pained my eyes so intensely that, while sitting on the platform, I was compelled to look
at the floor. Yet during my thirty-minute speech, I felt absolutely no pain, and I could
look directly at these lights without any blinking whatever. Then when the assembly was
over, my eyes pained me again.
I thought then that if I could keep my mind strongly concentrated on something, not for
thirty minutes, but for a week, I might be cured. For clearly it was a case of mental
excitement triumphing over a bodily illness.
I had a similar experience later while crossing the ocean. I had an attack of lumbago so
severe that I could not walk. I suffered extreme pain when I tried to stand up straight.
While in that condition, I was invited to give a lecture on shipboard. As soon as I began
to speak, every trace of pain and stiffness left my body; I stood up straight, moved
about with perfect flexibility, and spoke for an hour. When the lecture was over, I
walked away to my stateroom with ease. For a moment, I thought I was cured. But the
cure was only temporary. The lumbago resumed its attack.
These experiences demonstrated to me the vital importance of one's mental attitude.
They taught me the importance of enjoying life while you may. So I live every day now
as if it were the first day I had ever seen and the last I were going to see. I am excited
about the daily adventure of living, and nobody in a state of excitement will be unduly
troubled with worries. I love my daily work as a teacher. I wrote a book entitled The
Excitement of Teaching. Teaching has always been more than an art or an occupation to
me. It is a passion. I love to teach as a painter loves to paint or a singer loves to sing.
Before I get out of bed in the morning, I think with ardent delight of my first group of
students. I have always felt that one of the chief reasons for success in life is
enthusiasm.
2. I have found that I can crowd worry out of mind by reading an absorbing book. When I
was fifty-nine, I had a prolonged nervous breakdown. During that period I began reading
David Alec Wilson's monumental Life of Carlyle. It had a good deal to do with my
convalescence because I became so absorbed in reading it that I forgot my despondency.
3. At another time when I was terribly depressed, I forced myself to become physically
active almost every hour of the day. I played five or six sets of violent games of tennis
every morning, then took a bath, had lunch, and played eighteen holes of golf every
afternoon. On Friday night I danced until one o'clock in the morning. I am a great
believer in working up a tremendous sweat. I found that depression and worry oozed out
of my system with the sweat.
4. I learned long ago to avoid the folly of hurry, rush, and working under tension. I have
always tried to apply the philosophy of Wilbur Cross. When he was Governor of
Connecticut, he said to me: "Sometimes when I have too many things to do all at once, I
sit down and relax and smoke my pipe for an hour and do nothing."
5. I have also learned that patience and time have a way of resolving our troubles. When
I am worried about something, I try to see my troubles in their proper perspective. I say
to myself: "Two months from now I shall not be worrying about this bad break, so why
worry about it now? Why not assume now the same attitude that I will have two months
from now?"
To sum up, here are the five ways in which Professor Phelps banished worry:
1. Live with gusto and enthusiasm: "I live every day as if it were the first day I had ever
seen and the last I were going to see."
2. Read an interesting book: "When I had a prolonged nervous breakdown ... I began
reading ... the Life of Carlyle ... and became so absorbed in reading it that I forgot my
despondency."
3. Play games: "When I was terribly depressed, I forced myself to become physically
active almost every hour of the day."
4. Relax while you work: "I long ago learned to avoid the folly of hurry, rush, and
working under tension."
5. "I try to see my troubles in their proper perspective. I say to myself: 'Two months
from now I shall not be worrying about this bad break, so why worry about it now? Why
not assume now the same attitude that I will have two months from now?'"
~~~~
I Stood Yesterday. I Can Stand Today
By
Dorothy Dix
I have been through the depths of poverty and sickness. When people ask me what has
kept me going through the troubles that come to all of us, I always reply: "I stood
yesterday. I can stand today. And I will not permit myself to think about what might
happen tomorrow."
I have known want and struggle and anxiety and despair. I have always had to work
beyond the limit of my strength. As I look back upon my life, I see it as a battlefield
strewn with the wrecks of dead dreams and broken hopes and shattered illusions-a
battle in which I always fought with the odds tremendously against me, and which has
left me scarred and bruised and maimed and old before my time.
Yet I have no pity for myself; no tears to shed over the past and gone sorrows; no envy
for the women who have been spared all I have gone through. For I have lived. They
only existed. I have drank the cup of life down to its very dregs. They have only sipped
the bubbles on top of it. I know things they will never know. I see things to which they
are blind. It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who get
the broad vision that makes them little sisters to all the world.
I have learned in the great University of Hard Knocks a philosophy that no woman who
has had an easy life ever acquires. I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to
borrow trouble by dreading the morrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes
cowards of us. I put that dread from me because experience has taught me that when
the time comes that I so fear, the strength and wisdom to meet it will be given me.
Little annoyances no longer have the power to affect me. After you have seen your
whole edifice of happiness topple and crash in ruins about you, it never matters to you
again that a servant forgets to put the doilies under the finger bowls, or the cook spills
the soup.
I have learned not to expect too much of people, and so I can still get happiness out of
the friend who isn't quite true to me or the acquaintance who gossips. Above all, I have
acquired a sense of humour, because there were so many things over which I had either
to cry or laugh. And when a woman can joke over her troubles instead of having
hysterics, nothing can ever hurt her much again. I do not regret the hardships I have
known, because through them I have touched life at every point I have lived. And it was
worth the price I had to pay.
Dorothy Dix conquered worry by living in "day-tight" compartments.
~~~~
I Did Mot Expect To Live To See The Dawn
By
J.C. Penney
[On April 14, 1902, a young man with five hundred dollars in cash and a million dollars in
determination opened a drygoods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming-a little mining town of a
thousand people, situated on the old covered-wagon trail laid out by the Lewis and
Clark Expedition. That young man and his wife lived in a half-storey attic above the
store, using a large empty dry-goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs. The
young wife wrapped her baby in a blanket and let it sleep under a counter while she
stood beside it, helping her husband wait on customers. Today the largest chain of drygoods
stores in the world bears that man's name: the J.C. Penney stores-over sixteen
hundred of them covering every state in the Union. I recently had dinner with Mr.
Penney, and he told me about the most dramatic moment of his life.]
Years ago, I passed through a most trying experience. I was worried and desperate. My
worries were not connected in any way whatever with the J. C. Penney Company. That
business was solid and thriving; but I personally had made some unwise commitments
prior to the crash of 1929. Like many other men, I was blamed for conditions for which I
was in no way responsible. I was so harassed with worries that I couldn't sleep, and
developed an extremely painful ailment known as shingles-a red rash and skin eruptions.
I consulted a physician-a man with whom I had gone to high school as a boy in Hamilton,
Missouri: Dr. Elmer Eggleston, a staff physician at the Kellogg Sanatorium in Battle
Creek, Michigan. Dr. Eggleston put me to bed and warned me that I was a very ill man.
A rigid treatment was prescribed. But nothing helped. I got weaker day by day. I was
broken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I
had nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family had
turned against me. One night, Dr, Eggleston gave me a sedative, but the effect soon
wore off and I awoke with an overwhelming conviction that this was my last night of
life. Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I
did not expect to live to see the dawn.
When I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to find that I was still alive. Going
downstairs, I heard singing in a little chapel where devotional exercises were held each
morning. I can still remember the hymn they were singing: "God will take care of you."
Going into the chapel, I listened with a weary heart to the singing, the reading of the
Scripture lesson, and the prayer. Suddenly-something happened. I can't explain it. I can
only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a
dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to
paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realised then that I
alone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to
help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-one
years old, and the most dramatic and glorious twenty minutes of my life were those I
spent in that chapel that morning: "God will take care of you."
J.C. Penney learned to overcome worry almost instantaneously, because he discovered
the one perfect cure.
~~~~
I Go To The Gym To Punch The Bag Or Take A Hike Outdoors
By
Colonel Eddie Eagan
New York Attorney, Rhodes Scholar Chairman, New York State Athletic Commission
Former Olympic Light-Heavyweight Champion of the World
When I find myself worrying and mentally going round in endless circles like a camel
turning a water wheel in Egypt, a good physical work-out helps me to chase those
"blues" away. It may be running or a long hike in the country, or it may be a half-hour of
bag punching or squash tennis at the gymnasium. Whichever it is, physical exercise
clears my mental outlook. On a week-end I do a lot of physical sport, such as a run
around the golf course, a game of paddle tennis, or a ski week-end in the Adirondacks.
By my becoming physically tired, my mind gets a rest from legal problems, so that when
I return to them, my mind has a new zest and power.
Quite often in New York, where I work, there is a chance for me to spend an hour at the
Yale Club gym. No man can worry while he is playing squash tennis or skiing. He is too
busy to worry. The large mental mountains of trouble become minute molehills that
new thoughts and acts quickly smooth down.
I find the best antidote for worry is exercise. Use your muscles more and your brain less
when you are worried, and you will be surprised at the result. It works that way with
me-worry goes when exercise begins.
~~~~
I Was "The Worrying Wreck From Virginia Tech."
By
Jim Birdsall
Plant Superintendent C.F. Muller Company 180 Baldwin Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey
Seventeen years ago, when I was in military college at Blacks-burg, Virginia, I was
known as "the worrying wreck from Virginia Tech". I worried so violently that I often
became ill. In fact, I was ill so often that I had a regular bed reserved for me at the
college infirmary at all times. When the nurse saw me coming, she would run and give
me a hypo. I worried about everything. Sometimes I even forgot what I was worrying
about. I worried for fear I would be busted out of college because of my low grades. I
had failed to pass my examinations in physics and other subjects, too. I knew I had to
maintain an average grade of 75-84. I worried about my health, about my excruciating
attacks of acute indigestion, about my insomnia. I worried about financial matters. I felt
badly because I couldn't buy my girl candy or take her to dances as often as I wanted to.
I worried for fear she would marry one of the other cadets. I was in a lather day and
night over a dozen intangible problems.
In desperation, I poured out my troubles to Professor Duke Baird, professor of business
administration at V.P.I.
The fifteen minutes that I spent with Professor Baird did more for my health and
happiness than all the rest of the four years I spent in college. "Jim," he said, "you ought
to sit down and face the facts. If you devoted half as much time and energy to solving
your problems as you do to worrying about them, you wouldn't have any worries.
Worrying is just a vicious habit you have learned."
He gave me three rules to break the worry habit:
Rule 1. Find out precisely what is the problem you are worrying about.
Rule 2. Find out the cause of the problem.
Rule 3. Do something constructive at once about solving the problem.
After that interview, I did a bit of constructive planning. Instead of worrying because I
had failed to pass physics, I now asked myself why I had failed. I knew it wasn't because
I was dumb, for I was editor-in-chief of The Virginia Tech Engineer.
I figured that I had failed physics because I had no interest in the subject. I had not
applied myself because I couldn't see how it would help me in my work as an industrial
engineer. But now I changed my attitude. I said to myself: "If the college authorities
demand that I pass my physics examination before I obtain a degree, who am I to
question their wisdom?"
So I enrolled for physics again. This time I passed because instead of wasting my time in
resentment and worrying about how hard it was, I studied diligently.
I solved my financial worries by taking on some additional jobs, such as selling punch at
the college dances, and by borrowing money from my father, which I paid back soon
after graduation.
I solved my love worries by proposing to the girl that I feared might marry another
cadet. She is now Mrs. Jim Birdsall.
As I look back at it now, I can see that my problem was one of confusion, a
disinclination to find the causes of my worry and face them realistically.
Jim Birdsall learned to stop worrying because he ANALYSED his troubles. In fact, he used
the very principles described in the chapter "How to Analyse and Solve Worry Problems."
~~~~
I Have Lived By This Sentence
By
Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo
President, New Brunswick Theological Seminary (The oldest theological seminary in the
United States, founded in 1784)
Years ago, in a day of uncertainty and disillusionment, when my whole life seemed to be
overwhelmed by forces beyond my control, one morning quite casually I opened my New
Testament and my eyes fell upon this sentence: "He that sent me is with me-the Father
hath not left me alone." My life has never been the same since that hour. Everything for
me has been for ever different after that. I suppose that not a day has passed that I
have not repeated it to myself. Many have come to me for counseling during these
years, and I have always sent them away with this sustaining sentence. Ever since that
hour when my eyes fell upon it, I have lived by this sentence. I have walked with it and I
have found in it my peace and strength. To me it is the very essence of religion. It lies
at the rock bottom of everything that makes life worth living. It is the Golden Text of
my life.
~~~~
I Hit Bottom And Survived
By
Ted Ericksen
16,237 South Cornuta Avenue, Bellflower, California Southern California Representative
National Enameling and Stamping Company
I used to be a terrible "worry wart". But no more. In the summer of 1942, I had an
experience that banished worry from my life-for all time; I hope. That experience made
every other trouble seem small by comparison.
For years I had wanted to spend a summer on a commercial fishing craft in Alaska, so in
1942 I signed on a thirty-two-foot salmon seining vessel out of Kodiak, Alaska. On a craft
of this size, there is a crew of only three: the skipper who does the supervising, a No. 2
man who assists the skipper, and a general work horse, who is usually a Scandinavian. I
am a Scandinavian.
Since salmon seining has to be done with the tides, I often worked twenty hours out of
twenty-four. I kept up that schedule for a week at a time. I did everything that nobody
else wanted to do. I washed the craft. I put away the gear. I cooked on a little woodburning
stove in a small cabin where the heat and fumes of the motor almost made me
ill. I washed the dishes. I repaired the boat. I pitched the salmon from our boat into a
tender that took the fish to a cannery. My feet were always wet in rubber boots. My
boots were often filled with water, but I had no time to empty them. But all that was
play compared to my main job, which was pulling what is called the "cork line". That
operation simply means placing your feet on the stem of the craft and pulling in the
corks and the webbing of the net. At least, that is what you are supposed to do. But, in
reality, the net was so heavy that when I tried to pull it in, it wouldn't budge. What
really happened was that in trying to pull in the cork line, I actually pulled in the boat. I
pulled it along on my own power, since the net stayed where it was. I did all this for
weeks on end It was almost the end of me, too. I ached horribly. I ached all over. I
ached for months.
When I finally did have a chance to rest, I slept on a damp lumpy mattress piled on top
of the provisions locker. I would put one of the lumps in the mattress under the part of
my back that hurt most-and sleep as if I had been dragged. I was drugged by complete
exhaustion.
I am glad now that I had to endure all that aching and exhaustion because it has helped
me stop worrying. Whenever I am confronted by a problem now-instead of worrying
about it, I say to myself: "Ericksen, could this possibly be as bad as pulling the cork
line?" And Ericksen invariably answers: "No, nothing could be that bad!" So I cheer up
and tackle it with courage. I believe it is a good thing to have to endure an agonising
experience occasionally. It is good to know that we have hit bottom and survived. That
makes all our daily problems seem easy by comparison.
~~~~
I Used To Be One Of The World's Biggest Jackasses
By
Percy H. Whiting
Managing Director, Dale Carnegie and Company 50 East 42nd Street, New York, New
York
I have died more times from more different diseases than any other man, living, dead,
or half dead.
I was no ordinary hypochondriac. My father owned a drug-store, and I was practically
brought up in it. I talked to doctors and nurses every day, so I knew the names and
symptoms of more and worse diseases than the average layman. I was no ordinary hypo-I
had symptoms! I could worry for an hour or two over a disease and then have practically
all the symptoms of a man who was suffering from it. I recall once that, in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts, the town in which I lived, we had a rather severe diphtheria
epidemic. In my father's drug-store, I had been selling medicines day after day to people
who came from infected homes. Then the evil that I feared came upon me: I had
diphtheria myself. I was positive I had it. I went to bed and worried myself into the
standard symptoms. I sent for a doctor. He looked me over and said: "Yes, Percy, you've
got it." That relieved my mind. I was never afraid of any disease when I had it-so I
turned over and went to sleep. The next morning I was in perfect health.
For years I distinguished myself and got a lot of attention and sympathy by specialising
in unusual and fantastic disease-I died several times of both lockjaw and hydrophobia.
Later on, I settled down to having the run-of-mill ailments-specialising on cancer and
tuberculosis.
I can laugh about it now, but it was tragic then. I honestly and literally feared for years
that I was walking on the edge of the grave. When it came time to buy a suit of clothes
in the spring, I would ask myself: "Should I waste this money when I know I can't possibly
live to wear this suit out?"
However, I am happy to report progress: in the past ten years, I haven't died even once.
How did I stop dying? By kidding myself out of my ridiculous imaginings. Every time I felt
the dreadful symptoms coming on, I laughed at myself and said: "See here, Whiting, you
have been dying from one fatal disease after another now for twenty years, yet you are
in first-class health today. An insurance company recently accepted you for more
insurance. Isn't it about time, Whiting, that you stood aside and had a good laugh at the
worrying jackass you are?"
I soon found that I couldn't worry about myself and laugh at myself at one and the same
time. So I've been laughing at myself ever since.
The point of this is: Don't take yourself too seriously. Try "just laughing" at some of your
sillier worries, and see if you can't laugh them out of existence.
~~~~
I Have Always Tried To Keep My Line Of Supplies Open"
By
Gene Autry
The world's most famous and beloved singing cowboy
I figure that most worries are about family troubles and money. I was fortunate in
marrying a small-town Oklahoma girl who had the same background I had and enjoyed
the same things. We both try to follow the golden rule, so we have kept our family
troubles to a minimum.
I have kept my financial worries to a minimum also by doing two things. First, I have
always followed a rule of absolute one hundred per cent integrity in everything. When I
borrowed money, I paid back every penny. Few things cause more worry than
dishonesty.
Second, when I started a new venture, I always kept on ace in the hole. Military experts
say that the first principle of fighting a battle is to keep your line of supplies open. I
figure that that principle applies to personal battles almost as much as to military
battles. For example, as a lad down in Texas and Oklahoma, I saw some real poverty
when the country was devastated by droughts. We had mighty hard scratching at times
to make a living. We were so poor that my father used to drive across the country in a
covered wagon with a string of horses and swap horses to make a living. I wanted
