Cheerfulness as a Health Restorer
By Benjamin Keech
HEERFULNESS is a great factor in health improvement. If you don't believe it is, try it and see. If you have been in the habit of looking on the blue, pessimistic side of your afflictions, and have seen only increased troubles, why not view the bright, optimistic side for a while, and tell us what you think of that? After you have tried it, you will find it is just as easy to look for good as for bad, and it is a great deal more sensible, too, and beyond a doubt it will improve your health. Our poor, sensitive bodies are wonderful affairs. All the organs are in sympathy with one another; and when one gets out of tune, the others are sure to "play" inharmoniously. If I crowd my stomach with too much improper food, my veins will be filled with bad blood, and my mind can't help but contain bad thoughts—or at least very gloomy ones. If I am naturally nervous and irritable, I am sure to suffer just so much more keenly. And unless, at the first moment I discover things going wrong, I bring healing cheerfulness to my aid, and hold faithfully to it, I am likely to be very sick. But how can a person invite the stranger, cheerfulness, when he is melancholy, blue, and "all run down"? By cultivating good cheer. Resolve at once to cut the acquaintance of all weak, morbid, destroying thoughts that have heretofore been making you miserable. And after you have cut them, strive energetically to keep them outside of your mind. When you discover a bad thought prowling round among the good ones, promptly crowd it out with some more good ones. Then make a leap toward your high ideals, and lovingly cultivate goodness. Understand, unless you faithfully put your resolves to practical use—that is, put them to work—cheerfulness can not aid you. "She" will desert the moment you backslide. "She" will also come again when you repent. About the first thing a cheerless person does is to sit down and mope. This will never do. Get up and take a walk, or "perform" on the piano or something. If you do the former, cheerfulness can show you many interesting things along the way to take your mind off yourself. Thus, while the doctors are rearranging your stomach, cheerfulness can assist in fixing up the rest of your make-up. And before you know it, you'll be singing songs to the accompaniment of your restored "organs." Cheerful work, in more or less large quantities, is an excellent thing for most invalids. There was once a melancholy gentleman who had never known what it is to be cheerful. He had been born melancholy, and he expected to die that way. He had two different kinds of heart disease, and at least four of his other organs were likewise deranged. But one day, in a big sanitarium, he met a bright, patient sufferer who made him ashamed of himself. She—the sufferer—was incurable—that is, all but her cheerfulness. Nothing could kill that. She suffered terribly with her back at times; but the things she did for God and humanity were amazing. By making exquisite little pen-wipers, she had raised thousands of dollars for mission work. But she hadn't raised her head from her pillow without pain for fifteen years. The melancholy gentleman, who for thirty years had spent most of his time being blue and pitying himself, at last became disgusted with his profitless life. As it was New Year's, he decided to turn over not only one new leaf, but a whole volume of new leaves. He began by bringing a smile to his face for the benefit of the other patients, and taking a healthful ramble for the benefit of his own patience. He ended by founding two asylums for little children, and becoming well, happy, and cheerful. The two heart troubles disappeared—one was only a dis-ease of the affections anyway,—and he soon rejoiced in a fine new stomach. The people began to call him "the cheerful man," and to wonder at the change. At such times he would reverently refer to the little patient sufferer, and say, "You'd better do likewise, friend." And I think you would, myself. For unless you are a hopeless invalid, you can most certainly change yourself into a healthy, hopeful individual. And even if your case is helpless, you can also "do likewise," and make a glorious success out of an otherwise useless, wasted life. It is easier to experience the change to which reference has been made than to tell how to do it. But some good rules to follow are these: "Get in harmony with God." Cultivate all of God's good forces. That means a great deal. Do nothing bad. Hate nothing—not even your own aches and pains. Let boundless, healing love grow up permanently in your heart; and in time you will find that your nature is actually changing. Then, even if your crooked back or your deranged stomach never completely straightens out, you will still have grace to bear your defects cheerfully and to be happy in spite of unhappiness. Beyond a doubt, thoughts breed conditions. Good brings good, and evil brings evil. Which will you take? Will you, by thinking ill of it, let your health go from bad to worse? or will you, by treating it cheerfully, assist it to go from better to good? Without half trying, you can worry yourself into chronic invalidism. But with little more effort you can cheer yourself into good health. Which will you take? Cheerfulness is a great health restorer.