The Way Toward Health - April 10 and 12, 1984

April 10, 1984

Worry, fear, and doubt are detrimental to good health, of course, and these are very often caused by the officially held beliefs of society.

Those beliefs paint a dire picture, in which any given situation is bound to deteriorate.  Any conceivable illness will worsen, and any possible catastrophe be encountered.

Such beliefs discourage feelings of curiosity, joy, or wonder.  They inhibit playful activity or spontaneous behavior.  They cause a physical situation in which the body is placed in a state of defensive aggression.  Under such conditions. it seems only rational to look for the worm in the apple, so to speak, and to expect pain or danger in each new experience or encounter.

Play is a very important – indeed, vital – attribute in the development of growth and fulfillment.  Children play naturally, and so do animals.  For that matter, insects, birds, fish, and all kinds of life play.  Even ants and honeybees play.  Their sociability is not just a matter of constant work within a hive or an ant mound.  This playful activity is, in fact, the basis for their organized behavior, and they “play” at adult behavior before they assume their own duties.

Creatures play because the activity is joyful, and spontaneous and beneficial, because it activates all portions of the organism – and again, in play youngsters imitate adult patterns of operation that lead finally to their own mature activity.

When people become ill, worried or fearful, one of the first symptoms of trouble is a lack of pleasure, a gradual discontinuance of playful action, and an over-concentration upon personal problems.  In other words, illness is often first marked by a lack of zest or exuberance.

This retreat from pleasure begins to cut down upon normal activity, new encounters, or explorations that might in themselves help relieve the problem by opening up new options.  Such a person becomes dejected looking – unsmiling and somber, leading others to comment upon such a dejected countenance.  Comments such as these: “You look tired”, or: “What’s the matter, don’t you feel well?” and other such remarks often simply reinforce the individual’s earlier sense of dejection, until finally this same kind of give-and-take leads to a situation in which the individual and his fellows begin to intermix in a negative rather than a positive manner.

I do not mean to imply that it is always detrimental to make such queries as “Are you ill?” or “Are you tired?”  Such questions do indeed predict their own answers.  When a person is feeling in good health, exuberant and alive, such queries will be nonchalantly shoved aside – they will have no effect whatsoever.  But constant questions of such a nature do not help an individual who is having difficulties – and in fact, too frequent expressions of compassion can also worsen a person’s state of mind, stressing the idea that he or she must be very ill indeed to attract such feelings of compassion.  It is far better, then, to make no comment at all under such conditions.  I am not speaking of genuine questions of concern so much as rather automatic, unthinking, negative comments.

On the other hand, it is an excellent practice to comment upon another individual’s obvious zest or energy or good spirits.  In such a way, you reward positive behavior, and may indeed begin a chain of positive activity instead of continuing a chain of negative reactions.

April 12, 1984

I am not telling you to gush out a steady stream of positive suggestions, whether or not they bear any relation to the situation at hand.

I am saying that it is far better to look on the most hoped-for solution to any situation, and to voice that attitude rather than to expect the poorest outcome, or express the most dire of attitudes.  There are some issues highly vital to health and happiness, that are quite difficult to describe.  They are felt intrinsically.  They are a part of the esthetics of nature itself.  Flowers are not just brightly colored for man’s enjoyment, for example, but because color is a part of the flower’s own esthetic system.  They enjoy their own brilliance, and luxuriate in their own multitudinous hues.

The insects also appreciate flower’s profusion of color, and also for esthetic reasons.  I am saying, therefore, that even insects have an esthetic sense, and again, that each creature, and each plant, or natural entity, has its own sense of value fulfillment, seeking the greatest possible fulfillment and extension of its own innate abilities.

This sense of value fulfillment, once more, benefits not only the individual, but its species and all other species.  In a manner of speaking, then, the picture of nature is painted by its own consciously vital, esthetic portions.  Each portion of nature is also equipped to react to changing conditions, and therefore deals with its own kind of predictive behavior, so that it can grow today into tomorrow’s condition.

Nature always works with probabilities.  In human terms, this means that each person has a vast bank of avenues that lead to value fulfillment, and that individual abilities will ideally form their own boulevards of expression.

Poor health, or simply unhappy situations, arise only when the individual meets too many detours, or encounters too many blocks to the expression of value fulfillment.

With man’s own exteriorized ego, this leads to the question of free will and the making of conscious choices.

The human individual is aware of large numbers of probable activities.  Each individual person literally possesses far more abilities than can be adequately expressed in any given lifetime.  This insures a large profusion of possible actions from which the individual can draw according to changing circumstances.

Each person can also intrinsically sense the direction in which he or she is most inclined.  Inspiration will send nudges towards certain activities.  It will be easier and more delightful for each person to move and grow in certain directions, rather than others.

In this discussion, I am not merely speaking in terms of exterior accomplishments, or goals, though these are important.  Many people, however, will find they have a natural knack for relationships with others, in which the known value cannot be easily judged, as it can, say, in the works of an artist or writer.

Instead, such people will indeed perform a kind of artistry of relationships, composing, say, symphonic, emotional compositions that indeed play as masterfully upon the emotions as the pianist upon the keys.  By looking at your own life, you can quite easily discover in what areas your own abilities lie by following the shape of your own impulses and inclinations.  You cannot learn about yourself by studying what is expected of you by others – but only by asking yourself what you expect of yourself, and discovering for yourself in what direction your abilities lie.