Quit Your Worrying!. George Wharton James
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George Wharton James
Quit Your Worrying!
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066180539
Table of Contents
JUST BE GLAD
CHAPTER VI THE SELFISHNESS OF WORRY
CHAPTER XXIV
FOREWORD
I THE CURSE OF WORRY II OURS IS THE AGE OF WORRY III NERVOUS PROSTRATION AND WORRY IV HOLY WRIT, THE SAGES AND WORRY V THE NEEDLESSNESS AND USELESSNESS OF WORRY VI THE SELFISHNESS OF WORRY VII CAUSES OF WORRY VIII PROTEAN FORMS OF WORRY IX HEALTH WORRIES X THE WORRIES OF PARENTS XI MARITAL WORRIES XII THE WORRY OF THE SQUIRREL CAGE XIII RELIGIOUS WORRIES AND WORRIERS XIV AMBITION AND WORRY XV ENVY AND WORRY XVI DISCONTENT AND WORRY XVII COWARDICE AND WORRY XVIII WORRY ABOUT MANNERS AND SPEECH XIX THE WORRIES OF JEALOUSY XX THE WORRIES OF SUSPICION XXI THE WORRIES OF IMPATIENCE XXII THE WORRIES OF ANTICIPATION XXIII HOW OUR WORRY AFFECTS OTHERS XXIV WORRY VERSUS INDIFFERENCE XXV WORRIES AND HOBBIES
JUST BE GLAD
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
O heart of mine, we shouldn't worry so, What we have missed of calm we couldn't have, you know!
What we've met of stormy pain, And of sorrow's driving rain, We can better meet again, If it blow.
We have erred in that dark hour, we have known, When the tear fell with the shower, all alone.
Were not shine and shower blent As the gracious Master meant? Let us temper our content With His own.
For we know not every morrow Can be sad; So forgetting all the sorrow We have had, Let us fold away our fears, And put by our foolish tears, And through all the coming years, Just be glad.
FOREWORD
Between twenty and thirty years ago, I became involved in a series of occurrences and conditions of so painful and distressing a character that for over six months I was unable to sleep more than one or two hours out of the twenty-four. In common parlance I was "worrying myself to death," when, mercifully, a total collapse of mind and body came. My physicians used the polite euphemism of "cerebral congestion" to describe my state which, in reality, was one of temporary insanity, and it seemed almost hopeless that I should ever recover my health and poise. For several months I hovered between life and death, and my brain between reason and unreason.
In due time, however, both health and mental poise came back in reasonable measure, and I asked myself what would be the result if I returned to the condition of worry that culminated in the disaster. This question and my endeavors at its solution led to the gaining of a degree of philosophy which materially changed my attitude toward life. Though some of the chief causes of my past worry were removed there were still enough adverse and untoward circumstances surrounding me to give me cause for worry, if I allowed myself to yield to it, so I concluded that my mind must positively and absolutely be prohibited from dwelling upon those things that seemed justification for worry. And I determined to set before me the ideal of a life without worry.
How was it to be brought about?
At every fresh attack of the harassing demon I rebuked myself with the stern command, "Quit your Worrying." Little by little I succeeded in obeying my own orders. A measurable degree of serenity has since blessed my life. It has been no freer than other men's lives from the ordinary—and a few extraordinary—causes of worry, but I have learned the lesson. I have Quit Worrying. To help others to attain the same desirable and happy condition has been my aim in these pages.
It was with set purpose that I chose this title. I might have selected "Don't Worry." But I knew that would fail to convey my principal thought