Mental Self-help E-Book

Edwin L. Ash

• Herausgeber: Edwin L. Ash
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

This book summarises, in a practical way, reasonable methods of obtaining self-help through the exercise of our own mental powers. Chapters include Self-Help In Sickness, Self-Suggestion in Theory, Self-Suggestion in Practice, and Right And Wrong Thinking.

CONTENTS

Introductory
- I. Self-Help in Sickness
- II. Foundations of Health
- III. Mind and Health
- IV. Self-Control: and how we Waste our Energies through lack of it
- V. Self-Suggestion in Theory
- VI. Self-Suggestion in Practice
- VII. Right and Wrong Thinking
- VIII. Conclusions
Appendix
 

Leseprobe

Mental self-help

Edwin L. Ash

First digital edition 2016 by Anna Ruggieri

CONTENTS

Introductory

- I. Self-Help in Sickness

- II. Foundations of Health

- III. Mind and Health

- IV. Self-Control: and how we Waste our Energies through lack of it

- V. Self-Suggestion in Theory

- VI. Self-Suggestion in Practice

- VII. Right and Wrong Thinking

- VIII. Conclusions

Appendix

INTRODUCTORY

THE object of this little book is to summarise in a practical way reasonable methods of obtaining self-help through the exercise of our own mental powers. No encouragement is given to the claims of self-help systems that run counter to common sense and daily experience. The plain fact of the human body and the necessity of studying it carefully and learning how best to care for it and satisfy its needs are emphasised, and its interactions with our thoughts and emotions indicated as a basis for the working of self-suggestion. On the other hand, Man is recognised as having spiritual as well as mental and physical attributes, which bring him into touch with that Principle which is the ultimate source of all power, of all life, and of all healing. Throughout it is shown how the right place of methods of mental and spiritual self-help is by the side of routine medical or surgical measures, and that under no circumstances should they be used in opposition to the latter.

E. L. A. London, W. 1920.

CHAPTER I - SELF-HELP IN SICKNESS

HEAVEN helps those who help themselves. A simple proverb familiar to us from early years, but one which holds within it the key to a great practical truth. It is the summing up in homely language of many observations that those who make a fight for health, life, or happiness invariably find the road to conquest made easier the more firmly do they struggle. The simple faith of our fathers left them no doubt that whenever they found things made easier for them in their determination to win through life's battles, an all-powerful Deity was making a personal effort on their behalf. There are many to-day who live in the same faith ; and who shall deny the truth that is in them ? On the side of science modern psychology says that there is within us a latent power for self-help and self-control which is capable of carrying us through great deeds under the inspiration of determination. We are told of the will to conquer and the will to be well as examples of this theory. The practical point is that we have not to look far without seeing some remarkable instance of what an effort of mind Will can do in times of stress and strain or in days of doubt and difficulty. The Great War has given us countless instances of superhuman feats of valour and endurance compassed by the driving force of determination ; also of remarkable recoveries of health and strength under circumstances where the sufferer has been encouraged to put forth an exceptional effort of Will. The practical point, then, is that there are powers of self-help available to man, and yet which do not operate until he makes a strong claim upon them. To my mind it is a quibble as to whether this power in essence comes from this or that source, because there can only be one original source of power, and that power we envisage when we speak of God. Clear enough it is that the added powers which we call to our aid when specially pressed have been sought through the operation of mind. It is a mental effort that we have to make. It is, indeed, upon mental selfhelp in one form or another that we must rely to bring us into touch with those forces of help and healing that lie outside the sphere of ordinary material aids, and which it is the object of this little book to illustrate and explain the workings of. One of the things which first impressed itself on my observation when taking up the study of medicine was the operation of a factor outside the ordinary run of routine medical and surgical treatment. It was something which was not referred to in one's curriculum, and did not seem to be systematised or taken any particular account of by the eminent doctors under whose authority one's early days were spent, but evidently it was a thing to be watched closely, to be encouraged, and to be worked with. Later on I realised that it was hope, cheerfulness, encouragement, love, working to stimulate determination. I was learning from personal experience what every observant medical man must learn, that there is a healing force which works through the mind as well as through the body. I remember quite well how my first attempt to discuss this question of mind and body were treated rather as a joke by fellow-workers and seniors, and I contrast that time when there was practically no mention in our text-books of the importance of the mental factor in medicine with the present era in science when on all sides schools of scientific psychology (mind healing) are springing up ; when a leading hospital for nervous diseases is employing an expert psychologist for treatment ; when, under the aegis of two great State departments the War Office and Ministry of Pensions thousands of disabled men are receiving the benefits of treatment through mind ; and when in Harley Street and neighbourhood numbers of practitioners are specialising in suggestion, hypnotism, psycho-analysis, and so forth. However, whilst in the twenty odd years that have elapsed since my first observations on this subject I have lost nothing of my belief in the efficacy of mental and special agencies in the relief of sick people indeed, I am more than ever convinced that herein we have enormous forces for healing as yet practically untouched I must say that I feel very strongly to-day that the best use of mind in medicine that can be made by medical practitioners to-day is by teaching people to use the mental factor to help themselves rather than in ordering them long courses of " suggestion " or " psycho-analytic " treatment in which all the work is done by the psychologist and little or nothing by the patient. Our object to-day should be to train in self-control those who suffer from a wandering mind and loss of directive capacity ; to improve in self-mastery those whose early training has not sufficed to put them beyond the reach of an unruly subconsciousness ; and particularly to re-educate those who through some stress or accident of life have failed in nerve notably sufferers from shellshock and its type to regain their normal strength and control. To-day everyone knows that all things which tend to depress the mind are detrimental to health and hinder recovery from ill-health ; we all know that people get well much more quickly in bright and cheerful surroundings than when left to suffer in dismal circumstances. To-day there is many a physician who helps his patients along the road to recovery by hopeful word and cheerful manner, definitely bringing right attitude and optimistic phrase into his plan of scientific treatment. But there is still room for much more systematic use of this principle. It is, of course, extraordinary how even in incurable diseases words of hope and encouragement confidently spoken by the doctor often act with great success in alleviating distress and sometimes even slowing a downward course. Particularly is the word of hope the suggestion that all is well helpful in the convalescent stages of severe illness such as influenza, acute rheumatism, pneumonia, or typhoid fever. This is a time when a period of sluggishness sets in such as often defies the ordinary resources of daily practice. It is the mental factor which is commonly at fault in these cases, and every effort should be made to brighten and encourage the patient's mental outlook. His mind must be energised and his own curative powers set to work to stir up the flagging vital centres and through these to stimulate the circulation and other processes of organic life. Convalescent patients should always be given a hint about self-help, and a few brief words as to how an invalid can reasonably set about to help himself are invaluable, and I hope that in its new form this, my little book on Mental Self-Help, which in earlier editions has been a means of assisting so many sufferers, will be found even more practical and helpful than before from this point of view. Of course, one is often asked about religious aspects of mental self-help. There are many who feel very strongly that help of this kind should be taken to the highest possible level, and one would hesitate to disagree with them. From the purely scientific point of view the fact of a cure being brought about through mind is a matter of psychology, and as such can be entirely dissociated from anything to do with religion: indeed, the psychological doctor of to-day suggestionist, psychologist, or what not commonly resents his work being given a religious savour. But seeing that from the spiritual side come the most powerful psychological moving forces, and that the individual naturally feels an interest in him-SELF in relation to God, one cannot avoid the religious implications of mental treatment, whether we call it suggestion, psycho-analysis, persuasion, psycho-therapy, or spiritual healing. The scientific worker must always fall a little short of his possibilities in this field if he persists in trying to make his patients regard themselves just as so many psychological problems. It is not in the nature of things that they should. There must be something beyond the merely scientific in this kind of work there must be the human touch and beyond that we look for the touch of the Living Spirit which one's human help really symbolises. The agnostic has wistful moments of seeking the spiritual heart of things.

CHAPTER II - FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTH

A VERY rich man is reported to have said once that he considered the chief advantage of wealth to be that it enables one to procure the best aids to keeping well and the best advice for getting back one's health when ill. Probably there are few millionaires who value their possessions more than their health. Money, rank, and influence are largely discounted for those who possessing these things know not what it is to feel really well. On the other hand, buoyant health enables its possessor to face ups and downs of this troublesome world with an equanimity that is denied to the sickly. For, as is evident, not only does the mind influence the body, but the body consequently reacts on the mind, and when unhealthy clogs the workings of human thought so that molehills of difficulty look like mountains of disaster, and passing clouds like raging thunderstorms. Only much training in the principles of self-help, and the attainment of a quiet mind that is able to resist these reactions of an unhappy body, can protect the individual from the jaundiced outlook that chronic ill-health brings even to those most well-to-do. There is, indeed, little good in this life for anyone who cannot manifest a fair measure of health, unless he has fortified himself through mind. To-day, although we live in an era when scientific researches of healing have been developed to a hitherto undreamed-of standard of efficiency, when everything that militates against disease has been brought to a high pitch, it is nevertheless comparatively rare to meet anyone who can say " I always feel well ; sense of ill-health is unknown to me." Even the most healthy have many days of feeling unwell. Mankind must attain a far higher standard of health and strength if it is to reach that golden age which evolution (if it has any meaning at all) surely has in store. The word " health," of course, descends from Anglo-Saxon words meaning " sound " or " whole," and Webster well defines health as " State of being whole, sound, or whole in body, mind, or soul," a distinction that may well be borne in mind. One cannot be in good health unless one is whole in body or mind ; there is no health in us if we ail in either body or mind. But, as a matter of fact, the popular conception of health is being sound in wind and limb ; anyone whose heart, lungs, or other internal organs are in good order, and has no twist or blemish in face or limb, is commonly regarded as being in perfect health irrespective of the state of his mind. One may note in passing that herein is the basis of that common fallacy which refuses to regard a person in apparent physical health as being ill when suffering from a nervous trouble ; when health is generally understood to be a matter of mind as well as body the large army of sufferers from nerve troubles will receive a more reasonable sympathy than now falls to their lot. From the point of view of the individual, health is not a matter of appearances, but of feeling well. If one gets up in the morning and feels well one does not bother much about possible irregularities anywhere else. On the other hand, he who rises in the morning feeling tired and ill gets small comfort from being told that he is in good physical health. There is a health of the mind and there is a health of the body, but these two things are but part of that greater health, the health of the whole human being. It is a fallacy to suppose that one is sound in mind and ill in body, or that one can be sound in body and ill in mind. Appearances may be deceptive, but no man is well in health unless he is sound in both. Health of the mind and health of the body go together ; one cannot manifest without the other. We cannot get a fair view of the problem of health unless we dispossess ourselves of such fallacies as we have just indicated, nor until we have freed ourselves from another kind of fallacy, and that is the mistake of regarding disorders of health from a too narrow and local point of view. That these fallacies persist to-day is due entirely to that lamentable fallacy of education which omits all reference to the elementary facts of anatomy and physiology. In the future this will doubtless be remedied, but the present generation was brought up quite in ignorance of the simple workings of the human system, and so is readily led away by false appearances. No blame attaches then to anyone for this misjudgment who has not had at any previous opportunity proper information about them ; but to ignore the truth which has been revealed by reason is to court disappointment and possibly disaster in attempts of self-help in sickness. Just as one must insist on human body and human mind being regarded together, and as forming one whole the human being so in the matter of body, only it must be insisted that the physical system be regarded in its entirety when discussing questions of health. But the prevalent popular view is to think that the body can be ill at places and well in places at the same time ; that, indeed, it constantly resembles that notorious curate's egg which has no rest from being dragged out to illustrate one thing or another. The curate told the bishop that his egg was excellent in parts, and most people like to think that their bodies are very good in parts however disordered elsewhere. I hold most strongly the view that no part of the body can be sick without there be [...]