It has been said, perhaps over and over again, that we are all, more or less, creatures of habit. Undoubtedly there is much truth in the statement. As habit-forming, however, the same as habit-breaking, is purely a mental process, or rather, as it has its origin in mental processes, the question naturally arises—isn’t it better to be masters rather than creatures of habit? Especially apt, moreover, is the question when we realise that in every case to be master is by far more profitable as well as more satisfactory.n7267 ¶1
It rests upon each one to decide whether he or she will become a master or a creature of circumstances. It depends upon the direction in which one sets his face, and how persistently he then follows the road upon which he enters. The facing in the right direction is the main thing. If, then, we have backbone and stamina and a fair degree of good cheer, which if persisted in will lead in time to a persistently merry heart all along the way, there can be but one outcome. It was Holmes who said:n7267 ¶2
“Use the freedom which thy Master gave, (Think’st thou that Heaven can tolerate a slave?) And He who made thee to be just and true Will bless thee, love thee—aye, respect thee too!”n7267 ¶3
“ The key to every man,” said Emerson, “is his thought—sturdy and defiant though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified.” Whichever way we look, we will find that thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human life. As within, so without, it is simply a matter of sequence—it follows the elemental law of cause and effect.n7267 ¶4
That we have the power to determine what types of thought we entertain and live with is one of the tremendous facts of human life—it is the great determining factor. It was that able writer in connection with the mind’s processes in their relation to life, James Allen, who said: “A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and miserable by refusing to live up to his thoughts. . . . Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.”n7267 ¶5
There are certain types of thoughts and emotions that may be called the natural, the normal, the God-intended, as there follows in their train only good. Among these are hope, faith, courage, good cheer, love, sympathy, forgiveness, joy, and peace. They are positive and uplifting and body-building. They seem ta act upon the life forces within so as to stimulate, or even to restore and to maintain, harmony. They stimulate the circulation and the processes of nutrition. They make both for mental and bodily health and strength and vigour.n7267 ¶6
Again there are types of thoughts and emotions that seem to be perversions—the unnatural and abnormal. Among these are fear, worry, long-continued grief, anger, hatred, avarice. All these might be termed either negative or low types of thoughts and emotions. They produce disturbance and generate weakness in both mind and body. They lead to retrogression rather than to growth. Some of them work through a slow, corroding, pulling-down process; while others are more quickacting in their poisoning, destructive influences.n7267 ¶7
There are probably no agencies that cause greater loss and that produce more havoc in the individual life than the two closely allied habits of fear and worry. It is difficult to deal with them apart, so nearly related are they.n7267 ¶8
First in regard to fear. We find it everywhere—fear that what is ours to-day may not be ours to-morrow, fear for the loss of position or possession or friends, fear of accident, fear of disease, fear of death—or if not ourselves, fear that something will befall this one or that one near or dear to us. We fear while inside—we fear that something may happen, though we do not know what. When out on God’s broad highway we fear that the bogyman, whatever form he may take in any particular life, will stalk across our path.n7267 ¶9
We must take ourselves out of the class of the “ afraids ”—the abnormals.n7267 ¶10
The commanding figures in life do not fear.n7267 ¶11
The time others are giving to it, and, therefore, to allowing the neutralising and even paralysing power of this perverted mental force to work its havoc in their lives, they are giving to seeing the ideal they would actualise or attain to, and are then setting into activity strong, definite types of thought-forces that are hourly and even momentarily working for them along the lines they are going.n7267 ¶12
To reach the point where we in time become free from the influence of these two great filchers of effectiveness of human endeavour and of human happiness is, after all, a matter of self-control. Others lack this control in other things, and they pay their heavy tolls. The drunkard lacks this self-control when it comes to a too frequent companionship with his bottle. He pays his price, and many times he would give the world to get from under the grip of his habit. Society then casts its stigma upon him, and he pays the price double-fold. The time, I believe, is coming when he or she who lacks self-control when it comes to these senseless and useless—aye, worse than useless —habits of fear and worry, will have to bear the same stigma that others who lack selfcontrol along other lines are compelled to bear to-day.n7267 ¶13
“It’s so natural for me to worry,” says one, “and I can’t help it.” The first part of the statement may be true in many cases. “ Nonsense!” should be the reply always to the latter part of it. If you think you can’t help it, and if you persist in this thought, the chances are that you can’t, and there is perhaps then no hope for you. But take the other thought—take the thought that you can help it; realise once for all that you can and determine that you will, and if you keep your mind true to that idea and to that purpose, it is simply a matter of time until you will have taken yourself entirely out of the class of the “ afraids,” the “ get-nowheres.”n7267 ¶14
We concern ourselves habitually with so many things that we really need not concern ourselves with. We concern ourselves with so many small matters of mere detail, instead of concerning ourselves primarily with the fundamentals, and allowing the matters of detail to fall in place naturally and of their own accord. The one given to fear or worry concerns himself or herself with a hundred things every day, and some even every night, that there is not the slightest reason for concerning oneself with at all. In a simple, homely way John Vance Cheney put a great truth along this line when he said:n7267 ¶15
“‘ The happiest heart that ever beat Was in some quiet breast, That found the common daylight sweet, And left to Heaven the rest.”n7267 ¶16
“There are two things,” says a thoughtful modern writer, “ which will make us happy in this life, if we attend to them. The first is, never to vex ourselves about what we cannot help; and the second, never to vex ourselves about what we can help.” Happiness always keeps considerably ahead of the one who is given to the habit of either fear or worry.n7267 ¶17
Such a one seems also to have the faculty of helping, at least, to keep it away from others.n7267 ¶18
We all have our weak points; for anything approaching an ideal growth and development and thereby attainment, we must, as we sometimes say, call ourselves up specifically now and then. We get so accustomed to running in ruts that we can never hope for anything other than a limited or a one-sided development, unless we do this occasionally. We must remember that by fear and worry nothing is ever to be gained, but much is always to be lost. By this negative attitude of mind, we open the doors, many times, for the entrance of the very conditions we fear may come upon us.n7267 ¶19
When the fear becomes sufficiently deepseated, we many times invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire. Subtle, but always working and all-powerful are the operations of the thoughts and the emotions, and it is here that we must look for the bulk of whatever comes inf our lives. A deep psychological law was undoubtedly at work in the life of him who said: “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”n7267 ¶20
It would seem almost better that a certain percentage of the things we worry about do come upon us or come about—that they do their worst and be done with it, as we say— rather than that we remain continual slaves to the hosts of things that we fear may come and that we ceaselessly worry about. But the interesting part is that hardly any of these things ever do come. Even the remembrance and the knowledge of this fact do not seem to be able to teach us the folly and the utter uselessness of these habits. How many bridges we cross mentally that we eventually find we really never do have to cross at all!n7267 ¶21
We would not only be surprised, but astounded, if we really knew the number of people who have grown habitually timid in their minds and spirits, and whose bodies have been reduced to a low and sluggish tone _ through these agencies that we are considering. The number who are living way “ below par,” so to speak, both mentally and physically, through them, is simply enormous. In addition to this general lowering of practically all bodily functions and powers, they in thousands of cases localise their effects in specific ailments and diseases, according to the peculiar native weaknesses of the one in whose life they gain a foothold. The law of correspondence is wonderfully exact in its workings.n7267 ¶22
The number of stomach and digestive disorders that are brought about through these channels is simply legion. There are but few people who have at any period in their lives given a place to them who cannot testify to their effects along this particular line. Think also of the vast company of those whose nervous breakdown or whose generally nervedepleted condition is primarily, if not entirely, due to this cause. Their pernicious effects also upon full, deep breathing, which result sometimes in pulmonary troubles, and which always bring about a general lowering of the tone of the system, are also thoroughly well known. The condition of the blood determines to a great extent the condition of the entire physical organism, and there is nothing that will poison and lower its tone more quickly than to rob it of the oxygen that it must have in abundance for the fullest degree of efficiency and health. Thus the entire system becomes depleted. Mind and body are continually acting and reacting upon one another. We must never forget that body helps mind the same as mind builds body.n7267 ¶23
This general low tone and depleted condition in turn leads, and most naturally, to gloominess and to the habit of looking on the dark side of things generally, which robs life of the best there is in it for oneself, and in turn makes us disagreeable, unwelcome, and in time a positive hindrance to all with whom we come in contact. All are in time affected thereby. Little do we actually understand the effects of our prevailing mental and emotional states upon others as well as the effects of those of others upon ourselves. We would probably be much more careful how we live in our thought-world if we did understand this better.n7267 ¶24
This habit grows with increasing years, and through it the best in life is to be lost. There is nothing quite so pleasure-bringing and welcome as an old age that is bright and cheerful, and that has preserved its youthful interest in the best things in life, that is responsible in turn for its attaining to its present state. As the way we have lived our yesterdays has determined for us our to-day, so the way we are living our to-day is determining for us, and with absolute precision, our to-morrow. The only way to come into a happy, wellbalanced, and, therefore, joyous and welcome old age is to come to it through the avenues of the right mental habits of youth and middle age.n7267 ¶25
There is a duty of bravery the same as there is a bravery many times in duty. It’s the duty, and it should be the pleasure, of each while here to think bravely and to live bravely straight through to the end. It’s the manlyn7267 ¶26