Philosophy
Lovers!
Click Here

Optimism

The practice of self-suggestion consists in mastering oneself through the medium of ideas.

It is important to understand the considerable power of self-suggestion.

The person who is bent on shaping his personality by means of sheer will power is like the boatman who uses oars. The sensible psychologist who takes advantage of self-suggestion may be compared to a seaman whose craft is under sail. He’s bound to go faster and further.

An idea, once it has been admitted into our mind, sometimes penetrates to such a depth that it affects our subconscious mind. Then it interferes with our emotional reactions.

Self-suggestion consists in carefully selecting and keeping constantly present in your mind ideas having a motive power which will stimulate your will to action.

Ideas merely help us to achieve what they represent. They assist us by influencing our will and coaxing it to action.

Turn your back on any notions which are, in any degree, opposed to the ideas which you are now making use of in the course of your treatment by suggestion.

Repetition is the most powerful figure of speech. The most favourable periods are immediately on waking and before going to sleep.

Take these two magical words as your motto: Method and Activity.

The ancients used to say ‘A sound mind in a sound body.’ Modern science has confirmed and extended the scope of the maxim’s application.

After moderate physical exercise we feel a general well-being. Likewise, mental exercise produces genuine satisfaction.

How is it that in this time of great material progress optimism is on the decline. The cause must be looked for in the conditions of modern life.

Our technological civilization, in spite of its material advantages, is not entirely adapted to the needs of man. It has improved his material life, without taking sufficient account of his psychological requirements. This has led to a considerable increase in depression and other mental disorders.

The Christian faith induces and maintains in its followers a wonderful moral stability, when they translate into deeds the beliefs which they confess in words.

The first stage of your training for optimism must take the form of a vigorous reaction against your tendency to depressing ideas, whether these are manifest or disguised.

Pessimism may be defined as a habitual disposition of the mind to see the dark side of everything and to put the worst possible construction on everything.

Those who must associate with a pessimist suffer daily martyrdom on account of his unconscious egotism.

However unattractive it may appear pessimism is infectious.

There is no doubt that the cause of pessimism is often an inborn disposition.

A pessimist will never admit that, to some extent at least, he is to blame for his misfortune. He will not admit it, because he fails to understand it.

The philosophers of the Middle Ages used to teach that sadness leads to hatred.

Even before the age of modern medicine it had been observed that depression leads to lingering diseases which may even be fatal.

Blind optimism also fails and in the long run leads to discouragement.

Our soul is bound to our physical being, upon which it depends for the exercise of its faculties. Therefore, it cannot help feeling the impact of discomforts that affect our body.

Refrain from passing judgment on anything until you have properly examined it.

Your will is of no avail against over-sensitivity, at least through direct action. But it can indirectly affect your susceptibility to emotions. So long as you feel un-nerved by emotion, refrain from any word or gesture which would make it apparent.

Once your emotions have settled down, conduct a searching investigation into the various thoughts which have perturbed you.

To keep up normal activity our intellect needs truth.

The intellect plays a major part in achieving mental poise. An idea is a thing or a force which is easily underestimated. But psychologists, moralists, spiritual directors, salesmen and demagogues are fully aware of it.

The power of an idea is quite incredible, especially when expressed in ringing and colourful words. This accounts for the extraordinary influence of advertising or political slogans, which are effective in spite of often being illogical.

You can use the force of ideas to control yourself, to alter your disposition, make good your character defects, develop your gifts, and influence your emotional reactions. This method has been ridiculed by professional wits. One cartoonist pictured a snail competing with a locomotive at full speed, and taking heart with the words, “I’m doing sixty miles an hour.”

Though self-suggestion cannot alter in any way the nature of things, it is, nevertheless, extremely powerful in the psychic sphere. You may expect much from it, on condition you do not require things which are outside its province, and that you observe certain rules governing it.

Will power cannot prevent the birth of certain feelings within us. But it can check them, struggle against them, and eradicate or lessen their influence.

The will cannot function without having a goal in view. The will must be enlightened and guided, so that its activity may tend to a reasonable and beneficial end. This double task of enlightenment and direction must be carried out by the intellect. The application of that principle ought to be sufficient to transform one’s life.

It is the role of our intellect to fill our will with ardour, after guiding it along the right path.

An ambitious man is thrilled by the thought of his objective.

Learn to turn a deaf ear to the unreasonable suggestions of your temperament.

Self-suggestion works almost at once, but it vanishes progressively. It checks your natural impulses, but though your disposition is altered it is never suppressed. Therefore it has to be kept up.

Your childhood recollections will reveal the basic tendencies of your temperament. Behaviour or circumstances may have allowed these inborn tendencies to develop.

Except in rare cases it is only through methodical cultivation that a person can succeed in attaining sound optimism, an outlook that implies a harmonious combination of physical, intellectual and moral qualities.

Always keep your goal in sight. Remind yourself of the advantages you will realize in reaching it.

Victory belongs to those who think it possible and who prepare for it with stubborn energy in spite of difficulties.

Click HERE to reach the associated topic for this webpage.
For more topics click HERE.