MENTAL DUMB-BELLS

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 12

MENTAL DUMB-BELLS

HOW TO CONTROL OUR MINDS [)Jy Professor J. A uthuk Thomson, in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly.’] Many people get so much varied exercise in the discharge of their daily duties that they have not much need for dumb-bells or similar adjuncts to keeping lit. Most of us arc too hurried in the morning and too tired in the evening to be very enthusiastic over Sandow’s training or breathing exercises. Moreover, wo must admit, if wo are trank with ourselves, that we were educated to acquiesce in a somewhat humdrum standard of health, and as the years pass wo become more and more content to jog along. We arc rather proud of never being ill or off work, but we are not so sure that we arc always well or at our best. TJIIS ART OF LIVING,

Fur many of us it is more of .css “too late” to attain to a high level of positive health, but for the sake of efficiency, as well as of health and happiness, we wish that we had been better educated in the art of life—even in such elementary things as walking well, sitting well, breathing well, resting well, .sleeping well, and even dining well. We could have done without some of the luxuries of education if we had learned more of the necessaries. Surely one of the 1 eeessanos is to learn to take good care of our body I We are apt to jog along with one bodies, refraining from gymnastics; but this is still more Hue in regard to one minds. Some people have, of course, to do a certain amount of precise thinking every day, but one becomes astonishingly successful in evading this. We fill up the lew chinks of onr full day with desultory reading or pastimes like bridge, almost afraid lost we ho left in solitariness and forced to think.

How few people ever give their minds an airing? How rare is an enthusiasm for brain stretching? What we cultivate is mental inertia; the thought of mental gymnastics sends a shudder through onr being. But as this easygoingness does not make cither for efficiency or for the enjoyment of life wo wake up at intervals—more and more widely spaced-—and seek advice on the subject of mental exercises.

Wc are fortunate if we are led to such a wholesome and wise guide as Hr B. H. Thoulcss’s ‘Control of the Mind.’ THE PH A (TICK OF AUTOSUGGESTION.

When a man sits down beside bis collapsed motor and says: “The car is going better and better,” wc regard him as a fool, but when our partner on the golf tours'! asseverates before putting that he sees “ the line to the- hole ” we know to our cost that ho Ls a wise man.

Auto-suggestion is a powerful factor, but it has its limits and its dangers, ft will give us confidence when we are nervous, but it will not conceal lack ol preparation for our duty. It may make us unaware of onr toothache, but it will not remove the hot-hod of bacteria that cause the pain, lb should be employed in regard to processes that arc normally automatic, like falling asleep or forgetting irritating trivialities, but it should never be used even to supplement processes that are normally under willed control. If we wish to catch our morning train wc must jump out of bed; we must on no account repeat to onrsedves the formula ; “ 1 am just about to rise.” But what the successful putter docs is quite legitimate, for he is inspiring himself with steadying confidence by recalling, sometimes over-aiidibly, that this is just the sort of putt that he has holed hundreds of times.

When wc do the same tiling over and over again it becomes easier, till we may become so habituated that wc do not need to attend to the process after it has gone under way. The advantage of this habit-forming is that it sets ns free to do other things —a decided advantage if the habit is a good one. Unfortunately, however, the habit is often bad. Thus the control of the mind demands two opposite processes—(a) forming good habits, such as stretching our brain a little every day, and fb) breaking bad habits,_ such as allowing prejudices for or against particular people to color our judgments. SHOWING OUR FEELINGS.

Emotion is the great driving force to action, but it may drive us to wild folly. The steam may burst the boiler. Hence we listen with attention to what Hr Thonless has to say in regard to the control of the emotions—a particularly difficult kind of control, since the emotions are very closely interlinked with the bodily secretion of powerful hormones. The angry man's body may be spoiling for a fight though Ids mi ml is'that of a pacifist. Two ver,\ simple counsels may be noted. We .should discourage the habit of showing emotion unnecessarily, of cultivating anger over trivialities, of

habituating ourselves to becoming excited over crumpled rose leaves. No one wishes young people to cultivate a, stolid nonchalance in face of earthquakes, but it is a bad habit to allow a nervous habit of being startled to confuse a well-reasoned serenity. The other counsel is to encourage the habit of thinking quietly over and even describing to ourselves the event that so perturbed us that wo were neither to hold nor bind in our emotion. And another aspect of this is to have some big ideas auo noble feelings in reserve for emergencies 1 RIVETING THE Ml NO. The Hatha-Vogls of India practise concentration so severely that they say they can stop the beating of their heart. This is a, very useless and dangerous thing to do, but it illustrates the possibility of riveting the mind on a particular subject. Concentration greatly increases the rapidity with which we get through our work and tire penetrating power of our understanding; it .sharpens our subsequent memory; and it greatly lessens the minor worries of life. Wo once knew a thinker of distinction who wrote a remarkable book on the corner of the mantelpiece as he stood waiting for family meals, and it was not a hook of obiter dicta! How admirably concent rated children often are. over ploys of their own; and the- moral is to cultivate concentration on things which naturally rivet our attention, so that it becomes a habit extending to tasks which have to be discharged, whether we like them or not.