00:44 Aug 17 2020
Times Read: 406
by Napoleon Hill
Most every one of us would like to get the greatest vigor and fullest use from that body of ours. We can if we make certain that we fully understand two important ideas. They are the oneness of the Creator's masterpiece, the human mind-body, and its oneness with all of nature.
If you think you are sick, you are.
We cannot separate the body and the mind, for they are one. Anything that affects the health and vigor of the mind will affect the body. In turn, anything that affects the health of our body will affect the mind. This point is so essential to our understanding of health that we have termed the individual a human mind-body.
We are not only one in the sense of a mind-body, but we are also part of the environment in which we live. We are born into a world of trees and mountains and moonlit skies, peopled with all form's of living things, and subject to the same natural laws that govern all things, even the grain of wheat.
Perhaps we can gain wisdom and insight into the handling of this mind-body of ours by examining the world about us and how it functions, so that we may swim with the river of life, and not exhaust our energies fighting against it.
THE RHYTHMS OF LIFE
When we consider the waves of the ocean, the flow of the changing seasons, the wane and ebb of the moon, we find there are rhythms to life. There is even a rhythm in our own life from birth through childhood and adolescence to full maturity, old age, and finally rebirth of a new generation. Light and electro-magnetic impulses of radio are waves. The movement of the stars and the planets about our sun are rhythmical in nature. So also is the motion of the tiniest particle. The electrons move in a rhythmical pattern about the proton in the atom.
Nothing about life is static or unchanging. There seems to be a constant wave-like motion to life. It is actually a progression of rhythmical patterns. This is one of the factors in our enjoyment of music. It would seem wise that we strive to bend and sway with the rhythms of life, and not stand fixed and immobile against them. The sandy beach moves and changes with the rhythms of the waves, and stands for eternity. The breakwater is soon destroyed.
Don't neglect to play and relax regularly.
Review your own life. Do you live a rhythmical life? Are you following work with play; mental effort with physical effort; eating with fasting; seriousness with humor; sex with transmutation of sex into sublime creative effort? Consider for a moment one of the earlier lessons in which you learned that the subconscious mind worked best when the mind was at rest, best when we live a rhythm of work and play. The greatest research achievements are produced by the subconscious mind, after it has been loaded with the facts, and the mind is then occupied with other thoughts. That is, the mind is playing. Are you giving your subsconscious mind a chance to work by playing?
Metternich, the great statesman, often received his most brilliant inspiration while finishing a book he was reading. It is the interference with the normal rhythmical patterns of the stomach that may produce ulcers. Is it not our failures which make our success so sweet? The calm, refreshed beauty after the storm is exquisite, when each wet leaf and blade of grass sparkles with new beauty in the first rays of the sun, and the air is clear and fresh. The magnitude of nature's beauty is enhanced because of the storm.
Do you really want continuous happiness? No, for that would lose its zest. It is really those little unhappinesses that make happiness meaningful.
In marriage counseling, one of the problems is to make couples understand that there is no such thing as being constantly in love, nor would it be desirable if it could be achieved. People in love have a series of loves, like waves on the ocean. In the troughs they are quite neutral in their feelings. These troughs make the waves of love that much more poignant. Like life, not all the waves are of the same intensity; there are a few for each of us that reach great heights, and these we store to call out and use when the going becomes difficult.
Thus, this mind-body of ours, to reach great heights of successful living and smooth efficient functioning, must first learn to live a rhythmical life, in harmony with the world of living and non-living things about us, and m harmony with natural laws that govern these rhythms of life.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE MIND
As we are one with the world about us, so are we one with ourselves: a mind-body. And as we are affected by the world we live in, and in turn affect that world, so our body influences our mind, and in turn our mind influences our body.
The proper perspective would suggest that the highest function of all living things is present in man, and in no other of the Creator's products. We are the only thinking animal, and with this power we have been able to modify our environment and to learn its laws. We have only to conceive the idea and believe the idea to achieve the idea.
This is the story of Edison, Marconi, the Wright brothers and of all the successful people who have changed the path of civilization. It took life fifty million years to develop through evolution to a bird that could Hy. Yet the Wright brothers, with simple childlike faith in their own idea, had man airborne in a mere twenty years. Here is the power of this mindbody of ours, prophetically revealed to us in many tongues and many ways, by Infinite Intelligence, as when the Nazarene said, all things are possible even unto the end of the world.
The proper perspective of this mind-body of ours is that the mind is the higher function of the two, and that the body is an exquisitely functioning machine for carrying the mind about and executing the dictates of this tremendous powerhouse. Yes, a smoothly functioning mind is necessary to a smoothly functioning body.
Think of those unfortunate individuals who have been bed-ridden, unable to do more than just talk or move a few fingers, who have lived full creative lives. This story can be multiplied and retold, with many names and places of those who refused to let crippled bodies stay them in their quest for greatness: Helen Keller, Pavlov, Nurmi the great runner, and Beethoven, to name a few.
The story of civilization is punctuated with greatness achieved by various individuals in spite of physical bankruptcy because these individuals possessed smoothly functioning minds. Each of them had a definite major purpose, faith in that purpose and plan, and faith in Infinite Intelligence. They understood clearly where they were going and what their problem was.
Dr. Coyne Campbell, a well-known psychiatrist, said in one of his lectures on the problems of the maladjusted that they all had one problem in common. They were unable to tell him clearly what was the matter - they were unable to put their difficulties into words. He went on to say that when he had taught them to state their problem, they no longer needed his services. Once they had a clear picture of themselves and their problem and developed a definite major purpose and a definite plan to attain that purpose, these unfortunates were back on the road to a useful life.
Individuals with weakened bodies like those mentioned earlier, seem always to have known their plan, or to have learned it at an early age. On the wings of a definite major purpose, faith, enthusiasm, and a positive mental attitude, they rose further and further from the vague despondency of maladjustment towards great heights of brilliance and achievement. This is the power of a man's mind. Thus it would seem that even when we cannot achieve sound physical health, we can achieve sound mental health if we have a definite major purpose.
To realize a smoothly functioning mind, let us reconsider some of the qualities we have found essential to success and happiness, for they are also essential to a sound mind.
ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS
A definite major purpose and a plan for carrying out that purpose. These keep us from vacillating in our efforts. Think of a situation in which you were part of a smooth, well-organized plan. You were content with the way the situation was handled. You felt at ease and comfortable. Your mind is always most satisfied with the harmony of action shown in a well-organized plan. Anxiety is the feeling you develop in a poorly organized situation.
Controlled attention, self-discipline, accurate thinking, personal initiative, learning from defeat, and going the extra mile are mental tools you can use to organize and carry through your plan. These satisfy your mind since they help you to carry your plan forward to a successful conclusion. Thus they give you satisfaction in the achievement of each step in your plan, and satisfaction in the progress towards your goal. Satisfactions are one of the most important foods for a healthy mind.
A change in mental attitude often aids in the development
of bodily resistance against disease.
Probably the most important single quality necessary to sound mental health is a positive mental attitude, and all that this entails. Two of the greatest destructive forces in the human mind are fear, and its close partner, anxiety. They kill enthusiasm, destroy faith, blind vision, blunt creative effort and destroy harmony and peace of mind - all the qualities necessary for a positive mental attitude.
Source: PMA: The Science of Success by Napoleon Hill.
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