如何停止焦虑开始新生活-26

pained my eyes so intensely that, while sitting on the platform, I was compelled to lookat the floor. Yet during my thirty-minute speech, I felt absolutely no pain, and I couldlook directly at these lights without any blinking whatever. Then when the assembly wasover, my eyes pained me again.I thought then that if I could keep my mind strongly concentrated on something, not forthirty minutes, but for a week, I might be cured. For clearly it was a case of mentalexcitement triumphing over a bodily illness.I had a similar experience later while crossing the ocean. I had an attack of lumbago sosevere 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 beganto speak, every trace of pain and stiffness left my body; I stood up straight, movedabout with perfect flexibility, and spoke for an hour. When the lecture was over, Iwalked away to my stateroom with ease. For a moment, I thought I was cured. But thecure 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 nowas if it were the first day I had ever seen and the last I were going to see. I am excitedabout the daily adventure of living, and nobody in a state of excitement will be undulytroubled with worries. I love my daily work as a teacher. I wrote a book entitled TheExcitement of Teaching. Teaching has always been more than an art or an occupation tome. 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 ofstudents. I have always felt that one of the chief reasons for success in life isenthusiasm.2. I have found that I can crowd worry out of mind by reading an absorbing book. When Iwas fifty-nine, I had a prolonged nervous breakdown. During that period I began readingDavid Alec Wilson's monumental Life of Carlyle. It had a good deal to do with myconvalescence 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 physicallyactive almost every hour of the day. I played five or six sets of violent games of tennisevery morning, then took a bath, had lunch, and played eighteen holes of golf everyafternoon. On Friday night I danced until one o'clock in the morning. I am a greatbeliever in working up a tremendous sweat. I found that depression and worry oozed outof my system with the sweat.4. I learned long ago to avoid the folly of hurry, rush, and working under tension. I havealways tried to apply the philosophy of Wilbur Cross. When he was Governor ofConnecticut, he said to me: "Sometimes when I have too many things to do all at once, Isit 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. WhenI am worried about something, I try to see my troubles in their proper perspective. I sayto myself: "Two months from now I shall not be worrying about this bad break, so whyworry about it now? Why not assume now the same attitude that I will have two monthsfrom 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 everseen and the last I were going to see."2. Read an interesting book: "When I had a prolonged nervous breakdown ... I beganreading ... the Life of Carlyle ... and became so absorbed in reading it that I forgot mydespondency."3. Play games: "When I was terribly depressed, I forced myself to become physicallyactive almost every hour of the day."4. Relax while you work: "I long ago learned to avoid the folly of hurry, rush, andworking under tension."5. "I try to see my troubles in their proper perspective. I say to myself: 'Two monthsfrom now I shall not be worrying about this bad break, so why worry about it now? Whynot assume now the same attitude that I will have two months from now?'"~~~~I Stood Yesterday. I Can Stand TodayByDorothy DixI have been through the depths of poverty and sickness. When people ask me what haskept me going through the troubles that come to all of us, I always reply: "I stoodyesterday. I can stand today. And I will not permit myself to think about what mighthappen tomorrow."I have known want and struggle and anxiety and despair. I have always had to workbeyond the limit of my strength. As I look back upon my life, I see it as a battlefieldstrewn with the wrecks of dead dreams and broken hopes and shattered illusions-abattle in which I always fought with the odds tremendously against me, and which hasleft 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 envyfor the women who have been spared all I have gone through. For I have lived. Theyonly existed. I have drank the cup of life down to its very dregs. They have only sippedthe bubbles on top of it. I know things they will never know. I see things to which theyare blind. It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who getthe 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 whohas had an easy life ever acquires. I have learned to live each day as it comes and not toborrow trouble by dreading the morrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makescowards of us. I put that dread from me because experience has taught me that whenthe 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 yourwhole edifice of happiness topple and crash in ruins about you, it never matters to youagain that a servant forgets to put the doilies under the finger bowls, or the cook spillsthe soup.I have learned not to expect too much of people, and so I can still get happiness out ofthe friend who isn't quite true to me or the acquaintance who gossips. Above all, I haveacquired a sense of humour, because there were so many things over which I had eitherto cry or laugh. And when a woman can joke over her troubles instead of havinghysterics, nothing can ever hurt her much again. I do not regret the hardships I haveknown, because through them I have touched life at every point I have lived. And it wasworth 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 DawnByJ.C. Penney[On April 14, 1902, a young man with five hundred dollars in cash and a million dollars indetermination opened a drygoods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming-a little mining town of athousand people, situated on the old covered-wagon trail laid out by the Lewis andClark Expedition. That young man and his wife lived in a half-storey attic above thestore, using a large empty dry-goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs. Theyoung wife wrapped her baby in a blanket and let it sleep under a counter while shestood beside it, helping her husband wait on customers. Today the largest chain of drygoodsstores in the world bears that man's name: the J.C. Penney stores-over sixteenhundred 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. Myworries were not connected in any way whatever with the J. C. Penney Company. Thatbusiness was solid and thriving; but I personally had made some unwise commitmentsprior to the crash of 1929. Like many other men, I was blamed for conditions for which Iwas in no way responsible. I was so harassed with worries that I couldn't sleep, anddeveloped 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 BattleCreek, 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 wasbroken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. Ihad nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family hadturned against me. One night, Dr, Eggleston gave me a sedative, but the effect soonwore off and I awoke with an overwhelming conviction that this was my last night oflife. Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that Idid not expect to live to see the dawn.When I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to find that I was still alive. Goingdownstairs, I heard singing in a little chapel where devotional exercises were held eachmorning. 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 theScripture lesson, and the prayer. Suddenly-something happened. I can't explain it. I canonly call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of adungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell toparadise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realised then that Ialone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there tohelp me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-oneyears old, and the most dramatic and glorious twenty minutes of my life were those Ispent in that chapel that morning: "God will take care of you."J.C. Penney learned to overcome worry almost instantaneously, because he discoveredthe one perfect cure.~~~~I Go To The Gym To Punch The Bag Or Take A Hike OutdoorsByColonel Eddie EaganNew York Attorney, Rhodes Scholar Chairman, New York State Athletic CommissionFormer Olympic Light-Heavyweight Champion of the WorldWhen I find myself worrying and mentally going round in endless circles like a camelturning 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 ofbag punching or squash tennis at the gymnasium. Whichever it is, physical exerciseclears my mental outlook. On a week-end I do a lot of physical sport, such as a runaround 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 whenI 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 theYale Club gym. No man can worry while he is playing squash tennis or skiing. He is toobusy to worry. The large mental mountains of trouble become minute molehills thatnew thoughts and acts quickly smooth down.I find the best antidote for worry is exercise. Use your muscles more and your brain lesswhen you are worried, and you will be surprised at the result. It works that way withme-worry goes when exercise begins.~~~~I Was "The Worrying Wreck From Virginia Tech."ByJim BirdsallPlant Superintendent C.F. Muller Company 180 Baldwin Avenue, Jersey City, New JerseySeventeen years ago, when I was in military college at Blacks-burg, Virginia, I wasknown as "the worrying wreck from Virginia Tech". I worried so violently that I oftenbecame ill. In fact, I was ill so often that I had a regular bed reserved for me at thecollege infirmary at all times. When the nurse saw me coming, she would run and giveme a hypo. I worried about everything. Sometimes I even forgot what I was worryingabout. I worried for fear I would be busted out of college because of my low grades. Ihad failed to pass my examinations in physics and other subjects, too. I knew I had tomaintain an average grade of 75-84. I worried about my health, about my excruciatingattacks of acute indigestion, about my insomnia. I worried about financial matters. I feltbadly 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 andnight over a dozen intangible problems.In desperation, I poured out my troubles to Professor Duke Baird, professor of businessadministration at V.P.I.The fifteen minutes that I spent with Professor Baird did more for my health andhappiness than all the rest of the four years I spent in college. "Jim," he said, "you oughtto sit down and face the facts. If you devoted half as much time and energy to solvingyour 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 Ihad failed to pass physics, I now asked myself why I had failed. I knew it wasn't becauseI 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 notapplied myself because I couldn't see how it would help me in my work as an industrialengineer. But now I changed my attitude. I said to myself: "If the college authoritiesdemand that I pass my physics examination before I obtain a degree, who am I toquestion their wisdom?"So I enrolled for physics again. This time I passed because instead of wasting my time inresentment 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 atthe college dances, and by borrowing money from my father, which I paid back soonafter graduation.I solved my love worries by proposing to the girl that I feared might marry anothercadet. She is now Mrs. Jim Birdsall.As I look back at it now, I can see that my problem was one of confusion, adisinclination 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 usedthe very principles described in the chapter "How to Analyse and Solve Worry Problems."~~~~I Have Lived By This SentenceByDr. Joseph R. SizooPresident, New Brunswick Theological Seminary (The oldest theological seminary in theUnited States, founded in 1784)Years ago, in a day of uncertainty and disillusionment, when my whole life seemed to beoverwhelmed by forces beyond my control, one morning quite casually I opened my NewTestament and my eyes fell upon this sentence: "He that sent me is with me-the Fatherhath not left me alone." My life has never been the same since that hour. Everything forme has been for ever different after that. I suppose that not a day has passed that Ihave not repeated it to myself. Many have come to me for counseling during theseyears, and I have always sent them away with this sustaining sentence. Ever since thathour when my eyes fell upon it, I have lived by this sentence. I have walked with it and Ihave found in it my peace and strength. To me it is the very essence of religion. It liesat the rock bottom of everything that makes life worth living. It is the Golden Text ofmy life.~~~~I Hit Bottom And SurvivedByTed Ericksen16,237 South Cornuta Avenue, Bellflower, California Southern California RepresentativeNational Enameling and Stamping CompanyI used to be a terrible "worry wart". But no more. In the summer of 1942, I had anexperience that banished worry from my life-for all time; I hope. That experience madeevery other trouble seem small by comparison.For years I had wanted to spend a summer on a commercial fishing craft in Alaska, so in1942 I signed on a thirty-two-foot salmon seining vessel out of Kodiak, Alaska. On a craftof this size, there is a crew of only three: the skipper who does the supervising, a No. 2man who assists the skipper, and a general work horse, who is usually a Scandinavian. Iam a Scandinavian.Since salmon seining has to be done with the tides, I often worked twenty hours out oftwenty-four. I kept up that schedule for a week at a time. I did everything that nobodyelse wanted to do. I washed the craft. I put away the gear. I cooked on a little woodburningstove in a small cabin where the heat and fumes of the motor almost made meill. I washed the dishes. I repaired the boat. I pitched the salmon from our boat into atender that took the fish to a cannery. My feet were always wet in rubber boots. Myboots were often filled with water, but I had no time to empty them. But all that wasplay compared to my main job, which was pulling what is called the "cork line". Thatoperation simply means placing your feet on the stem of the craft and pulling in thecorks and the webbing of the net. At least, that is what you are supposed to do. But, inreality, the net was so heavy that when I tried to pull it in, it wouldn't budge. Whatreally happened was that in trying to pull in the cork line, I actually pulled in the boat. Ipulled it along on my own power, since the net stayed where it was. I did all this forweeks on end It was almost the end of me, too. I ached horribly. I ached all over. Iached for months.When I finally did have a chance to rest, I slept on a damp lumpy mattress piled on topof the provisions locker. I would put one of the lumps in the mattress under the part ofmy back that hurt most-and sleep as if I had been dragged. I was drugged by completeexhaustion.I am glad now that I had to endure all that aching and exhaustion because it has helpedme stop worrying. Whenever I am confronted by a problem now-instead of worryingabout it, I say to myself: "Ericksen, could this possibly be as bad as pulling the corkline?" And Ericksen invariably answers: "No, nothing could be that bad!" So I cheer upand tackle it with courage. I believe it is a good thing to have to endure an agonisingexperience occasionally. It is good to know that we have hit bottom and survived. Thatmakes all our daily problems seem easy by comparison.~~~~I Used To Be One Of The World's Biggest JackassesByPercy H. WhitingManaging Director, Dale Carnegie and Company 50 East 42nd Street, New York, NewYorkI 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 practicallybrought up in it. I talked to doctors and nurses every day, so I knew the names andsymptoms of more and worse diseases than the average layman. I was no ordinary hypo-Ihad symptoms! I could worry for an hour or two over a disease and then have practicallyall the symptoms of a man who was suffering from it. I recall once that, in GreatBarrington, Massachusetts, the town in which I lived, we had a rather severe diphtheriaepidemic. In my father's drug-store, I had been selling medicines day after day to peoplewho came from infected homes. Then the evil that I feared came upon me: I haddiphtheria myself. I was positive I had it. I went to bed and worried myself into thestandard symptoms. I sent for a doctor. He looked me over and said: "Yes, Percy, you'vegot it." That relieved my mind. I was never afraid of any disease when I had it-so Iturned 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 specialisingin 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 andtuberculosis.I can laugh about it now, but it was tragic then. I honestly and literally feared for yearsthat I was walking on the edge of the grave. When it came time to buy a suit of clothesin the spring, I would ask myself: "Should I waste this money when I know I can't possiblylive 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 feltthe dreadful symptoms coming on, I laughed at myself and said: "See here, Whiting, youhave been dying from one fatal disease after another now for twenty years, yet you arein first-class health today. An insurance company recently accepted you for moreinsurance. Isn't it about time, Whiting, that you stood aside and had a good laugh at theworrying jackass you are?"I soon found that I couldn't worry about myself and laugh at myself at one and the sametime. 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 yoursillier worries, and see if you can't laugh them out of existence.~~~~I Have Always Tried To Keep My Line Of Supplies Open"ByGene AutryThe world's most famous and beloved singing cowboyI figure that most worries are about family troubles and money. I was fortunate inmarrying a small-town Oklahoma girl who had the same background I had and enjoyedthe same things. We both try to follow the golden rule, so we have kept our familytroubles to a minimum.I have kept my financial worries to a minimum also by doing two things. First, I havealways followed a rule of absolute one hundred per cent integrity in everything. When Iborrowed money, I paid back every penny. Few things cause more worry thandishonesty.Second, when I started a new venture, I always kept on ace in the hole. Military expertssay that the first principle of fighting a battle is to keep your line of supplies open. Ifigure that that principle applies to personal battles almost as much as to militarybattles. For example, as a lad down in Texas and Oklahoma, I saw some real povertywhen the country was devastated by droughts. We had mighty hard scratching at timesto make a living. We were so poor that my father used to drive across the country in acovered wagon with a string of horses and swap horses to make a living. I wanted