Edison attributed his enormous energy and endurance to his habit of sleeping wheneverhe wanted to.I interviewed Henry Ford shortly before his eightieth birthday. I was surprised to seehow fresh and fine he looked. I asked him the secret. He said: "I never stand up when Ican 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 whileinterviewing students.I persuaded a motion-picture director in Hollywood to try a similar technique. Heconfessed 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 thenhead of the short-feature department of M-G-M. Worn out and exhausted, he had triedeverything: tonics, vitamins, medicine. Nothing helped much. I suggested that he take avacation every day. How? By stretching out in his office and relaxing while holdingconferences with his staff writers.When I saw him again, two years later, he said: "A miracle has happened. That is whatmy own physicians call it. I used to sit up in my chair, tense and taut, while discussingideas for our short features. Now I stretch out on the office couch during theseconferences. 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 theoffice as Edison did, and as Sam Goldwyn does; and if you are an accountant, you can'tstretch out on the couch while discussing a financial statement with the boss. But if youlive in a small city and go home for lunch, you may be able to take a ten-minute napafter lunch. That is what General George C. Marshall used to do. He felt he was so busydirecting the U.S. Army in wartime that he had to rest at noon. If you are over fifty andfeel 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 takeyour 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 theevening meal. It is cheaper than a highball; and, over a long stretch, it is 5,467 timesmore effective. If you can sleep for an hour around five, six, or seven o'clock, you canadd one hour a day to your waking life. Why? How? Because an hour's nap before theevening meal plus six hours' sleep at night-a total of seven hours-will do you more goodthan eight hours of unbroken sleep.A physical worker can do more work if he takes more time out for rest. Frederick Taylordemonstrated that while working as a scientific management engineer with theBethlehem Steel Company. He observed that labouring men were loading approximately12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per man each day on freight cars and that they were exhaustedat noon. He made a scientific study of all the fatigue factors involved, and declared thatthese men should be loading not 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per day, but forty-seven tonsper 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 wastold by the man who stood over him with a watch: "Now pick up a 'pig' and walk. ... Nowsit down and rest. ... Now walk. ... Now rest."What happened? Schmidt carried forty-seven tons of pig-iron each day while the othermen carried only 12 1/2 tons per man. And he practically never failed to work at thispace during the three years that Frederick Taylor was at Bethlehem. Schmidt was ableto do this because he rested before he got tired. He worked approximately 26 minutesout of the hour and rested 34 minutes. He rested more than he worked-yet he didalmost four times as much work as the others! Is this mere hearsay? No, you can readthe 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 doesrestbefore 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 ItHere 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 humanbrain could labour without reaching "a diminished capacity for work", the scientificdefinition of fatigue. To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that bloodpassing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If you took bloodfrom the veins of a day labourer while he was working, you would find it full of "fatiguetoxins" and fatigue products. But if you took a drop of blood from the brain of an AlbertEinstein, 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 eightor even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning". The brain is utterly tireless. ... Sowhat makes you tired?Psychiatrists declare that most of our fatigue derives from our mental and emotionalattitudes. One of England's most distinguished psychiatrists, J.A. Hadfield, says in hisbook The Psychology of Power: "the greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer isof 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. Hedeclares: "One hundred per cent of the fatigue of the sedentary worker in good health isdue 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, afeeling of futility, hurry, anxiety, worry-those are the emotional factors that exhaustthe sitting worker, make him susceptible to colds, reduce his output, and send himhome with a nervous headache. Yes, we get tired because our emotions producenervous tensions in the body.The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company pointed that out in a leaflet on fatigue: "Hardwork by itself," says this great life-insurance company, "seldom causes fatigue whichcannot be cured by a good sleep or rest. ... Worry, tenseness, and emotional upsets arethree of the biggest causes of fatigue. Often they are to blame when physical or mentalwork 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 sittingrelaxed in your chair? Or are you hunching up your shoulders? Are the muscles of yourface tense? Unless your entire body is as limp and relaxed as an old rag doll, you are atthis very moment producing nervous tensions and muscular tensions. You are producingnervous tensions and nervous fatigue!Why do we produce these unnecessary tensions in doing mental work? Josselyn says: "Ifind that the chief obstacle ... is the almost universal belief that hard work requires afeeling of effort, else it is not well done." So we scowl when we concentrate. We hunchup our shoulders. We call on our muscles to make the motion of effort, which in no wayassists our brain in its work.Here is an astonishing and tragic truth: millions of people who wouldn't dream ofwasting dollars go right on wasting and squandering their energy with the recklessnessof seven drunken sailors in Singapore.What is the answer to this nervous fatigue? Relax! Relax! Relax! Learn to relax while youare doing your work!Easy? No. You will probably have to reverse the habits of a lifetime. But it is worth theeffort, for it may revolutionise your life! William James said, in his essay "The Gospel ofRelaxation": "The American over-tension and jerkiness and breathlessness and intensityand 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? Youdon'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 thisparagraph through, and when you've reached the end, lean back, close your eyes, andsay 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'tyou 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 theeye. Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago has gone so far as to say that ifyou can completely relax the muscles of the eyes, you can forget all your troubles! Thereason the eyes are so important in relieving nervous tension is that they burn up onefourthof all the nervous energies consumed by the body. That is also why so manypeople 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 manwho taught her one of the most important lessons she ever learned. She had fallen downand cut her knees and hurt her wrist. The old man picked her up; he had once been acircus clown; and, as he brushed her off, he said: "The reason you injured yourself wasbecause you don't know how to relax. You have to pretend you are as limp as a sock, asan 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 oldcrumpled sock. Then you've got to relax!"You can relax in odd moments, almost anywhere you are. Only don't make an effort torelax. 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 andover: "Let go ... let go ... let go and relax." Feel the energy flowing out of your facialmuscles 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 sheused to see Galli-Curci before a performance, sitting in a chair with all her musclesrelaxed and her lower jaw so limp it actually sagged. An excellent practice-it kept herfrom 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 NervousTension, by Dr. David Harold Fink.2. Relax in odd moments. Let your body go limp like an old sock. I keep an old, marooncolouredsock on my desk as I work-keep it there as a reminder of how limp I ought tobe. If you haven't got a sock, a cat will do. Did you ever pick up a kitten sleeping in thesunshine? If so, both ends sagged like a wet newspaper. Even the yogis in India say thatif you want to master the art of relaxation, study the cat. I never saw a tired cat, a catwith 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 thebody produce aching shoulders and nervous fatigue.4. Check yourself four or five times a day, and say to yourself: "Am I making my workharder than it actually is? Am I using muscles that have nothing to do with the work I amdoing?" 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 Iam tired, it is not because of the mental work I have done but because of the way Ihave done it." "I measure my accomplishments," says Daniel W. Josselyn, "not by howtired I am at the end of the day, but how tired I am not." He says: "When I feelparticularly tired at the end of the day, or when irritability proves that my nerves aretired, I know beyond question that it has been an inefficient day both as to quantity andquality." If every business man would learn that same lesson, the death rate from"hypertension" diseases would drop overnight. And we would stop filling up oursanatoriums and asylums with men who have been broken by fatigue and worry.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 25: How The Housewife Can Avoid Fatigue-and Keep Looking YoungOne day last autumn, my associate flew up to Boston to attend a session of one of themost unusual medical classes in the world. Medical? Well, yes, it meets once a week atthe Boston Dispensary, and the patients who attend it get regular and thorough medicalexaminations before they are admitted. But actually this class is a psychological clinic.Although it is officially called the Class in Applied Psychology (formerly the ThoughtControl Class-a name suggested by the first member), its real purpose is to deal withpeople who are ill from worry. And many of these patients are emotionally disturbedhousewives.How did such a class for worriers get started? Well, in 1930, Dr. Joseph H. Pratt-who, bythe way, had been a pupil of Sir William Osier-observed that many of the outpatientswho came to the Boston Dispensary apparently had nothing wrong with them at allphysically; yet they had practically all the symptoms that flesh is heir to. One woman'shands were so crippled with "arthritis" that she had lost all use of them. Another was inagony with all the excruciating symptoms of "cancer of the stomach". Others hadbackaches, headaches, were chronically tired, or had vague aches and pains. Theyactually felt these pains. But the most exhaustive medical examinations showed thatnothing whatever was wrong with these women-in the physical sense. Many oldfashioneddoctors 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 forgettheir 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 beencoming for years-as religious in their attendance as though going to church. My assistanttalked to a woman who had hardly missed a session in more than nine years. She saidthat when she first went to the clinic, she was thoroughly convinced she had a floatingkidney and some kind of heart ailment. She was so worried and tense that sheoccasionally lost her eyesight and had spells of blindness. Yet today she is confident andcheerful and in excellent health. She looked only about forty, yet she held one of hergrandchildren asleep in her lap. "I used to worry so much about my family troubles," shesaid, "that I wished I could die. But I learned at this clinic the futility of worrying. Ilearned 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 thebest 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 troublesover at length, until they get them off their minds. Brooding over worries alone, andkeeping them to oneself, causes great nervous tension. We all have to share ourtroubles. We have to share worry. We have to feel there is someone in the world who iswilling to listen and able to understand."My assistant witnessed the great relief that came to one woman from talking out herworries. She had domestic worries, and when she first began to talk, she was like awound-up spring. Then gradually, as she kept on talking, she began to calm down. Atthe end of the interview, she was actually smiling. Had the problem been solved? No, itwasn't that easy. What caused the change was talking to someone, getting a littleadvice and a little human sympathy. What had really worked the change was thetremendous healing value that lies in-words!Psycho-analysis is based, to some extent, on this healing power of words. Ever since thedays of Freud, analysts have known that a patient could find relief from his inneranxieties if he could talk, just talk. Why is this so? Maybe because by talking, we gain alittle better insight into our troubles, get a better perspective. No one knows the wholeanswer. But all of us know that "spitting it out" or "getting it off our chests" bring almostinstant relief.So the next time we have an emotional problem, why don't we look around for someoneto talk to? I don't mean, of course, to go around making pests of ourselves by whiningand complaining to everyone in sight. Let's decide on someone we can trust, and makean appointment. Maybe a relative, a doctor, a lawyer, a minister, or priest. Then say tothat person: "I want your advice. I have a problem, and I wish you would listen while Iput it in words. You may be able to advise me. You may see angles to this thing that Ican't see myself. But even if you can't, you will help me tremendously if you will just sitand listen while I talk it out."However, if you honestly feel that there is no one you can talk to, then let me tell youabout the Save-a-Life League-it has no connection with the Boston Dispensary. TheSave-a-Life League is one of the most unusual leagues in the world. It was originallyformed to save possible suicides. But as the years went on, it expanded its scope to givespiritual counsel to those who are unhappy and in emotional need. I talked for sometime 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 thisbook. If you write to the Save-a-Life League, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York City, yourletter and your troubles will be held in strictest confidence. Frankly, I would advise youto go to someone you can talk to in person if you can, for that will give you greaterrelief. 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 DispensaryClass. But here are some other ideas we picked up at the class-things you, as ahousewife, can do in your home.1. Keep a notebook or scrapbook 'for "inspirational" reading. Into this book you can pasteall the poems, or short prayers, or quotations, which appeal to you personally and giveyou a lift. Then, when a rainy afternoon sends your spirits plunging down, perhaps youcan find a recipe in this book for dispelling the gloom. Many patients at the Dispensaryhave 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! Ifhe had been a saint, he never would have married you. Right? One woman at the classwho found herself developing into a scolding, nagging, and haggard-faced wife, wasbrought up short with the question: "What would you do if your husband died?" She wasso shocked by the idea that she immediately sat down and drew up a list of all herhusband's good points. She made quite a list. Why don't you try the same thing the nexttime you feel you married a tight-fisted tyrant? Maybe you'll find, after reading hisvirtues, that he's a man you'd like to meet!3. Get interested in your neighbours! Develop a friendly, healthy interest in the peoplewho share the life on your street. One ailing woman who felt herself so "exclusive" thatshe hadn't any friends, was told to try to make up a story about the next person shemet. She began, in the street-car, to weave backgrounds and settings for the people shesaw. She tried to imagine what their lives had been like. First thing you know, she wastalking to people everywhere-and today she is happy, alert, and a charming humanbeing cured of her "pains".4. Make up a schedule for tomorrow's work before you go to bed tonight. The classfound that many wives feel driven and harassed by the unending round of houseworkand things they must do. They never got their work finished. They were chased by theclock. To cure this sense of hurry, and worry, the suggestion was made that they drawup a schedule each night for the following day. What happened? More workaccomplished; much less fatigue; a feeling of pride and achievement; and time left overto rest and to "primp". (Every woman ought to take some time out in the course of theday to primp and look pretty. My own guess is that when a woman knows she lookspretty, she has little use for "nerves".)5. Finally-avoid tension and fatigue. Relax! Relax! Nothing will make you look old soonerthan 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 inthe previous chapter-the rules for relaxing. At the end of ten minutes of these relaxingexercises, which my assistant did with the others, she was almost asleep sitting uprightin her chair! Why is such stress laid on this physical relaxing? Because the clinic knowsasother doctors know-that if you're going to get the worry-kinks out of people, they'vegot to relax!Yes, you, as a housewife, have got to relax! You have one great advantage-you can liedown whenever you want to, and you can lie on the floor! Strangely enough, a goodhard floor is better to relax on than an inner-spring bed. It gives more resistance. It isgood for the spine.All right, then, here are some exercises you can do in your home. Try them for a weekandsee 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 ifyou want to. Do it twice a day.6. Close your eyes. You might try saying, as Professor Johnson recommended, somethinglike this: ' 'The sun is shining overhead. The sky is blue and sparkling. Nature is calm andin control of the world-and I, as nature's child, am in tune with the Universe." Or-betterstill-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, uprightchair is the best for relaxing. Sit upright in the chair like a seated Egyptian statue, andlet 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-andlet them relax. Do this slowly upward, with all the muscles of your body, until you getto the neck. Then let your head roll around heavily, as though it were a football. Keepsaying 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 ofIndia were right: rhythmical breathing is one of the best methods ever discovered forsoothing the nerves.f. Think of the wrinkles and frowns in your face, and smooth them all out. Loosen up theworry-creases you feel between your brows, and at the sides of your mouth. Do thistwice 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 WorryGood Working Habit No. 1: Clear Your Desk of All Papers Except Those Relating to theImmediate Problem at Hand.Roland L. Williams, President of Chicago and North-western Railway, says: "A personwith his desk piled high with papers on various matters will find his work much easierand more accurate if he clears that desk of all but the immediate problem on hand. Icall 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 paintedon 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'sdesk is cluttered up with papers that he hasn't looked at for weeks. In fact, thepublisher of a New Orleans newspaper once told me that his secretary cleared up one ofhis 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 isenough to breed confusion, tension, and worries. It is much worse than that. Theconstant reminder of "a million things to do and no time to do them" can worry you notonly into tension and fatigue, but it can also worry you into high blood pressure, hearttrouble, and stomach ulcers.Dr. John H. Stokes, professor, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania,