I have said little, in these few pages, about what are ordinarily regarded as Environmental helps. I rather wished to emphasise the importance of keeping happy, and of using such means as we had always or often with us. I could have written much about colours, music, books, friendship, and so on. But I had to leave unwritten far more than I have written here.
If these ideas help the reader to keep happy more consistently, less spasmodically, and more independently of outside conditions, they will have served their purpose.
Perhaps even the mere titles of some books may be of use towards this end—“All’s Right with the World,” “Just Be Glad,” and “Keep Happy.”
To keep happy means enjoyment and ease, peace and poise, health and fitness, during work-times and non-work times; it means more work and better work; it means better opportunities and openings for our activities in the future; it means better rest and sleep after work; it means constant, all-round improvement for oneself and others. It is, like Health, part of our duty towards God, our neighbour, and our self, and the myriads of cell-lives working within us.
A Concluding Suggestion
It is not a bad plan to make a point of writing down every day (in a note-book, or on slips of paper) some special reason why we should keep happy. Mr. Arthur Knight and I have done this regularly for many months, and have exchanged our records from time to time. The following are a few out of many of our reasons. They are not arranged in any particular order, but are put down just as we wrote them, from day to day. We recommend every reader to try the practice.
Keep Happy. When happiness is present, the petty things of life fail to disturb and poison us.
Keep Happy. This means living in the higher part of the mind, where the air and light and warmth are greater, and where all good things originate. Keep your thoughts in this happy region of yourself, and you will not only get the right ideas—the ideas that you really need—but you will draw other minds up to the same level.
Keep Happy. The more you insist on—and persist in—keeping happy, the more you will realise and be convinced how absolutely and progressively beneficial Happiness is.