I have no doubt that all my readers from time to time get the "blues". They come to everybody.
It is usually difficult to say what is wrong. We feel heavy and depressed, life looks black, and sometimes it seems as if it were hardly worth living.
The "blues" is a nasty, irritating complaint. But there is a cure for it as there is for most ailments.
In nine cases out of ten such depression is the result of too much thought on one subject, usually a problem or a difficulty that refuses to be solved.
Even the healthiest person is liable to this mental sickness, when the brain goes dizzily round and round a stubborn problem, getting no nearer to a way out.
And as mental states are quickly reflected in bodily feelings, we usually end up by feeling tired and listless.
Doctors are fond of recommending a change for bodily ills. Try a complete mental change for mental ills.
When you get the "blues" don't go on thinking. Switch your mind to something else; and the more cheerful and different it is the better.
Go out and play a hard game of tennis, for instance. If you play properly you will be so absorbed in the game that you will have no time to mope.
Brains, like bodies, get tired. And for a tired brain there is nothing like fresh air, sunshine, cheerful companionship, and absorption in something that, for once, does not matter.
You will return from such a change with invigorated mental powers. You will see fresh points of view, and you will be pleasantly surprised to find that you have left the "blues" behind you.
E. R. Thompson, The Human Machine (1925)
No comments:
Post a Comment