TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 September 1928, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

Have you ever watched a novice receiving his first lessons in bicycle riding? Perhaps you remember being an, the position of that novice yourself. Recall the picture. And. then think of this same novice a month later. The same brain, the same muscles, the same nerves; possibly the same bicycle. But what a difference. That uncertain wobble, that hesitation, and -those little nervous cries and laughs, Anticipatory of tumbles or,, collisions, •have given place to a. sort, of proud asdaily ' approximating more. ;and more nearly toAmconscious habit. has happened?/' iWhat has really changed? • Merely this. Doubt has given way r to faith, and..faith to confidence. ' 'Belief in a thing is-some-times almost a condition of its . exists ence. Confidence is nearly always' an essential of ability.-: As s6bn as the beginner is convinced that he can ride a bicycle, and the unconscious forces of nis body have been given a little time to adjust and balance themselves," fhe problem is solved. So long as he is 'afiticipating/falls and accidents, these will be his fate. If he keep his eye fixed on the obstacle She wishes to avoid he will almost inevitably run into it. If he looks elsewhere he will probably avoid it.

No Interest in Life. '. Now this applies almost literally to everybody in all the circumstances of life, just as much as to the boy 6r“girl practising the bicycle. I hear of people whose lives seem to be one continuous comfortless wobble. Gene L rally, these men and women-atff "suffering from no particular physical /lesion that the doctor car| deal .-with. , .’,6ut they feel powerless, purposeless, * ! "indifferent to the life abbiit them, Weary and melancholy. ; Work that others perform with gusto is to them but a burden; recreations ;that to others bring happiness and content are to them but meaningless ‘variants of their tedium. ! Generally they are full of a sense of failure, of incapacity general insignificance. They have lost all confidence in themselves, and 'are bathed in a sea of despair or apathy. Fortunately or unfortunately, how/ever, they are aware of their condition, and bemoan it. But they have not the knowledge or the,'confidence to take the necessary steps; , Almost any physical ill is easier, to cure or to put in the way pf cure,; for no external application or internal medicament is here of tqe slightest avail. An increase of faith is what Jfs called for; and that is xipt-a-thing /that can be dispensed to order, or administered in a measuring glass. 'The Will to Improve.

•"J What, then* are they to do? Theix ; ?iniental disorder, for such it is, did not Pppme like a bolt from the blue. It ’' did not, in nine cases out of ten, come upon them in a ,niglif. T If they will - -look back, they that, day after' fiay.over a~ period of waekk" ißr probably months, they have been gradually losing interest, finding things of a trouble., r «It » tfchd more difflcuJt-CtiJ ‘raise Wlst, as for a tFfIPV fXjl sorts of uhpleasantnesses ( of which they ji’hhw seize their *s£^os, grow ahd grow as they contemplate, them. • 1 Gradual as has been the onset, so ■.’also will be the recovery. - It is usectehs to imagine that one can throw Off these morbid accretions a ' day. • Bpt the great .stppjJn thetoure—the - real first step, costs '■ counts—must bedhkefi 4 straight away, consists in bringing sufficient philosophy or commonsense —in ultimate analysis one and the same' —to bear on the mind, to bring about a jealisassn of the truth that our illness is ofi the imagination only. .aicr-tc- < A'4We have to bring ourselves to see •'that it is based on an unfortunate way of looking at things, and that we have fotit to regard life, and our place in it we used to, and as our healthy and . Happy friends do, in order to be as ftyell, as vigorous, as enthusiastic, as and as truly happy as ever wp were. 'T ' , fefcut wetmust ndf wait? for complete Recovery before beginning., tp get, pur drderi. ■ We finst, Wery day, "whatever our Inclinations of the moment, insist on doing 'mpr© and more of the things that make healthy and pleasurable acts of life.