"But remember: you don't need them. All you have to do is quit worrying."If you do start worrying again, you'll have to come back here and I'll charge you a heavyfee again. How about it?"I wish I could report that the lesson took effect that day and that I quit worryingimmediately. I didn't. I took the pills for several weeks, whenever I felt a worry comingon. They worked. I felt better at once.But I felt silly taking these pills. I am a big man physically. I am almost as tall as AbeLincoln was-and I weigh almost two hundred pounds. Yet here I was taking little whitepills to relax myself. I was acting like an hysterical woman. When my friends asked mewhy I was taking pills, I was ashamed to tell the truth. Gradually I began to laugh atmyself. I said: "See here, Cameron Shipp, you are acting like a fool. You are takingyourself and your little activities much, much too seriously. Bette Da vis and JamesCagney and Edward G. Robinson were world-famous before you started to handle theirpublicity; and if you dropped dead tonight, Warner Brothers and their stars wouldmanage to get along without you. Look at Eisenhower, General Marshall, MacArthur,Jimmy Doolittle and Admiral King-they are running the war without taking pills. And yetyou can't serve as chairman of the War Activities Committee of the Screen PublicistsGuild without taking little white pills to keep your stomach from twisting and turninglike a Kansas whirlwind."I began to take pride in getting along without the pills. A little while later, I threw thepills down the drain and got home each night in time to take a little nap before dinnerand gradually began to lead a normal life. I have never been back to see that physician.But I owe him much, much more than what seemed like a stiff fee at the time. Hetaught me to laugh at myself. But I think the really skilful thing he did was to refrainfrom laughing at me, and to refrain from telling me I had nothing to worry about. Hetook me seriously. He saved my face. He gave me an out in a small box. But he knewthen, as well as I know now, that the cure wasn't in those silly little pills-the cure was ina change in my mental attitude.The moral of this story is that many a man who is now taking pills would do better toread Chapter 7, and relax.~~~~I Learned To Stop Worrying By Watching My Wife Wash DishesByReverend William Wood204 Hurlbert Street, Charlevoix, MichiganA few years ago, I was suffering intensely from pains in my stomach. I would awakentwo or three times each night, unable to sleep because of these terrific pains. I hadwatched my father die from cancer of the stomach, and I feared that I too had astomach cancer-or, at least, stomach ulcers. So I went to Byrne's Clinic at Petosky,Michigan, for an examination. Dr. Lilga, a stomach specialist, examined me with afluoroscope and took an X-ray of my stomach. He gave me medicine to make me sleepand assured me that I had no stomach ulcers or cancer. My stomach pains, he said, werecaused by emotional strains. Since I am a minister, one of his first questions was: "Doyou have an old crank on your church board?"He told me what I already knew; I was trying to do too much. In addition to mypreaching every Sunday and carrying the burdens of the various activities of the church,I was also chairman of the Red Cross, president of the Kiwanis. I also conducted two orthree funerals each week and a number of other activities.I was working under constant pressure. I could never relax. I was always tense, hurried,and high-strung. I got to the point where I worried about everything. I was living in aconstant dither. I was in such pain that I gladly acted on Dr. Lilga's advice. I tookMonday off each week, and began eliminating various responsibilities and activities.One day while cleaning out my desk, I got an idea that proved to be immensely helpful.I was looking over an accumulation of old notes on sermons and other memos on mattersthat were now past and gone. I crumpled them up one by one and tossed them into thewastebasket. Suddenly I stopped and said to myself: "Bill, why don't you do the samething with your worries that you are doing with these notes? Why don't you crumple upyour worries about yesterday's problems and toss them into the wastebasket?" That oneidea gave me immediate inspiration-gave me the feeling of a weight being lifted frommy shoulders. From that day to this, I have made it a rule to throw into the wastebasketall the problems that I can no longer do anything about.Then, one day while wiping the dishes as my wife washed them, I got another idea. Mywife was singing as she washed the dishes, and I said to myself: "Look, Bill, how happyyour wife is. We have been married eighteen years, and she has been washing dishes allthat time. Suppose when we got married she had looked ahead and seen all the dishesshe would have to wash during those eighteen years that stretched ahead. That pile ofdirty dishes would be bigger than a barn. The very thought of it would have appalledany woman."Then I said to myself: "The reason my wife doesn't mind washing the dishes is becauseshe washes only one day's dishes at a time." I saw what my trouble was. I was trying towash today's dishes, yesterday's dishes and dishes that weren't even dirty yet.I saw how foolishly I was acting. I was standing in the pulpit, Sunday mornings, tellingother people how to live, yet, I myself was leading a tense, worried, hurried existence. Ifelt ashamed of myself.Worries don't bother me any more now. No more stomach pains. No more insomnia. Inow crumple up yesterday's anxieties and toss them into the wastebasket, and I haveceased trying to wash tomorrow's dirty dishes today.Do you remember a statement quoted earlier in this book? "The load of tomorrow,added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter." ... Why even tryit?~~~~I Found The Answer-keep Busy!ByDel HughesPublic Accountant, 607 South Euclid Avenue, Bay City, MichiganIn 1943 I landed in a. veterans' hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with three brokenribs and a punctured lung. This had happened during a practice Marine amphibiouslanding off the Hawaiian Islands. I was getting ready to jump off the barge, on to thebeach, when a big breaker swept in, lifted the barge, and threw me off balance andsmashed me on the sands. I fell with such force that one of my broken ribs puncturedmy right lung.After spending three months in the hospital, I got the biggest shock of my life. Thedoctors told me that I showed absolutely no improvement. After some serious thinking, Ifigured that worry was preventing me from getting well. I had been used to a veryactive life, and during these three months I had been flat on my back twenty-four hoursa day with nothing to do but think. The more I thought, the more I worried: worriedabout whether I would ever be able to take my place in the world. I worried aboutwhether I would remain a cripple the rest of my life, and about whether I would ever beable to get married and live a normal life.I urged my doctor to move me up to the next ward, which was called the "Country Club"because the patients were allowed to do almost anything they cared to do.In this "Country Club" ward, I became interested in contract bridge. I spent six weekslearning the game, playing bridge with the other fellows, and reading Culbertson's bookson bridge. After six weeks, I was playing nearly every evening for the rest of my stay inthe hospital. I also became interested in painting with oils, and I studied this art underan instructor every afternoon from three to five. Some of my paintings were so goodthat you could almost tell what they were! I also tried my hand at soap and woodcarving, and read a number of books on the subject and found it fascinating. I keptmyself so busy that I had no time to worry about my physical condition. I even foundtime to read books on psychology given to me by the Red Cross. At the end of threemonths, the entire medical staff came to me and congratulated me on "making anamazing improvement". Those were the sweetest words I had ever heard since the days Iwas born. I wanted to shout with joy.The point I am trying to make is this: when I had nothing to do but lie on the flat of myback and worry about my future, I made no improvement whatever. I was poisoning mybody with worry. Even the broken ribs couldn't heal. But as soon as I got my mind offmyself by playing contract bridge, painting oil pictures, and carving wood, the doctorsdeclared I made "an amazing improvement".I am now leading a normal healthy life, and my lungs are as good as yours.Remember what George Bernard Shaw said? "The secret of being miserable is to havethe leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not." Keep active, keep busy!~~~~Time Solves A Lot Of ThingsByLouis T. Montant, Jr.Sales and Market Analyst 114 West 64th Street, New York, New YorkWorry caused me to lose ten years of my life. Those ten years should have been themost fruitful and richest years of any young man's life-the years from eighteen totwenty-eight.I realise now that losing those years was no one's fault but my own.I worried about everything: my job, my health, my family, and my feeling of inferiority.I was so frightened that I used to cross the street to avoid meeting people I knew. WhenI met a friend on the street, I would often pretend not to notice him, because I wasafraid of being snubbed.I was so afraid of meeting strangers-so terrified in their presence-that in one space oftwo weeks I lost out on three different jobs simply because I didn't have the courage totell those three different prospective employers what I knew I could do.Then one day eight years ago, I conquered worry in one afternoon-and have rarelyworried since then. That afternoon I was in the office of a man who had had far moretroubles than I had ever faced, yet he was one of the most cheerful men I had everknown. He had made a fortune in 1929, and lost every cent. He had made anotherfortune in 1933, and lost that; and another fortune in 1937, and lost that, too. He hadgone through bankruptcy and had been hounded by enemies and creditors. Troubles thatwould have broken some men and driven them to suicide rolled off him like water off aduck's back.As I sat in his office that day eight years ago, I envied him and wished that God hadmade me like him.As we were talking, he tossed a letter to me that he had received that morning andsaid: "Read that."It was an angry letter, raising several embarrassing questions. If I had received such aletter, it would have sent me into a tailspin. I said: "Bill, how are you going to answerit?""Well," Bill said, "I'll tell you a little secret. Next time you've really got something toworry about, take a pencil and a piece of paper, and sit down and write out in detailjust what's worrying you. Then put that piece of paper in the lower right-hand drawer ofyour desk. Wait a couple of weeks, and then look at it. If what you wrote down stillworries you when you read it, put that piece of paper back in your lower right-handdrawer. Let it sit there for another two weeks. It will be safe there. Nothing will happento it. But in the meantime, a lot may happen to the problem that is worrying you. I havefound that, if only I have patience, the worry that is trying to harass me will oftencollapse like a pricked balloon."That bit of advice made a great impression on me. I have been using Bill's advice foryears now, and, as a result, I rarely worry about anything.Times solves a lot of things. Time may also solve what you are worrying about today.~~~~I Was Warned Not To Try To Speak Or To Move Even A FingerByJoseph L. RyanSupervisor, Foreign Division, Royal Typewriter Company 51 Judson Place, RockvilleCentre, Long Island, New YorkSeveral years ago I was a witness in a lawsuit that caused me a great deal of mentalstrain and worry. After the case was over, and I was returning home in the train, I had asudden and violent physical collapse. Heart trouble. I found it almost impossible tobreathe.When I got home the doctor gave me an injection. I wasn't in bed-I hadn't been able toget any farther than the living-room settee. When I regained consciousness, I saw thatthe parish priest was already there to give me final absolution!I saw the stunned grief on the faces of my family. I knew my number was up. Later, Ifound out that the doctor had prepared my wife for the fact that I would probably bedead in less than thirty minutes. My heart was so weak I was warned not to try to speakor to move even a finger.I had never been a saint, but I had learned one thing-not to argue with God. So I closedmy eyes and said: "Thy will be done. ... If it has to come now, Thy will be done."As soon as I gave in to that thought, I seemed to relax all over. My terror disappeared,and I asked myself quickly what was the worst that could happen now. Well, the worstseemed to be a possible return of the spasms, with excruciating pains-then all would beover. I would go to meet my Maker and soon be at peace.I lay on that settee and waited for an hour, but the pains didn't return. Finally, I beganto ask myself what I would do with my life if I didn't die now. I determined that I wouldexert every effort to regain my health. I would stop abusing myself with tension andworry and rebuild my strength.That was four years ago. I have rebuilt my strength to such a degree that even mydoctor is amazed at the improvement my cardiograms show. I no longer worry. I have anew zest for life. But I can honestly say that if I hadn't faced the worst-my imminentdeath-and then tried to improve upon it, I don't believe I would be here today. If Ihadn't accepted the worst, I believe I would have died from my own fear and panic.Mr. Ryan is alive today because he made use of the principle described in the MagicFormula-FACE THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN.~~~~I Am A Great DismisserByOrdway TeadChairman of the Board of Higher Education New York, New YorkWORRY is a habit-a habit that I broke long ago. I believe that my habit of refrainingfrom worrying is due largely to three things.First: I am too busy to indulge in self-destroying anxiety. I have three main activitieseachone of which should be virtually a full-time job in itself. I lecture to large groupsat Columbia University: I am also chairman of the Board of Higher Education of NewYork City. I also have charge of the Economic and Social Book Department of thepublishing firm of Harper and Brothers. The insistent demands of these three tasks leaveme no time to fret and stew and run around in circles.Second: I am a great dismisser. When I turn from one task to another, I dismiss allthoughts of the problems I had been thinking about previously. I find it stimulating andrefreshing to turn from one activity to another. It rests me. It clears my mind.Third: I have had to school myself to dismiss all these problems from my mind when Iclose my office desk. They are always continuing. Each one always has a set of unsolvedproblems demanding my attention. If I carried these issues home with me each night,and worried about them, I would destroy my health; and, in addition, I would destroy allability to cope with them.Ordway Tead is a master of the Four Good Working Habits. Do you remember what theyare?~~~~If I Had Mot Stopped Worrying, I Would Have Been In My Grave Long AgoByConnie MackI have been in professional baseball for over sixty-three years. When I first started, backin the eighties, I got no salary at all. We played on vacant lots, and stumbled over tincans and discarded horse collars. When the game was over, we passed the hat. Thepickings were pretty slim for me, especially since I was the main support of my widowedmother and my younger brothers and sisters. Sometimes the ball team would have toput on a strawberry supper or a clambake to keep going.I have had plenty of reason to worry. I am the only baseball manager who ever finishedin last place for seven consecutive years. I am the only manager who ever lost eighthundred games in eight years. After a series of defeats, I used to worry until I couldhardly eat or sleep. But I stopped worrying twenty-five years ago, and I honestly believethat if I hadn't stopped worrying then, I would have been in my grave long ago.As I looked back over my long life (I was born when Lincoln was President), I believe Iwas able to conquer worry by doing these things:1. I saw how futile it was. I saw it was getting me nowhere and was threatening towreck my career.2. I saw it was going to ruin my health.3. I kept myself so busy planning and working to win games in the future that I had notime to worry over games that were already lost.4. I finally made it a rule never to call a player's attention to his mistakes until twentyfourhours after the game. In my early days, I used to dress and undress with theplayers. If the team had lost, I found it impossible to refrain from criticising the playersand from arguing with them bitterly over their defeats. I found this only increased myworries. Criticising a player in front of the others didn't make him want to co-operate. Itreally made him bitter. So, since I couldn't be sure of controlling myself and my tongueimmediately after a defeat, I made it a rule never to see the players right after adefeat. I wouldn't discuss the defeat with them until the next day. By that time, I hadcooled off, the mistakes didn't loom so large, and I could talk things over calmly and themen wouldn't get angry and try to defend themselves.5. I tried to inspire players by building them up with praise instead of tearing themdown with faultfinding. I tried to have a good word for everybody.6. I found that I worried more when I was tired; so I spend ten hours in bed every night,and I take a nap every afternoon. Even a five-minute nap helps a lot.7. I believe I have avoided worries and lengthened my life by continuing to be active. Iam eighty-five, but I am not going to retire until I begin telling the same stories overand over. When I start doing that, I'll know then that I am growing old.Connie Mack never read a book on HOW TO STOP WORRYING so he made out his ownroles. Why don't YOU make a list of the rules you have found helpful in the past-andwrite them out here?Ways I Have Found Helpful in Overcoming Worry:1 __________________2 __________________3 __________________4 __________________~~~~One At A Time Gentleman, One At A TimeByJohn Homer MillerAuthor of Take a Look at YourselfI Discovered years ago that I could not escape my worries by trying to ran away fromthem, but that I could banish them by changing my mental attitude toward them. Idiscovered that my worries were not outside but inside myself.As the years have gone by, I have found that time automatically takes care of most ofmy worries. In fact, I frequently find it difficult to remember what I was worrying abouta week ago. So I have a rule: never to fret over a problem until it is at least a week old.Of course, I can't always put a problem completely out of mind for a week at a time, butI can refuse to allow it to dominate my mind until the allotted seven days have passed,either the problem has solved itself or I have so changed my mental attitude that it nolonger has the power to trouble me greatly.I have been greatly helped by reading the philosophy of Sir William Osier, a man whowas not only a great physician, but a great artist in the greatest of all arts: the art ofliving. One of his statements has helped me immensely in banishing worries. Sir Williamsaid, at a dinner given in his honour: "More than to anything else, I owe whateversuccess I have had to the power of settling down to the day's work and trying to do itwell to the best of my ability and letting the future take care of itself."In handling troubles, I have taken as my motto the words of an old parrot that my fatherused to tell me about. Father told me of a parrot that was kept in a cage hanging overthe doorway in a hunting club in Pennsylvania. As the members of the club passedthrough the door, the parrot repeated over and over the only words he knew: "One at atime, gentlemen, one at a time." Father taught me to handle my troubles that way:"One at a time, gentlemen, one at a time." I have found that taking my troubles one at atime has helped me to maintain calm and composure amidst pressing duties andunending engagements. "One at a time, gentlemen, one at a time."Here again, we have one of the basic principles in conquering worry: LIVE IN DAY-TIGHTCOMPARTMENTS. Why don't you turn back and read that chapter again?~~~~I Now Look For The Green LightByJoseph M. Cotter1534 Fargo Avenue, Chicago, Illinois