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will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” I closed the book and had a little talk with myself, saying:
Physicians generally seem to feel that much physical trouble could be avoided or overcome by practising the philosophy of not fuming or fretting.
“Come unto me, all that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew xi.28.) And again: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John xiv.27.) And still again: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”
In attaining emotional control the daily practice of healing techniques is of first importance. Emotional control cannot be gained in any magical or easy way. You cannot develop it by merely reading a book, although that is often helpful. The only sure method is by working at it regularly, persistently, scientifically, and by developing creative faith.
I suggest that you begin with such a primary procedure as simply the practice of keeping physically still. Don’t pace the floor. Don’t wring your hands. Don’t pound or shout or argue or walk up and down. Don’t let yourself get worked up into a dither. In excitement one’s physical movements become accentuated. Therefore begin at the simplest place, that is by ceasing physical movement. Stand still, sit down, lie down. Certainly keep the voice down to a low pitch. In developing a calm control it is necessary to think calmness, for the body responds sensitively to the type of thoughts that pass
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“I feel fine, but I am beginning to get mad, and I have learned that it is difficult to get mad lying down.”
Then our whimsical friend went on to explain that he had ‘tried a little trick’ with himself. He had a quick temper, and when he felt himself getting mad he found that he was clenching his fist and raising his voice, so he deliberately extended his fingers, not allowing them to form into a fist. In proportion to the rising of his tension or anger, he depressed his voice and talked in exaggerated low tones. “You cannot carry on an argument in a whisper,” he said with a grin.
A beginning step, therefore, in achieving calmness is to discipline your physical reactions. You will be surprised at how quickly this can reduce the heat of your emotions, and when emotional heat is driven off, fuming and fretting subside. You will be amazed at the energy and power you will save. You will be much less tired.
It is, moreover, a good procedure to practise being phlegmatic or apathetic, even indifferent. To a certain extent even practise being sluggish. People thus constituted are less likely to emotional breaks. Highly organised individuals may do well to cultivate these reactions to a degree at least.
1. Sit relaxed in a chair. Completely yield yourself to the chair. Starting with your toes and proceeding to the top of your head, conceive of every portion of the body as relaxing. Affirm relaxation by saying: “My toes are relaxed—my fingers—my facial muscles.” 2. Think of your mind as the surface of a lake in a storm, tossed by waves and in tumult. But now the waves subside, and the surface of the lake is placid and unruffled. 3. Spend two or three minutes thinking of the most beautiful and peaceful scenes you have ever beheld, as, for example, a mountain at sunset, or a deep valley filled
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“I merely learned the magic of believing. I discovered that if you expect the worst you will get the worst and if you expect the best you will get the best.
“‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’
I trained myself to think positively about everything. Along with that I try to live right.” He smiled and said: “God and I struck up a partnership. When I adopted that policy, things began to change almost at once for me. I got into the habit of expecting the best, not the worst, and that is the way my affairs have turned out lately. I guess it’s a kind of miracle, isn’t it?” he asked as he concluded his fascinating story.
he had learned to use one of the most powerful laws in the world, a law recognised alike by psychology and religion, namely, change your mental habits to belief instead of disbelief. Learn to expect, not to doubt. In so doing you bring everything into the realm of possibility.
when you learn to believe, then that which has seemingly been impossible moves into the area of the possible.
“Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing (now get that—is the one thing) that insures the successful outcome of your venture.”
To learn to believe is of primary importance. It is the basic factor of succeeding in any undertaking. When you expect the best, you release a magnetic force in your mind which by a law of attraction tends to bring the best to you. But if you expect the worst, you release from your mind the power of repulsion which tends to force the best from you. It is amazing how a sustained expectation of the best sets in motion forces which cause the best to materialise.
This negative mental process inhibited them, froze their muscles, threw them off their timing, and there was no free flow of easy power through the team.
This process will change you into a believer, into an expecter, and when you become such, you will in due course become an achiever. You will have new power to get what God and you decide you really want from life.
Faith, belief, positive thinking, faith in God, faith in other people, faith in yourself, faith in life. This is the essence of the technique that teaches.
Things become better when you expect the best instead of the worst, for the reason that being freed from self-doubt, you can put your whole self into your endeavour, and nothing can stand in the way of the man who focuses his entire self on a problem. When you approach a difficulty as a personal unity, the difficulty, which itself is a demonstration of disunity, tends to deteriorate.
Expecting the best means that you put your whole heart (i.e., the central essence of your personality) into what you want to accomplish. People are defeated in life not because of lack of ability, but for lack of wholeheartedness. They do not whole-heartedly expect to succeed. Their heart isn’t in it, which is to say they themselves are not fully given. Results do not yield themselves to the person who refuses to give himself to the desired results.
Life cannot deny itself to the person who gives life his all.
‘Throw your heart over the bar’ means to throw your faith over your difficulty, throw your affirmation over every barrier, throw your visualization over your obstacles.
“Beware of what you want for you will get it.”
Love cannot live under domination.”
According to your faith in yourself, according to your faith in your job, according to your faith in God this far will you get and no farther.
Whenever you have a bar, that is to say a barrier, in front of you, stop, close your eyes, visualise everything that is above the bar and nothing that is below it, then imaginatively ‘throw your heart’ over that bar and see yourself as being given lifting power to rise above it. Believe that you are experiencing this up thrust of force. You will be amazed at the lifting force you will receive. If in the depth of your mind you visualise the best and employ the powers of faith and energy, you will get the best.
you can get where you want to go only if you know what your goal is. Your expectation must have a clearly defined objective.
“you want to go somewhere from where you are, but you don’t know where you want to go. You don’t know what you can do or what you would like to do. You will have to get your ideas organised before you can expect to start getting anywhere.”
No objective leads to no end.
if you want to get somewhere, you must decide definitely where you want to be or what you want to accomplish. Be sure it is a right objective, then photograph this objective on your mind and hold it there. Work hard, believe in it, and the thought will become so powerful that it will tend to assure success. There is a deep tendency,” he declared, “to become what your mind pictures, provided you hold the mental picture strongly enough and if the objective is sound.”
“A man who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes his work with the assurance of success magnetises his condition. He draws to himself the creative powers of the universe.”
Never think of the worst. Drop it out of your thought, relegate it. Let there be no thought in your mind that the worst will happen. Avoid entertaining the concept of the worst, for whatever you take into your mind can grow there. Therefore take the best into your mind, and only that. Nurture it, concentrate on it, emphasise it, visualise it, prayerise it, surround it with faith. Make it your obsession. Expect the best, and spiritually creative mind-power aided by God power will produce the best.
“If you expect failure, you will get failure, but if you expect to succeed, I am sure you will succeed.”
‘If with all your heart’—that is the secret. “If with all your heart,” that is to say, if with the full complement of your personality, you reach out creatively towards your heart’s desire, your reach will not be in vain.
faith power works wonders.
you are not to doubt in your subconscious, in the inner essence of you. It isn’t so superficial as a doubt in the conscious mind. That is a normal, intelligent questioning. It’s deep fundamental doubt that is to be avoided)
do not address your efforts to the entire mountain range of all your difficulties, but attack one thing that may be defeating you at the moment. Be specific. Take them one by one.
“the kind of faith to have is the specific kind, the kind that moves this particular mountain.”
Be specific. Ask God for any right thing, but, as a little child, don’t doubt. Doubt closes the power flow. Faith opens it. The power of faith is so tremendous that there is nothing that God cannot do for us, with us, or through us if we let Him channel His power through our minds.
if you expect the best, you are given some strange kind of power to create conditions that produce the desired results. From now on I am changing my mental attitude and shall expect the best, not the worst. My test indicates that this is not theory, but a scientific way to meet life’s situations.”
Everyday as you confront the problems of life, I suggest that you affirm as follows: “I believe God gives me power to attain what I really want.”
If you are thinking thoughts of defeat, I urge you to rid yourself of such thoughts, for as you think defeat you tend to get it. Adopt the “I don’t believe in defeat” attitude.
“What attitude would I take towards these obstacles? Why, I would just remove them, that’s all, and then I would forget them.”
“Son, I have spent my entire life removing obstacles and I never yet saw one that could not be removed provided you had enough faith and guts and were willing to work. Since you want to know how it’s done, I will show you.”
don’t be afraid of it.
So the first thing to do about an obstacle is simply to stand up to it and not complain about it or whine under it but forthrightly attack it.
General Tudor knew how to meet an apparently immovable and undefeatable obstacle. His method was simple. He merely stood and let the obstacle break on him and he, in turn, broke the obstacle.
Just stand up to it, that’s all, and don’t give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won’t be you, it will be the obstacle. You can do this when you have faith, faith in God and faith in yourself. Faith is the chief quality you need. It is enough. In fact, it is more than enough.
