedly and which have driven away the clouds from our minds, let in the sunshine of joy and happiness, and changed, at least for the time, our whole outlook upon life. When we have been discouraged and everything looked dark, some good fortune has perhaps come to us suddenly, or some jovial, congenial friend whom we have not seen for a long time has called upon us, or we have taken a trip into the country, and all our mental hurts have been healed by the new balm of suggestion.
Sometimes, perhaps, when traveling we have come across a bit of entrancing scenery or some beautiful work of art about which we have read and have long wanted to see, and this stronger affection and interest—the marvelous suggestion of beauty, grandeur, and sublimity—has temporarily completely antidoted the worry thoughts or fear thoughts which a little while before were destroying our happiness.
Many people have an idea that the brain is not susceptible of any very great change; that its limits are fixed by the destiny of heredity, and that about all we can do is to give it a little polish and culture. There are plenty of examples, however, of individuals who have completely revolutionized portions of their brains, and have made strong faculties of those which were weak at birth or deficient from lack of exercise. There are many instances where certain mental faculties have been almost entirely wanting, and yet have been built up so that they have powerfully buttressed the whole character.
Take courage, for instance. Many very successful people were once so completely devoid of this quality that the lack threatened to wreck their whole future. But through the help of intelligent training by parents and teachers they developed it until it became strong.
This was done by the cultivation of self-confidence, by holding the constant suggestion of courage in the young mind, by the contemplation of brave and heroic deeds, the reading of the life stories and works of great heroes, by the suggestion that fear is a negative quality—the mere absence of the natural quality of courage which is every man’s birthright—and by the constant effort to do courageous deeds.
When the world was young the brain of man was very primitive, because the demand upon it was largely for self-protection and the acquisition of food, which called only for the development of its lower, its animal part. Gradually, however, there was a higher call upon it and a more varied development, until today, in the highest civilization, it has become exceedingly complex.
Every new demand of civilization makes a new call upon the brain, and, just as the physique of animals and men has been modified to meet varying conditions of climate and of maintenance, it develops faculties and powers to meet these fresh calls of a more complicated life.
The brain changes to meet these new demands upon it, develops new cells and strengthens weak ones, whenever the latter are brought into helpful activity.
Prof. Elmer Gates trained young dogs to develop some one sense, such as that of sight or sound. Other puppies of the same age and of the same litter would be kept in such a way that those particular brain cells would not be brought into activity, in which case they did not develop.
The parts of the brain presiding over color, for example, were so trained that puppies could distinguish six or seven different shades of green and red.
The brain is modified by its condition of activity, the motives which actuate it, and the conditions which the individual has to meet. The brain of the man who leads a strenuous life in a great city is very different from that evolved by a quiet life on a farm. The great multiplicity of suggestions constantly held in the mind in city life tend to a more diverse development of brain power. The city man thinks quicker, his movements are quicker, his perceptions sharper because of the complexity and urgency of the demands upon him, so that he is really a different sort of man.
The brain is very adaptable. Each vocation makes a different call upon it and develops faculties and qualities peculiar to itself, so that as the various professions, trades, and specialties multiply, the brain takes on new adaptive qualities, thus giving greater variety and strength to civilization as a mass.
The clergyman, for instance, whose mind for years is centered upon spiritual things, develops very different brain characteristics from the lawyer, the merchant, or the architect.
It is easy to distinguish between a man whose life has been devoted to intellectual pursuits and one whose life has been spent in dealing in merchandise. Distinct faculties are developed and strengthened in the trader, such as sagacity, foresight, shrewdness, and the ability to systematize. Leadership calls out and often enormously develops certain faculties, such as initiative, the ability to use and control others, knowledge of human nature, and penetration.
An ambition-arousing environment is a powerful influence in modifying brain development, and the cultivation of ambition itself is a good illustration of the power of suggestion. A boy born and reared in a sparsely settled portion of the country may have great natural ability in a particular line, but, not coming in contact with the right stimulus to arouse his individual ambition, may never develop the power to do the greatest thing possible to him. On the other hand, if he should go to the city and get into an ambition-arousing atmosphere, his whole brain structure might be very materially changed.
How often we see examples of this sudden change in college men, especially those who have come from the country! The attrition of brain with brain, the contagion of ambition, and the coming in contact with ambition-arousing personalities often give the youth a glimpse of power which he never before realized he possessed, and thus alter his whole career.
There are many instances of stunted talents being quickly brought into vigorous activity by a change of occupation and conditions when the persons had no previous conception that they had any special ability in these lines.
We are just beginning to learn something of brain development possibilities; to discover something of the secret of brain changing and of character building which will some time revolutionize our methods of education.
Teachers and parents in the future will be trained in brain study. The coming teacher will know how to develop and strengthen deficient faculties by systematic brain-cell building; in enlarging brain cells which preside over certain faculties.
The late Professor James of Harvard said that the slightest thought changes the brain structure leaving its telltale work. The character of the thought is constantly changing the structure of the brain. The thought, whether good or bad, leaves its furrows in the brain substance. Every repeated thought tends to confirm a habit and makes the probability of any material change or reversal of the tendency so much the less. For example, there is nothing which will change a lovely character to one that is hideous, a sweet to a sour one, so quickly as the habit of holding revengeful, hateful thoughts. If you want to develop a lovable disposition, you know before you begin that you cannot do it by holding hateful, jealous, envious, uncharitable thoughts.
Hold any particular thought in the mind persistently until it has formed grooves in the brain-tissue and become dominant in the brain structure, and you have permanently changed the character in that direction. You have only to change your mind to a desired direction, holding it there tenaciously until you have formed a new mental habit. Then you are, in that particular, a new creature.
A great many people who are conscious that they have considerable ability in most respects have a feeling of being very deficient or lacking in some one or more qualities, and this consciousness is a constant stumbling-block because it destroys that superb self-faith which is imperative for all great achievements.
These deficiencies or weaknesses are often due to lack of development by exercise of the portion of the brain where the qualities are located. It is perfectly possible and very practical gradually to build up and strengthen these deficient qualities or faculties, and to make them normal.
If you are deficient, if you have any weak faculties, traits, which you wish to strengthen, concentrate your thought upon the quality you desire. The cells presiding over that portion of the brain will be strengthened by holding your thought there. Holding a creative, affirmative, confident thought will strengthen the faculty, just as doubt and lack of confidence will weaken it.
If you are vacillating, if you lack decision, just assume a decisive mental attitude. Constantly affirm that you are able to decide wisely, firmly, finally. Do not allow yourself to think that you are weak.
Sometimes quite strong faculties remain practically undeveloped because our previous occupation or mental activities have not called them into play, and they have been lying dormant.
The science of brain building will teach us how to prevent and how to eliminate idiosyncrasies and peculiarities and how to strengthen weaknesses which now handicap so many of us. We shall learn that symmetrical brain development is what gives power, and that to develop some particular faculty or faculties—and allow others, which are perhaps equally as important, to atrophy and shrivel from disuse not scientific education, and that this one-sided development is a curse to our civilization and a menace to sanity.
If you wish to cultivate or to improve a weak or deficient faculty, just hold the picture of it in its perfect form. Do not hold the defective, faulty image. Think of it and live it in your thoughts as you would like to have it, and try in every way to exercise it so that new and better brain cells will be formed and the weak ones strengthened.
Not only can we strengthen mental weaknesses and deficiencies, but it is perfectly possible to increase the general ability through the power of suggestion. Indeed, the susceptibility of all the mental faculties to improvement, to enlargement, is something remarkable.
Sometimes very strong faculties are latent until especially aroused. There are many people who pass for cowards; who are humiliated because they apparently have so little courage, when, if they only knew how, they could strengthen this deficient faculty wonderfully by holding the courageous ideal; by thinking and doing the courageous deed; by carrying the thought of fearlessness; by reading about heroic lives; by constantly thinking the heroic thought and trying to live it. Courage may be small in a person because it has never been called into sufficient exercise. It may need only to be aroused. There are many people living lives of mediocrity who might do great things, might become mental giants if their dormant faculties were aroused, their general ability improved and enlarged.
Learn to assert stoutly the possession of whatever you lack. If it is courage or staying power, assert these qualities as yours by divine right. Bear in mind that they are your birthrights and stoutly refuse to give them up. Be thoroughly convinced that they belong to you, that you actually possess them, and you will win.
We tend to become like our aspirations. If we constantly aspire and strive for something better and higher and nobler, we cannot help improving. The ambition that is dominant in the mind tends to work itself out in the life. If this ambition is sordid and low and animal, we shall develop these qualities, for our lives follow our ideals.
Many people have the impression that their ability is something that is inherited, and that while they may polish it a little, they cannot add to it or enlarge it. But we are beginning to see that all the mental faculties are capable of very great enlargement. The brainpower can be increased immensely by systematic thought education. In fact, there is not a single faculty which cannot be very materially improved in a comparatively short time.
The time will come when one of the principal objects of education will be the poising of the mind; balancing it, making it symmetrical, and strengthening its weak cells by the building up of defective or deficient faculties, by scientifically exercising that portion of the brain which presides over them.
We shall ultimately learn that vicious and criminal tendencies, even when hereditary, may be educated out of the brain, and symmetry and power be obtained.
There is every evidence in the human plan that man was made to express completeness, wholeness—not a half nor a fraction of himself; a hundred, not twenty-five nor fifty percent, of his possibilities; made to express excellence, not mediocrity, and that the half lives and quarter lives which we see everywhere are abnormal.
The shrewdest thing a man can do is to put himself beyond the possible self-wreckage from his own deficiencies and weaknesses and vicious tendencies.
Instead of trying to root out a defect or a vicious quality directly, cultivate the opposite quality. Persist in this, and the other will gradually die. “Kill the negative by cultivating the positive.”
The craving for something higher and better is the best possible antidote or remedy for the lower tendencies which one wishes to get rid of.
When the general habit of always aspiring, moving upwards and climbing to something higher and better is formed, the undesirable qualities and the vicious habits will fade away; they will die from lack of nourishment. Only those things grow in our nature which are fed. The quickest way to kill them is to cut off their nourishment.
The impression held by parents and educators for centuries that mental qualities, traits and faculties are not cultivatable or subject to change to any great extent has been entirely exploded. In the little kindergarten plays designed to develop the different faculties, it is found that in the courage plays, for example, the timid, shrinking, bashful children gradually develop greater confidence, and, as they become experts in their parts, their shyness, self-consciousness, and fear entirely disappear.
The little joy plays, laughter plays, or cheerful plays have a marked influence upon children, especially when they have very little fun in their home life and are inclined to sadness and melancholy. Their whole expression changes very quickly in response to suggestion in such plays.
One of the cruelest things one can do to another is to reproach him for his deficiencies, peculiarities, or weaknesses. What such a person wants is encouragement and help, not additional handicap.
If a girl is less favored by facial beauty than her companions, instead of being constantly reminded of it she should be taught to hold the beauty ideal until it modifies her features. She should be told that soul beauty infinitely transcends physical beauty; that, by constant self-improvement and trying to help others, she can make herself so fascinating in manner, so unselfishly interesting, that no one would notice any physical lack or irregularity of feature or form.
Multitudes of people keep their minds so trammeled by ignorance and superstition, so deformed by worry, crippled by fear and anxiety, that their brains cannot express a tenth of their maximum creative power. They never know what complete liberty means. Their minds are restricted by terrors, by hatreds, by unrestrained passions which make effective thinking impossible. But it is not so very difficult to remedy these things if we understand the law of habit formation. The whole thing is simply a question of unraveling the ball in the opposite direction from which it was wound.
Take, for instance, the hot-tempered habit. Self-control is not so very difficult if you just cut off the fuel which feeds the fire; but when the hot blood rushes through your brain you feed the conflagration with the suggestion of angry words and an angry physical attitude, and if you continually raise your voice, thresh your arms, throw things across the room, and proceed to break things up generally, you can work yourself up into a terrific rage in a very few moments.
If, on the other hand, you cut off the fuel which feeds the burning passion and apply the antidote—just as you would put out a fire with water—and, if only mechanically, try to apply the love thought, the kindly, good-will thought, the charitable thought, the do-as-you-would-be-done-by philosophy, you will be surprised to see how quickly these antidotes will put out the fire. You will then have, instead of a destructive conflagration raging through you, burning up your energy and consuming your vitality, a kindly goodwill glow gradually stealing over your entire being, and in a very few moments you will be at peace with all the world.
The mother calls out of the child the ideal qualities which she sees in it. Many mothers make the mistake of forever looking for the bad in the child, trying to correct the evil, tip-root and drive it out. This is like trying to eject the darkness from a room without opening the shutters and letting in the light. “I cannot sweep the darkness out, but I can shine it out,” said John Newton.
Parents, teachers, reformers are beginning to see that they call out of those whom they wish to help just what they see in them, because their suggestive thought arouses its affinities. The subject feels their thought. If it is a helpful, inspiring one, it tends to uplift him. If, on the other hand, it is concentrated upon his defects, these very qualities which they try to erase are only etched deeper and made more indelible.
The same principle applies to our own imperfections; our own unfolding. If we over-emphasize the bad in ourselves, if we are always criticizing our shortcomings and weaknesses and castigating ourselves for not doing better, we only deepen the unfortunate pictures in our consciousness and make them more influential in our lives.
On the other hand, if we visualize the larger possible man or woman and see only what is sublime in ourselves, we shall be able to make infinitely more of ourselves and open up the glorious possibilities of what may properly be called a divine development.
What a great thing it would be if we could learn always to think of ourselves, or of others when we are talking with or about them, as the image and likeness of perfection, instead of as the weak, the debauched image, the mere burlesque of the man God made!
One reason why some clergymen have been able to revolutionize so many lives is because they looked to the God-side of people, and hence, no matter how low they had fallen, saw hope for them. However blurred it seemed, they could see the God-image beneath.
No one can help another very much when he sees in him a hopeless picture. On the other hand, you can make a person do almost anything when you show him his possibilities and make him believe in himself.
The great secret of Phillips Brooks’s marvelous influence upon people who had lost their self-respect and were wallowing in beastly habits was that he reflected back to them the lost image of their possible divine selves. This picture gave them hope and encouragement, for, as he said, no man will ever be willing to live a half life when he has once seen that it is a half life.
The world has made marvelous strides along material lines in multiplying efficiency of machinery; increasing facilities for rapid transportation and quick communication of thought; in our educational system, in the way of learning things; in inventions, in our methods of doing business and in controlling the forces of nature; but we have not made very great progress in the art of increasing human efficiency in scientific mind-building, mind changing, mind-construction, man-building.
The future physician will be a trained psychologist, a real educator of the people, showing them how to think properly; explaining how right thought makes right life; that their bodily conditions are simply reflections and outpicturings of their mental attitudes, present and past, and how, by changing the thought they can change the life.
If invalids and people in poor health could only hold persistently the perfect image of themselves, and, no matter how much it might howl in pain for recognition, refuse to see the sick, discordant, imperfect image, the harmony thought, the truth thought would soon neutralize their opposites and they would be well.
All reforms and all mental healing must result from changing the mind; from a complete reversal of the mental attitude; a turning about and facing the other way.
In proportion as the healer is able to annihilate the sick image, the disease image, and picture vividly the God-man, the divine image in all its wholeness and completeness, he is successful. When the mind is changed the man is changed.
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