The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-04-28
THE BLUES.

Everybody has days of depression,
when his spirits are low and every
thing around him is dark and dismal,
remarks the Catholic Columbian. If
he gives way to melancholy, he is mis-
cradle, and while he is in that state
he is too discouraged TO do anything
brave or hopeful. If he resists the
blues, and refuses to stay ~downcast,
n III will come up over his horizon
and the darkness will disappear.
There is nothing that will take the
grit out of a man. nothing that will
timber his backbone quite SO quickly
as giving in to encouragement. Few
people are sufficient masters of them
selves to do good work when they
are in a discouraged condition. Most
OF us simply quit or do very indiffer-
ent work when we are suffering from
the blues.
Our contemporary t%hereupon sub
mits the following remedies for the
blues:
The next time you feel as if the
bottom had dropped out of everything
and you are right UP against it, don't
make matters worse by allowing
yourself TO get down into the dumps,
to spend nights worrying and days
anticipating evils ahead. Don't al
low the traitor doubt, which has made
such havoc in your past life, to push
yOn deeper and deeper into the
slough of despair. Positively refuse
antranrn ~ hor bnr S1 Nyonc MIND tn
any Of the enemies OF your peace,
your happiness, your efficiency or
your success. Brace yourself up by a
self-encouragement treatment. 1t is
an effective remedy.
This is the time when you need
your mental friends, when you need
to kill your mental enemies-doubts
and fears, anXieties and terrors-with
their a%ntidotes. This is the time you
need hope and courage and expect
ancy of good things to come to you.
You don't want any more blue devils,
any more enemies of your welfare in
your mind; you want your friends;
you want to neutralize all that is
black, ugly, disheartening and dis
cOuraging in our mental kingdom
and in your environment. This is
the time to make connection with all
that is strong and uplifting, to put
up your trolley pole, which you have
allowed to drop, and to tap the cur
rent which will carry you above and
beyond doubt, fear and dependency.
The most effective way to do this,
to overcome the temptation to play
the coward because of discourage
ment, is to get to some place where
you can be alone and have a good
h"eart-to-heart talk with yourself.
Say to yourself: Il am Gods child,
and my Father never created me to
be a miserable, down-hearted, dis
couraged creature. He made me to
look up, to be courageous, cheerful,
happy. | will trust Him. l will do
His will. l will be patient for His
is still shining somewhere and light,
and JOY will come again to me.
Talk to yourself in the same dead
i%n-earnest way that you would to a
child or to a dear friend who was
deep in the mire of dependency,
suffering tortures from melancholy.
Drive out the black, hideous pictures
which haunt your mind. Sweep away
all depressing thoughts, suggestions,
all the mistakes, all the d~isagreeable
past; just rise up in arms against
the enemies of your peace and hap
piness, summon all the force you can
muster and drive them out. Negative,
d%iscordant thoughts cannot exist in
the presence of their opposites. After
even one good heart-to-heart talk
with yourself you will be ashamed to
be such a coward as to give way to
the blues, to think Of turning back
from your resolution, or lying down
and giving up hope, in obedience to a
mood.