Chapter C: D. Larson’s book, “Just be Glad,” was on my table, and gave me the

thought of writing on this subject. Larson offers capital ideas on the mental side, but he does not tell people _how_ to be glad; and, especially, he leaves out all the Physical Helps.

In this little Birthday offering, I shall include a few Physical as well as Mental Helps--a few out of many, since space is limited--so that readers may be able to keep happy easily.

The art is not new, but--like the habit of deep, full, rhythmical breathing--is always needed.

There are millions who have scarcely begun to recognise, at least to the extent of acting upon the facts, that, while their Happiness itself depends largely upon their digestion, their elimination of waste matter, their circulation, etc., these influences themselves depend largely on (1) the choice of foods and drinks, the way of eating and drinking, the breathing and other exercises, and so forth--and on (2) the maintenance of Happiness itself, or at least the avoidance of worry and resentment, etc., and the expression of Happiness, until Happiness actually is attracted and comes into a prepared nest.

KEEP HAPPY

KEEP HAPPY

Why Keep Happy? A Contrast

First work out the contrast. Before reading further, think what happens when one keeps the opposite of happy, whatever be the actual stage between the extreme homicidal or suicidal violence or suicidal melancholia on the one hand, and, on the other hand, ordinary fear, worry, resentment, depression, grumpiness, and so on.

* * * * *

Those who wish to study the effects of these states of mind more fully, can consult Elmer Gates’ “The Mind and the Brain,” or William S. Sadler’s “Physiology of Faith and Fear,” both quoted in my book.[A] Professor Elmer Gates, of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, says:--

“_My experiments show that irascible, malevolent, and depressing emotions generate in the system injurious compounds, some of which are extremely poisonous; also that agreeable, happy emotions generate chemical compounds of nutritious value, which stimulate the cells to manufacture energy...._

“_If an evil emotion is dominant, then during that period the respiration contains volatile poisons, which are expelled through the breath and are characteristic of these emotions._

“_Wearisome, unpleasant memories weaken health, and do not generate thought energy. Cure is accomplished in expelling these by another crop of wholly pleasant memories, which put the necessary structures of the mind in systematic order and teach the patient how to use the mental faculties._”

Therefore, keep happy.

On page 40 of “Economy of Energy” will be found a summary of some results of states of mind:--

“_They affect_:--

“_The heart, and the circulation--both its rate, and its distribution of blood; (unfavourable states of mind tend to anaemia or dysxmia, or to congestion, etc.)._

“_The actual chemical condition of the blood and the lymph._

“_The lungs, and the rhythm and the fulness of the breathing, and the amount of oxygen inhaled, and of carbonic acid gas, etc., exhaled._

“_The digestive and ‘assimilative’ organs and functions._

“_The curative energies of the body; which include:--_

“_The excretory organs--the bowels, kidneys, skin, etc. (Thus fear may act as a diuretic.)_

“_The muscular system in general (as when it is paralysed by fear--for instance, when one feels ‘all of a tremble’)._

“_The appearance--the attitude, the position of the organs, the expression of the face, etc._

“_The voice--its tone and timbre, and the words used or repressed._

“_The nervous system--partly influenced indirectly by the altered breathing, and by the blood, and by the effects of the state of mind upon the Solar Plexus._

“_The energy and endurance._

“_The poise, and ease of self-mastery, self-recovery, and self-direction._

“_The brain--the clearness of thought, etc._

“_The influence of the person on others--especially in the immediate neighbourhood._

“_The direction and bias of the mind in the future, states of mind tending to become habitual apart from the active will._”

Therefore, keep happy.

“Anxiety (which includes fear) saps more life in a day than work does in a week.” Anxiety is unnecessary, unproductive, destructive work. It is hard work. It is sinful work.

We must remember how prevalent are the states of mind in which fear is one of the factors. For fear is a factor in worry, and usually even in anger, and in depression. These words from M. J. M. Hickson’s “Healer” are worth reading:--

“_We have very seldom reflected upon the fact that fear runs like a baleful thread through the whole web of our life from beginning to end. We are born into the atmosphere of fear and dread, and the mother who bore us had lived in the same atmosphere for weeks and months before we were born. We are surrounded in infancy and childhood by clouds of fear and apprehension on the part of our parents, nurses, and friends. As we advance in life, we become instinctively, or by experience, afraid of almost everything. We are afraid of our parents, afraid of our teachers, afraid of our playmates, afraid of ghosts, afraid of rules and regulations and punishments, afraid of the doctor, the dentist, the surgeon. Our adult life is a state of chronic anxiety, which is fear in a milder form. We are afraid of failure in business, afraid of disappointments and mistakes, afraid of enemies, open or concealed; afraid of poverty, afraid of public opinion, afraid of accidents, of sickness, of death, and unhappiness after death. Man is like a haunted animal, from the cradle to the grave, the victim of real or imaginary fears, not only his own, but those reflected upon him from the superstitions, self-deceptions, sensory illusions, false beliefs, and concrete errors of the whole human race, past and present._

“_Fear not only affects the mind and the nervous and muscular tissues, but the molecular chemical transformations of the organic network, even to the skin, the hair, and the teeth. This might be expected of a passion that disturbs the whole mind, which is represented or externalised in the whole body._

“_How does fear operate upon the body to produce sickness? By paralysing the nerve centres, especially those of the vasomotor nerves, thus producing not only muscular relaxation, but capillary congestions of all kinds. This condition of the system invites attack, and there is no resilience or power of resistance. The gates of the citadel have been opened from within, and the enemy may enter at any point._”

Therefore keep happy.

First because, once again, non-happiness is a mistake. It acts, as I said just now, in a vicious circle, increasing itself. It poisons the blood, and this very poisoning tends to produce more non-happiness. It radiates itself, and is infectious. It inclines to become a fixed and sub-conscious habit. It sinks down into the sub-conscious self, and afterwards expresses itself in various ways which (as Psychoanalysts show) are not usually associated with their true mental cause. It is toxic, and produces non-health and non-efficiency, by wasting power and force; by bringing fatigue; by encouraging bad sleep; by injuring the whole body; by cramping the energies; by “distracting” the body and mind, and thus hindering concentration; by impeding the circulation, and the elimination of waste-matters; and by upsetting the rhythm and the deepness and thoroughness of the breathing, and all the vibrations of the physical system. Besides, it is ugly. It militates against financial success, and against social success--for who wants a non-happy acquaintance?--and against intellectual success.

Consider this. Non-happiness is liable to make one’s work poor and inferior, difficult, tiring, and wanting in foresight and in perspective.

It does not help. As Ian Maclaren said:

“_What does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrow; but ah! it empties to-day of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes._”

Therefore, keep happy.

On the moral and ethical side, non-happiness, especially in the form of worry, is cowardly, unbalanced, against moral consistency and persistency, against self-control and self-mastery, and very unkind to others.

Therefore, keep happy.

Non-happiness shortens life, and brings premature, incompetent, burdensome old age.

It is selfish, in the worst sense of the word; for there is a selfishness that is altruistic.

It harms posterity, as--among other proofs--we see from the influence of a mother upon her babe before as well as after birth.

It makes us less independent and less free. Therefore, keep happy.

How Happiness Helps

Happiness, by the “expulsive power” of a positive state of mind, drives out or neutralises or cancels non-happiness, instead of the mind being left open to the seven other devils, as it may be when we merely try not to be non-happy. The happy heart is too full for non-happiness, as the light room is too light for darkness. As Mr. A. Knight says, Happiness fills the heart with its three companions, Health, Harmony, and Helpfulness.

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness works in the opposite of the vicious circle. It makes for greater happiness. It is self-increasing. Among other reasons, it purifies and invigorates the blood, and this in itself inclines the mind towards further and greater Happiness. It creates the habit of Happiness, the bias towards Happiness. It stores the memory with Happiness, for future use. Prospectively, Happiness must be valued as a great asset.

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness does not merely aid in removing mental and physical Non-Health, in such forms as depression and fear, “nerves” and their troubles, fatigue, sleeplessness or bad sleep, bad circulation, congestion, and so on. It actually produces positive Health, Well-being, and Fitness, as well as increased Self-Healing and “Preventive” Power.

Therefore, keep happy.

Think of the letter E alone. Happiness tends to Health, in its various aspects:--

Enjoyment of life and of all that life brings us;

Energy--for Health gives a tonic without reaction;

Economy--for, when we are happy, we need neither drugs nor stimulants nor narcotics nor holidays; Happiness saves vast stores of precious power, both physical and mental;

Endurance--what long hours we can work when we are happy;

Ease;

Efficiency;

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness brings the right vibrations throughout the mind and body, partly through the Solar Plexus and the Sympathetic Nervous System. Only lately have we begun to realise the importance of the rate and character of vibrations. Let the same elements vibrate differently, and we have ice or water or steam. We know the full and elastic firmness and resilience of faith, the shrunken and paralysed trembling of fear. It is largely a difference of vibrations. Happiness has the most desirable vibrations.

Happiness means that we inhale more life-giving and cleansing oxygen, and exhale more carbonic acid and other waste matter.

Happiness means that we have better sleep, and can do with less sleep.

Happiness means improved circulation. It keeps the body warm in winter and cool in summer. It relieves the physical heart.

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness gives better looks. It makes the eyes brighter, the complexion clearer, the step more vigorous, the carriage more upright.

And, generally, Happiness makes people more attractive. It has a marked social value.

Therefore, keep happy.

Financially, Happiness pays. The happy salesman or saleswoman is more persuasive. The happy person gets and keeps more friends, who will like to help him, if only because his Happiness helps them. James Coates says:

“_Smile at your business, and it will smile back. Follow the light of that smile._”

Therefore, keep happy.

Intellectually, Happiness helps us to see with surer clearness and foresight. Happiness helps us to solve our problems rightly. Happiness gives us more understanding and more intuition. Happiness makes us more receptive to the best ideas. Happiness puts us in better perspective. Happiness, once again, increases our mental energy, endurance, ease, and effectiveness.

These quotations from C. D. Larson are excellent. He says:--

“_Just be glad, and you always will be glad. You will have better reasons to be glad. You will have more and more things to make you glad._

“_When you are tempted to feel discouraged or disappointed, be glad instead. Just be glad, and your fate will change. Know that you can be glad, say that you will, and stand uncompromisingly upon your resolve. When things are not to your liking, be glad nevertheless, for the glad heart can cause all things to be as we wish them to be. When things do not give you pleasure, proceed instead to create pleasure in your own heart and soul._

“_It is the law that all good things will sooner or later come and be where the greatest happiness is to be found. Therefore, be happiness in yourself, regardless of times, seasons, or circumstances._

“_It is the man who blends rejoicing with his work who does the best work. It is profitable in every way to learn to be glad._

“_The happier you are over what has come to you, the more and the more will come to you in the future. The glad heart and the cheerful soul always make things better._

“_Give gladness to your mind, and you give clearness to your mind; and a clear mind can see how to evolve better plans._”

In the moral and ethical and spiritual, as in the intellectual and financial and social spheres, Happiness is a precious and integral factor in success and progress. We might almost say that Happiness includes the much-praised virtues of Courage, Persistence, and Poise, and goes far towards Self-Control and Self-Mastery.

Therefore, keep happy.

It is kind to others to keep happy. Happiness tends to Forgiveness (not of the usual perfunctory and “I-forgive-but-I-can’t-forget” type), Goodwill, and pleasant Warmth as of the sunshine.

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness tends to the right sort of Youthfulness--the Youthfulness in which we have all the merits of “little children,” together with the wisdom of elders.

Therefore, keep happy.

Happiness makes our life longer--not like the life of an aged person who may be a burden upon the earth, living in name only, and almost as a vampire lives, but a life of increasingly-useful length.

Therefore, keep happy.

For Happiness is non-selfish.

* * * * *

But non-selfishness, after all, is a negative.

Happiness does indeed include negative merits, but it is also positive and radiating and infectious. When we ask what we can do for others, one answer is, we can keep happy. Here, again, Larson’s words are to the point:--

“_He who is always glad is always adding to the welfare of every member of the race. The great soul is always in search of ways and means for adding to the welfare of others. But no way is better, greater, or more far reaching than this. To be glad at all times is to be of greater service to mankind than any other thing we can do. Consider how all things change when the glad soul arrives, and how all work becomes lighter when the spirit of joy is abroad. And every man has the power to dispense the spirit of joy wherever he may work or live._

“_Work in the spirit of joy, and your work will be the product of joy--a rare product--the best of its kind._”

Therefore, keep happy.

To help all those with whom you live, and many beyond this narrow circle, keep happy.

To help your children and posterity, whether you already are or are going to be a father or mother, keep happy.

The relation of a parent (or of any one who has charge of children) to children, illustrates well how our states of mind react upon ourselves. Be happy with children, and you make them happier, healthier, pleasanter to be with, easier to train. When they are in this favourable condition, you yourself, in turn, have more Happiness and health, partly because your work is more delightful and more successful. And so your Happiness is self-increasing as well as self-radiating.