Edison attributed his enormous energy and endurance to his habit of sleeping whenever
he wanted to.
I interviewed Henry Ford shortly before his eightieth birthday. I was surprised to see
how fresh and fine he looked. I asked him the secret. He said: "I never stand up when I
can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down."
Horace Mann, "the father of modern education", did the same thing as he grew older.
When he was president of Antioch College, he used to stretch out on a couch while
interviewing students.
I persuaded a motion-picture director in Hollywood to try a similar technique. He
confessed that it worked miracles. I refer to Jack Chertock, who is now one of Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer's top directors. When he came to see me a few years ago, he was then
head of the short-feature department of M-G-M. Worn out and exhausted, he had tried
everything: tonics, vitamins, medicine. Nothing helped much. I suggested that he take a
vacation every day. How? By stretching out in his office and relaxing while holding
conferences with his staff writers.
When I saw him again, two years later, he said: "A miracle has happened. That is what
my own physicians call it. I used to sit up in my chair, tense and taut, while discussing
ideas for our short features. Now I stretch out on the office couch during these
conferences. I feel better than I have felt in twenty years. Work two hours a day longer,
yet I rarely get tired."
How does all this apply to you? If you are a stenographer, you can't take naps in the
office as Edison did, and as Sam Goldwyn does; and if you are an accountant, you can't
stretch out on the couch while discussing a financial statement with the boss. But if you
live in a small city and go home for lunch, you may be able to take a ten-minute nap
after lunch. That is what General George C. Marshall used to do. He felt he was so busy
directing the U.S. Army in wartime that he had to rest at noon. If you are over fifty and
feel you are too rushed to do it, then buy immediately all the life insurance you can get.
Funerals come high-and suddenly-these days; and the little woman may want to take
your insurance money and marry a younger man!
If you can't take a nap at noon, you can at least try to lie down for an hour before the
evening meal. It is cheaper than a highball; and, over a long stretch, it is 5,467 times
more effective. If you can sleep for an hour around five, six, or seven o'clock, you can
add one hour a day to your waking life. Why? How? Because an hour's nap before the
evening meal plus six hours' sleep at night-a total of seven hours-will do you more good
than eight hours of unbroken sleep.
A physical worker can do more work if he takes more time out for rest. Frederick Taylor
demonstrated that while working as a scientific management engineer with the
Bethlehem Steel Company. He observed that labouring men were loading approximately
12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per man each day on freight cars and that they were exhausted
at noon. He made a scientific study of all the fatigue factors involved, and declared that
these men should be loading not 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per day, but forty-seven tons
per day! He figured that they ought to do almost four times as much as they were doing,
and not be exhausted. But prove it!
Taylor selected a Mr. Schmidt who was required to work by the stop-watch. Schmidt was
told by the man who stood over him with a watch: "Now pick up a 'pig' and walk. ... Now
sit down and rest. ... Now walk. ... Now rest."
What happened? Schmidt carried forty-seven tons of pig-iron each day while the other
men carried only 12 1/2 tons per man. And he practically never failed to work at this
pace during the three years that Frederick Taylor was at Bethlehem. Schmidt was able
to do this because he rested before he got tired. He worked approximately 26 minutes
out of the hour and rested 34 minutes. He rested more than he worked-yet he did
almost four times as much work as the others! Is this mere hearsay? No, you can read
the record yourself in Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Let me repeat: do what the Army does-take frequent rests. Do what your heart doesrest
before you get tired, and you will add one hour a day to your waking life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 24: What Makes You Tired-and What You Can Do About It
Here is an astounding and significant fact: Mental work alone can't make you tired.
Sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human
brain could labour without reaching "a diminished capacity for work", the scientific
definition of fatigue. To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood
passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If you took blood
from the veins of a day labourer while he was working, you would find it full of "fatigue
toxins" and fatigue products. But if you took a drop of blood from the brain of an Albert
Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins whatever at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work "as well and as swiftly at the end of eight
or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning". The brain is utterly tireless. ... So
what makes you tired?
Psychiatrists declare that most of our fatigue derives from our mental and emotional
attitudes. One of England's most distinguished psychiatrists, J.A. Hadfield, says in his
book The Psychology of Power: "the greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is
of mental origin; in fact exhaustion of purely physical origin is rare."
One of America's most distinguished psychiatrists, Dr. A.A. Brill, goes even further. He
declares: "One hundred per cent of the fatigue of the sedentary worker in good health is
due to psychological factors, by which we mean emotional factors."
What kinds of emotional factors tire the sedentary (or sitting) worker? Joy?
Contentment? No! Never! Boredom, resentment, a feeling of not being appreciated, a
feeling of futility, hurry, anxiety, worry-those are the emotional factors that exhaust
the sitting worker, make him susceptible to colds, reduce his output, and send him
home with a nervous headache. Yes, we get tired because our emotions produce
nervous tensions in the body.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company pointed that out in a leaflet on fatigue: "Hard
work by itself," says this great life-insurance company, "seldom causes fatigue which
cannot be cured by a good sleep or rest. ... Worry, tenseness, and emotional upsets are
three of the biggest causes of fatigue. Often they are to blame when physical or mental
work seems to be the cause. ... Remember that a tense muscle is a working muscle.
Ease up! Save energy for important duties."
Stop now, right where you are, and give yourself a check-up. As you read these lines,
are you scowling at the book? Do you feel a strain between the eyes? Are you sitting
relaxed in your chair? Or are you hunching up your shoulders? Are the muscles of your
face tense? Unless your entire body is as limp and relaxed as an old rag doll, you are at
this very moment producing nervous tensions and muscular tensions. You are producing
nervous tensions and nervous fatigue!
Why do we produce these unnecessary tensions in doing mental work? Josselyn says: "I
find that the chief obstacle ... is the almost universal belief that hard work requires a
feeling of effort, else it is not well done." So we scowl when we concentrate. We hunch
up our shoulders. We call on our muscles to make the motion of effort, which in no way
assists our brain in its work.
Here is an astonishing and tragic truth: millions of people who wouldn't dream of
wasting dollars go right on wasting and squandering their energy with the recklessness
of seven drunken sailors in Singapore.
What is the answer to this nervous fatigue? Relax! Relax! Relax! Learn to relax while you
are doing your work!
Easy? No. You will probably have to reverse the habits of a lifetime. But it is worth the
effort, for it may revolutionise your life! William James said, in his essay "The Gospel of
Relaxation": "The American over-tension and jerkiness and breathlessness and intensity
and agony of expression ... are bad habits, nothing more or less." Tension is a habit.
Relaxing is a habit. And bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.
How do you relax? Do you start with your mind, or do you start with your nerves? You
don't start with either. You always begin to relax with your muscles!
Let's give it a try. To show how it is done, suppose we start with your eyes. Read this
paragraph through, and when you've reached the end, lean back, close your eyes, and
say to your eyes silently: "Let go. Let go. Stop straining, stop frowning. Let go. Let go."
Repeat that over and over very slowly for a minute ....
Didn't you notice that after a few seconds the muscles of the eyes began to obey? Didn't
you feel as though some hand had wiped away the tension? Well, incredible as it seems,
you have sampled in that one minute the whole key and secret to the art of relaxing.
You can do the same thing with the jaw, with the muscles of the face, with the neck,
with the shoulders, the whole of the body. But the most important organ of all is the
eye. Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago has gone so far as to say that if
you can completely relax the muscles of the eyes, you can forget all your troubles! The
reason the eyes are so important in relieving nervous tension is that they burn up onefourth
of all the nervous energies consumed by the body. That is also why so many
people with perfectly sound vision suffer from "eyestrain". They are tensing the eyes.
Vicki Baum, the famous novelist, says that when she was a child, she met an old man
who taught her one of the most important lessons she ever learned. She had fallen down
and cut her knees and hurt her wrist. The old man picked her up; he had once been a
circus clown; and, as he brushed her off, he said: "The reason you injured yourself was
because you don't know how to relax. You have to pretend you are as limp as a sock, as
an old crumpled sock. Come, I'll show you how to do it."
That old man taught Vicki Baum and the other children how to fall, how to do flip-flops,
and how to turn somersaults. And always he insisted: "Think of yourself as an old
crumpled sock. Then you've got to relax!"
You can relax in odd moments, almost anywhere you are. Only don't make an effort to
relax. Relaxation is the absence of all tension and effort. Think ease and relaxation.
Begin by thinking relaxation of the muscles of your eyes and your face, saying over and
over: "Let go ... let go ... let go and relax." Feel the energy flowing out of your facial
muscles to the centre of your body. Think of yourself as free from tension as a baby.
That is what Galli-Curci, the great soprano, used to do. Helen Jepson told me that she
used to see Galli-Curci before a performance, sitting in a chair with all her muscles
relaxed and her lower jaw so limp it actually sagged. An excellent practice-it kept her
from becoming too nervous before her stage entrance; it prevented fatigue.
Here are five suggestions that will help you learn to relax:
1. Read one of the best books ever written on this subject: Release from Nervous
Tension, by Dr. David Harold Fink.
2. Relax in odd moments. Let your body go limp like an old sock. I keep an old, marooncoloured
sock on my desk as I work-keep it there as a reminder of how limp I ought to
be. If you haven't got a sock, a cat will do. Did you ever pick up a kitten sleeping in the
sunshine? If so, both ends sagged like a wet newspaper. Even the yogis in India say that
if you want to master the art of relaxation, study the cat. I never saw a tired cat, a cat
with a nervous breakdown, or a cat suffering from insomnia, worry, or stomach ulcers.
You will probably avoid these disasters if you learn to relax as the cat does.
3. Work, as much as possible, in a comfortable position. Remember that tensions in the
body produce aching shoulders and nervous fatigue.
4. Check yourself four or five times a day, and say to yourself: "Am I making my work
harder than it actually is? Am I using muscles that have nothing to do with the work I am
doing?" This will help you form the habit of relaxing, and as Dr. David Harold Fink says:
"Among those who know psychology best, it is habits two to one."
5. Test yourself again at the end of the day, by asking yourself: "Just how tired am I? If I
am tired, it is not because of the mental work I have done but because of the way I
have done it." "I measure my accomplishments," says Daniel W. Josselyn, "not by how
tired I am at the end of the day, but how tired I am not." He says: "When I feel
particularly tired at the end of the day, or when irritability proves that my nerves are
tired, I know beyond question that it has been an inefficient day both as to quantity and
quality." If every business man would learn that same lesson, the death rate from
"hypertension" diseases would drop overnight. And we would stop filling up our
sanatoriums and asylums with men who have been broken by fatigue and worry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 25: How The Housewife Can Avoid Fatigue-and Keep Looking Young
One day last autumn, my associate flew up to Boston to attend a session of one of the
most unusual medical classes in the world. Medical? Well, yes, it meets once a week at
the Boston Dispensary, and the patients who attend it get regular and thorough medical
examinations before they are admitted. But actually this class is a psychological clinic.
Although it is officially called the Class in Applied Psychology (formerly the Thought
Control Class-a name suggested by the first member), its real purpose is to deal with
people who are ill from worry. And many of these patients are emotionally disturbed
housewives.
How did such a class for worriers get started? Well, in 1930, Dr. Joseph H. Pratt-who, by
the way, had been a pupil of Sir William Osier-observed that many of the outpatients
who came to the Boston Dispensary apparently had nothing wrong with them at all
physically; yet they had practically all the symptoms that flesh is heir to. One woman's
hands were so crippled with "arthritis" that she had lost all use of them. Another was in
agony with all the excruciating symptoms of "cancer of the stomach". Others had
backaches, headaches, were chronically tired, or had vague aches and pains. They
actually felt these pains. But the most exhaustive medical examinations showed that
nothing whatever was wrong with these women-in the physical sense. Many oldfashioned
doctors would have said it was all imagination-"all in the mind".
But Dr. Pratt realised that it was no use to tell these patients to "go home and forget it".
He knew that most of these women didn't want to be sick; if it was so easy to forget
their ailments, they would do so themselves. So what could be done?
He opened his class-to a chorus of doubts from the medical doubters on the sidelines.
And the class worked wonders! In the eighteen years that have passed since it started,
thousands of patients have been "cured" by attending it. Some of the patients have been
coming for years-as religious in their attendance as though going to church. My assistant
talked to a woman who had hardly missed a session in more than nine years. She said
that when she first went to the clinic, she was thoroughly convinced she had a floating
kidney and some kind of heart ailment. She was so worried and tense that she
occasionally lost her eyesight and had spells of blindness. Yet today she is confident and
cheerful and in excellent health. She looked only about forty, yet she held one of her
grandchildren asleep in her lap. "I used to worry so much about my family troubles," she
said, "that I wished I could die. But I learned at this clinic the futility of worrying. I
learned to stop it. And I can honestly say now that my life is serene."
Dr. Rose Hilferding, the medical adviser of the class, said that she thought one of the
best remedies for lightening worry is "talking your troubles over with someone you trust.
We call it catharsis," she said. "When patients come here, they can talk their troubles
over at length, until they get them off their minds. Brooding over worries alone, and
keeping them to oneself, causes great nervous tension. We all have to share our
troubles. We have to share worry. We have to feel there is someone in the world who is
willing to listen and able to understand."
My assistant witnessed the great relief that came to one woman from talking out her
worries. She had domestic worries, and when she first began to talk, she was like a
wound-up spring. Then gradually, as she kept on talking, she began to calm down. At
the end of the interview, she was actually smiling. Had the problem been solved? No, it
wasn't that easy. What caused the change was talking to someone, getting a little
advice and a little human sympathy. What had really worked the change was the
tremendous healing value that lies in-words!
Psycho-analysis is based, to some extent, on this healing power of words. Ever since the
days of Freud, analysts have known that a patient could find relief from his inner
anxieties if he could talk, just talk. Why is this so? Maybe because by talking, we gain a
little better insight into our troubles, get a better perspective. No one knows the whole
answer. But all of us know that "spitting it out" or "getting it off our chests" bring almost
instant relief.
So the next time we have an emotional problem, why don't we look around for someone
to talk to? I don't mean, of course, to go around making pests of ourselves by whining
and complaining to everyone in sight. Let's decide on someone we can trust, and make
an appointment. Maybe a relative, a doctor, a lawyer, a minister, or priest. Then say to
that person: "I want your advice. I have a problem, and I wish you would listen while I
put it in words. You may be able to advise me. You may see angles to this thing that I
can't see myself. But even if you can't, you will help me tremendously if you will just sit
and listen while I talk it out."
However, if you honestly feel that there is no one you can talk to, then let me tell you
about the Save-a-Life League-it has no connection with the Boston Dispensary. The
Save-a-Life League is one of the most unusual leagues in the world. It was originally
formed to save possible suicides. But as the years went on, it expanded its scope to give
spiritual counsel to those who are unhappy and in emotional need. I talked for some
time to Miss Lona B. Bonnell, who interviews people who come for advice to the Save-a-
Life League. She told me that she would be glad to answer letters from readers of this
book. If you write to the Save-a-Life League, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York City, your
letter and your troubles will be held in strictest confidence. Frankly, I would advise you
to go to someone you can talk to in person if you can, for that will give you greater
relief. But if that is out of the question, then why not write to this league?
Talking things out, then, is one of the principle therapies used at the Boston Dispensary
Class. But here are some other ideas we picked up at the class-things you, as a
housewife, can do in your home.
1. Keep a notebook or scrapbook 'for "inspirational" reading. Into this book you can paste
all the poems, or short prayers, or quotations, which appeal to you personally and give
you a lift. Then, when a rainy afternoon sends your spirits plunging down, perhaps you
can find a recipe in this book for dispelling the gloom. Many patients at the Dispensary
have kept such notebooks for years. They say it is a spiritual "shot in the arm".
2. Don't dwell too long on the shortcomings of others! Sure, your husband has faults! If
he had been a saint, he never would have married you. Right? One woman at the class
who found herself developing into a scolding, nagging, and haggard-faced wife, was
brought up short with the question: "What would you do if your husband died?" She was
so shocked by the idea that she immediately sat down and drew up a list of all her
husband's good points. She made quite a list. Why don't you try the same thing the next
time you feel you married a tight-fisted tyrant? Maybe you'll find, after reading his
virtues, that he's a man you'd like to meet!
3. Get interested in your neighbours! Develop a friendly, healthy interest in the people
who share the life on your street. One ailing woman who felt herself so "exclusive" that
she hadn't any friends, was told to try to make up a story about the next person she
met. She began, in the street-car, to weave backgrounds and settings for the people she
saw. She tried to imagine what their lives had been like. First thing you know, she was
talking to people everywhere-and today she is happy, alert, and a charming human
being cured of her "pains".
4. Make up a schedule for tomorrow's work before you go to bed tonight. The class
found that many wives feel driven and harassed by the unending round of housework
and things they must do. They never got their work finished. They were chased by the
clock. To cure this sense of hurry, and worry, the suggestion was made that they draw
up a schedule each night for the following day. What happened? More work
accomplished; much less fatigue; a feeling of pride and achievement; and time left over
to rest and to "primp". (Every woman ought to take some time out in the course of the
day to primp and look pretty. My own guess is that when a woman knows she looks
pretty, she has little use for "nerves".)
5. Finally-avoid tension and fatigue. Relax! Relax! Nothing will make you look old sooner
than tension and fatigue. Nothing will work such havoc with your freshness and looks!
My assistant sat for an hour in the Boston Thought Control Class, while Professor Paul E.
Johnson, the director, went over many of the principles we have already discussed in
the previous chapter-the rules for relaxing. At the end of ten minutes of these relaxing
exercises, which my assistant did with the others, she was almost asleep sitting upright
in her chair! Why is such stress laid on this physical relaxing? Because the clinic knowsas
other doctors know-that if you're going to get the worry-kinks out of people, they've
got to relax!
Yes, you, as a housewife, have got to relax! You have one great advantage-you can lie
down whenever you want to, and you can lie on the floor! Strangely enough, a good
hard floor is better to relax on than an inner-spring bed. It gives more resistance. It is
good for the spine.
All right, then, here are some exercises you can do in your home. Try them for a weekand
see what you do for your looks and disposition!
a. Lie flat on the floor whenever you feel tired. Stretch as tall as you can. Roll around if
you want to. Do it twice a day.
6. Close your eyes. You might try saying, as Professor Johnson recommended, something
like this: ' 'The sun is shining overhead. The sky is blue and sparkling. Nature is calm and
in control of the world-and I, as nature's child, am in tune with the Universe." Or-better
still-pray!
c. If you cannot lie down, because the roast is in the oven and you can't spare the time,
then you can achieve almost the same effect sitting down in a chair. A hard, upright
chair is the best for relaxing. Sit upright in the chair like a seated Egyptian statue, and
let your hands rest, palms down, on the tops of your thighs.
d. Now, slowly tense the toes-then let them relax. Tense the muscles in your legs-and
let them relax. Do this slowly upward, with all the muscles of your body, until you get
to the neck. Then let your head roll around heavily, as though it were a football. Keep
saying to your muscles (as in the previous chapter): "Let go ... let go ..."
e. Quiet your nerves with slow, steady breathing. Breathe from deep down. The yogis of
India were right: rhythmical breathing is one of the best methods ever discovered for
soothing the nerves.
f. Think of the wrinkles and frowns in your face, and smooth them all out. Loosen up the
worry-creases you feel between your brows, and at the sides of your mouth. Do this
twice a day, and maybe you won't have to go to a beauty parlour to get a massage.
Maybe the lines will disappear from the inside out!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 26: Four Good Working Habits That Will Help Prevent Fatigue And Worry
Good Working Habit No. 1: Clear Your Desk of All Papers Except Those Relating to the
Immediate Problem at Hand.
Roland L. Williams, President of Chicago and North-western Railway, says: "A person
with his desk piled high with papers on various matters will find his work much easier
and more accurate if he clears that desk of all but the immediate problem on hand. I
call this good housekeeping, and it is the number-one step towards efficiency."
If you visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., you will find five words painted
on the ceiling-five words written by the poet Pope:
"Order is Heaven's first law."
Order ought to be the first law of business, too. But is it? No, the average business man's
desk is cluttered up with papers that he hasn't looked at for weeks. In fact, the
publisher of a New Orleans newspaper once told me that his secretary cleared up one of
his desks and found a typewriter that had been missing for two years!
The mere sight of a desk littered with unanswered mail and reports and memos is
enough to breed confusion, tension, and worries. It is much worse than that. The
constant reminder of "a million things to do and no time to do them" can worry you not
only into tension and fatigue, but it can also worry you into high blood pressure, heart
trouble, and stomach ulcers.
Dr. John H. Stokes, professor, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania,
