AT BREAKFAST IN A HOTEL dining room three of us fell to discussing how well we had slept the night before, a truly momentous topic. One man complained of a sleepless night. He had tossed and turned and was about as exhausted as when he retired. “Guess I’d better stop listening to the news before going to bed,” he observed. “I tuned in last night and sure got an ear full of trouble.”
That is quite a phrase, “an ear full of trouble.” Little wonder he had a disturbed night. “Maybe the coffee I drank before retiring had something to do with it,” he mused.
The other man spoke up, “As for me, I had a grand night. I got my news from the evening paper and from an early broadcast and had a chance to digest it before I went to sleep. Of course,” he continued, “I used my go-to-sleep plan which never fails to work.”
I prodded him for his plan, which he explained as follows: “When I was a boy, my father, a farmer, had the habit of gathering the family in the parlor at bedtime and he read to us out of the Bible. I can hear him yet. In fact, every time I hear those Bible verses I always seem to hear them in the tone of my father’s voice. After prayers I would go up to my room and sleep like a top. But when I left home I got away from the Bible reading and prayer habit.
“I must admit that for years practically the only time I ever prayed was when I got into a jam. But some months ago my wife and I, having a number of difficult problems, decided we would try it again. We found it a very helpful practice, so now every night before going to bed she and I together read the Bible and have a little session of prayer. I don’t know what there is about it, but I have been sleeping better and things have improved all down the line. In fact, I find it so helpful that even out on the road, as I am now, I still read the Bible and pray. Last night I got into bed and read the 23rd Psalm. I read it out loud and it did me a lot of good.”
He turned to the other man and said, “I didn’t go to bed with an ear full of trouble. I went to sleep with a mind full of peace.”
Well, there are two cryptic phrases for you—“an ear full of trouble” and “a mind full of peace.” Which do you choose?
The essence of the secret lies in a change of mental attitude. One must learn to live on a different thought basis, and even though thought change requires effort, it is much easier than to continue living as you are. The life of strain is difficult. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. The chief struggle then in gaining mental peace is the effort of revamping your thinking to the relaxed attitude of acceptance of God’s gift of peace.
As an illustration of taking a relaxed attitude and therefore receiving peace, I always think of an experience in a certain city where I lectured one evening. Prior to going on the platform I was sitting backstage going over my speech when a man approached and wanted to discuss a personal problem.
I informed him that at the moment it was impossible to talk as I was just about to be introduced, and asked him to wait. While speaking I noticed him in the wings nervously pacing up and down, but afterward he was nowhere about. However, he had given me his card, which indicated that he was a man of considerable influence in that city.
Back at my hotel, although it was late, I was still troubled by this man so I telephoned him. He was surprised at my call and explained that he did not wait because obviously I was busy. “I just wanted you to pray with me,” he said. “I thought if you would pray with me, perhaps I could get some peace.”
“There is nothing to prevent us from praying together on the telephone right now,” I said.
Somewhat in surprise, he replied, “I have never heard of praying on the telephone.”
“Why not?” I asked. “A telephone is simply a gadget of communication. You are some blocks from me, but by means of the telephone we are together. Besides,” I continued, “the Lord is with each of us. He is at both ends of this line and in between. He is with you and He is with me.”
“All right,” he conceded. “I’d like to have you pray for me.”
So I closed my eyes and prayed for the man over the telephone, and I prayed just as though we were in the same room. He could hear and the Lord could hear. When I finished I suggested, “Won’t you pray?” There was no response. Then at the other end of the line I heard sobbing and finally, “I can’t talk,” he said.
“Go on and cry for a minute or two and then pray,” I suggested. “Simply tell the Lord everything that is bothering you. I assume this is a private line, but if not, and if anybody is listening, it won’t matter. As far as anyone is concerned, we are just a couple of voices. Nobody would know it is you and I.”
Thus encouraged, he started to pray, hesitantly at first, and then with great impetuosity he poured out his heart, and it was filled with hate, frustration, failure—a mass of it. Finally he prayed plaintively, “Dear Jesus, I have a lot of nerve to ask you to do anything for me, because I never did anything for you. I guess you know what a no-account I am, even though I put on a big front. I am sick of all this, dear Jesus. Please help me.”
So I prayed again, and asked the Lord to answer his prayer, then said, “Lord, at the other end of the telephone wire, place your hand on my friend and give him peace. Help him now to yield himself and accept your gift of peace.” Then I stopped, and there was a rather long pause, and I shall never forget the tone in his voice as I heard him say, “I shall always remember this experience, and I want you to know that for the first time in months I feel clean inside and happy and peaceful.” This man employed a simple technique for having a peaceful mind. He emptied his mind and he received peace as a gift from God.
As a physician said, “Many of my patients have nothing wrong with them except their thoughts. So I have a favorite prescription that I write for some. but it is not a prescription that you can fill at a drugstore. The prescription I write is a verse from the Bible, ‘Romans 12:2.’ I do not write out that verse for my patients. I make them look it up and it reads: ‘… be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind …’ To be happier and healthier they need a renewing of their minds, that is, a change in the pattern of their thoughts. When they ‘take’ this prescription, they actually achieve a mind full of peace. That helps to produce health and well-being.”
A primary method for gaining a mind full of peace is to practice emptying the mind. This will be emphasized in another chapter, but I mention it here to underscore the importance of a frequent mental catharsis. I recommend a mind-emptying at least twice a day, more often if necessary. Definitely practice emptying your mind of fears, hates, insecurities, regrets, and guilt feelings. The mere fact that you consciously make this effort to empty your mind tends to give relief. Haven’t you experienced a sense of release when you have been able to pour out to somebody whom you can trust worrisome matters that lay heavy upon the heart? As a pastor I have often observed how much it means to people to have someone to whom they can truly and in confidence tell everything troubling their minds.
I conducted a religious service on board the S.S. Lurline on a recent voyage to Honolulu. In the course of my talk I suggested that people who were carrying worries in their minds might go to the stern of the vessel and imaginatively take such anxious thought out of the mind, drop it overboard, and watch it disappear in the wake of the ship. It seems an almost childlike suggestion, but a man came to me later that day and said, “I did as you suggested and am amazed at the relief it has given me. During this voyage,” he said, “every evening at sunset I am going to drop all my worries overboard until I develop the psychology of casting them entirely out of my consciousness. Every day I shall watch them disappear in the great ocean of time. Doesn’t the Bible say something about ‘forgetting those things that are behind’?”
The man to whom this suggestion appealed is not an impractical sentimentalist. On the contrary, he is a person of extraordinary mental stature, an outstanding leader in his field.
Of course, emptying the mind is not enough. When the mind is emptied, something is bound to enter. The mind cannot long remain a vacuum. You cannot go around permanently with an empty mind. I admit that some people seem to accomplish that feat, but by and large it is necessary to refill the emptied mind or the old, unhappy thoughts which you have cast out will come sneaking in again.
To prevent that happening, immediately start filling your mind with creative and healthy thoughts. Then when the old fears, hates, and worries that have haunted you for so long try to edge back in, they will in effect find a sign on the door of your mind reading “occupied.” They may struggle for admission, for having lived in your mind for a long time, they feel at home there. But the new and healthy thoughts which you have taken in will now be stronger and better fortified, and therefore able to repulse them. Presently the old thoughts will give up altogether and leave you alone. You will permanently enjoy a mind full of peace.
At intervals during the day practice thinking a carefully selected series of peaceful thoughts. Let mental pictures of the most peaceful scenes you have ever witnessed pass across your mind, as, for example, some beautiful valley filled with the hush of evening time, as the shadows lengthen and the sun sinks to rest. Or recall the silvery light of the moon falling upon rippling waters, or remember the sea washing gently upon soft shores of sand. Such peaceful thought images will work upon your mind as a healing medicine. So now and then during every day allow motion pictures of peace slowly to cross your mind.
Practice the technique of suggestive articulation, that is, repeat audibly some peaceful words. Words have profound suggestive power, and there is healing in the very saying of them. Utter a series of panicky words and your mind will immediately go into a mild state of nervousness. You will perhaps feel a sinking in the pit of your stomach that will affect your entire physical mechanism. If, on the contrary, you speak peaceful, quieting words, your mind will react in a peaceful manner. Use such a word as “tranquillity.” Repeat that word slowly several times. Tranquillity is one of the most beautiful and melodic of all English words, and the mere saying of it tends to induce a tranquil state.
Another healing word is “serenity.” Picturize serenity as you say it. Repeat it slowly and in the mood of which the word is a symbol. Words such as these have a healing potency when used in this manner.
It is also helpful to use lines from poetry or passages from the Scriptures. A man of my acquiantance who achieved a remarkable peace of mind has the habit of writing on cards unusual quotations expressing peacefulness. He carries one of the cards in his wallet at all times, referring to it frequently until each quotation is committed to memory. He says that each such idea dropped into the subconscious “lubricates” his mind with peace. A peaceful concept is indeed oil on troubled thoughts. One of the quotations which he used is from a sixteenth-century mystic, “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient.”
The words of the Bible have a particularly strong therapeutic value. Drop them into your mind, allowing them to “dissolve” in consciousness, and they will spread a healing balm over your entire mental structure. This is one of the simplest processes to perform and also one of the most effective in attaining peace of mind.
A salesman told me of an incident that took place in a Midwestern hotel room. He was one of a group of businessmen having a conference. One man was very much on edge. He was snappy, argumentative, high-strung. Everyone present knew him quite well and realized he was under great nervous pressure. But finally his irritating attitudes began to get on everybody’s nerves. Presently this nervous individual opened his traveling bag, took out a big bottle of brackish-looking medicine, and poured himself a large dose. Asked what this medicine was, he growled, “Oh, it’s something for nerves. I feel like I’m going to break in pieces. The pressure I’m under makes me wonder if I am going to crack up. I try not to show it, but I suppose even you fellows have observed that I’m nervous. This medicine was recommended and I’ve swallowed several bottles of it, but I don’t seem to get any better.”
The other men laughed, then one said in a kindly manner, “Bill, I don’t know anything about that medicine you are taking. Maybe it’s all right. It probably is, but I can give you some medicine for those nerves that will do you more good than that. I know, because it cured me, and I was worse off than you are.”
“What is this medicine?” snapped the other.
The other man reached into his bag and pulled out a book. “This book will do the job, and I really mean it. I suppose you think it strange that I carry a Bible around in my bag, but I don’t care who knows it. I am not a bit ashamed of it. I have been carrying this Bible in my bag for the past two years, and I have marked places in it that help keep my mind at peace. It works for me, and I think it can do something for you too. Why not give it a trial?”
The others were listening with interest to this unusual speech. The nervous man had sunk low in his chair. Seeing that he was making an impression, the speaker continued, “I had a peculiar experience in a hotel one night which got me into the habit of reading the Bible. I was getting into a pretty tense state. I was out on a business trip and late one afternoon came up to my room terribly nervous. I tried to write some letters, but couldn’t get my mind on them. I paced up and down the room, tried to read the paper, but that annoyed me, so I decided to go down and get a drink—anything to get away from myself.
“While standing by the dresser, my eye happened to fall upon a Bible lying there. I had seen many such Bibles in hotel rooms, but had never read any of them. However, something impelled me, and I opened the book to one of the Psalms and started to read it. I remember that I read that one standing up, then sat down and read another. I was interested but certainly surprised at myself—me reading the Bible! It was a laugh, but I kept on reading.
“Soon I came to the 23rd Psalm. I had learned that one as a boy in Sunday school and was surprised that I still knew most of it by heart. I tried saying it over, especially that line where it says, ‘He leadeth me beside the still waters; he restoreth my soul.’ I liked that line. It sort of got me. I sat there repeating it over and over—and the next thing I knew I woke up.
“Apparently I had dropped off to sleep and slept soundly. I slept only about fifteen minutes, but upon awakening was as refreshed and rested as if I’d had a good night’s sleep. I can remember yet the wonderful feeling of complete refreshment. Then I realized that I felt peaceful, and said to myself, ‘Isn’t it strange? What is wrong with me that I have missed something as wonderful as this?”
“So after that experience,” he said, “I bought a Bible, a little one I could put in my bag, and I’ve been carrying it ever since. I honestly like to read it, and I am not nearly so nervous as I used to be. So,” he added, “try that, Bill, and see if it doesn’t work.”
Bill did try it, and he kept on trying it. He reported that it was a bit strange and difficult for him at first, and he read the Bible on the sly when nobody was around. He didn’t want to be thought holy or pious. But now he says he brings it out on trains and planes or “any old place” and reads it, and it “does him a world of good.”
“I no longer need to take nerve medicine,” he declared.
This scheme must have worked in Bill’s case, for he is easy to get along with now. His emotions are under control. These two men found that getting peace of mind isn’t complicated. You merely feed your mind with thoughts that cause it to be peaceful. To have a mind full of peace merely fill it full of peace. It’s as simple as that.
There are other practical ways by which you can develop serenity and quiet attitudes. One way is through your conversation. Depending upon the words we use and the tone in which we use them, we can talk ourselves into being nervous, high-strung, and upset. We can talk ourselves into either negative or positive results. By our speech we can also achieve quiet reactions. Talk peaceful to be peaceful.