Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-21
THE POWER OF IDEAS
BY H. Addington Bruce

|
| IF only people really appreciated the power
| | of ideas as determinants of behavior, it
is safe to say that more care would be ex-
ercised than is now commonly the case as re-
CARDS selecting the thoughts which one per-
mits ones self to entertain and dwell upon.
man literally is made or marred by his
thoughts. There are circumstances under
which even the will itself is powerless when
coming into conflict with IDEAS
! Psychologists sometimes cite as an anus
| ing proof of this the fatal inevitability with
which nervous people do precisely the ,oppo-
site Of that which they intended doing
| A novice in public speaking becomes i'm
bued with the idea that when he appears on
the platform he will be speechIess. He fights
| this idea, resolves that he will acquit himself
| creditably, and to be on the safe side, men,
orizes diligently what he purposes saying.
| Alas! The moment he faces his audience
all his firm resolution vanishes. The speech
he has so laboriously prepared fades from his
memory If he does contrive to say some
thing, it is in a stumbling, hating way that
moves his hearers to contemptuous pity.
| This result has been due to nothing but an
i idea. In like manner ideas may, and often
do, overwhelm the will in matters of more i'm
portance than the making of speech.
Here is poor woman who has come to
physician because she cannot sleep. She in
forms him that she has vainly exercised her
will-poWer in the endeaVor to get good
nights rest.
Her sleeplessness, his examination shows
is not due to any physical irritant that might
keep her awake Nor is it due to any psychial
tirritant, such as worry over finances or fam
lily trouble. That she does not sleep is sim
ply because, after q night or two of chance
Wakefulness, she has permitted herself to
believe that sleep has become impossible to
her.
In other words the idea of seeplessness
has become the actuality of sleeplessness.
Had she not dwelt upon it she would soon
have been sleeping as before the chance wake
fulness. Now she will be unable to sleep
until, by some means, the idea of sleepless-
ness is expelled from her mind.
Other people, as a consequence Of foolishly
dwellinglr pon the idea of indigestion, suffer.
from indigestion. Still others bring upon
themselves irregularity in heart action
through the idea that something is wrong
with their hearts. The principle is invariably
the same:
Ideas tend to find appropriate expression
in behavior and this tendency is the stronger
in proportion as they occupy he mind.
What is the remedy if one knows that one
has been harboring ideas hurtful to ones
character, ones success, or ones health, yet
cannot Danish these through will-power?
The remedy is very simple, though not
always easy of application. It is to stop try
ing to fight the hurtful ideas directly, and
instead to cultivate ideas which through sub
stitution may gradually GUST the ideas that
have been doing harm.
This is the method employed by scientific
mental healers in dealing with maladies
known to be of mental origin. 1t is method
often susceptible of self-use, not merely in
conquering mentally caused sleeplessness, in
Digestion etc., but also in correcting be-
havor defects damaging to ones life pros
poets in general.