Self-suggestion is feasible at all times and in all places. It is unobtrusive. It is “without money and without price.” It is effective. It tends to become a sub-conscious habit, and, as it were, to “do itself” without our attention.
To keep happy, we can use happy words. Words have vast and little appreciated power. Think how useless we should be as regards our power of controlling ourselves and helping ourselves and helping others, if we had no words! It would be easy to write a long book on this aspect of the Art of Happiness, alone. But I must be content with just one idea.
We should speak with a cheerful voice and tone, as well as with a cheerful face; and we should prefer, to such words of ill omen as “miserable” and “cruel,” words that end rightly, such as un-happy and un-kind—words that leave us with the right and happy notion. Conversely, however, when we are—or think that we are—absolutely obliged to mention some unpleasant episode, in order to get others to help to put it right, we must not use such vivid expressions—we must not speak whiningly nor even keenly. This is preeminently the occasion for such a monotonous and expressionless voice, as is unusually put on by a Secretary when reading the minutes of any previous meeting!
Can we not speak of pleasant things with the excitedness of the French, if indeed we wish to be excited at all; but speak of unpleasant things, if we feel we must speak of them, with the apathy of the Hindu?
When you have finished any Self-Suggestion, be sure to keep happy.
To keep happy, we must use Repetitions of Self-Suggestions and of Happy Words, and we must use them long before we seem to need them. In place of the old adage, “In time of peace prepare for war,” one can substitute, “In time of peace prepare for victory”—and then there will be no real war.
Persistent Repetitions
The persistent Repetitions may be in the form of sheer repetitions; or in the form of Synonyms—such as Happiness, Gladness, Enjoyment, Joy, Welcome; or in the form of cognate words, words that suggest not so much Happiness itself, as the father and mother, the brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters, of Happiness. Thus, to take the letter P alone, it has a decided effect upon our feelings of Happiness to repeat, with as much attention to and realization of the idea and the inner spirit and soul of each word, as possible, the words Purity, Poise, Peace, Plenty, Power, Pluck, Pleasantness.
As to the influence of Repetition, we must remember that we are mainly what our sub-conscious mind is; and our sub-conscious mind is largely what our conscious mind has chosen or allowed itself to think, and what our conscious mind every moment—every now—is choosing or allowing itself to think.
Or, instead of repeating the ideas themselves or the words that can convey them, we can keep happy by Reason and Argumentation. While an Assertion like Robert Browning’s,