Quit Your Worrying!

Wharton James George

Description

Born in England, George Wharton James emigrated to America to work as a Method minister in the desert Southwest, but soon entered into a period of intense personal strife, during which he learned valuable lessons about life. The timeless self-help classic Quit Your Worrying! is a must-read for anyone struggling with anxiety.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776675531
• Langue: English

Extrait

QUIT YOUR WORRYING!
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GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
 
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Quit Your Worrying! First published in 1916 Epub ISBN 978-1-77667-553-1 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77667-554-8 © 2015 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Just Be Glad Foreword Chapter I - The Curse of Worry Chapter II - Ours is the Age of Worry Chapter III - Nervous Prostration and Worry Chapter IV - Holy Writ, the Sages, and Worry Chapter V - The Needlessness and Uselessness of Worry Chapter VI - The Selfishness of Worry Chapter VII - Causes of Worry Chapter VIII - Protean Forms of Worry Chapter IX - Health Worries Chapter X - The Worries of Parents Chapter XI - Marital Worries Chapter XII - The Worry of the Squirrel Cage Chapter XIII - Religious Worries and Worriers Chapter XIV - Ambition and Worry Chapter XV - Envy and Worry Chapter XVI - Discontent and Worry Chapter XVII - Cowardice and Worry Chapter XVIII - Worry About Manners and Speech Chapter XIX - The Worries of Jealousy Chapter XX - The Worries of Suspicion Chapter XXI - The Worries of Impatience Chapter XXII - The Worries of Anticipation Chapter XXIII - How Our Worry Affects Others Chapter XXIV - Worry Versus Indifference Chapter XXV - Worries and Hobbies Endnotes
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TO THOSE
who are standing on the banks of worry before the ocean of God's loveI cry aloud
"COME ON IN—THE WATER'S FINE!"
Just Be Glad
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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
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Between twenty and thirty years ago, I became involved in a series ofoccurrences and conditions of so painful and distressing a characterthat for over six months I was unable to sleep more than one or twohours out of the twenty-four. In common parlance I was "worryingmyself to death," when, mercifully, a total collapse of mind and bodycame. 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 healthand poise. For several months I hovered between life and death, and mybrain between reason and unreason.
In due time, however, both health and mental poise came back inreasonable measure, and I asked myself what would be the result if Ireturned to the condition of worry that culminated in the disaster.This question and my endeavors at its solution led to the gaining of adegree of philosophy which materially changed my attitude toward life.Though some of the chief causes of my past worry were removed therewere still enough adverse and untoward circumstances surrounding meto give me cause for worry, if I allowed myself to yield to it, so Iconcluded that my mind must positively and absolutely be prohibitedfrom 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 thestern command, "Quit your Worrying." Little by little I succeededin obeying my own orders. A measurable degree of serenity has sinceblessed my life. It has been no freer than other men's lives from theordinary—and a few extraordinary—causes of worry, but I have learnedthe lesson. I have Quit Worrying . To help others to attain the samedesirable 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 principalthought to the casual observer of the title. People will worry, they do worry. What they want to know and need to learn is how toquit worrying. This I have attempted herein to show, with the fullknowledge, however, that no one person's recipe can infallibly be usedby any other person—so that, in reality, all I have tried to do isto set forth the means I have followed to teach myself the delightfullesson of serenity, of freedom from worry, and thereby to suggestto receptive minds a way by which they may possibly attain the samedesirable end.
It was the learned and wise Dr. Johnson who wrote:
He may be justly numbered amongst the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may easily be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.
I have no desire to claim as original the title used for theseobservations, but I do covet the joy of knowing that I have soimpressed it upon the memory of thousands that by its constantrecurrence it will aid in banishing the monster, worry.
It is almost unavoidable that, in a practical treatise of this nature,there should be some repetition, both in description of worries andthe remedies suggested. To the critical reader, however, let me say:Do not worry about this, for I am far more concerned to get my thoughtinto the heads and hearts of my readers than I am to be esteemed agreat writer. Let me help but one troubled soul to quit worrying and Iwill forego all the honors of the ages that might have come to me hadI been an essayist of power. And I have repeated purposely, for Iknow that some thoughts have to knock again and again, ere they areadmitted to the places where they are the most needed.
I have written strongly; perhaps some will think too strongly. These,however, must remember that I have written advisedly. I have beenconsidering the subject for half or three parts of a life-time. Ihave studied men and women; carefully watched their lives; talked withthem, and seen the lines worry has engraved on their faces. I haveseen and felt the misery caused by their unnecessary worries. I havesat by the bedsides of people made chronic invalids by worry, and Ihave stood in the cells of maniacs driven insane by worry. Hence Ihate it in all its forms, and have expressed myself only as the factshave justified.
Wherein I have sought to show how one might Quit his Worrying , thesepages presuppose an earnest desire, a sincere purpose, on the partof the reader to attain that desirable end. There is no universalmedicine which one can drink in six doses and thus be cured of hisdisease. I do not offer my book as a mental cure-all, or nostrum that,if swallowed whole, will cure in five days or ten. As I have triedto show, I conceive worry to be unnatural and totally unnecessary,because of its practical denial of what ought to be, and I believe maybe, the fundamental basis of a man's life, viz., his perfect, abidingassurance in the fatherly love of God. As little Pippa sang:
God's in his heaven, All's right with the world.
The only way, therefore, to lose our sense of worry is to get back tonaturalness, to God, and learn the peace, joy, happiness, serenity,that come with practical trust in Him. With some people this changemay come instantly; with others, more slowly. Personally I have hadto learn slowly, "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little,there a little." And I would caution my readers not to expect toomuch all at once. But I am fully convinced that as faith, trust, andnaturalness grow, worry will cease, will slough off, like the deadskin of the serpent, and leave those once bound by it free from itsmalign influence. Who cannot see and feel that such a consummation isdevoutly to be wished, worth working and earnestly striving for?
If I help a few I shall be more than repaid, if many, my heart willrejoice.
George Wharton James
Pasadena, Calif. February, 1916.
Chapter I - The Curse of Worry
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Of how many persons can it truthfully be said they never worry, theyare perfectly happy, contented, serene? It would be interesting ifeach of my readers were to recall his acquaintances and friends, thinkover their condition in this regard, and then report to me the result.What a budget of worried persons I should have to catalogue, and alas,I am afraid, how few of the serene would there be named. When JohnBurroughs wrote his immortal poem, Waiting , he struck a deeper notethan he dreamed of, and the reason it made so tremendous an impressionupon the English-speaking world was that it was a new note to them. Itopened up a vision they had not before contemplated. Let me quote ithere in full:
Serene I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind, or tide or sea; I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, For lo! my own shall come to me.
I stay my haste, I make delays, For what avails this eager pace? I stand amid the eternal ways, And what is mine shall know my face.
Asleep, awake, by night or day, The friends I seek are seeking me, No wind can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny.
What matter if I stand alone? I wait with joy the coming years; My heart shall reap where it has sown, And garner up its fruit of tears.
The waters know their own and draw The brook that springs in yonder height, So flows the good with equal law Unto the soul of pure delight.
The stars come nightly to the sky