I am going to spend some time in describing the relaxing mental exercises. Do not be put off by this. The exercises are not difficult. In fact they are very simple, and it is their simplicity that necessitates this rather detailed description because it is easy to go wrong from sheer inattention.
Those who are unimaginative might find an initial difficulty in accepting the idea of doing mental exercises. It may seem rather strange to them. But we all accept the connection between physical exercises and physical health, so let us try to accept the idea of mental exercises for mental health. Actually the idea of mental exercises is not as foreign to us as we may at first think. At school each of us have done arithmetic and algebra. Doings sums is itself a mental exercise the purpose of which is to help develop the intellectual powers of our mind. Some people practise meditative and religious mental exercises to develop the spiritual aspects of the mind. Our relaxing mental exercises aim to develop yet another aspect of the mind—the emotional.
Those who are rather lacking in ordinary determination have sometimes complained of difficulty in actually doing the exercises. They are usually people who want a thing done for them rather than to do it themselves.
A very successful businessman well past middle age came to see me because he had developed a distressing compulsion about checking over people’s names. He was normally a robust, good-natured, jovial man, but had recently become tense, anxious, and depressed.
He had worked hard, and had been successful. Over the last few years he had grown to overindulge himself. He ate too much and drank too much. He liked the theatre and television and the company of his friends. In short he was living for pleasure, and had lost the
self-discipline which had characterized Ms earlier life. This man would do the exercises very well in my consulting room when I was there to supervise him. But there was always some trivial reason why he had not practised at home. He settled down very well finally, but only because I continually kept him up to the mark. As you read this, please remember that this type of supervision should not be necessary.
It is also true that the medical profession has rather foisted the “easy way out” on to people by its readiness to prescribe tranquillizing drugs, rather than help the patient to cope with his inner tensions and learn to be relaxed. The relaxing mental exercises are not difficult. They merely require the minimum amount of patience which any new skill demands. If when you first try them, you are tense, don’t give up; instead bear in mind that obviously tense individuals usually get the greatest benefit in the shortest time.
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