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we must accept and cooperate with the inevitable. “It is so. It cannot be otherwise.”
We are stronger than we think.
“I found I could take the loss of my eyesight, just as a man can take anything else. If I lost all five of my senses, I know I could live on inside my mind. For it is in the mind we see, and in the mind we live, whether we know it or not.”
“I would not exchange this experience for a happier one.” It taught him acceptance. It taught him that nothing life could bring him was beyond his strength to endure.
For every ailment under the sun, There is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.
“There is only one way to happiness,” Epictetus taught the Romans, “and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
“When we stop fighting the inevitable,” said Elsie MacCormick in a Reader’s Digest article, “we release energy which enables us to create a richer life.”
No one living has enough emotion and vigor to fight the inevitable and, at the same time, enough left over to create a new life. Choose one or the other. You can either bend with the inevitable sleetstorms of life—or you can resist them and break!
You and I will last longer, and enjoy smoother riding, if we learn to absorb the shocks and jolts along the rocky road of life.
“Try to bear lightly what needs must be.” Those words were spoken 399 years before Christ was born; but this worrying old world needs those words today more than ever before: “Try to bear lightly what needs must be.”
God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference. To break the worry habit before it breaks you, Rule 4 is: Co-operate with the inevitable.
Whenever we are tempted to throw good money after bad in terms of human living, let’s stop and ask ourselves these three questions: 1. How much does this thing I am worrying about really matter to me? 2. At what point shall I set a “stop-loss” order on this worry—and forget it? 3. Exactly how much shall I pay for this whistle? Have I already paid more than it is worth?
How to Break the Worry Habit Before It Breaks You RULE 1: CROWD WORRY OUT OF YOUR MIND BY KEEPING BUSY. PLENTY OF ACTION IS ONE OF THE BEST THERAPIES EVER DEVISED FOR CURING “WIBBER GIBBERS.” RULE 2: DON’T FUSS ABOUT TRIFLES. DON’T PERMIT LITTLE THINGS—THE MERE TERMITES OF LIFE—TO RUIN YOUR HAPPINESS. RULE 3: USE THE LAW OF AVERAGES TO OUTLAW YOUR WORRIES. ASK YOURSELF: “WHAT ARE THE ODDS AGAINST THIS THING’S HAPPENING AT ALL?” RULE 4: CO-OPERATE WITH THE INEVITABLE. IF YOU KNOW A CIRCUMSTANCE IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO CHANGE OR REVISE, SAY TO YOURSELF: “IT IS SO; IT CANNOT BE OTHERWISE.” RULE
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eight words that can determine your destiny: “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Concern means realizing what the problems are and calmly taking steps to meet them. Worrying means going around in maddening, futile circles.
When their minds were filled with positive thoughts of strength, they increased their actual physical powers almost fifty per cent. Such is the incredible power of our mental attitude.
you took with you the one thing that is the cause of all your trouble, that is, yourself.
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.
You will quickly discover what William James was talking about—that it is physically impossible to remain blue or depressed while you are acting out the symptoms of being radiantly happy!
“A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him…. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are….
Just For Today 1. Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals. 2. Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them. 3. Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my
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When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.
Our hate is not hurting them at all, but our hate is turning our own days and nights into a hellish turmoil.
“The chief personality characteristic of persons with hypertension [high blood pressure] is resentment,” said Life. “When resentment is chronic, chronic hypertension and heart trouble follow.”
“Dad never wastes a minute thinking about people he doesn’t like.”
No one can humiliate or disturb you and me, either—unless we let him. Sticks and stones may break my bones, But words can never hurt me.
One sure way to forgive and forget our enemies is to become absorbed in some cause infinitely bigger than ourselves. Then the insults and the enmities we encounter won’t matter because we will be oblivious of everything but our cause.
To cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness, remember that Rule 2 is: Let’s never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let’s do as General Eisenhower does: let’s never waste a minute thinking about people we don’t like.
Human nature has always been human nature—and it probably won’t change in your lifetime. So why not accept it?
“I am going to meet people today who talk too much—people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed, for I couldn’t imagine a world without such people.”
“The ideal man,” said Aristotle, “takes joy in doing favors for others.”
She thought she was sparing her sons, but, in reality, she was sending them out into life with the dangerous idea that the world owed them a living.
to raise grateful children, we have to be grateful.
A. Instead of worrying about ingratitude, let’s expect it. Let’s remember that Jesus healed ten lepers in one day—and only one thanked Him. Why should we expect more gratitude than Jesus got? B. Let’s remember that the only way to find happiness is not to expect gratitude, but to give for the joy of giving. C. Let’s remember that gratitude is a “cultivated” trait; so if we want our children to be grateful, we must train them to be grateful.
I had the blues because I had no shoes, Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.”
“Think and Thank.” Think of all we have to be grateful for, and thank God for all our boons and bounties.
“The best doctors in the world,” he declared, “are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.”
“There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.”
If we want to stop worrying and start living, Rule 4 is: Count your blessings—not your troubles!
let’s not waste a second worrying because we are not like other people. You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again.
In each chromosome there may be, says Amram Scheinfeld, “anywhere from scores to hundreds of genes—with a single gene, in some cases, able to change the whole life of an individual.” Truly, we are “fearfully and wonderfully” made.
Even after your mother and father met and mated, there was only one chance in 300,000 billion that the person who is specifically you would be born! In other words, if you had 300,000 billion brothers and sisters, they might have all been different from you.
You are something new in this world. Be glad of it. Make the most of what nature gave you. In the last analysis, all art is autobiographical. You can sing only what you are. You can paint only what you are. You must be what your experiences, your environment, and your heredity have made you. For better or for worse, you must cultivate your own little garden. For better or for worse, you must play your own little instrument in the orchestra of life.
To cultivate a mental attitude that will bring us peace and freedom from worry, here is Rule 5: Let’s not imitate others. Let’s find ourselves and be ourselves.
But when the wise man is handed a lemon, he says: “What lesson can I learn from this misfortune? How can I improve my situation? How can I turn this lemon into a lemonade?”
Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.
The Mojave Desert hadn’t changed. But I had. I had changed my attitude of mind. And by doing so, I transformed a wretched experience into the most exciting adventure of my life.
“Happiness is not mostly pleasure; it is mostly victory.” Yes, the victory that comes from a sense of achievement, of triumph, of turning our lemons into lemonades.
“The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; and it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.”
Wherever did we get the idea that secure and pleasant living, the absence of difficulty, and the comfort of ease, ever of themselves made people either good or happy? Upon the contrary, people who pity themselves go on pitying themselves even when they are laid softly on a cushion, but always in history character and happiness have come to people in all sorts of circumstances, good, bad, and indifferent, when they shouldered their personal responsibility. So, repeatedly the north wind has made the Vikings.”
