For them the working hours are never long enough. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them, as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the week-end.Īs for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire-for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use doing what you like you have got to like what you do. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use starting late in life to say: ‘I will take an interest in this or that.’ Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. The seeds must be carefully chosen they must fall on good ground they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance to a public man. And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins. One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. The stronger the will, the more futile the task. It is only when new cells are called into activity, when new stars become the lords of the ascendant, that relief, repose, refreshment are afforded.Ī gifted American psychologist has said, ‘Worry is a spasm of the emotion the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go.’ It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. If it has been worrying, it goes on worrying. If it has been weighing and measuring, it goes on weighing and measuring. It is no use saying to the tired ‘mental muscles’-if one may coin such an expression-I will give you a good rest,’ ‘I will go for a long walk,’ or ‘I will lie down and think of nothing.’ The mind keeps busy just the same. It is not enough merely to switch off the lights which play upon the main and ordinary field of interest a new field of interest must be illuminated. There is, however, this difference between the living cells of the brain and inanimate articles: one cannot mend the frayed elbows of a coat by rubbing the sleeves or shoulders but the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts. A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it, just in the same way as he can wear out the elbows of his coat. But the element which is constant and common in all of them is Change.Ĭhange is the master key. No doubt all these may play their part according to the individual temperament. Some praise solitude, and others, gaiety. Some counsel travel, and others, retreat. Some advise exercise, and others, repose. Many remedies are suggested for the avoidance of worry and mental overstrain by persons who, over prolonged periods, have to bear exceptional responsibilities and discharge duties upon a very large scale.
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