Achieving Peace of Mind

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 5

Achieving Peace of Mind

In times of national as well as of domestic stress the man or woman w'ith tho inner serenity, best described perhaps as peace of mind, is an asset —and almost always recognised as such —of extraordinary value, writes the medical correspondent of the Spectator, it is a condition that may of course, be associated with lack ot imagination and education. But it may equally be tho companion of very gveat, and often the highest imaginative and creative force, administrative abilities and general culture. It is a possession, not to be confused with vegetable contentment, that probably all of us would wish to -have. And it would be a very dogmatic physician, theologian, or psychologist who would deny that it was in the reach of any sane person. It is an observed medical fact, that altruism— an outward turning altitude thut can be deliberately adopted, a service of others + .hat can be deliberately undertaken—probably tho best general prescription for the development or recovery of true peace of mind. Finally, perhaps it may be noted, if without comment, that one of the greatest Continental' pioneers of the so-called modern pyschology has given it as his mature opinion that the basic trouble of.most of the anxious, queer and perplexed patients that thronged his consulting room was tho absence in them of any religion.