Merely to send out no thoughts and to harbour no thoughts against
other persons or things, or against ourselves, is a step in the right
direction. I once saw hornets destroyed by a man who stood over the
nest and, as each hornet came out, knocked it down and killed it by
a blow from a little wooden bat. So we can beat down any undesirable
thought--of worry or failure or resentment, etc.--so that it ceases to
live and poison us or others.
But still this is negative. It is not positive and constructive.
To keep happy, we must fill the glass, drop by drop, with the
sparkling and fresh water of Happiness; and then the dirty water will
automatically trickle away, and--who knows?--somehow become a kind of
mental manure and fertiliser.
“Self-Suggestion”
Self-Suggestion is a great help, if we would keep happy. We can tell
ourselves to keep happy, in the same way as Peter Latham, at a hard and
critical point in one of his Professional Championship Matches, kept
not only happy but also plucky by telling himself to “buck up,” as
this was _the_ chance to bring out his best game!
Self-Suggestion has many forms and varieties. Henry Wood, in his “Ideal
Suggestion Through Mental Photography,” advises us to write down
inspiring “Self-Suggestions,” and to look at them often. Leland, in his
“Have You a Strong Will?” advises us to determine, the last thing at
night, that the next day we will, for example, work calmly and easily
and successfully. I myself find that now one form of Self-Suggestion is
most effective, now another. It may be Imagination or Realisation or
Assertion, or it may be a quiet order to the Servant Mind or Manager
Mind, or it may be a strongly-felt and repeated Desire, or it may be
nearer to Silence and Receptivity, together with “the attitude of
expectancy.”
Self-suggestion is feasible at all times and in all places. It is
unobtrusive. It is “without money and without price.” It is effective.
It tends to become a sub-conscious habit, and, as it were, to “do
itself” without our attention.
To keep happy, we can use happy words. Words have vast and little
appreciated power. Think how useless we should be as regards our power
of controlling ourselves and helping ourselves and helping others, if
we had no words! It would be easy to write a long book on this aspect
of the Art of Happiness, alone. But I must be content with just one
idea.
We should speak with a cheerful voice and tone, as well as with a
cheerful face; and we should prefer, to such words of ill omen as
“miserable” and “cruel,” words that end rightly, such as un-happy
and un-kind--words that leave us with the right and happy notion.
Conversely, however, when we are--or think that we are--absolutely
obliged to mention some unpleasant episode, in order to get others to
help to put it right, we must _not_ use such vivid expressions--we must
not speak whiningly nor even keenly. This is preeminently the occasion
for such a monotonous and expressionless voice, as is unusually put on
by a Secretary when reading the minutes of any previous meeting!
Can we not speak of pleasant things with the excitedness of the French,
if indeed we wish to be excited at all; but speak of unpleasant things,
if we feel we must speak of them, with the apathy of the Hindu?
When you have finished any Self-Suggestion, be sure to keep happy.
To keep happy, we must use Repetitions of Self-Suggestions and of
Happy Words, and we must use them long before we seem to need them.
In place of the old adage, “In time of peace prepare for war,” one can
substitute, “In time of peace prepare for victory”--and then there will
be no real war.