Relax
By Leonard M Leonard
Illustrated by Will Dinski

PREFACE

When you read this booklet you will probably do the same thing I did. You will start to relax long before you are through with it. It is exactly this kind of practical approach, translatable into results within minutes, that I found to be the most valuable attribute of this prescription for relaxation.

In my work as an industrial psychologist, I have had ample opportunity to observe the results of tension. I have seen it lower productiveness, obstruct advancement, and undermine job and social relationships. I have learned to recognize it also as a chief enemy in gaining the acceptance of new ideas - of rigid resistance to change and nameless fear of something new are basically forms of tension. In virtually all the problems about which I am consulted, I find that my first task is to make the participants relax and clear their minds for free discussion, whether the problem is one of labor-management relationships or of getting more people to vote or to ride in airplanes. A person who resists change in thinking is too tense to reach an open-minded decision — too tense to solve problems and make progress. I have seen that tense people make poor workers and also poor managers.

Much of the conflict of a social and personal nature with which I have been asked to deal, I have found to be traceable to tension. Of course, mental and physical tension go together. To relax is to start thinking about things in a different light and also to start feeling things in a different way. It is to get along better with ourselves and with others.

This is a booklet which not only helps the reader to recognize mental and physical tensions, but also provides him with practical directives for overcoming them.

Ernest Dichter, Ph.D.

February, 1952

Chapter 1

RELAX — AND WIN

Do you want to do a better job — or play a better game of cards? Learn to relax.

Do you want to enjoy a calmer, happier home life with new freedom from worry and fatigue? The answer is the same — learn to relax.

Relaxation is the art of dropping tension. You can do almost everything better if you do it with less tension, by being as relaxed as you possibly can be. For tension is a tightening-up of the nerves and muscles inside of you which makes them respond poorly to the tasks they have to do.

Prolonged tension may affect the body organs, too, and is believed to be responsible, wholly or partially, for many bodily ills — among them heart, stomach and nervous ailments and certain types of high blood pressure. Even our sexual lives can be greatly weakened by tension.

When you are tense, your mind and body are overactive. You bring needless power into action and literally wear yourself out to no purpose. You are apt to feel tired too much of the time, setting in motion a vicious cycle which cheats you of fun in life. Strain and fatigue lower your mental as well as physical resistance so that you become easy prey for all sorts of fears and worries, which in turn create additional tension.

Actually, relaxing is a simple thing. In the truest sense, it means doing nothing at all! Why should people have to learn to do that? The hectic type of life we lead today has made it difficult for a great many people to relax. For one thing, it has surrounded us with so much to do and to get that we may have acquired the habit of always doing or getting — and of being afraid of not doing and not getting.

Even when we think we are relaxing, we are apt to be doing something or worrying about something which makes us tense. We may call it relaxing, for example, when we are playing a quarrelsome game of cards in a tense effort to win, or fighting our way to the mutuels booth at a race track, to place a bet which only tenses us up still more.

When we say we are most relaxed, we might be found in an armchair watching television or listening to the radio and growing tenser by the minute as a murder yarn unfolds.

So we must learn to relax largely because we don’t know what it is like, or how enjoyable it can be. Most of us are so used to tension that we may not even realize when we are all keyed up, either at work or at play.

Tasting the first fruits of real relaxing can prove to be a revelation to you. You can gain a brand-new sense of ease, calm, confidence and serenity that you will want to use more and more in your daily life.

But don’t start with the idea that you have a big job cut out for you. Don’t grit your teeth and say, “I’m going to learn to relax, or else!” There is no effort in relaxing. It is just the opposite. It is a dropping of effort — that is to say of all unnecessary effort.

You are not going to take up relaxing as a burden. Instead, you are going to drop the burden of tension which you have been carrying with you to your work and to your home. The emphasis is not on what you have to do, but on what you don’t have to do. And you are going to enjoy it. So relax!

Chapter 2

ARE YOU WORKING TOO HARD WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT?

Fine! You are a busy person, and you want to get ahead. Hard work doesn’t scare you. You aren’t a bit lazy. This is all well and good – but are you doing needless work, wearing yourself out by using power you don’t need and which gets you nowhere?

Tense people are like that. Literally, they overpower themselves. And at the end of a day, they are “done in” – tired out, not by their regular work, but by the excess energy they have wasted in doing it.

Right now you are reading, and nothing seems simpler than that. You are using only the muscles of your eyes. But wait a minute! Does your throat feel a bit taut? Are your lips moving faintly? Possibly you are trying to “say” the words to yourself as you read, calling into action nerves and muscles which aren’t needed. Going a step or two further, you may be holding this booklet in a manner which calls for excess muscular exertion. You may be standing when you could sit. You may be reading in a poor light, with causes extra effort for your eyes. And then again, you may be fidgeting, tapping with your fingers or feed, toying with a cigarette or key chain.

Now these are all little things. Still, they put nerves and muscles to work which ought to be at rest. And they are multiplied by the hundred during the course of the day.

Tension? It is simply the contraction of a muscle, motivated by a nerve. Over-tension? It is simply too many muscle contractions, caused by over-active nerves. A tense, nervous or high-strung person? They are simply one who needlessly works their nerves and muscles.

The calm person conserves power. They employ no more than they need to perform efficiently in any activity. They practice economy in the management of their body, and of their mind.

The mental side of the picture counts most in relaxing. For the capitol of your body is in your head. Here your private government sits and controls your affairs. From you brain come the orders to your nerves and muscles. A jittery mental government flashing jittery orders makes for jittery nerves – and a jittery person.

You may be lying down, presumably in a state of complete bodily rest. But still you may be tense, drawn tight by the contraction of muscles which were stirred up in you mind.

Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago has made some remarkable tests. By connecting electrical instruments to the muscles of patients who were lying down with their eyes closed, he was able to measure the activity of their muscles caused by the mere process of thinking or imagining!

If they were told to visualize an object, such as a building, tension was noted in the muscles of their eyes, as though they were actually viewing the structure. If they were told to imagine that they were counting or reciting, tension was noted in the tongue, lips and throat, as though they were actually talking aloud. If they imaged that they were lifting a weight, the muscles of their arms became tense with the effort, and so on.

So you see that you can do needless work by thinking unnecessary thoughts and imagining unnecessary activities.

Economize. Don’t waste your power, don’t waste your thoughts! This is the essence of relaxing.

What are waste thoughts? Mark them down as worrisome thoughts, hateful thoughts, suspicious thoughts, envious thoughts, jealous thoughts. And see what they do to you.

Let’s suppose that you are lazily stretched out in the hammock at home, resting up from a hard week’s work. Relaxing – that’s the word.

“Don’t disturb him,” says your wife. “He’s all tired out, poor guy. Leave him alone!”

The trouble is you aren’t leaving yourself alone and might be better off if someone else disturbed you. For in the theatre of your mind, you may be staging mighty dreams: a love story, scenes of infidelity and revenge; a tragedy, in which you lose your job and go hungry; a melodrama, compete with an H-bomb; a short story subject called “An Encounter With The Boss”; a newsreel showing the funeral of a rival you envy.

Sure, it’s all mental. You are just thinking, worrying, suspecting, imagining. All mental. Or is it?

Not quite. The words you imagine you are saying, the fights you imagine you are waging, the blows you imagine you are giving and receiving – all these thoughts are tensing up the nerves and muscles of your body. To be sure, these activities are not actually happening. Yet on a small scale, your body is enacting them. Your mental workout is a physical workout too.

It is all effort. It is al futile. And right here we reach the whole secret of relaxing: stop giving yourself need-less work.

Spare your body and your mind. Be good to yourself. That is what it means to relax.

Chapter 3

WORRY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

What do do about worry? Volumes have been written on the subject. But as Sherlock Holmes would say, the answer is elementary – very, very elementary: You can do something or nothing.

Are you worried because you’ve been careless with your work? Start being careful with it. Are you worried about a pain in the chest. Have it diagnosed and treated. Here are two kinds of worry that you can do something about. Action can get rid of them by the roots.

But most of our worries probably aren’t that kind. We worry about things which may happen in spite of us, or which already have happened in spite of us. Our worries are “untouchables” flying into the unborn future, or falling into the long-dead past.

The thing to do about such worries is the very most – and also very least – that can be done about them. Nothing. Nothing at all.

And that means not worrying, either. For worry is anything but passive. It is a strenuous effort.

Ever play tug of war? You remember how you braced and stiffened your body to resist the pull of your opponents. That’s the kind of work you do when you worry. You tense up to resist something you don’t want to happen. It follows that if you just didn’t resist, you just wouldn’t worry. And from this comes a top-flight technique for peace of mind and body.

Stop resisting. Be willing to let things happen. This was the keynote of Annie Payson Call’s method of relaxation. She was among the greatest teachers of relaxation, and among her pupils was George Bernard Shaw.

When you resist the possibility of something happening, she taught, you tense up, function less efficiently and thereby invite the catastrophe you fear.

Take the matter of catching a train, for example. On the one hand, you want to catch it. But if on the other hand you’re afraid you’ll miss it, you set up a force of resistance. You are so busy resisting the idea of being late that you become panicky and clumsy. Everything seems to go wrong. And so you are late, after all.

Probably you have had this experience. You are in such a fearful rush that you fumble around buttoning your shirt. You put your socks on the inside out. you nearly fall down the stairs in your haste. Then you find that you forgot something and have to rush back. The cause of your inefficiency is not your eagerness to be prompt, but your resistance to the idea of being late.

It is quite the same with other things. When we are fearful of any consequence, we dilute our power to avert it. But when we are quietly willing that it occur, we instantly lose the tensions of fear which direct us toward it. Relaxing, our minds and bodies function freely and effectively.

What is resistance? In physics it is defined as a force tending to prevent motion. It may very well be the force which is holding you back right now.

Are you worried that you’ll fail – on the job, at the social function, in a game or sport? Are you haunted by worries of sickness, accident, catastrophe? Unlock your tensions with an easy willingness for anything that may come. You will be better prepared to cope with any emergency – and meanwhile, you’ll feel better!

This is a prescription for relaxing and a philosophy for living. Calm thoughts, quiet confidence, steadier nerves and better achievement are the seeds which you can sow with less resistance.

What should you do about worry? Nothing. Nothing, that is, but to stop doing. Stop resisting so much, and be willing to let things happen.

Chapter 4

HOW TO TAKE A MENTAL ANESTHETIC

You know that when you want to cut cord, you make it taut and more resistant to the knife? The limp string is always harder to snip in tow. And there is a lesson for you. If you don’t bend, you may break.

Ben Franklin quotes a piece of advice he received in his youth: “You are young and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it and you will miss many hard thumps.” The point was to be humble, but it might just as well have been to relax, to yield.

Here is an interesting fact and a valuable tip to go with it: if you are stiff, tense and nervous, you are likely to be much more sensitive to pain than a relaxed, calm person. Therefore, teach yourself to “let go” when facing a painful ordeal.

Having your teeth filled is anything but a painful ordeal these days, yet many “he-men” dread the thought of going to the dentist. You are afraid of being hurt, and are already anticipating the suffering from the drill as you sit in the waiting room. By now, you know why – you are resisting the operation. Well, next time, try giving yourself this mental anesthetic:

When your turn comes in the chair, note the tenseness throughout your body. Probably all your nerves will be taut and alert, as though prepared for battle instead of a filling. Let them go limp. Instead of fairly rising out of the chair, let yourself sink into it as the work proceeds.

The minute you are willing to be hurt, something happens. Your nerves and muscles relax. They are, in a sense, too limp to flash pain messages to your head. You may not enjoy sitting in the dental chair, but you’ll find that it isn’t nearly so bad as you had expected.

Chapter 5

MENTAL FIRE-TRAPS THAT “BURN YOU UP"

One good turn deserves another. Try non-resistance on the other mental states that make you tense.

It’s the same deal. If you hate something you’re resisting its presence. If you suspect someone, you’re resisting what he may do. If you envy someone, you’re resisting her success. If you’re jealous of someone, you’re resisting that person’s attractiveness to others.

When something riles us, we say that it “burns us up” – which comes pretty close to the actual truth. As we have already noted, the scenes and actions which negative thoughts bring to your mind are telegraphed through your body. You fight battles, suffer heartaches, engage dangers in make-believe enactments that “burn you up” or wear you down.

Don’t wait for the doctor to tell you that your blood pressure has gone up, that your heart’s overworked, that an ulcer is on the way, or that you need a good rest. Rest? You can take it on your feet, if you’ll take it in your head. Give up your mental tug-of-war!

The idea, of course, if not to take the fight out of you, but to leave the fight in you. Every so often, something happens which calls for all the resistance we can muster. Why waste it, for example, against the sound of someone chewing popcorn in the movies?

These days, we Americans are doing a lot of proper bragging about Freedom and Independence. But here’s a question: how free and independent are you when you give to every petty annoyance, every disappointment, every person who crosses you the power to disturb you, to control your moods, to upset your digestion, to make your heart beat faster or your blood pressure shoot up?

Again we say it: be willing to let things happen. Stop resisting so much, and relax.

Chapter 6

LITTLE LESSONS IN LAZINESS

Time out, please. Your worries have vanished, little annoyances don’t get your goat any more, you feel quiter, you look better, you’re nicer to live with, you’re making more progress. Not yet? It will come.

Anyway, you may still be making extra work for yourself. You may still be less lazy than you should be.

Now don’t let anyone kid you about laziness. It pays! But you’ve got to be lazy in the right way. That is, never too lazy to do what you should, but always too lazy to do what you shouldn’t.

The best proof is the greatest body of laws ever written. Only two of the Ten Commandments tell you to do something. Eight others tell you what not to do. And you had better now, either, if you want to avoid tension.

As it happens, the bad thing — morally, mentally, physically — is always the unnecessary, the undesirable thing. It has no place in the scheme of intelligent laziness. Yet let’s try a sampling of how much tense effort you may waste every day. If you know how to be lazy, you can answer “no” to each of these questions:

• Do you press down so hard that you frequently break off the points of pencils as you write? If so, you are entirely too tense and are working too hard. Learn to write with the minimum of pressure.

• Do you find yourself standing or pacing about when you could just as well be sitting? It’s easier to sit than to stand. Be lazy and sit down when you can.

• Do you talk or argue more than you listen? See how many things you can safely leave unsaid. Besides saving your voice and energy, it can keep you friends.

• Do you put off doing disagreeable tasks? Be too lazy to carry them in your mind any longer than you must. Do them first and get them over with. You’ll be surprised to find how much tension you’ll avoid.

• Do you try to hide your mistakes? It takes more time and effort than frankly admitting them as soon as you can. Don’t add a heavy conscience and jumpy nerves to your burdens. Own up and see how relaxed it makes you feel.

• Do you always write out your name and address on packages, letters and postcards? Discover the rubber stamp or treat yourself to printed letterheads or labels. Save work.

• Do you try to dodge creditors? It’s more fun to play tag with the children, probably a good deal less strenuous and certainly very much easier on your nerves. Tell your creditors the truth and see what happens.

• Do you strain your mind to remember things, and get all worked up when you can’t? Get the habit of jotting down memos, and spare your mind. As one profound philosopher has noted, “A short pencil is better than a long memory.”

• Do you keep imaginary pets called “grudges”? Try a different kind of pet for a change. Even a wildcat can do more good. Ask your enemy what all the fuss is about and clear the atmosphere. You’ll feel easier.

• • •

On the positive side, here are some questions to which your answer should be “yes”:

• Have you discovered the effort-saving utility of marketing carts for your shopping, or wheel trays, toy wagons and baskets for carrying things around the house?

• Are you a work-planner? Before starting to work on a job, are you careful to see that you have on hand all the tools and materials you will need, to avoid losing time and temper in looking for them later?

• Are you a step-saver? Do you organize your activities to avoid needless trips, especially up and down stairs? Do you keep ladders, tools, ash-trays, lamp bulbs, searchlights, etc., always ready where you are most likely to need them?

• Are you a stock-taker? Do you avoid household scenes and flurries of excitement by keeping a simple inventory of necessary items such as toothpaste, shaving cream, razor blades, and so forth so that you never run out of them?

• • •

Life can be easier and lazier in lots of little ways that total big relaxation. Try them and see.

Chapter 7

USE “SUGGESTIONS” TO CALM DOWN

Is there a “suggestion box” in your shop or office? If it’s peace and quiet you want, a form of “suggestion box” is what you may need in your home too.

The “suggestions” are to be given to you by the walls, doors, pictures you see; even by the sounds you hear. And the only suggestions they will make are Peace, Quiet, Repose. You can get these suggestions so often that they will work on you; they will help calm your mind when you feel upset; they will give a feeling of quiet assurance to your whole being.

There is no hocus-pocus about it. You know that looking at something restful make you feel restful. And you know, too, that looking at something exciting tends to excite you. So when you want to relax, it isn’t much of a help to be confronted by the portrait of a nude burlesque queen, an exciting horse race scene, or a wall full of battle pictures.

Why not deposit that art work at the club house, or remove it to the rumpus room in the basement? And in your living quarters — especially the bedroom — where you want to escape from the turmoil and bring rest to your mind and body put restful sights on the walls.

Nobody can tell you what a restful scene is; the description must be your own. But finding pictures for your wall which give you a sense of quiet can be more important to you and to your family than finding genuine masterpieces.

The Psalmist had the perfect idea when he sang of “green pastures” and “still waters.” There is something especially soothing about pastoral scenes and views of tranquil water. Many nervous people find it soothing to look at an aquarium with tropical fish swimming about in it. The newest of these is a fish bowl which hangs on the wall like a picture.

There you have two ideas, but it’s a personal matter. Maybe watching fish will make you hungry, and a water scene may stir up memories of the time you nearly drowned! You must choose your own decorations, but try to choose the most restful you can find.

We are on safer ground with color. Green and blue-green are generally the most soothing colors. They are a good choice for the tense person unless they involve a dispute with other members of the family. Blue also is a sedative color, but too much can go too far. We speak of being “blue” for good reason; the color tends to be depressing.

Red is all right, but for the game room where you want to get up a lot of steam. It’s for stimulation, not sedation. As for yellow and orange, they can cheer you up. But they aren’t very likely to calm you down.

Don’t over look the effect of words. If you doubt the effect that word can have upon you, just look back to the letter which gave you bad news. And to another which raised your spirits sky-high! Just words, but they gave you thoughts.

With wall mottoes and slogans, suggest psychologist Ernest Dichter, you can keep imparting relaxing thoughts to your mind. So whenever you come across a quotation or message which gives you reassurance and seems to make you feel more at ease all around, jot it down. Then muster all the artistry you can name make a sign of it. Place it where you will see it often, for example, on the saving mirror of your bathroom, or even the footboard of your bed.

Gladstone of England, who had a stormy life, brought repose into his bedroom. To help himself relax and get to sleep, he inscribed this Biblical message on his footboard: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is tased on Thee.

Look to the Bible for the most reassuring messages you are likely to find anywhere. Don’t try to convince yourself, and don’t trouble to question. William James credits a few simple Bible quotations with saving his sanity during a period of great fear and tension. They were words that worked, never mind how.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale tells of a harassed and jittery business man who was virtually on the verge of hysteria when he chanced to open a Bible in his hotel room. He came upon the Twenty-Third Psalm and when he finally closed the book, his tension had vanished and he was completely at ease.

These are just a few of the relaxing and comforting messages in the Bible:

“… God hath not given us the sprit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind …” (II Timothy 1:7)

“Let not your heart be troubled.” (John 14:1)

“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret no they self …” (Psalm 37:8)

“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety …” (Psalms)

“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength …” (Isaiah 30:15)

But of course there are lots of enduring words outside the Bible, too. It would be surprising if you couldn’t find dozens of sayings with a certain magic in them for you. Dr. Dichter says he can calm himself down with two simple words: “So what?” They have a way of taking the bigness out of problems and cutting worries down to size.

In the same vein, Abraham Lincoln, who was a melancholy man, comforted himself with the saying, “This, too, shall pass away.” He needed to be reminded that even sadness isn’t permanent.

Chapter 8

WHAT TO READ

One wit has observed that there is nothing like sitting under a tree with a book, unless it is sitting under a tree without a book.

There is no doubt that reading is an activity. You are using your eyes. Possibly you are even using the muscles of speech, for as you see or visualize words, there is a tendency to “sound them out.” Then again, images of the action related may tense up other muscles.

You are not “relaxing” when you read, and surely not if you are reading a “whodunit.” It can be good recreation or diversion, but technically you can’t call it relaxation.

On the other hand, certain types of reading can be a prelude to relaxation. You can suggest thoughts which help take the jitters out of you. The bible rates number one on the list. The scriptures of other faiths, like Confucianism and Buddhism, are way up on the list, too. Many of the Hindu writings, especially of the sage Ramakrishna, also have a calming effect.

“Do your work; surrender the results to God.” This is a sample of Ramakrishna. If you’re one of those who is always in a mental stew, wondering what will happen after you have already done your best, Ramakrishna will be a good tonic for you.

And then there are the philosophers. If you’re discouraged, read Emerson — but he may pep you up and put you more in the mood for doing things than for doing nothing. As sedatives, many doctors have long prescribed the wisdom of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus was a slave and Aurelius was an emperor, but both had to cope with great tensions in their lives.

Some people are tense and fearful about meeting with a superior. “When you appear before one of the mighty of the earth,” said the slave Epictetus, “remember that another looks from above on what is happening, and that you must please Him rather than this man.” If you find the thought comforting, recall it to mind next time you get the jitters on meeting a “big shot.”

Are you vexed by circumstances or worried about some ominous possibility in your life? Consider these reflections of Aurelius: “If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgement now … If you take away your opinion about that which appears to give you pain, you yourself stand in perfect security … A cucumber is bitter; throw it away. There are briars in the road; turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, “And why were such things made in the world? ... It is in our power to have no option about a thing, and not to be disturbed, for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgment.”

If thoughts such as these strike home to you and make you feel more at ease, you’ve given yourself a reading prescription. You will want to own copies of Discourses of Epictetus and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. You are pretty sure to find them in a second-hand bookstore for a small sum. Live with these books. Read them often, especially at bedtime, and they will soon become a natural part of your thinking and attitudes.

Chapter 9

RESTFUL SOUNDS

Hand-in-glove with restful sights go restful sounds. There isn’t quite so much you can do about sounds, but you can do something. You can use ear-plugs to shut out noise if you can’t move away from it. Or you can school yourself to “roll” with the sound like a fighter “rolls” with a punch. This brings us back to the simple method of non-resistance. If you are willing to be disturbed, noise won’t bother you so much. You may even enjoy it if you simply remind yourself that it’s going to be quiet for a long, long time!

But a great deal of the noise, which tightens us up is of our own choosing. You can’t blame anyone else for the mayhem which roars out of your own loudspeaker, for example. Granted that stories about Cowboys and Indians and Private Eyes can be fun, there’s nothing soothing about them. And while murder may be delightful, it’s a strain on the nerves.

Can you relax with a radio melodrama? Probably no more than with an exciting movie, which is just about the same as an exciting TV show. Dr. N. Kleitman, physiologist at the University of Chicago, reports that movie thrillers increase muscle tension, and may even raise your temperature a half to one degree above normal! Feeling cold? Tune in the heat!

But for pure relaxation, as distinct from pure diversion, why not test your radio for silence? Next best, try poetry or music. And be prudent here, too. Reserve martial music, for example, for marching Junior to the woodshed, or for working up the family for your big birthday announcement. And at any time, martial music does what it’s meant to do — it gets you pepped up, and maybe even reckless.

Dance rhythms are hardly any better, unless of course you want to dance. Romantic compositions? Maybe they’ll give you emotional release, but they may also excite you. Classical works can boost your feeling of security. But according to the Lancet, Journal of the British Medical Association, folk tunes are the most relaxing.

Of course, choosy as you may be, the radio may not always be able to oblige you. So if you want relaxation with music, you’ll probably want a phonograph. better get one with a record-changer so you won’t spoil it all by having to jump up frequently.

And when it comes to records, you might take a few hints from Dr. Edward Podolsky, author of Music for Your Health. Are you in an angry, fretful mood? He recommends soothing melodies like Haydn’s Symphony No. 13, Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata and Brahms’ Der Tod. If you’re jumpy and irritable, he suggests the sedative strains of Schubert’s Serenade, Waldteufel’s The Skaters, Brooks’ Love’s Eternal Waltz, Dvorak’s Humoresque.

But again, there are no guarantees. What is musically pleasing and restful to one person may have an oppositive effect upon you because you just don’t like it, or because you associate it with an unpleasant event.

As with art, you will have to order your own musical prescriptions. But make no mistake about it: music can help you relax.

Chapter 10

FOOD AND DRINK

Do you listen to the News-of-the-Day before dinner? More and more people are coming to dislike Stalin as an appetizer, and the latest reports on Congress and your taxes may have an alarming effect on your digestion. Let the news wait, and hear some dinner music.

And certainly, don’t hear news about the kiddies and how they demolished the house next door. Or how the wife got a permanent wave in the fender. Try to reach an agreement with your wife. You won’t tell her what the boss said to you, if she won’t tell you about the household disasters. Not, at least, until after dinner when you’re both in better shape to hear the worst.

Do you say grace before your meals? There’s a lot to it, says Charles Francis Potter, and if you haven’t been doing it lately, try it out. Those few words and those few seconds can help you better appreciate a meal. And you can use a restful interlude; every little interlude you can capture counts.

When it comes to the food itself, a warm soup helps to relax the stomach. And if you’re a tense and nervous person, it may be wise to take it easy on the salt and spices because they’re stimulation. Here’s a hint: if you have to spice up your food too much in order to enjoy it, it’s smart to check up on your smoking. Besides being a tricky stimulant in itself, nicotine tends to dull the taste buds. So smokers get the habit of eating highly flavored foods.

Watch the coffee, tea and cocoa, too. why not more milk for a change? You need the calcium in it to maintain calm nerves.

You should get plenty of the B Complex vitamins. And, of course, the best place to get them is in well-balanced meals where they’re combined with other necessary food elements. If you need a horrible example of what can happen without them, take pellagra. Among its symptoms are nervous and mental derangement. Yet foods like liver and chicken are all you need to avoid it.

Breakfast, now. As you’ve been told many times, it’s apt to be the most important meal you can eat. Are you a doughnut and coffee addict? Better watch out. The doughnuts and the coffee may be all right, but it’s protein you need — protein in eggs, meat, fish, cheese, milk — to keep you going until lunch without a letdown in energy or a flare-up in tension. You may find, too, that on a low protein intake your thinking is hazy and that you’re apt to make mistakes — dangerous mistakes if you’re working with machinery, or driving a car. So believe the ads when they urge you to eat a good breakfast, but keep in mind what a good breakfast really is.

You can sidestep a lot of tension with the first meal of the day — and you can sidestep still more at lunch and dinner, which inevitably brings up the question of the jigger. How about a little “nip”? Won’t it help you relax?

The truth is that it might, but it’s a mighty might to consider. Let it be noted that alcohol is not a stimulant. It’s a depressant. It can ease up on the tenseness you feel. But it depends on many factors.

The first factor is you. Does the doctor say it’s okay for you take it? How much can you take? And can you stop taking before you’ve taken too much? That little nip may help before dinner. But beware of the little nips after that one. The popular, or unpopular, limit — which may still be too much for you — is two ounces of liquor per day. After that you’re courting with trouble. And if you feel you must have liquor, you’re courting trouble even before you drink it.

Probably you know a high-strung person who tells you that he’s been advised to drink in order to “relax.” It could very well be, but before you follow his example, there are more things to find out.

While he “relaxes” with his liquor, is he so easy and light in spirit that he says and does things which create tension later?

Does he “relax” so much with alcohol that he can’t eat the foodstuffs he needs for steady nerves?

And is he always afraid that someone will smell the stuff on him?

Relaxing with a jigger, a cocktail or a highball? There’s more to it than meets the nose.

Chapter 11

SECRETS OF SOUND SLEEP

All that talk about alcohol — it makes us drowsy, and brings us right up to the bedroom.

Of course, if you want to feel relaxed, you need sleep. But how much you need is a very personal matter. Forget the stories about Edison and others who slept only a few hours a day. Maybe you can do it, too. And maybe you can’t.

The best index is how you feel. It is said that our nerves can take nourishment only when we’re asleep. If our nerves aren’t feeding right, you’ll know it soon enough. Right now, you feel the need for relaxation. Too little sleep may be one reason why.

When you’re not thoroughly rested, all sorts of things can happen. Your memory may start slipping. You may feel cranky and irritable. You may be extremely sensitive, fancying insults and injuries in almost anything that said or done. The worry habit can take a ready foothold because you’re not alert enough to throw it off. Your sleepy mind may be prone to direful suggestions, and you may imagine yourself the victim of all sorts of frightening symptoms which happen to cross our mental path. Supertension is the result.

Yet you may not actually feel sleepy. If you’re used to late retiring, fatigue signals may no longer be resisted. You can go on and on — until something happens.

If you have any reason to suspect that lack of sleep may be your trouble, treat yourself as though it were. Tired or not, force yourself to go to bed for the traditional eight hours. It can’t hurt. It is bound to help, if only for the reason that you’ll be doing less — smoking less, for one thing. Especially in the interests of calmer nerves, perhaps you know that you ought to ease up on smoking. Well, how many cigarettes do you smoke in an hour … two hours … three hours? That’s how many cigarettes you can skip by just getting to sleep an hour or two earlier. Do you know a of an easier way to cut down on your smoking?

But, you insist, you can’t sleep. The Journal of Living — which is a magazine to relax with — has collected some ideas from the experts which may help you. Look them over and try them out:

• Your food can spoil your sleep. You may be drinking too much coffee or tea. Or your bedtime snacks may be too hard to digest (rich or fatty foods). One authority claims that excess salt may spoil sleep.

• You can’t sleep well if you’re all tensed up. A warm bath, soft radio music, light (or dull) reading, and thorough hair brushing are among the tension relievers that woo sleep. Hunger tension can be eased with a simple snack (milk, crackers, fruit).

• Naturally, you need the right bed for restful sleep. Even one lump in the mattress can spoil your rest. Bedding manufacturer have figured out that to sleep well, the average-sized person needs thirty-nine inches of bed width for himself. That may mean twin beds or an extra-wide double bed.

• Your bedroom may fight off sleep if: (a) its color scheme is too loud; (b) it does not screen out light. Avoid bright colors in bedrooms; stick to the restful greens and blues. Place mirrors, metals and other reflecting objects away from light rays, or cover them up.

• Cold is an enemy of sleep. To keep warmer, try putting a blanket under you, between the mattress and the lower sheet. Cover up, of course, with a woolen blanket to seal in body heat. Don’t get cold feet; use knitted bedsocks, if need be, to keep your toes warm.

• Stale, cold, and hot air are all sleep spoilers. Air your room thoroughly before retiring, and keep one bedroom window open, top and bottom, unless you have an air circulator. The ideal temperature for sleeping is 55 degrees F., with a comfortable humidity of 45.

• Eye masks, ear plugs, singing radio pillows, head-warmers and snore-stoppers are among the special devices which help the more stubborn sleep-resister. They may sound silly, but they’re better than sleeping pills. Don’t take unprescribed drugs for sleep.

That’s the story. But if you still can’t sleep — just don’t. Read a book. Write a letter. And don’t worry about it. There’s another night coming. Ho-hum …

Chapter 12

HOW TO LOCATE AND LOSE TENSION — WITH EXERCISE

No sooner are you asleep than it’s time to wake up! But no setting-up exercises. At the outset, we promised you “no work” and we’ll keep our word.

But here’s one exercise that’s a cinch. Try it for an hour when you get home tonight. Just lie down in a quiet room and let yourself sort of sink into the bed. Become limp. You shouldn’t have a trace of tension anywhere in your body. And don’t spoil the effect by trying to talk yourself into it. Don’t kid yourself. Don’t say you are becoming more and more relaxed, because the more you say it, the less it may be true. You are not trying to hypnotize yourself. You are not trying to go into an ecstasy of restfulness. You aren’t really trying to do anything, and if you feel that you are, something is wrong.

Here is an amazing fact: if virtually all the tension has gone out of your body, you will find that your mind is completely at rest, too. You will have cut off your contact with the world of feeling, thinking, doing and worrying. Messages will cease to flash from your nerves and muscles to your mind — and from your mind to your nerves and muscles. As near as can be, you will be resting completely.

Careful tests by Dr. Jacobson have proved this — and you can prove it yourself, with is the main thing. But to get the full effects, it may take a lot of practice. You will have to learn what tensions feel like when they occur throughout your body. And that calls for some detecting.

For instance, if you have ever “made a muscle,” you know what tension is like in the biceps of your arm. Therefore you know how your arm should feel when you’ve relaxed it.

It is the same with other muscles — but since these are less familiar, you will have to tense them up deliberately and note the sensations. You must become a tension-detective and learn what tautness is like in your legs, stomach, chest, back, neck, hands eyes and so on.

Slowly, one by one, you are to try contracting your muscles in these areas. Then you are to relax them, one at a time. and note the difference.

Here are some examples:

For foot tension, bend each foot, first toward you, and then away from you, while your legs remain flat on the bed. For abdominal tension, draw in your stomach. For chest tension, take a deep breath. For eye tension, close your eyes very tightly; next, open them and roll them from side to side. For hand tension, bend your hands toward you, one at a time, while keeping your arms flat.

Go slowly through each motion. And remember: the purpose of these exercises is not to relax you, but to help you recognize when you are not relaxed. You will find them explained in more detail in Dr. Jacobson’s book called You Must Relax, which is a good volume to own.

The reward: once you have learned to identify the various muscular tensions, you can relax them simply by letting them go. You can do this not only when you are lying down for the express purpose of relaxing, but also while you are active. You will be able tell when you’re unnecessarily using muscles in any activity from reading a book to playing baseball or opening a machine in the plant.

A thorough course in tension-detecting will take you some time. Yet you may not find it necessary. After all, aren’t you a bit more expert about tensions right now? And don’t you feel a bit more relaxed?

Chapter 13

JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT!

Play? Hobbies? We’ve had nothing to say about them. And for a reason. Like any other activity, they are not properly to be called relaxation. Not only do they bring forth tensions of their own, but habits of tension elsewhere can be carried into them.

You can be just as tense playing as working, just as taut in your home workshop as in the factory or office.

But this is not to deny a wholesale value to recreation, especially if you can learn to relax with it. As with reading, the value may lie principally in setting the stage for relaxation.

A Milquetoast, tense with unexpressed resentments, may drive some measure of relief from watching a prize fight. He is punching away at one or another of the contestants in the ring. After the fight, he feels better — unless he has lost money on it, or the excitement was too much for him. The psychiatrist, Dr. A. A. Brill, has stated that all sports are a safe form of war, in which we may harmlessly vent our aggressiveness or animosity.

But the woodpile may do just as well as the sports arena. Armed with a good ax, a man with energies and emotional grievances to spare may chop his way to an easier mind. He can vent his troubles on the wood.

One must also be careful, of course, in choosing a sport. A man may stoutly aver that the race track makes him feel better, that it gets his mind off his troubles, keeps him in the fresh air, provides an outlet for his pent-up emotions. All these rationalizations are poorly made however, if in spite of the benefits the tensions of the event cause his heart to give out.

Certainly, when relaxation is an order from the doctor, his reasons for giving it must be taken into account. And if you need advice concerning your proposed recreation, a safe procedure is to ask his option. Even golf may be ruled off the list, and if you are over forty, tennis almost certainly will be.

Your sports and your hobbies must be tailored to fit your physical as well as your mental requirements and limitations. With hobbies, a special consideration must be added. This is the temptation to make business of them. One of their chief values is as an occupational variant. With a well-chosen hobby, you can lose those tensions which arise from not being able to do what you want to do at your job. Not only can you find an outlet for your unexpressed talents, but you can win the praise and appreciation that may be lacking in your routine work. At this point, however, often comes the idea of cashing in on it.

From a vocational viewpoint, you may be right, and you may be wrong. But where profit enters, play goes out. You become the servant of your hobby, and most, if not all, of its benefits vanish. (Forewarned is forearmed.)

You would look far to find better rules of recreation than those of old John Locke. Here is the gist of his ideas, mixed in with some others:

Play for the fun of it, not for the gain of it. A game in which the prize is more important than the play creates tension and breeds disappointment.
Play to win, but be willing to lose. You’ll stand a better chance of winning because you’ll be more relaxed. But it won’t hurt you if you don’t win.
Never play for stakes you can’t afford to lose. This is a cause of tension — before, during and after the game.
Choose a recreation which is different from your regular work. Make it a mental recreation if your work is physical; a physical recreation if your work is mental. If you work calls for an exact adherence to rules, let the element of chance figure into your play. If your work involves more risk than judgement, make your play involve more judgment than risk.
If you have a hobby, do not think of making money at it, or it will soon cease to be a hobby and become a tension-producing business.
Never play when or until you are exhausted.
In your work you must strive to please others, but in your play strive to please no one but yourself.
Stop anything in which you find yourself worrying about consequences or results.

There you have it.

The art of relaxation is in your hands. You have only to let it get into your mind.

If you do nothing else about it, read and re-read this little booklet. It is our hope that at least a few of the ideas will sink in and do you good — just of their own accord.

It is a commandment to rest. It is a duty to know how.

Learn to relax, and you will see that you’ll live better. And a lot longer, no doubt.

AFTERWORD

I found this booklet in a resell shop somewhere in Wisconsin. Here’s the cover:

I kept it because I loved the illustrations and that it was printed two-color. Also it relaxes me to read it.

The publication date is from 1952, so I’m assuming the copyright has expired. The only other evidence of its origin is printed on the back cover:

Distributed by The Tire Division
Employee Information Service
UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY
Printed in U.S.A.

Reading this outdated book feels like meditation to me, and I hope that it has been a helpful or at least an entertaining read.

-Will

*Also thanks to Maxeem Konrardy for the careful proofing.