The Victorious Attitude

by Orison Swett Marden

Many people tell me they cannot stop thinking after they go to bed. Their brains are so active, doing their next day's work, that they cannot stop the mental processes for hours.

Of course you cannot stop all thinking the first night you begin to form the new habit, when you have practiced the old night-thinking habit for years; when perhaps as far back as you can remember you have gone to bed every night worrying, worrying, thinking, thinking, planning, planning ahead for days, for weeks, for months, planning ahead perhaps for the coming year. But if you persist, and make it a cast iron rule to allow no anxieties or fears, no business troubles or discords of any kind to enter your bed chamber, you will succeed in accomplishing your object.

Think of your chamber as the one place sacred to rest, where the things that trouble and harass and vex during the daytime shall find no entrance. Put this legend over the door, or in some conspicuous place where you can see it. "This is my holy of holies, the place of supreme peace and power in my life from which all discord must be shut out." When you undress and lie down, say to yourself, "I have done my best during the day. Now I am going to drop thinking, drop worrying and planning, and get good, refreshing sleep to prepare me for to-morrow's work."

Clear your mind not only of all anxious, worrying business thoughts, but also of all ill will or hatred toward another. Resolve that you will not harbor an unpleasant, bitter or unkind thought of any human being, that you will wipe off the slate of your memory everything you have ever had against any one; that you will forget whatever is unpleasant in the past and start with a clean slate. Just imagine that the words "Harmony," "Peace," "Love," "Good Will to every living creature," are emblazoned in letters of light all over the walls of your room. Repeat them over and over until that other self, that personal secretary just below the threshold of your consciousness, becomes saturated with the ideas they convey, and after a while you will drop into slumber with a serene, poised mind, a mind filled with happy, joyous, creative thoughts.

Of course, until the new habit is fixed, thoughts will intrude themselves in spite of you, but you needn't harbor them. You needn't allow yourself, under any circumstances, to go on thinking about business or any discordant thing after you retire any more than you would allow a madman to slash you with a knife without making any attempt to defend yourself. You can, if you only persist in the new and better way, fall asleep every night like a tired child, and awake in the morning just as refreshed and happy. Your subconscious self will, after a while, carry out your behests without any conscious effort on your part. This sleepless subconscious self is, in fact, one of the most effective agents man has to help him accomplish whatever he desires. Insomnia, for instance, which is the curse of so many Americans, may be entirely overcome by its aid.

If you are a victim of insomnia, and go to bed every night with the thought firmly fixed in your consciousness that you are not going to sleep, you are, to a great extent, the victim of your belief. The conviction in your subconscious mind that there is something the matter with your sleeping ability is largely responsible for the continuance of your trouble.

We know by experience that we can convince ourselves of almost anything by affirming it long enough and often enough. The constant repetition, after a while, establishes the belief in our minds that the thing is true. We can establish the sleep habit just as easily as any other habit.

It is perfectly possible by means of affirmation, the constant repetition in heart to heart talks with yourself to regain your power to sleep normally. Your subconscious self, that side of your nature which presides over the involuntary or automatic functions during sleep, as well as while you are awake, as, for instance, walking, and other things which do not require volition of the mind or especial will power, can be made to obey your commands, or rather suggestions, to overcome insomnia. Say to this inner self: "You know there is no reason why you should not sleep. There is no defect in your physical or mental make-up which keeps you awake. You ought to sleep soundly so many hours every night. There is no reason why you should not, and you are going to do so to-night."

Repeat similar affirmations during the day. Say to yourself, "This sleeplessness is only a bad habit. If you were ill physically or mentally, if you had any serious defect in your nervous system which would give any excuse for insomnia, it would be a different thing, but you haven't anything of the sort. You are simply the slave of a senseless obsession and you are going to break it up. You are going to begin right away. You are going to sleep better to-night, to-morrow night, and the next night. You are going to get through with this bogie you have built up in your imagination which has no existence in reality. Nothing keeps you awake but your conviction, your fear, that you are not going to sleep."

Prepare your mind for sleep in the way already suggested by emptying it of all worry and fear, all envy and uncharitableness, everything that disturbs, irritates, or excites. Crowd these out with thoughts of joy, of good cheer, of things which will help and inspire. Compose yourself with the belief that you will go to sleep easily and naturally; relax every muscle and say to yourself in a quiet drowsy voice, "I am so sleepy, so sleepy, so sleepy." The subconscious self will listen and in a short time will automatically put your suggestion into practice.