Have you ever taken a lesson from a highly skilled individual or a professional and they began to instruct you in the best ways for you to learn a new skill, activity, or game?
Do you recall such a teacher, as they began their instruction, saying, “Now if you want to get really good at this new activity you must first…just…RELAX.”
God did not design or intend the human body to function properly when it was wound up as tight as an over-twisted rubber band. Body muscles do their intended work by contracting and relaxing. Relaxation of such muscles only comes after the contraction of these same body tissues. Common sense tells us that a permanent state of contraction or complete relaxation would never permit usable body function. To become efficient and effective we must have both. If you have one, you will always need the other in order to have effective usage. Oh the wonderful balance that God intended and provided for,… in our imperfect existence.
Relaxation is the most desired state of being. During such a state of existence, the body can repair, rebuild, and rejuvenate. Most scientists and/or doctors recommend a minimum of 8 hours a day in a totally relaxed state of being. Wow! How many of us do not even approach or come close to that amount of daily rest?
Is it any wonder why so many people in today’s world are so uptight and stressed out most all of the time? Is it any wonder that so many people in our society die prematurely from a stroke or heart attack?
I will tell you that uptight people always cause those other humans with whom there are in contact to also become uptight. They are like a spreading disease.
Stressed out people hang around with other stressed out people. And they “catch” what the other person is carrying.
Stress is the number one killer in life. It will send you to an early grave. It will destroy human personal relationships. It will destroy and tear apart beautiful families. It will end good marriages. It will kill the possibilities of you achieving success. Stress is indeed a very bad thing.
If you are always uptight, nervous, or tense…..especially when you are around other people individually or in small or even large groups…..
If you are taking or are thinking about taking some sort of relaxing medication……nerve pills…downers…or the like…….
If you can’t seem to ever get any real or refreshing rest and recovery even when you are supposed to be getting rest and recovery…..
Then you need to pay particular attention to what I am about to tell you.
If you are uptight…nervous…jerky…on edge…even angry… a lot of the time, Please Listen Carefully.
You can go to the pharmacy and buy every kind of pill or prescription they have in stock—but it’s doubtful if all of them together will cure your personal tension.
There is a cure available. There is an effective medicine for tension and uptightness. This medicine is not taken by I V or by mouth, but rather, by mind. The medicine, developed and maintained by the Ultimate Physician is called in scientific terminology: Developing A Spiritual Root In Your Life.
Permit me to read to you this healing factor’s usage instructions exactly as they are written in The Holy Bible, THE BOOK OF JOHN 14 : 27:
Jesus is speaking:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Simple…Explicit…Totally Effective….
In order for you to get a feeling of peace, calmness, or relaxation all you need to do is to observe nature. Quietly watch a sunrise or sunset. Observe the moon light shimmering on the water. Listen to the sound of waves rhythmically lapping upon the shore….and a flood of peaceful feelings comes rolling into your mind and body.
But let the sunlight or moonlight fade and be gone, or let the sounds of tidal action subside to inaudible levels, and you most always turn back to your personal problems, and your sense of peace most often ends.
Never forget this truth. The peace of the world passes away. But God’s peace always remains. God’s peace has tremendous and continuous staying power that goes deep into your soul. Once you have it,… it will last you for the rest of your life.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author and clergyman, had this to say:
“Holy Scripture is not only beautiful but it is therapeutic as well.
I believe that anyone who will commit it to memory and say it over and over again until it sinks into his deep subconscious mind,… can, in due course, find effective healing of any uptight condition.
There is remarkable therapy in words,… especially in the words of Christ.
With this certain cure available, it is a little less than pathetic to permit ourselves to be dominated by tension; to be victimized by uptightness.”
The Twenty-third Psalm has doubtless been of comforting help in subduing uptightness for many people throughout the course of human history.
In his book YOU CAN IF YOU THINK YOU CAN, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale shares a poem and two different letters as follows:
“Here is a rewrite of the Twenty-third Psalm. It is translated from the modernized Japanese version by Toki Miyashina:
The Lord is my pace-setter, I shall not rush;
He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,
He provides me with images of stillness,
which restore my serenity.
He leads me in the ways of efficiency through
calmness of mind,
And His guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things
to accomplish each day,
I will not fret for His presence is here,
His timelessness, His all importance, will
keep me in balance,
He prepares refreshment and renewal in
the midst of my activity,
By anointing my mind with His oils of tranquility.
My cup of joyous energy overflows,
Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be
the fruits of my hours,
For I shall walk, in the pace of my Lord
and dwell in His house forever. Amen.
Perhaps you feel this poem is too religious for you, and the foregoing ideas as well. Like a woman who wrote to me saying, ‘I like your books, they do me good, but I skip all that religious stuff.’ But then she adds, ‘ I am trying to practice positive thinking about myself and my situation, but I’m uptight as hell. What can you suggest?’
Well, what we might suggest to the lady is to read the following letter which I received from another equally uptight woman, one who didn’t skip the religious stuff. Here is what she had to say:
“Until the time I read your booklet entitled, “You Can Relax” I had never been able to do that. I would have a physical check-up and the doctor would tell me to ‘relax, relax, you’re braced like you’re going to hit a brick wall.’ I would say, ‘I can’t!’ Of course I started taking nerve pills every now and then.
The climax of my life was a crucial time. I had to have a complete hysterectomy. After this, I started taking nerve pills, two sleeping pills at night; just a nervous wreck, wanting to cry if anyone looked at me, just plainly—a stinker! I didn’t want to talk to anyone outside the family, I devoured nerve pills, one kind or another, anything to relax, but to no avail. I had everything to live for—an understanding husband and three children. I was visiting the doctor’s office quite frequently. I was on so much medication I was just like a zombie. This resulted in another stay at the hospital for a week—too much medication and a near nervous breakdown.
Our doctor told me if I hadn’t pulled out of it when I did, shock treatments were next, but, praise the Lord—I didn’t need them! During my stay in the hospital I had 40 nerve shots (I counted them), 4 nerve pills daily. Then when I came home, shots twice a day, 4 nerve pills, 2 sleeping pills; then I graduated from the shots to just nerve pills.
I was home a week, lying on the couch, trying to rest, something hit me—I had to get up and move, move—what horrible thoughts went through my mind. I remember I said, ‘Oh my God, not again!’ I knew the next time I would probably take my life. I had enough medication to stock a drugstore. I was miserable. But that very day my son-in-law’s mother sent me your booklet! Dr. Peale, that was when I began to live again. It took weeks and weeks of fighting, but thank God, today I am without nerve pills.
Sure, I get uptight every now and then, but the best thing about it all— I CAN RELAX!! I have tried to tell others of your suggestions, but they say they’ve tried but it didn’t work. All I can say is, they didn’t try hard enough. And what do you know! The doctor had his nurse call later when he could see it was working—he wanted the name of your booklet to help his other patients in the same condition!”
It could just be that it isn’t too smart to “skip that religious stuff”
if you are serious about wanting to eliminate uptightness and learn to relax.
A prominent New York City heart specialist would, I believe, share that assumption. He showed me the X-rays of three patients (no names, of course) and said, “These are pictures of the hearts of two men and a woman, all of whom were in their fifties when these were taken.” And he pointed out the damaged condition.
“They must be dead by now,” I commented.
“Not on your life. They are in their late sixties now, living full, active
lives.”
“You must be a wizard doctor,” I said admiringly.
“Not at all,” he said. “I simply told them they had better practice their religion. One was Jewish, the other two Christians. They followed the prescription and in time eliminated mental and emotional stress from their lives. They got well and have remained so.”
And so can you, too, if you think you can and follow the prescription used by these people.”
Leaders Gotta Lead……