Saving Strength. 



635 



possible is really the only necessary requirement, and if one can drop 

 the worry over the work which is not accomplished much is gained in poise. 



Anticipated discomforts are much to be avoided. We unfit ourselves 

 for duties which we want to accomplish by the fear that we shall fail. 

 If one is called upon to act as hostess under trying circumstances or to 

 speak at the farmers' wives' club upon some subject, the anticipation 

 is really much harder than the doing. But really, who has suggested 

 failure? It is the one who is to perform the part who says, "I am afraid 

 I am going to fail." If she entertains this idea it is almost sure to bring 

 about direful results, and for this reason many refuse to perform any 

 duty which would be afterwards a source of satisfaction. If one does 

 not allow the idea of failure to enter the mind, or if it does, drives it 

 away immediately, there is great promise of success. The fear of failure 

 is a prompt invitation to fail. There is much in the philosophy of 

 abandon in work when one 

 can be sure of doing the best 

 that is possible and letting 

 results come as they will. 

 They are much more sure to 

 come successfully than other- 

 wise, for the abandon of care 

 and worry allows one to do 

 good work. 



Relation of bodily actions 

 and attitudes to mental states. — 

 The mental and emotional 

 states are inevitably more or 

 less influenced by the bodily 



condition and activities. A dejected physical attitude tends to develop 

 a dejected mental state. On the other hand, there is nothing more 

 effective for ridding one's self of '*the blues" than to stretch the body 

 to its full height, to breathe deeply and to express in bodily action, 

 lightness, joyousness. Recall some witty saying and laugh over it again, 

 or sing a bit of some merry song, or run gaily out to the barn and call 

 the chickens in one's cheeriest tones, or take a few steps of the dance 

 that one loved before one married and "settled down." That "settling 

 down" physically and mentally is perhaps the thing of all things most 

 essential to protect one's self against. How significant is such a 

 remark as "bowed down with grief" or, if a man has been unfortunate 

 "he has grown ten years older in a week." Grief, if yielded to, does 

 bow the body down; so does trouble of all sorts. 



(a) 



Fig. 



{b) 



{c) 



