The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1915-02-10
tCopyright.)
Confidence a Powerful
Factor in Health
By oRIsoN SWEET MARDEN.
(Copyright. Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.


what fine winter we are having"
says the healthy man. Very bad,
very bad!" replies the chronic invalid.
"This is the weather that brings pneu-
lmonia and other diseases. feel now
Sas if l were about to be laid up with
something. Think I'll stop to see Doc
tor Blank on my way up town.
The sun was shining and the day
was clear and cold, yet this man-the
doctors friend-saw only disease in
the crisp air and bright skies.
How many people, like him, are al
ways seeing sickness ahead and pre-
pairing for it! They expect it, antici-
pate it, and consequently have 1t. 1t
is only block or two to a physician;
a drug store is on every corner, and
the temptation to send for the physi-
clan or to get drugs at the slightest
symptom of illness tends to make
them more and more dependent on
outside helps and less able to control
their physical discords.
One of the most unfortunate things
that has come to us through what we
call higher civilization" is the killing
of faith in our power of disease resist
ance. During the frontier days there
were little villages and hamlets which
physicians rarely entered, and here
the people were strong and healthy
and independent. They developed
great powers of disease resistance.
There is no doubt that the doctor
habit in many families has great deal
to do with the developing of unfortu-
nate physical conditions in the child.
Many mothers are always calling the
doctor whenever there is the least
sign of disturbance in the children
The result is that the child grows up
with this disease picture, doctor pic
ture, medicine picture in its mind. and
1t influences its whole life.
The time will come when a child
and any kind of medicine will be con-
sidered very incongruous combina-
ton. Were children properly reared
in the love thought. in the truth
thought, in the harmony thought; were
they trained to right thinking, doc
tor or medicine would be rarely needed.
One of the tendencies of i'll health
is to make one morbid. People who
are constantly thinking about their
ailments often develop morbid pas
sion for sympathy. They want to tell
everybody of their aches and pains, to
describe their symptoms.
Have you ever known a woman who
has acquired the doctor habit, wom-
an who loves nothing in the world
quite as well as an opportunity to tell
the doctor of her ailments? She has
poured them out to unwelcome ears, to
forced listeners, till she longs for some
one who can really appreciate it all,
who sympathizes with her in her
troubles, so she sends for the doctor or
goes to see him.
This becomes almost mania with
some women who have few outside
activities to divert them. Their minds
naturally revert to themselves, and
they become saturated with the poi
soned thought.
Confidence is a powerful factor in
health We should thoroughly be-
lieve in our ability to keep ourselves
well by healthful. harmonious, happy
thinking. So long as we doubt our
ability to maintain health. so long as
we picture to ourselves disease and
physical weakness. 1t is impossible to
attain to strong, normal physical
condition.
The time will come when we will
no more allow discordant thoughts in
our mind than we would scatter thistle
seeds over our gardens. Knowing well
that thinking is building, our thinking
will be reflected in our bodies.