Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-06-25
Can You Control Your Mind?
By Ruth Cameron.
Some Of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived;
But what torments Of grief you endured
From evils that never arrived!


And the sharpest you still have survived;
But what torrents Of grief you endured
From evils that never arrived!
There is a great deal Of real trouble
in the life Of every man and woman
Sometimes it seems to US as II we emerge
from one difficulty merely to face anoth-
or. Just as the baby gets over measules
tho big brother falls and breaks his leg
Just when the dark cloud Of mothers
illness is disappearing over the horizon a
new cloud appears from the other direc-
ton In the shape Of fathers business
losses There are times when all of Us
feel too keen1y the force Of that great
sentence: Man is born to trouble as the
sparks fly upward"
Surely, then, with all this real trouble
so handy. there Is no need for US to make
any extra trouble for ourselves.
And yet, as Emerson points out, most Oh
us perpetually torment ourselves with
the evils that never arise.
The older grow the more firmly I am
convinced that the very greatest factor Of
happiness in all the world is mind con-
trol-in other words, the ability not to
torment ourselves In this way.
find yourself dwelling on an unpleasant
topic, can you firmly remove your mind
from It and think Of something else? II
you cannot. no matter how thoroughly
fortune favors you, no matter how many
Of your wishes come true, how many OF
your ships come sailing In, you Will
never be thoroughly happy. Il you have
no real troubles, you will always have
plenty Of the imaginary kind
1 think that every one Of us ought to
study mind control, just as we study our
professions or the art Of pleasing others
or the care Of our bodies.
Try It some day. You want to go to
sleep and you find your mind Is at work
on some business deal or some household
problem Instead Of giving in to 1t. and
tossing restlessly about with your mind
afiame with thought, until you fall
asleep from sheer exhaustion. say to
yourself: Stop right now. Then take
your mind by the scrun of the neck. as
Arnold Bennett has so cleverly said. dras
1t away from that topic and put It on
some other. Be sure to carry out that
last instruction. It is not enough to sim
ply take the mind away from what It ia
feeding on; you must give 1t something
back. And it must be something inter
esting that you offer, too. Rehearse some
absorbing story you have just read; recall
some agreeable conversation. II nothing
else will do, think OF the most pfquant
piece of gossip you have heard. Bad adj
vice? I don't know. rather think that
in this case the end justif1es the means.
The first time you try to do this, warn
you you will f1nd 1t very hard: just as the
frst time you try to make q spoiled child
submit his will to yours, there is apt to
be q struggle. But the second time your
task will be easier and each time there
after.
There is something to each Of us be-
sides brain and body, you know. There Is
also the Will. Now the evil ought to be
tho supreme master Of both mind and
body Where it Is not. there is anarchy.
and where there is anarchy, happiness b
not. Is your will supreme?