Speaker 1: Chapter nine, Asserting the life force. I have spoken to
you of the advantage of getting rid of fear. Now
I wish to put life into you. Many of you
have been going along as if you were dead. No ambition,
no energy, no vitality, no interest, no life. This will
never do. You are stagnating. Wake up and display a
few signs of life. This is not the place in
which you can stalk around like a living corpse. This
is a place for wide, active, live people, and a
good general awakening is what is needed. Although it would
take nothing less than a blast from Gabriel's trumpet to
awaken some of the people who are stalking around thinking
that they are alive, but who are really dead. To
all that makes life worthwhile, we must let life flow
through us and allow it to express itself naturally. Do
not let the little worries of life or the big
one either to press you and cause you to lose
your vitality. Assert the life force within you, and manifest
it in every thought, act, and deed, and before long
you will be exhilarated and fairly bubbling over with vitality
and energy. Put a little life into your work, into
your pleasures, into yourself stop doing things in a half
headed way, and begin to take an interest in what
you are doing, saying, and thinking. It is astonishing how
much interest we may find in the ordinary things of
life if we will only wake up. There are interesting
things all around us, interesting events occurring every moment, but
we will not be aware of them unless we assert
our life force and begin to actually live instead of
merely existing. No man or woman ever amounted to anything
unless he or she put life into the tasks of
everyday life, the acts, the thoughts. What the world world
needs is live men and women. Just look into the
eyes of the people whom you meet and see how
few of them are really alive. The most of them
lack that expression of a conscious life which distinguishes the
man who lives from the one who simply exists. I
want you to acquire the sense of conscious life so
that you may manifest it in your life and show
what mental science has done for you. I want you
to get to work today and begin to make yourself
over according to the latest pattern. You can do this
if you will only take the proper interest in the task,
affirmation and exercise. Fix in your mind the thought that
the eye within you is very much alive, and that
you are manifesting life fully mentally and physically. And keep
this thought there, aiding yourself with constant repetitions of the watchword.
Don't let the thought escape you, but keep pushing it
back into the mind. Keep it before the mental vision
as much as possible. Repeat the watch word when you
awaken in the morning, say it when you retire at night,
and say it at meal times and whenever else you
can during the day, at least once an hour, form
the mental picture of yourself as filled with life and energy.
Live up to it as far as possible. When you
start in to perform a task, say I am alive,
and mix up as much life as possible in the task.
If you find yourself feeling depressed, say I am alive,
and then take a few deep breaths, and with each inhalation,
let the mind hold the thought that you are breathing
in strength and life, and as you exhale, hold the
thought that you are breathing out all the old, dead,
negative conditions and are glad to get rid of them.
Then finish up with an earnest, vigorous affirmation I am alive,
and mean it when you say it too, and let
your thoughts take form in action. Don't rest content with
merely saying that you are alive, but prove it with
your acts. Take an interest in doing things, and don't
go around mooning or day dreaming. Get down to business
and live. Chapter ten, Training the Habit Mind. Professor William James,
the well known teacher of and writer upon psychology, very
truly says the great thing in all education is to
make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.
For this, we must make automatic and habitual as early
as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and
as carefully guard against growing into ways that are likely
to be disadvantageous. In the acquisition of a new habit
or the leaving off of an old one, we must
take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided
initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur until
a new habit is securely rooted in your life. Sees
the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution
you make and on every emotional prompting you may experience
in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
This advice is along the line familiar to all students
of mental science, but it states the matter more plainly
than the majority of us have done. It impresses upon
us the importance of passing on to the subconscious mind
the proper impulses, so that they will become automatic, and
its second nature. Our subconscious mentality is a great storehouse
for all sorts of suggestions from ourselves and others, And
as it is the habit mind, we must be careful
to send it the proper material from which it may
make habits. If we get into the habit of doing
certain things, we may be sure that the subconscious mentality
will make it easier for us to do just the
same thing over and over again, easier each time, until
finally we are firmly bound with the ropes and chains
of the habit, and find it more or less difficult,
sometimes almost impossible, to free ourselves from the hateful thing.
We should cultivate good habits against the hour of need.
The time will come when we will be required to
put forth our best efforts, and it rests with us
today whether that hour of need shall find us doing
the proper thing automatically and almost without thought, or struggling
to do it bound down and hindered with the change
of things opposed to that which we desire at that moment.
We must be on guard at all times to prevent
the forming of undesirable habits. There may be no special
harm in doing a certain thing today or perhaps again tomorrow,
but there may be much harm in setting up the
habit of doing that particular thing. If you are confronted
with the question, which of these two things should I do?
The best answer is I will do that which I
would like to become a habit. With me in forming
a new habit or in breaking an old one, we
should throw ourselves into the task with as much enthusiasm
as possible in order to gain the most ground before
the energy expends itself when it meets with friction from
the imposing habits already formed. We should start in by
making as strong an impression as possible upon the subconscious mentality.
Then we should be constantly on guard against temptations to
break the new resolution. Just this once, This just once
idea kills off more good resolutions than any other one.
Cause the moment you yield just this once, you introduce
the thin end of the wedge that will, in the
end split your resolution into pieces. Equally important is the
fact that each time you resist temptation, the stronger does
your resolution become. Act upon yours as early and as
often as possible. As with every manifestation of thought in action,
the stronger does it become. You are adding to the
strength of your original resolution every time you back it
up with action. The mind has been likened to a
piece of paper that has been folded ever afterwards, it
has a tendency to fold in the same crease unless
we make a new crease or fold when it will
follow the last lines, and the creases are habits. Every
time we make one, it is so much easier for
the mind to fold along the same crease afterward. Let
us make our mental creases in the right direction. Chapter eleven,
The Psychology of emotion. One is apt to think of
the emotions as independent from habit. We easily may think
of one acquiring habits of action and even of thinking,
But we are apt to regard the emotions as something
connected with feeling and quite divorced from intellectual effort. Yet,
notwithstanding the distinction between the two, both are dependent largely
upon habit, and one may repress, increase, develop, and change
one's emotions, just as one may regulate habits of action
and lines of thought. It is an axiom of psychology
that emotions deepen by repetition. If a person allows a
state of feeling to thoroughly take possession of him, you
will find it easier to yield to the same emotion
the second time, and so on, until a particular emotion
or feeling becomes second nature to him. If an undesirable
emotion shows itself inclined to take up a permanent abode
with you, you had better start to work to get
rid of it, or at least to master it. And
the best time to do this is at the start,
For each repetition renders the habit more firmly entrenched, and
the task of dislodging it more difficult. Were you ever jealous?
If so, you'll remember so how insidious was its first approach,
how subtly it whispered hateful suggestions into your willing ear,
and how gradually it followed up such suggestions, until finally
he began to see green. Jealousy has an effect upon
the bile and causes it to poison the blood. That
is why the idea of green is always associated with it.
Then you will remember how the thing seemed to grow,
taking possession of you, and who do scarcely could shake
it off. You found it much easier to become jealous
the next time. It seemed to bring before you all
sorts of objects, apparently justifying your suspicions and feeling everything
began to look green. The green eyed monster waxed fat.
And so it is with every feeling or emotion. If
you give way to a fit of rage, you'll find
it easier to become angry the next time. On mess provocation.
The habit of feeling and acting mean does not take
long to firmly settle itself in its new home if encouraged.
Worry is a great habit for growing and waxing fat.
People start by worrying about big things, and then begin
to worry and fret about some smaller thing. And then
the merest trifle worries and distresses them. They imagine that
all sorts of evil things are about to befall them.
If they start on the journey, they are certain there
is going to be a wreck. If a telegram comes,
it is sure to contain some dreadful tidings. If a
child seems a little quiet, the worrying mother is positive
it is going to fall ill and die. If the
husband seems thoughtful as he revolves some business plan in
his mind, then the good wife is convinced that he
is beginning to cease to love her, and indulges in
a crying spell. And so it goes worry, worry, worry,
each indulgence, making the habit more at home. After a while,
the continued thought shows itself in action. Not only is
the mind poisoned by the blue thoughts, but the forehead
shows deep lines between the eyebrows, and the voice takes
on that whining, rasping tone so common among worried, burdened people.
The condition of mind known as fault finding is another
emotion that grows fat with exercise. First fault is found
with this thing, then with that, and finally with everything.
The person becomes a chronic nagger, a burden to friends
and relatives, and a thing to be avoided by outsiders.
Women make the greatest naggers, not because men are any better,
but simply because a man nagger is apt to have
the habit knocked out of him by other men who
will not stand his nonsense. He finds that he's making
things too hot for himself, and he reforms, while a
woman has more of a chance to indulge in the habit.
But this nagging is all a matter of habit. It
grows from small beginnings, and each time it is indulged in,
it throws out another branch or tendril, and fastens itself
the closer to the one who has given its soil
in which to grow. Envy, uncharitableness, gossip, scandal mongering are
all habits of this kind. The seeds are in every
human breast and only need good soil and a little
watering to become lusty and strong. Each time you give
way to one of these negative emotions, the easier do
you make it for recurrence of the same thing or
similar ones. Sometimes by encouraging one unworthy emotion, you find
that you have given room for the growth of a
whole family of these mental weeds. Now this is not
a good old Orthodox preachment against the sin of bad thoughts.
It is merely a calling of your attention to the
law underlying the psychology of emotion. Nothing new about it,
old as the hills so old that many of us
have forgotten all about it. If you wish to manifest
these constantly disagreeable and unpleasant tray and to suffer the
unhappiness that comes from them, by all means do so.
That is your own business and privilege. It's none of mine,
and I'm not preaching at you. It keeps me busy
minding my own business and keeping an eye on my
own undesirable habits and actions. I am merely telling you
the law regarding the matter, and you may do the rest.
If you wish to choke out these habits, there are
two ways open to you. First, whenever you find yourself
indulging in a negative thought or feeling, take right hold
of it and say to it, firmly and vigorously get out.
It won't like this at first, and will bridle up,
curve its back and snarl like an offended cat. But
never mind. Just say scat to it. The next time
it will not be so confident and aggressive. It will
have manifested a little of the fear habit. Each time
you repress and choke out a tendency of this kind,
the weaker it will become, and the stronger will your
will be. Professor James says, refuse to express a passion,
and it dies count ten before venting your anger and
its occasion seems ridiculous. Wishing to keep up courage is
no mere figure of speech. On the other hand, sit
all day in a moping posture, sigh and reply to
everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There
is no more valuable precept in moral education than this,
as all who have experienced know, if we wish to
conquer emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in
the first instance, cold bloodedly, go through the outward movements
of those contrary dispositions. We prefer to cultivate. Smooth the brow,
brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral
aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key
past the genial compliment, and your heart must be frigid, indeed,
if it does not gradually thaw. Chapter twelve, Developing new
brain cells. I have spoken of the plan of getting
rid of undesirable states of feeling by driving them out,
But a far better way is to cultivate the feeling
or emotion directly opposed to the one you wish to eradicate.
We are very apt to regard ourselves as the creatures
of our emotions and feelings, and to fancy that these
feelings and emotions are we. But such is far from
being the truth. It is true that the majority of
the race, as slaves of their emotions and feelings, are
are governed by them to a great degree. They think
that feelings are things that rule, one of which one
cannot free himself, and so they cease through abel. They
yield to the feeling without question, although they may know
that the emotion or mental trays calculated to injure them
and to bring unhappiness and failure instead of happiness and success.
They say, we are made that way, and let it
go at that. The new psychologies teaching the people better things.
It tells them that they are masters their emotions and
feelings instead of being their slaves. It tells them that
brain cells may be developed that will manifest along desirable lines,
and that the old brain cells that have been manifesting
so unpleasantly may be placed on the retired list and
allowed to atrophy from want of use. People may make
themselves over and change their entire natures. This is not
mere idle theory, but is a working fact which has
been demonstrated by thousands of people, and which is coming
more and more before the attention of the race. No
matter what theory of mind we entertain, we must admit
that the brain is the organ and instrument of the
mind in our present state of existence at least, and
that the brain must be considered in this matter. The
brain is like a wonderful musical instrument, having millions of
keys upon which we may play innumerable combinations of sounds.
We come into the world with certain tendencies, temperaments, and predispositions.
We may account for these tendencies by heredity, or we
may account for them upon theories of pre existence. But
the facts remain the same. Certain keys seem to respond
to our touch more easily than others. Certain notes seem
to sound forth as the current of circumstances sweeps over
the strings, and certain other notes are less easily vibrated.
But we find if we but make the effort of
the will to restrain the utterance of some of these
easily sounded strings, they will grow more difficult to sound,
unless liable to be stirred by the passing breeze. And
if we will pay attention to some of the other
strings that have not been giving forth a clear tone.
We will soon get them in good working order. Their
notes will chime forth, clear and vibrant, and will drown
the less pleasant sounds. We have millions of unused brain
cells awaiting our cultivation. We are using but a few
of them, and some of these we are working to death.
We are able to give some of these cells a
rest by using other cells. The brain may be trained
and cultivated in a manner incredible to one who has
not looked into the subject. Mental attitudes may be acquired
and cultivated, changed and discarded at will. There is no
longer any excuse for people manifesting unpleasant and harmful mental states.
We have the remedy in our own hands. We acquire
habits of thought, feeling, and action by repeated use. We
may be born with a tendency in a certain direction,
or we may acquire tendencies by suggestions from others, such
as the examples of those around us, suggestions from reading,
listening to teachers. We are a bundle of mental habits.
Each time we indulge in an undesirable thought or habit,
the easy does it become for us to repeat that
thought or action. Mental scientists are in the habit of
speaking of desirable thoughts or mental attitudes as positive and
of the undesirable ones as negative. There is a good
reason for this. The mind instinctively recognizes certain things as
good for the individual to which it belongs, and it
clears the path for such thoughts and interposes the least
resistance to them. They have a much greater effect than
an undesirable thought possesses, and one positive thought will counteract
the number of negative thoughts. The best way to overcome
undesirable or negative thoughts and feelings is to cultivate the
positive ones. The positive thought is the strongest plant, and
will in time starve out the negative one by withdrawing
from it the nourishment necessary for its existence. Of course,
the negative thought will set up a vigorous resistance at first,
for it is a fight for life with it. In
the slang words of the time, it sees its finish.
If the positive thought is allowed to grow and develop ssequently,
it makes things unpleasant for the individual until he has
started well into the work of starving it out. Brain
cells do not like to be laid on the shelf
any more than does any other form of living energy,
and they rebel and struggle until they are too weak
to do so. The best way is to pay as
little attention as possible to these weeds of the mind,
but put in as much time as possible watering, caring for,
and attending to the new and beautiful plants in the
garden of the mind. For instance, if you are apt
to hate people, you can best overcome the negative thought
by cultivating love in its place. Think love and act
it out as often as possible. Cultivate thoughts of kindness,
and act as kindly as you can to everyone with
whom you come in contact. You will have trouble at
the start, but gradually love will master hate, and the
latter will begin to droop and wither. If you have
a tendency towards the blues, cultivate a smile and a
cheerful view of things. Insist upon your mouth wearing upturned corners,
and make an effort of the will to look upon
the bright side of things. The blue devils will set
up a fight, of course, but pay no attention to them.
Just go on cultivating optimism and cheerfulness. Let bright, cheerful,
and happy be your watchword. And try to live it out.
These recipes may seem very old and time worn, but
they are psychological truths and may be used by you
to advantage. If you once comprehend the nature of the thing,
the affirmations and auto suggestions of the several schools may
be understood and taken advantage of. You may make yourself
energetic instead of a slothful actu instead of lazy. By
this method, it is all a matter of practice and
steady work new thought. People often have much to say
about holding the thought, and indeed it is necessary to
hold the thought in order to accomplish results. But something
more is needed. You must act out the thought until
it becomes a fixed habit with you. Thoughts take form
in action, and in turn, actions influence thought. So by
acting out certain lines of thought, the actions react upon
the mind and increase the development of the part of
the mind having close relation to the act. Each time
the mind entertains a thought, the easier becomes a resulting action,
and each time an act is performed, the easier becomes
the corresponding thought. So you see, the thing works both
ways action and reaction. If you feel cheerful and happy,
it is very natural for you to laugh, And if
you will laugh a little, you'll begin to feel bright
and cheerful. Do you see what I Am trying to
get at? Here? It is in a nutshell. If you
wish to cultivate a certain habit of action, begin by
cultivating the mental attitude corresponding to it. And as a
means of cultivating that mental attitude, start to act out
or go through the motion of the act corresponding to
the thought. Now see if you cannot apply this rule.
Take up something that you really feel should be done,
but which you do not feel like doing. Cultivate the
thought leading up to it. Say to yourself, I like
to do so and so, and then go through the
motions cheerfully, remember and act out the thought that you
like to do the thing. Take an interest in the doing,
study out the best way to do it, put brains
into it, take a pride in it, and you will
find yourself doing the thing with a considerable amount of
pleasure and interest. You will have cultivated a new habit.
If you prefer trying it on some mental tray of
which you wish to be rid, it will work the
same way. Start in to cultivate the opposite tray and
think it out and act it out for all you
are worth. Then watch the change that will come over you.
Don't be discouraged at the resistance you will encounter it first,
but sing gaily I can and I will, and get
to work, work in earnest. The important thing in this
work is to keep cheerful and interested. If you manage
to do this, the rest will be easy.