Worry

"The forehead wears " Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares."

If it were possible for me to teach humanity how not to worry, I think I would have accomplished a work far-reaching and beneficial in its results. Theoretically it is one of the easiest things in the world to quit worrying, practically it is one of the most difficult things of accomplishment, or it appears to be so, at least.

Worry is hydra-headed in character, proceeding from a hundred causes, conditions and influences, some of which exist before birth.

Worry means to be unduly anxious or troubled, to be in a state of solicitude, anxiety, disquietude, or pain, to make one's self anxious or harassed; to fret from the cares and worries of life. When an animal is "worried" to death, as occurs in the hounding of sheep, by dogs, we have a good illustration of the effect of worry in its meaning - to be suffocated by something stopping the wind - pipe - suffocation by choking. The subject worry is so deep that we can at once plunge into it, and sink out of sight in a few minutes.

The majority of persons are full of worry, the world is full of worry, in fact we live in a very atmosphere of hurry and worry. If we have not inherited worry we acquire it through unnatural conditions of living - at high pressure. Unquestionably overwork of mind or body, or both, are the prime factors responsible for worry, super-inducing a diseased or unhealthy body. There may be exceptions, but these only go to prove the rule.

In general it may be said that worry is a result of ill-health, dependent upon overwork, bodily or mental, or both, in some form or other. Lack of exercise in the open air, combined with mental concentration along some particular line of business or professional work, I believe is responsible for more of the ills of the present generation than any other recognized cause; ills not only of the nervous system but of the organs of digestion and assimilation. In addition to this are the emotional causes of fright, shock, and grief. The poison of la grippe seems to have a specific influence on the nervous centres, and is highly provocative in inducing depressing effects leading to the worrying habit and nervous exhaustion.

Children undoubtedly inherit or acquire bad mental habits from their parents. Many a father and mother, through their incompatibilities, have influenced the lives of their little ones in a way that cannot but manifest itself harmfully in them in their after life. Just as children learn bad dietetic habits from their parents, so do they absorb, imitate or acquire their mental habits or traits, be they good or bad. Worrying parents have worrying children.

Worry-Cure

Worry, or the worrying habit, can be cured; undoubtedly so, but only by a systematic method of training of both body and mind. Worry is a habit of the mind, and is as susceptible to training, subjection and control as is any other individual function of the body.

Worry is a most useless employment. Certainly one should not worry over what can be helped or prevented. If it can be prevented, all that remains to be done is for the individual to do it, and the trouble is ended. If it cannot be prevented, only harm comes from thinking about it.

The individual must be his own physician. He must realize, with every fibre of his being, the utter, absolute uselessness, the sin of worry. He must fully understand that if it were possible for him to spend a thousand years in thinking it out, in worry, it would not change the facts, causes, or conditions, one jot or tittle. One must fully realize and be impressed with all this in his very inmost consciousness before recovery is likely to be an event. When this point is reached, the point where every worrier perceives the absolute senselessness, futility, and foolishness of worrying, the cure of worry will have begun; because just as soon as one realizes that worry is doing harm or injury to him, he at once determines to quit worrying. This beginning of the exercise of will power, the starting of the Motor of Determination which has lain dormant so long, is the weapon which kills the venom of worry. We know that thought, the power of well directed thought is simply marvellous, and always for good; just as we know that badly directed thought is always harmful in its effects. For this reason we must always think health, good health, and if we would think good health, we must always live good health. The two form a chain which cannot well be sundered without producing bad results.

Chronic Invalidism

Imaginary diseases are curable by thinking good health; actual diseases are cured by living good health. All diseases are cured by living and thinking good health. Man has been defined as "a creature looking before and after." Some worriers are living in the past, others are living in the future The former class might as well be philosophical, and remember that what has been done cannot be undone, it might have been worse. The others are crossing bridges before they reach them. To cure one's self of worry is not an easy task. It is not to be moved by two or three applications of any quack philosophy.

The cure of worry must be directed to removing the causes which produce it, whatever they may be. If the general health be below par it must be improved by attention to correct habits of living, as emphasized time and again throughout the pages of this booklet. The digestion must be perfect, otherwise the essential conditions for the cure of worry can never be attained. The care of the body must be the first consideration, because a healthy body has a powerful tendency in producing a similar condition of mind. It is an absolute impossibility for a healthy mind to exist in an unhealthy or diseased body - though there may have been some few exceptions to this rule.