The Freedom of Life

ry, and Ir

h the feeling that something held them back, but not many have observed

when at the same time I am most anxious to do so? Why should my muscles reflect that resistance by contracting, so that they directly impede my progress? It seems a most singular case of a house divided against itself for me to want to take a train, and for my own muscles, which are given me for my command, to refuse to take me there, so that I move toward the train with an involuntary effort away from it. But when the truth is recognized, all this muscular contraction is easily explained. What we are resisting is not the fact of taking the train, but the possibility of lo

mpedes our progress. Our faculties are paralyzed by lack of confidence, and confidence is the result of a true consciousness of o

ward the accomplishment of the main objects of our lives,-if we put it all under the clear light

real need whatever. In the tenth case we must learn to hurry with our muscles, and not with our nerves, or, I might better say, we must hurry without exciteme

, through whatever we may be doing, "I am perfectly willing to lose that train, I am willing to lose it, I am

How can I make myself will

e efficacy of being willing, and you will do all in your power toward yielding to common sense. Unwillingness is resistance,-resistanc

endency to hurry out of some temperaments altogether, but with that kind of a person we are not dealing now. And such i

close observer even in a person who is lying on a lounge in the full belief that he is resting. It shows itself especially in the breathing. A wise athlete has said that our normal breathing should consist of six breaths to one minute. If the reader will try this rate of breathing, the slowness o

fectly even, slow rate, for half an hour. It makes the exercise more restful if another person counts for the breathing, say, ten

ost harmful emotion-the habit of worrying. And the same truths which must be lear

l, because they are so responsive that, if you meet them quietly with the truth in difficulties of this kind they

moment he finds himself worrying about hi

hether I get thi

ould seem, at first sight, that he would find it difficult to understand you; but, on the contrary, a child understa

nt her to be taught how not to worry. The teacher, after giving her some idea of the common sense of not worrying, taught her quieting exercises

worry about your La

rgaret, "I am

lessons, and several days after, during the same

you worry about your

phatic answer, "

he little gi

; with the part of me that does not worry, I want to get my Latin very much; t

omprehensible to many minds, but to those who do comp

sible, we can separate ourselves from it enough to prevent it from interfering with our reasoning, very much as if it were neuralgia. There is never any

when the anxiety is increased by fatigue or illness. To reason with one who is tired or ill and worried, only increases the mental strain, and every effort that is made to reason him out of it aggravates the strain; until, finally, the poor brain, through kindly meant effort, has been worked into an extreme state of irritation or even inflammation. For the same reason, a worried mind should not be laughed at. Worries that are aroused by fatig

we would with a friend, excepting that we can tell the tr

ster. And yet if we can once see clearly that worrying resistance tends toward disaster rather than away from it, or, at the very least, takes away our strength and endurance, it is only a matter of time before we become able to drop our resistance altogether

ce was set toward worrying; nothing but her own will could have turned it the other way, and yet she

e not fully responsible until they do; but to prove it to be wicked is an easy matter, when once we ar

esistance; but there are two kinds

me removing its cause as quickly as we can. There is nothing that delights the devil more than to scratch a man with the irritability of hunger, and have him respond to it at once by being ugly and rude to a friend; for then the irritation immediately becomes moral, and every bit of selfishness rushes up to join it, an

y be aroused by other petty annoyances, like that of being obliged to wait for some one who is unpunctual, or by disagreement in an argument. There are very many causes for irritability, an

to help our friend to the habit of promptness. If we are willing that another should differ from us in opinion, we can see more clearly either to convince our friend, if he is wrong,-or to admit

ermanent cure for the waste of force and the exhausting distress which they entail, is a willingness