The persistent Repetitions may be in the form of sheer repetitions;
or in the form of Synonyms--such as Happiness, Gladness, Enjoyment,
Joy, Welcome; or in the form of cognate words, words that suggest not
so much Happiness itself, as the father and mother, the brothers and
sisters, the sons and daughters, of Happiness. Thus, to take the letter
P alone, it has a decided effect upon our feelings of Happiness to
repeat, with as much attention to and realization of the idea and the
inner spirit and soul of each word, as possible, the words Purity,
Poise, Peace, Plenty, Power, Pluck, Pleasantness.
As to the influence of Repetition, we must remember that we are mainly
what our sub-conscious mind is; and our sub-conscious mind is largely
what our conscious mind has chosen or allowed itself to think, and what
our conscious mind every moment--every now--is choosing or allowing
itself to think.
Or, instead of repeating the ideas themselves or the words that can
convey them, we can keep happy by Reason and Argumentation. While an
Assertion like Robert Browning’s,
“God’s in His Heaven,
All’s right with the world,”
will help some, a recalling of the advantages of Happiness--or of the
disadvantages of Non-Happiness--and a working out of the ways in which
the past “failures” of ourselves and others turned into blessings, will
help others. I remember how disappointed I was when I did not get a
Fellowship at Cambridge. I am now very glad that I did not. What seemed
a calamity led to my present work, which enables me to keep happy. As a
fossilised Don I should not have kept happy!