Talking things out.

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 kept such notebooks for years. They said it was a spiritual "shot in the arm".

2. Don't dwell too long on the shortcomings of others! 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 tyrant? Maybe you'll find, after reading your spouse's virtues, that he or she is a person you'd like to meet!

3. Get interested in people! Develop a friendly, healthy interest in the people who share your life. One ailing woman who felt herself so "exclusive" that she hadn't any friends, was told to try to make up a story about th enext person she met. She began, in the bus, to eave 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 found that many people feel driven and harassed by the unending round of work and things they must do. They never got their work finished. They were chased by the clock. To cure this sense of hurry, and worry, the suggestion was mad that they draw up a schedule each night for the following day. What happened? More work accomplished; much less fatigue; a feeling of pride and achievement, and time left over for rest and enjoyment.

5. Finally - avoid tensions and fatigue. Relax! Relax! Nothing will make you look old sooner than tension and fatigue. Nothing will work such havoc with your freshness and looks! My assistant sat for an hour in the Boston Though Control Class, while Professor Paul E. Johnson, the director, went over many of the principle we have already discussed in the previous chapter - the rules for relaxing. At the end of ten minutes of these relaxing exercises, which my assistant did with the others, she was almost asleep sitting upright in her chair! Why is such stress laid on this physical relaxing? Because the clinic knows - as other doctors know - that if you're going to get the worry-kinks out of people, they've got to relax!