Sleep Story: How To Stop Worrying & Start Living: Chapter 2 & 3

Enjoy this sleep story to help you drift off into a peaceful slumber while hearing motivational suggestions authored by Dale Carnegie. His book, "How To Stop Worrying and Start Living" is a classic written in 1948 and offers a plan to help us make the most of our lives, be productive and thrive in the present moment. Chapter 2 offers a 3 step "magic formula" to solve worry situations while Chapter 3 talks about what worry does to our bodies mentally and physically.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Hilary LaFawn and I'm so grateful that you've joined me today to explore Chapter 2 and 3 of How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.

Enjoy this sleep story to help relax your mind and your body for a great night's sleep.

Before we begin,

Settle yourself in your bed and find your most comfortable position.

Take a few deep,

Long breaths and feel the gentle,

Soothing support of your pillows,

Sheets and blankets.

Let them cradle your body so you can relax and settle in.

Let's begin.

Chapter 2,

A magic formula for solving worry situations.

Would you like a quick,

Surefire recipe for handling worry situations?

A technique you can start using right away,

Before you go any further in reading this book?

Then let me tell you about the method worked out by Willis H.

Carrier,

The brilliant engineer who launched the air conditioning industry and who headed the world famous Carrier Corporation in Syracuse,

New York.

It is one of the best techniques I've ever heard of for solving worry problems and I got it from Mr.

Carrier personally when we were having lunch together one day at the engineer's club in New York.

When I was a young man,

Mr.

Carrier said,

I worked for the Buffalo Forge Company in Buffalo,

New York.

I was handed the assignment of installing a gas cleaning device in a plant of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Crystal City,

Missouri.

A plant costing millions of dollars.

The purpose of this installation was to remove the impurities from the gas so it could be burned without injuring the engines.

This method of cleaning gas was new.

It had been tried only once before and under different conditions.

In my work at Crystal City,

Missouri,

Unforeseen difficulties arose.

It worked after a fashion,

But not well enough to meet the guarantee we had made.

I was stunned by my failure.

It was almost as if someone had struck me a blow on the head.

My stomach,

My intestines,

My insides began to twist and turn.

For a while I was so worried I couldn't sleep.

Finally,

Common sense reminded me that worry wasn't getting me anywhere,

So I figured out a way to handle my problem without worrying.

It worked superbly.

I've been using this same anti-worry technique for more than 30 years.

It's simple.

Anyone can use it.

It consists of three steps.

Step one.

I analyzed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure.

No one was going to jail me or shoot me.

That was certain.

True,

There was also a chance that I would lose my position and that there was also a chance that my employers would have to remove the machinery and lose the $20,

000 we had invested.

Step two.

After figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen,

I reconciled myself to accepting it if necessary.

I said to myself,

This failure will be a blow to my record and it might possibly mean the loss of my job,

But if it does,

I can always get another position.

Conditions could be much worse and as far as my employers are concerned,

Well,

They realize that we are experimenting with a new method of cleaning gas and if this experience costs them $20,

000,

They can stand it.

They can charge it up to research for it is an experiment.

After discovering the worst that could possibly happen and reconciling myself to accepting it if necessary,

An extremely important thing happened.

I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't experienced in days.

Step three.

From that time on,

I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.

I now tried to figure out ways and means by which I might reduce the loss of $20,

000 that we faced.

I made several tests and finally figured out that if we spent another $5,

000 for additional equipment,

Our problem would be solved.

We did this and instead of the firm losing $20,

000,

We made $15,

000.

I probably would have never been able to do this if I had kept on worrying because one of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate.

When we worry,

Our mind jumps here and there and everywhere and we lose all power of decision.

However,

When we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally,

We then eliminate all these vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we're able to concentrate on our problem.

This incident that I have related occurred many years ago,

It works so superbly that I've been using it ever since and as a result,

My life has been almost completely free from worry.

Now why is Willis H.

Carrier's magic formula so valuable and so practical,

Psychologically speaking?

Because it yanks us down out of the great clouds in which we fumble around and when we are blinded by worry,

It plants our feet good and solid on the earth.

We know where we stand and if we haven't solid ground under us,

How in creation can we ever hope to think anything through?

Professor William James,

The father of applied psychology,

Has been dead since 1910,

But if he were alive today and could hear this formula for facing the worst,

He would heartedly approve it.

How do I know that?

Because he told his own students,

Be willing to have it so.

Be willing to have it so,

He said,

Because acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

The same idea was expressed by Lin Yu-Tang in his widely read book,

The Importance of Living.

True peace of mind,

Said this Chinese philosopher,

Comes from accepting the worst.

Psychologically,

I think,

It means a release of energy.

That's it,

Exactly.

Psychologically,

It means a new release of energy.

When we have accepted the worst,

We have nothing more to lose and that automatically means we have everything to gain.

After facing the worst,

Willis H.

Carrier reported,

I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't experienced in days.

From that time on,

I was able to think.

Makes sense,

Doesn't it?

That millions of people have wrecked their lives in angry turmoil because they refused to accept the worst,

Refused to try to improve upon it,

Refused to salvage what they could from the wreck.

Instead of trying to reconstruct their fortunes,

They engaged in a bitter and violent contest with experience and ended up victims of that brooding fixation known as melancholia.

Would you like to see how someone else adopted William H.

Carrier's magic formula and applied it to his own problem?

Well,

Here is one example from a New York oil dealer who was a student in my classes.

I was being blackmailed,

The student began.

I didn't believe it was possible.

I didn't believe it could happen outside of the movies,

But I was actually being blackmailed.

What happened was this.

The oil company of which I was the head had a number of delivery trucks and a number of drivers.

At that time,

War regulations were strictly in force and we were rationed on the amount of oil we could deliver to any one of our customers.

I didn't know it,

But it seems that certain one of our drivers had been delivering oil short to our regular customers and then reselling the surplus to customers of their own.

The first inkling I had of this illegitimate transaction was when a man who claimed to be a government inspector came to see me one day and demanded hush money.

He had got documentation of what our drivers had been doing and he threatened to turn this proof over to the district attorney's office if I didn't cough up.

I knew,

Of course,

That I had nothing to worry about personally at least,

But I also knew the law says a firm is responsible for the actions of its employers and its employees.

What's more,

I knew that if the case came to court and it was aired in the newspaper,

The bad publicity would ruin my business.

And I was proud of the business.

It had been founded by my father 24 years before.

I was so worried.

I was sick.

I didn't eat or sleep for three days and nights.

I kept going around in crazy circles.

Should I pay the money,

$5,

000,

Or should I tell this man to go ahead and do his damnedest?

Either way,

I tried to make up my mind.

It ended in nightmare.

Then on Sunday night,

I happened to pick up the booklet on how to stop worrying,

Which I had been given in my Carnot E class in public speaking.

I started to read it and came across the story of Willis H.

Carrier.

Face the worst,

It said.

And so I asked myself,

What is the worst that can happen if I refuse to pay up?

And these blackmailers turned the record over to the district attorney.

The answer to that was,

The ruin of my business.

That's the worst that can happen.

I can't go to jail.

All that can happen is that I shall be ruined by the publicity.

I then said to myself,

All right,

The business is ruined.

I accept that mentally.

What happens next?

Well,

With my business ruined,

I would probably have to look for a job.

That wasn't bad.

I knew a lot about oil.

There were several firms that might be glad to employ me.

I began to feel better.

The blue funk I had been in for three days and nights began to lift a little.

My emotions calmed down.

And to my astonishment,

I was able to think.

I was clear headed enough now to face step three,

Improve on the worst.

As I thought of solutions,

An entirely new angle presented itself to me.

If I told my attorney the whole situation,

He might find a way out,

Which I hadn't thought of.

I know it sounds stupid to say that it hadn't even occurred to me before.

But of course,

I hadn't been thinking.

I'd only been worrying.

I immediately made up my mind that I would see my attorney first thing in the morning.

And then I went to bed and slept like a log.

How did it end?

Well,

The next morning,

My lawyer told me to go and see the district attorney and tell him the truth.

I did precisely that.

When I finished,

I was astonished to hear the DA say that this blackmail racket had been going on for months and that the man who claimed to be the government agent was a crook wanted by the police.

What a relief to hear all this after I had tormented myself for three days and nights,

Wondering whether I should hand over $5,

000 to this professional swindler.

This experience taught me a lasting lesson.

Now,

Whenever I face a pressing problem that threatens to worry me,

I give it what I call the old Willis H.

Carrier formula.

If you think Willis H.

Carrier had troubles,

Listen.

You ain't heard nothing yet.

Here is the story of Earl P.

Haney of Winchester,

Massachusetts.

Here is the story as he told it to me himself on November 17,

1948 in the Hotel Statler in Boston.

Back in the 20s,

He said,

I was so worried that ulcers began eating the lining out of my stomach.

One night I had a terrible hemorrhage.

I was rushed to the hospital connected with the School of Medicine of Northwestern University of Chicago.

My weight dropped from 175 pounds to 90 pounds.

I was so ill,

I was warned not even to lift my hand.

Three doctors,

Including a celebrated ulcer specialist,

Said my case was incurable.

I lived on alkaline powders and a tablespoon of half milk and half cream every hour.

A nurse put a rubber tube into my stomach every night in mourning and pumped out the contents.

This went on for months.

Finally,

I said to myself,

Look here,

Earl Haney,

If you have nothing to look forward to accept a lingering death,

You might as well make the most out of the little time you have left.

You've always wanted to travel around the world before you die.

So if you're ever going to do it,

You'll have to do it now.

When I told my physicians I was going to travel around the world and pump out my own stomach twice a day,

They were shocked.

Impossible.

They'd never heard of such a thing.

They warned me that if I started around the world,

I would be buried at sea.

No,

I won't,

I replied.

I have promised my relatives that I will be buried in the family plot at Broken Bow,

Nebraska.

So I'm going to take my casket with me.

I arranged for a casket,

Put it aboard the ship,

And then made arrangements with the steamship company in the event of my death to put my corpse in a freezing compartment and keep it there to the liner returned home.

I set out on my trip imbued with the spirit of old Omar.

Ah,

Make the most of what we yet may spend before we too into the dust descend.

Burst into dust and under dust to lie.

Sans wine,

Sans song,

Sans singer,

And sans end.

The moment I boarded the SS President Adams in Los Angeles and headed for the Orient,

I felt better.

I gradually gave up my alkaline powders and my stomach pump.

I was soon eating all kinds of foods,

Even strange native mixtures and concoctions that were guaranteed to kill me.

As the weeks went by,

I even smoked long black cigars and drank high balls.

I enjoyed myself more than I had in years.

We ran into monsoons and typhoons,

Which should have put me in a casket,

If only from fright.

But I got an enormous kick out of all of this adventure.

I played games aboard the ship,

Sang songs,

Made new friends,

Stayed up half the night.

When we reached China and India,

I realized that the business cares that I had faced back home were paradise compared to the poverty and hunger in the Orient.

I stopped all of my senseless worrying and felt fine.

When I got back to America,

I'd gained 90 pounds and had almost forgotten I'd ever had a stomach ulcer.

I never felt better in my life.

I went back to business and haven't been ill a day since.

Earl P.

Haney told me he realizes now that he was consciously using the self-principles that Willis H.

Carrier used to conquer worry.

First I asked myself,

What is the worst that could possibly happen?

The answer was death.

Second,

I prepared myself to accept death.

I had to.

There was no choice.

The doctor said my case was hopeless.

Third,

I tried to improve the situation by getting the utmost enjoyment out of life for a short time.

I had left if,

He continued,

If I had gone unworried about boarding that ship,

I had no doubt that I would have made the return voyage inside my coffin.

But I relaxed and I forgot all my troubles.

And this calmness of mine gave me a new burst of energy,

Which actually saved my life.

So rule number two is,

If you have a worry problem,

Apply the magic formula of Willis H.

Carrier by doing these three things.

Number one,

Ask yourself,

What is the worst that can possibly happen?

Number two,

Prepare to accept it if you have to,

Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.

Chapter three,

What worry may do to you?

Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.

Dr.

Alexis Carroll.

Many years ago,

A neighbor rang my doorbell one evening and urged me and my family to be vaccinated against smallpox.

He was only one of thousands of volunteers who were ringing doorbells all over New York City.

Frightened people stood in line for hours at a time to be vaccinated.

Vaccination stations were open not only in all hospitals,

But also in firehouses,

Police precincts,

And in a large industrial plants.

More than 2,

000 doctors and nurses worked feverishly day and night,

Vaccinating crowds.

The cause of all this excitement,

Eight people in New York City had smallpox and two had died.

Two deaths out of a population of almost eight million.

Now,

I had lived in New York for many,

Many years and no one had ever run my doorbell to warn me against the emotional sickness of worry and illness that during the same time period had caused 10,

000 times more damage than smallpox.

No doorbell ringer has ever warned me that one person out of 10 now living in these United States will have a nervous breakdown induced in the vast majority of cases by worry and emotional conflicts.

So I'm writing this chapter to ring your doorbell and warn you.

The great Nobel Prize winner in medicine,

Dr.

Alexis Carroll said,

Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.

And so do housewives and horse doctors and bricklayers.

A few years ago,

I spent my vacation motoring through Texas and New Mexico with Dr.

O.

F.

Goeber,

One of the medical executives of the Santa Fe Railway.

His exact title was Chief Physician of the Gulf,

Colorado and Santa Fe Hospital Association.

We got to talking about the effects of worry and he said,

70% of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they only got rid of their fears and worries.

Don't think for a moment that I mean that their ills are imaginary,

He said.

Their ills are as real as a throbbing toothache and sometimes 100 times more serious.

I refer to such illnesses as nervous indigestion,

Some stomach ulcers,

Heart disturbances,

Insomnia,

Some headaches and some types of paralysis.

These illnesses are real.

I know what I'm talking about,

Said Dr.

Goeber,

For I myself suffered from a stomach ulcer for 12 years.

Fear causes worry.

Worry makes you tense and nervous and affects the nerves of your stomach and actually changes the gastric juices of your stomach from normal to abnormal and often leads to stomach ulcers.

Dr.

Joseph F.

Montaigne,

Author of the book Nervous Stomach Trouble,

Says much the same thing.

He says,

You do not get stomach ulcers from what you eat.

You get ulcers from what is eating you.

Dr.

W.

C.

Alvarez of the Mayo Clinic said,

Ulcers frequently flare up or subside according to the hills and valleys of emotional stress.

That statement was backed up by a study of 15,

000 patients treated for stomach disorders at the Mayo Clinic.

Four out of five had no physical basis,

Whatever for their stomach illnesses.

Fear,

Worry,

Hate,

Supreme selfishness and the inability to adjust themselves to the world of reality.

These were largely the cases of their stomach illnesses and stomach ulcers.

Stomach ulcers can kill you.

According to Life Magazine,

They now stand tenth in our list of fatal diseases.

I recently had some correspondence with Dr.

Harold C.

Cabanen of the Mayo Clinic.

He read a paper at the annual meeting of the American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons saying that he had made a study of 176 business executives whose average age was 44.

3 years.

He reported that slightly more than a third of these executives suffered from one of three ailments,

Peculiar to high tension living,

Heart disease,

Digestive tract ulcers and high blood pressure.

Think of it.

A third of our business executives are wrecking their bodies with heart disease,

Ulcers and high blood pressure before they even reach 45.

What price success?

And they aren't even buying success.

Can any man possibly be a success who is paying for business advancement with stomach ulcers and heart trouble?

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his health?

Even if he owned the whole world,

He could sleep in one bed at a time and eat only one three meals a day.

Even a new employee can do that and probably sleep more soundly and enjoy his food more than a high powered executive.

Frankly,

I would rather be a carefree person with no responsibility than wreck my health at 45 by trying to run a railroad or a cigarette company.

The best known cigarette manufacturer in the world dropped dead from heart failure while trying to take a little recreation in the Canadian woods.

He amassed millions and fell dead at 61.

He probably traded years of his life for what is called business success.

In my estimation,

This cigarette executive with all his millions was not half as successful as my father,

A Missouri farmer who died at 89 without a dollar.

The famous Mayo brothers declared that more than half of our hospital beds are occupied by people with nervous troubles.

Yet when the nerves of these people are studied under a high powered microscope in a post mortem examination,

Their nerves in most cases are apparently as healthy as the nerves of Jack Dempsey.

Their nervous troubles are caused not by a physical deterioration of the nerves,

But by emotions of futility,

Frustration,

Anxiety,

Worry,

Fear,

Defeat,

Despair.

Plato says that the greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind.

Yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately.

It took medical science 2300 years to recognize this great truth.

We are just now beginning to develop a new kind of medicine called psychosomatic medicine,

A medicine that treats both the mind and the body.

It is high time we are doing that,

For medical science has largely wiped out the terrible diseases caused by physical germs.

Diseases such as smallpox,

Cholera,

Yellow fever,

And scores of other scourges that swept untold millions into untimely graves.

But medical science has been unable to cope with the mental and physical wrecks caused not by germs,

But by emotions of worry,

Fear,

Hate,

Frustration,

And despair.

Casualties caused by these emotional diseases are mounting and spreading with catastrophic rapidity.

One out of every six of our young men called up by the draft in the second world war was rejected for psychiatric reasons.

What causes insanity?

No one knows all the answers,

But it is highly probable that in many cases,

Fear and worry are contributing factors.

The anxious and harassed individual who is unable to cope with the harsh world of reality breaks off all contact with his environment and retreats into a private dream world of his own making,

And this solves his worry problems.

I have on my desk a book by Dr.

Edward Podolsky entitled,

Stop Worrying and Get Well.

Here are some of the chapter titles in that book.

What Worry Does to the Heart?

High blood pressure is fed by worry.

Rheumatism can be caused by worry.

Worry less for your stomach's sake.

How worry can cause a cold.

Worry and the thyroid.

The worrying diabetic.

Another eliminating book about worry is Man Against Himself by Dr.

Carl Menninger,

One of the Mayo Brothers of psychiatry.

Dr.

Menninger's book will not give you any rules about how to avoid worry,

But it will give you a startling revelation of how we destroy our bodies and minds by anxiety,

Frustration,

Hatred,

Resentment,

Rebellion,

And fear.

You will probably find a copy in your public library.

Worry can make even the most stolid person ill.

General Grant discovered that during the closing days of the Civil War,

The story goes like this.

Grant had been besieging Richmond for nine months.

General Lee's troops,

Ragged and hungry,

Were beaten.

Entire regiments were deserting at a time.

Others were holding prayer meetings in their tents,

Shouting,

Weeping,

And seeing visions.

The end was close.

Lee's men set fire to the cotton and the tobacco warehouses in Richmond,

Burned the arsenal,

And fled from the city at night while towering flames roared up in the darkness.

Grant was in hot pursuit,

Banging away at the Confederates from both sides and the rear,

While Sheridan's cavalry was heading them off in front,

Tearing up railway lines and capturing supply tramps.

Grant,

Half-blind with a violent sick headache,

Fell behind his army and stopped at a farmhouse.

I spent the night,

He records in his memoirs,

And bathing my feet in hot water and mustard,

And putting mustard plasters on my wrists and the back part of my neck,

Hoping to be cured by morning.

The next morning he was cured instantaneously.

And the thing that cured him was not the mustard plaster,

But a horseman galloping down the road with a letter from Lee saying he wanted to surrender.

When the officer bearing the message reached me,

Grant wrote,

I was still suffering with a sick headache,

But the instant I saw the contents of the note,

I was cured.

Obviously it was Grant's worries,

Tensions,

And emotions that made him ill.

He was cured instantly the moment his emotions took on the hue of confidence,

Achievement,

And victory.

Seventy years later,

Dr.

Morgenthau,

Junior Secretary of the Treasury in Franklin D.

Roosevelt's cabinet discovered that worry could make him so ill he was dizzy.

He records in his diary that he was terribly worried when the President,

In order to raise the price of wheat,

Bought 4,

400,

000 bushels in one day.

He says in his diary,

I felt literally dizzy while the thing was going on.

I went home and went to bed for two hours after lunch.

If I want to see what worry does to people,

I don't have to go to a library or a physician.

I can look out the window of my home where I'm writing this book,

And I can see within one block one house where worry caused nervous breakdown and another house where a man worried himself into diabetes.

When the stock market went down,

The sugar in his blood and urine went up.

When Montaigne,

The illustrious French philosopher,

Was elected mayor of his hometown Bordeaux,

He said to all his fellow citizens,

I am willing to take your affairs into my hands,

But not into my liver and my lungs.

This neighbor of mine took the affairs of the stock market into his bloodstream and almost killed himself.

If I want to be reminded of what worry does to people,

I don't need to look at my neighbor's houses.

I can look at this very room where I'm writing now and be reminded that a former owner of this house worried himself into an untimely grave.

Worry can put you into a wheelchair with rheumatism and arthritis.

Dr.

Russell L.

Cecil,

A world recognized authority on arthritis,

Has listed four of the commonest conditions that bring on arthritis.

Number one,

Marital shipwreck.

Number two,

Financial disaster and grief.

Number three,

Loneliness and worry.

Number four,

Long cherished resentments.

Naturally,

These four emotional situations are far from being the only cause of arthritis.

There are many different kinds of arthritis due to various causes,

But to repeat,

The commonest conditions that bring on arthritis are the four listed.

For example,

A friend of mine was so hard hit during the depression that the gas company shut off the gas and the bank foreclosed the mortgage on his house.

His wife suddenly had a painful attack of arthritis and in spite of medicine and diets,

The arthritis continued until their financial situation improved.

Worry can even cause tooth decay.

Dr.

William McGonigal said in an address before the American Dental Association that unpleasant emotions such as those caused by worry,

Fear,

Nagging may upset the body's calcium balance and cause tooth decay.

Dr.

McGonigal told a patient of his who has always had a perfect set of teeth until he began to worry over his wife's sudden illness.

During the three weeks she was in the hospital,

He developed nine cavities,

Cavities brought on by worry.

Have you ever seen a person with an acutely overactive thyroid?

I have and I can tell you they tremble,

They shake,

They look like someone half scared to death and that's about what it amounts to.

The thyroid gland,

The gland that regulates the body has been thrown out of kilter.

It speeds up the heart.

The whole body is roaring away at full blast like a furnace with all of its traps.

It's wide open.

And if this isn't checked by operation or treatment,

The victim may die.

He may burn himself out.

Some time ago I went to Philadelphia with a friend of mine who suffered from this condition.

We consulted Dr.

Israel Bram,

A famous specialist who's been treating this type of ailment for 38 years.

Here's the advice he had hanging on the wall of his waiting room.

I copied it down in the back of the envelope while I was waiting.

Relaxation and recreation.

The most relaxing recreating forces are a healthy religion,

Sleep,

Music and laughter.

Have faith in God,

Learn to sleep well,

Love good music,

See the funny side of life and health and happiness will be yours.

The first question he asked this friend of mine was,

What emotional disturbance brought on this condition?

He warned my friend that if he didn't stop worrying,

He could get other complications,

Heart troubles,

Stomach ulcers or diabetes.

All of these diseases,

Said the eminent doctor,

Are cousins,

First cousins.

When I interviewed film star Merle Oberon,

She told me that she refused to worry because she knew that worry would destroy her chief asset on the motion picture screen,

Her good looks.

When I first tried to break into the movie,

She told me,

I was worried and scared.

I just come from India and I didn't know anyone in London where I was trying to get a job.

I saw a few producers but none of them hired me and the little money I had began to give out.

For two weeks,

I lived on nothing but crackers and water.

I was not only worried now,

I was hungry.

I said to myself,

Maybe you're a fool.

Maybe you will never break into the movies.

After all,

You have no experience.

You've never acted at all.

What have you to offer but a rather pretty face?

I went to the mirror and when I looked in the mirror,

I saw that worry and what it was doing to my looks.

I saw the lines it was forming.

I saw the anxious expression.

So I said to myself,

You've got to stop this at once.

You can't afford to worry.

The only thing you have to offer at all is your looks and worry will ruin them.

Few things can age and sour a woman and destroy her looks as quickly as worry.

Worry curdles the expression and makes us clench our jaws and lines our faces with wrinkles.

It forms a permanent scowl.

It may turn the hair gray and in some cases even make it fall out.

It can ruin the complexion.

It can bring on all kinds of skin rashes,

Eruptions and pimples.

Heart disease is the number one killer in America today.

During the second world war,

Almost a third of a million men were killed in combat.

But during the same period,

Heart disease killed two million civilians and one million of those casualties were caused by the kind of heart disease that is brought on by worry and high tension living.

Yes,

Heart disease is one of the chief reasons why Dr.

Alexis Carroll said,

Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.

The Lord may forgive us our sins,

Said William James,

But the nervous system never does.

Here is a startling and almost incredible fact.

More Americans commit suicide each year than die from the five most common communicable diseases.

Why?

The answer is largely worry.

When the cruel Chinese warlords wanted to torture their prisoners,

They would tie their prisoners hand and foot and put them under a bag of water that constantly dripped,

Dripped,

Dripped day and night.

These drops of water constantly falling on the head finally became like the sound of a hammer and drove men insane.

Worry is like a constant drip,

Drip,

Drip of water.

And the constant drip,

Drip,

Drip of worry often drives men to insanity and suicide.

When I was a country lad in Missouri,

I was half scared to death by listening to Billy Sunday describe the hellfires of the next world.

But he never even mentioned the hellfires of physical agony that warriors may have to face here and now.

For example,

If you're a chronic warrior,

You may be stricken someday with one of the most excruciating pains ever endured by man.

Angela Pectoris.

Do you love life?

Do you want to live long and enjoy good health?

Here is how you do it,

And I'm quoting Dr.

Alexis Carroll again.

He said,

Those who keep the peace of their inner selves in the midst of the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases.

Can you keep the peace of your inner self in the midst of the tumult of the modern city?

If you're a normal person,

The answer is yes,

Emphatically yes.

Most of us are stronger than we realize.

We have inner resources that we have probably never tapped.

As Thoreau said in his immortal book Walden,

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined,

He will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Surely many of the readers of this book have as much willpower and as many inner resources as the Olga K.

Jarve of Codilean,

Idaho.

She discovered that under the most tragic circumstances,

She could banish worry.

I firmly believe that you and I can also,

If we apply the old,

Old truths discussed in his volume.

Here is Olga K.

Jarve's story as she wrote it for me.

Eight and a half years ago,

I was condemned to die a slow,

Agonizing death of cancer.

The best medical brains of the country,

The Mayo Brothers,

Confirmed the sentence.

I was at a dead-end street.

The ultimate gaped at me.

I was young.

I did not want to die.

In my desperation,

I phoned my doctor at Kellogg and cried out to him with the despair in my heart.

Rather impatiently,

He embraded me.

What's the matter,

Olga?

Haven't you any fight in you?

Sure,

You will die if you keep on crying.

Yes,

The worst has overtaken you.

Okay,

Face the facts.

Quit worrying.

And then do something about it.

Right then and there,

I took an oath,

An oath so solemn that the nails sank deep into my flesh and cold chills ran down my spine.

I am not going to worry.

I am not going to cry.

And if there's anything to mind,

It is mind over matter.

I am going to win.

I am going to live.

The usual amount of x-ray is done in advanced cases.

And at that time,

10 and a half minutes a day for 30 days,

They gave me x-ray for 14 and a half minutes for 49 days.

And although my bones stuck out of my emaciated body like rocks on a barren hillside,

And although my feet were like lead,

I did not worry.

Not once did I cry.

I smiled.

Yes,

I actually forced myself to smile.

I am not so idiotic as to imagine that merely smiling can cure cancer.

But I do believe that a cheerful mental attitude helps the body fight disease.

At any rate,

I experienced one of the miracle cures of cancer.

I have never been healthier than in the last few years,

Thanks to those challenging,

Fighting words.

Face the facts.

Quit worrying.

Then do something about it.

I'm going to close this chapter by repeating its opening quote,

The words of Dr.

Alexis Caroll.

Those who do not know how to fight,

Worry,

Die young.

The followers of the Prophet Muhammad often had verses from the Quran tattooed on their breasts.

I would like to have the title of this chapter tattooed on the breast of every reader of this book.

Those who do not know how to fight,

Worry,

Die young.

Was Dr.

Caroll speaking of you?

Who could it be?

Here's part one in a nutshell.

Fundamental facts you should know about worry.

Rule number one.

If you want to avoid worry,

Do what Sir William Osler did.

Live in day-tight compartments.

Don't stew about the future.

Just live each day until bedtime.

Rule number two,

The next time trouble with a capital T backs you up in a corner,

Try the magic formula of Willis H.

Carrier.

A.

Ask yourself,

What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can't solve my problem?

B.

Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst if necessary.

C.

Then calmly try to improve upon the worst,

Which you've already mentally agreed to accept.

And rule number three.

Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health.

Those who do not know how to fight worry,

Die young.

Thank you for allowing me the precious gift of your time.

Until next time,

Sweet dreams.

Reviews

I use earphones and hear very well. I wish medicine went back to a whole-person concept. Great information in these chapters. Thank you for another great reading. Blessings