Part Two In A Nutshell 13 страница

throw down their packs and rest ten minutes out of every hour. So the Army forces them

to do just that. Your heart is just as smart as the U. S. Army. Your heart pumps enough

blood through your body every day to fill a railway tank car. It exerts enough energy

every twenty-four hours to shovel twenty tons of coal on to a platform three feet high.

It does this incredible amount of work for fifty, seventy, or maybe ninety years. How

can it stand it? Dr. Walter B. Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School, explains it. He

says: " Most people have the idea that the heart is working all the time. As a matter of

fact, there is a definite rest period after each contraction. When beating at a moderate

rate of seventy pulses per minute, the heart is actually working only nine hours out of

the twenty-four. In the aggregate its rest periods total a full fifteen hours per day. "

During World War II, Winston Churchill, in his late sixties and early seventies, was able

to work sixteen hours a day, year after year, directing the war efforts of the British

Empire. A phenomenal record. His secret? He worked in bed each morning until eleven

o'clock, reading papers, dictating orders, making telephone calls, and holding important

conferences. After lunch he went to bed once more and slept for an hour. In the

evening he went to bed once more and slept for two hours before having dinner at

eight. He didn't cure fatigue. He didn't have to cure it. He prevented it. Because he

rested frequently, he was able to work on, fresh and fit, until long past midnight.

The original John D. Rockefeller made two extraordinary records. He accumulated the

greatest fortune the world had ever seen up to that time and he also lived to be ninety-

eight. How did he do it? The chief reason, of course, was because he had inherited a

tendency to live long. Another reason was his habit of taking a half-hour nap in his

office every noon. He would lie down on his office couch-and not even the President of

the United States could get John D. on the phone while he was having his snooze!

In his excellent book. Why Be Tired, Daniel W. Josselyn observes: " Rest is not a matter

of doing absolutely nothing. Rest is repair. " There is so much repair power in a short

period of rest that even a five-minute nap will help to forestall fatigue! Connie Mack,

the grand old man of baseball, told me that if he doesn't take an afternoon nap before a

game, he is all tuckered out at around the fifth inning. But if he does go to sleep, if for

only five minutes, he can last throughout an entire double-header without feeling tired.

When I asked Eleanor Roosevelt how she was able to carry such an exhausting schedule

during the twelve years she was in the White House, she said that before meeting a

crowd or making a speech, she would often sit in a chair or davenport, close her eyes,

and relax for twenty minutes.

I recently interviewed Gene Autry in his dressing-room at Madison Square Garden, where

he was the star attraction at the world's championship rodeo. I noticed an army cot in

his dressing-room. " I lie down there every afternoon, " Gene Autry said, " and get an

hour's nap between performances. When I am making pictures in Hollywood, " he

continued, " I often relax in a big easy chair and get two or three ten-minute naps a day.

They buck me up tremendously. "

Edison attributed his enormous energy and endurance to his habit of sleeping whenever

he wanted to.

I interviewed Henry Ford shortly before his eightieth birthday. I was surprised to see

how fresh and fine he looked. I asked him the secret. He said: " I never stand up when I

can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down. "

Horace Mann, " the father of modern education", did the same thing as he grew older.

When he was president of Antioch College, he used to stretch out on a couch while

interviewing students.

I persuaded a motion-picture director in Hollywood to try a similar technique. He

confessed that it worked miracles. I refer to Jack Chertock, who is now one of Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer's top directors. When he came to see me a few years ago, he was then

head of the short-feature department of M-G-M. Worn out and exhausted, he had tried

everything: tonics, vitamins, medicine. Nothing helped much. I suggested that he take a

vacation every day. How? By stretching out in his office and relaxing while holding

conferences with his staff writers.

When I saw him again, two years later, he said: " A miracle has happened. That is what

my own physicians call it. I used to sit up in my chair, tense and taut, while discussing

ideas for our short features. Now I stretch out on the office couch during these

conferences. I feel better than I have felt in twenty years. Work two hours a day longer,

yet I rarely get tired. "

How does all this apply to you? If you are a stenographer, you can't take naps in the

office as Edison did, and as Sam Goldwyn does; and if you are an accountant, you can't

stretch out on the couch while discussing a financial statement with the boss. But if you

live in a small city and go home for lunch, you may be able to take a ten-minute nap

after lunch. That is what General George C. Marshall used to do. He felt he was so busy

directing the U. S. Army in wartime that he had to rest at noon. If you are over fifty and

feel you are too rushed to do it, then buy immediately all the life insurance you can get.

Funerals come high-and suddenly-these days; and the little woman may want to take

your insurance money and marry a younger man!

If you can't take a nap at noon, you can at least try to lie down for an hour before the

evening meal. It is cheaper than a highball; and, over a long stretch, it is 5, 467 times

more effective. If you can sleep for an hour around five, six, or seven o'clock, you can

add one hour a day to your waking life. Why? How? Because an hour's nap before the

evening meal plus six hours' sleep at night-a total of seven hours-will do you more good

than eight hours of unbroken sleep.

A physical worker can do more work if he takes more time out for rest. Frederick Taylor

demonstrated that while working as a scientific management engineer with the

Bethlehem Steel Company. He observed that labouring men were loading approximately

12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per man each day on freight cars and that they were exhausted

at noon. He made a scientific study of all the fatigue factors involved, and declared that

these men should be loading not 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per day, but forty-seven tons

per day! He figured that they ought to do almost four times as much as they were doing,

and not be exhausted. But prove it!

Taylor selected a Mr. Schmidt who was required to work by the stop-watch. Schmidt was

told by the man who stood over him with a watch: " Now pick up a 'pig' and walk. ... Now

sit down and rest. ... Now walk. ... Now rest. "

What happened? Schmidt carried forty-seven tons of pig-iron each day while the other

men carried only 12 1/2 tons per man. And he practically never failed to work at this

pace during the three years that Frederick Taylor was at Bethlehem. Schmidt was able

to do this because he rested before he got tired. He worked approximately 26 minutes

out of the hour and rested 34 minutes. He rested more than he worked-yet he did

almost four times as much work as the others! Is this mere hearsay? No, you can read

the record yourself in Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor.

Let me repeat: do what the Army does-take frequent rests. Do what your heart does-

rest before you get tired, and you will add one hour a day to your waking life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 24: What Makes You Tired-and What You Can Do About It

Here is an astounding and significant fact: Mental work alone can't make you tired.

Sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human

brain could labour without reaching " a diminished capacity for work", the scientific

definition of fatigue. To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood

passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If you took blood

from the veins of a day labourer while he was working, you would find it full of " fatigue

toxins" and fatigue products. But if you took a drop of blood from the brain of an Albert

Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins whatever at the end of the day.

So far as the brain is concerned, it can work " as well and as swiftly at the end of eight

or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning". The brain is utterly tireless. ... So

what makes you tired?

Psychiatrists declare that most of our fatigue derives from our mental and emotional

attitudes. One of England's most distinguished psychiatrists, J. A. Hadfield, says in his

book The Psychology of Power: " the greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is

of mental origin; in fact exhaustion of purely physical origin is rare. "

One of America's most distinguished psychiatrists, Dr. A. A. Brill, goes even further. He

declares: " One hundred per cent of the fatigue of the sedentary worker in good health is

due to psychological factors, by which we mean emotional factors. "

What kinds of emotional factors tire the sedentary (or sitting) worker? Joy?

Contentment? No! Never! Boredom, resentment, a feeling of not being appreciated, a

feeling of futility, hurry, anxiety, worry-those are the emotional factors that exhaust

the sitting worker, make him susceptible to colds, reduce his output, and send him

home with a nervous headache. Yes, we get tired because our emotions produce

nervous tensions in the body.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company pointed that out in a leaflet on fatigue: " Hard

work by itself, " says this great life-insurance company, " seldom causes fatigue which

cannot be cured by a good sleep or rest. ... Worry, tenseness, and emotional upsets are

three of the biggest causes of fatigue. Often they are to blame when physical or mental

work seems to be the cause. ... Remember that a tense muscle is a working muscle.

Ease up! Save energy for important duties. "

Stop now, right where you are, and give yourself a check-up. As you read these lines,

are you scowling at the book? Do you feel a strain between the eyes? Are you sitting

relaxed in your chair? Or are you hunching up your shoulders? Are the muscles of your

face tense? Unless your entire body is as limp and relaxed as an old rag doll, you are at

this very moment producing nervous tensions and muscular tensions. You are producing

nervous tensions and nervous fatigue!

Why do we produce these unnecessary tensions in doing mental work? Josselyn says: " I

find that the chief obstacle... is the almost universal belief that hard work requires a

feeling of effort, else it is not well done. " So we scowl when we concentrate. We hunch

up our shoulders. We call on our muscles to make the motion of effort, which in no way

assists our brain in its work.

Here is an astonishing and tragic truth: millions of people who wouldn't dream of

wasting dollars go right on wasting and squandering their energy with the recklessness

of seven drunken sailors in Singapore.

What is the answer to this nervous fatigue? Relax! Relax! Relax! Learn to relax while you

are doing your work!

Easy? No. You will probably have to reverse the habits of a lifetime. But it is worth the

effort, for it may revolutionise your life! William James said, in his essay " The Gospel of

Relaxation": " The American over-tension and jerkiness and breathlessness and intensity

and agony of expression... are bad habits, nothing more or less. " Tension is a habit.

Relaxing is a habit. And bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.

How do you relax? Do you start with your mind, or do you start with your nerves? You

don't start with either. You always begin to relax with your muscles!

Let's give it a try. To show how it is done, suppose we start with your eyes. Read this

paragraph through, and when you've reached the end, lean back, close your eyes, and

say to your eyes silently: " Let go. Let go. Stop straining, stop frowning. Let go. Let go. "

Repeat that over and over very slowly for a minute....

Didn't you notice that after a few seconds the muscles of the eyes began to obey? Didn't

you feel as though some hand had wiped away the tension? Well, incredible as it seems,

you have sampled in that one minute the whole key and secret to the art of relaxing.

You can do the same thing with the jaw, with the muscles of the face, with the neck,

with the shoulders, the whole of the body. But the most important organ of all is the

eye. Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago has gone so far as to say that if

you can completely relax the muscles of the eyes, you can forget all your troubles! The

reason the eyes are so important in relieving nervous tension is that they burn up one-

fourth of all the nervous energies consumed by the body. That is also why so many

people with perfectly sound vision suffer from " eyestrain". They are tensing the eyes.

Vicki Baum, the famous novelist, says that when she was a child, she met an old man

who taught her one of the most important lessons she ever learned. She had fallen down

and cut her knees and hurt her wrist. The old man picked her up; he had once been a

circus clown; and, as he brushed her off, he said: " The reason you injured yourself was

because you don't know how to relax. You have to pretend you are as limp as a sock, as

an old crumpled sock. Come, I'll show you how to do it. "

That old man taught Vicki Baum and the other children how to fall, how to do flip-flops,

and how to turn somersaults. And always he insisted: " Think of yourself as an old

crumpled sock. Then you've got to relax! "

You can relax in odd moments, almost anywhere you are. Only don't make an effort to

relax. Relaxation is the absence of all tension and effort. Think ease and relaxation.

Begin by thinking relaxation of the muscles of your eyes and your face, saying over and

over: " Let go... let go... let go and relax. " Feel the energy flowing out of your facial

muscles to the centre of your body. Think of yourself as free from tension as a baby.

That is what Galli-Curci, the great soprano, used to do. Helen Jepson told me that she

used to see Galli-Curci before a performance, sitting in a chair with all her muscles

relaxed and her lower jaw so limp it actually sagged. An excellent practice-it kept her

from becoming too nervous before her stage entrance; it prevented fatigue.

Here are five suggestions that will help you learn to relax:

1. Read one of the best books ever written on this subject: Release from Nervous

Tension, by Dr. David Harold Fink.

2. Relax in odd moments. Let your body go limp like an old sock. I keep an old, maroon-

coloured sock on my desk as I work-keep it there as a reminder of how limp I ought to

be. If you haven't got a sock, a cat will do. Did you ever pick up a kitten sleeping in the

sunshine? If so, both ends sagged like a wet newspaper. Even the yogis in India say that

if you want to master the art of relaxation, study the cat. I never saw a tired cat, a cat

with a nervous breakdown, or a cat suffering from insomnia, worry, or stomach ulcers.

You will probably avoid these disasters if you learn to relax as the cat does.

3. Work, as much as possible, in a comfortable position. Remember that tensions in the

body produce aching shoulders and nervous fatigue.

4. Check yourself four or five times a day, and say to yourself: " Am I making my work

harder than it actually is? Am I using muscles that have nothing to do with the work I am

doing? " This will help you form the habit of relaxing, and as Dr. David Harold Fink says:

" Among those who know psychology best, it is habits two to one. "

5. Test yourself again at the end of the day, by asking yourself: " Just how tired am I? If I

am tired, it is not because of the mental work I have done but because of the way I

have done it. " " I measure my accomplishments, " says Daniel W. Josselyn, " not by how

tired I am at the end of the day, but how tired I am not. " He says: " When I feel

particularly tired at the end of the day, or when irritability proves that my nerves are

tired, I know beyond question that it has been an inefficient day both as to quantity and

quality. " If every business man would learn that same lesson, the death rate from

" hypertension" diseases would drop overnight. And we would stop filling up our

sanatoriums and asylums with men who have been broken by fatigue and worry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 25: How The Housewife Can Avoid Fatigue-and Keep Looking Young

One day last autumn, my associate flew up to Boston to attend a session of one of the

most unusual medical classes in the world. Medical? Well, yes, it meets once a week at

the Boston Dispensary, and the patients who attend it get regular and thorough medical

examinations before they are admitted. But actually this class is a psychological clinic.

Although it is officially called the Class in Applied Psychology (formerly the Thought

Control Class-a name suggested by the first member), its real purpose is to deal with

people who are ill from worry. And many of these patients are emotionally disturbed

housewives.

How did such a class for worriers get started? Well, in 1930, Dr. Joseph H. Pratt-who, by

the way, had been a pupil of Sir William Osier-observed that many of the outpatients

who came to the Boston Dispensary apparently had nothing wrong with them at all

physically; yet they had practically all the symptoms that flesh is heir to. One woman's

hands were so crippled with " arthritis" that she had lost all use of them. Another was in

agony with all the excruciating symptoms of " cancer of the stomach". Others had

backaches, headaches, were chronically tired, or had vague aches and pains. They

actually felt these pains. But the most exhaustive medical examinations showed that

nothing whatever was wrong with these women-in the physical sense. Many old-

fashioned doctors would have said it was all imagination-" all in the mind".

But Dr. Pratt realised that it was no use to tell these patients to " go home and forget it".

He knew that most of these women didn't want to be sick; if it was so easy to forget

their ailments, they would do so themselves. So what could be done?

He opened his class-to a chorus of doubts from the medical doubters on the sidelines.

And the class worked wonders! In the eighteen years that have passed since it started,

thousands of patients have been " cured" by attending it. Some of the patients have been

coming for years-as religious in their attendance as though going to church. My assistant

talked to a woman who had hardly missed a session in more than nine years. She said

that when she first went to the clinic, she was thoroughly convinced she had a floating

kidney and some kind of heart ailment. She was so worried and tense that she

occasionally lost her eyesight and had spells of blindness. Yet today she is confident and

cheerful and in excellent health. She looked only about forty, yet she held one of her

grandchildren asleep in her lap. " I used to worry so much about my family troubles, " she

said, " that I wished I could die. But I learned at this clinic the futility of worrying. I

learned to stop it. And I can honestly say now that my life is serene. "

Dr. Rose Hilferding, the medical adviser of the class, said that she thought one of the

best remedies for lightening worry is " talking your troubles over with someone you trust.

We call it catharsis, " she said. " When patients come here, they can talk their troubles

over at length, until they get them off their minds. Brooding over worries alone, and

keeping them to oneself, causes great nervous tension. We all have to share our

troubles. We have to share worry. We have to feel there is someone in the world who is

willing to listen and able to understand. "

My assistant witnessed the great relief that came to one woman from talking out her

worries. She had domestic worries, and when she first began to talk, she was like a

wound-up spring. Then gradually, as she kept on talking, she began to calm down. At

the end of the interview, she was actually smiling. Had the problem been solved? No, it

wasn't that easy. What caused the change was talking to someone, getting a little

advice and a little human sympathy. What had really worked the change was the

tremendous healing value that lies in-words!

Psycho-analysis is based, to some extent, on this healing power of words. Ever since the

days of Freud, analysts have known that a patient could find relief from his inner

anxieties if he could talk, just talk. Why is this so? Maybe because by talking, we gain a

little better insight into our troubles, get a better perspective. No one knows the whole

answer. But all of us know that " spitting it out" or " getting it off our chests" bring almost

instant relief.

So the next time we have an emotional problem, why don't we look around for someone

to talk to? I don't mean, of course, to go around making pests of ourselves by whining

and complaining to everyone in sight. Let's decide on someone we can trust, and make

an appointment. Maybe a relative, a doctor, a lawyer, a minister, or priest. Then say to

that person: " I want your advice. I have a problem, and I wish you would listen while I

put it in words. You may be able to advise me. You may see angles to this thing that I

can't see myself. But even if you can't, you will help me tremendously if you will just sit

and listen while I talk it out. "

However, if you honestly feel that there is no one you can talk to, then let me tell you

about the Save-a-Life League- it has no connection with the Boston Dispensary. The

Save-a-Life League is one of the most unusual leagues in the world. It was originally

formed to save possible suicides. But as the years went on, it expanded its scope to give

spiritual counsel to those who are unhappy and in emotional need. I talked for some

time to Miss Lona B. Bonnell, who interviews people who come for advice to the Save-a-

Life League. She told me that she would be glad to answer letters from readers of this

book. If you write to the Save-a-Life League, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York City, your

letter and your troubles will be held in strictest confidence. Frankly, I would advise you

to go to someone you can talk to in person if you can, for that will give you greater

relief. But if that is out of the question, then why not write to this league?

Talking things out, then, is one of the principle therapies used at the Boston Dispensary

Class. But here are some other ideas we picked up at the class-things you, as a

housewife, can do in your home.

1. Keep a notebook or scrapbook 'for " inspirational" reading. Into this book you can paste

all the poems, or short prayers, or quotations, which appeal to you personally and give

you a lift. Then, when a rainy afternoon sends your spirits plunging down, perhaps you

can find a recipe in this book for dispelling the gloom. Many patients at the Dispensary

have kept such notebooks for years. They say it is a spiritual " shot in the arm".

2. Don't dwell too long on the shortcomings of others! Sure, your husband has faults! If

he had been a saint, he never would have married you. Right? One woman at the class

who found herself developing into a scolding, nagging, and haggard-faced wife, was

brought up short with the question: " What would you do if your husband died? " She was

so shocked by the idea that she immediately sat down and drew up a list of all her

husband's good points. She made quite a list. Why don't you try the same thing the next

time you feel you married a tight-fisted tyrant? Maybe you'll find, after reading his

virtues, that he's a man you'd like to meet!

3. Get interested in your neighbours! Develop a friendly, healthy interest in the people

who share the life on your street. One ailing woman who felt herself so " exclusive" that

she hadn't any friends, was told to try to make up a story about the next person she

met. She began, in the street-car, to weave backgrounds and settings for the people she

saw. She tried to imagine what their lives had been like. First thing you know, she was

talking to people everywhere-and today she is happy, alert, and a charming human

being cured of her " pains".

4. Make up a schedule for tomorrow's work before you go to bed tonight. The class