Eustace Miles

“ Several people that I know have the supreme art of making troubles almost blessings by catching at once the ludicrous aspect—going round to the other side and seeing things from a different approach. And sometimes, entering into the trouble by the Gate of Humour, they find that the trouble is not a torture-chamber but a factory of Success and Happiness. ”

“ Laughing and smiling can come under muscular control, no less than walking and sitting—no less than frowning and grumbling. We can tense or relax muscles. We can equally easily laugh or smile. And the mere muscular action will help the mind and the feelings to be free from non-happiness. ”

“ First because, once again, non-happiness is a mistake. It acts, as I said just now, in a vicious circle, increasing itself. It poisons the blood, and this very poisoning tends to produce more non-happiness. It radiates itself, and is infectious. It inclines to become a fixed and sub-conscious habit. ”

“ But our true Environment is, first of all, the contents of our mind, and especially that part of the contents—whether memories or imaginations—to which we give most attention and interest; secondly, the Divine influence in which, whether we recognise it or not, we “live and move and have our being.” ”

“ So, to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear. Again, in order to feel kindly toward a [Pg 52] person to whom we have been inimical, the only way is more or less deliberately to smile, to make sympathetic inquiries, and to force ourselves to say genial things. One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling. ”

“ Happiness itself depends largely upon their digestion, their elimination of waste matter, their circulation, etc., these influences themselves depend largely on (1) the choice of foods and drinks, the way of eating and drinking, the breathing and other exercises, and so forth—and on (2) the maintenance of Happiness itself, or at least the avoidance of worry and resentment, etc., and the expression of Happiness, until Happiness actually is attracted and comes into a prepared nest. ”

“ Man is like a haunted animal, from the cradle to the grave, the victim of real or imaginary fears, not only his own, but those reflected upon him from the superstitions, self-deceptions, sensory illusions, false beliefs, and concrete errors of the whole human race, past and present. ”

“ We are born into the atmosphere of fear and dread, and the mother who bore us had lived in the same atmosphere for weeks and months before we were born. We are surrounded in infancy and childhood by clouds of fear and apprehension on the part of our parents, nurses, and friends. ”

“ Happiness tends to Health, in its various aspects:—
Enjoyment of life and of all that life brings us;
Energy—for Health gives a tonic without reaction;
Economy—for, when we are happy, we need neither drugs nor stimulants nor narcotics nor holidays; Happiness saves vast stores of precious power, both physical and mental ”

“ To enjoy an Environment, or the memory of it, is a pleasant Avenue. If, instead of rushing through our sweet holidays and hours of peace and pleasantness, we “pause on every charm,” and concentrate our attention on the Pleasantness, we can make the Environment, on which so many people depend for their Health and Happiness, our own possession, within our minds, by means of picture-memories, [Pg 67] or sound-memories, or even word-memories. Here is one, from J. Beattie ”

“ 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, [Pg 45] 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. ”

“ Consider how all things change when the glad soul arrives, and how all work becomes lighter when the spirit of joy is abroad. And every man has the power to dispense the spirit of joy wherever he may work or live. ”

“ When happiness is present, the petty things of life fail to disturb and poison us.
[Pg 71]
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. ”

“ The general idea of Diet, for producing or increasing mental and physical Well-Being, which includes Happiness, would surely be to get first such a régime as shall clear out the clogging and depressing or irritating toxins and waste-matters, and shall not add to them, but shall re-build a clean and healthy body and mind by a better Balance of the various Food Elements. ”

“ Be happy with children, and you make them happier, healthier, pleasanter to be with, easier to train. When they are in this favourable condition, you yourself, in turn, have more Happiness and health, partly because your work is more delightful and more successful. And so your Happiness is self-increasing as well as self-radiating. ”

“ Happiness does indeed include negative merits, but it is also positive and radiating and infectious. When we ask what we can do for others, one answer is, we can keep happy. Here, again, Larson’s words are to the point:—
“He who is always glad is always adding to the welfare of every member of the race. The great soul is always in search of ways and means for adding to [Pg 30] the welfare of others. But no way is better, greater, or more far reaching than this. To be glad at all times is to be of greater service to mankind than any other thing we can do. ”

“ Non-Happiness, partly by affecting the Brain and the Solar Plexus through tissue-storage of toxins and Toxœmia or an acid and poisoned bloodstream.
There are thousands who imagine that, because most of their “civilised” acquaintances regularly take certain meals as a matter of course, therefore these meals must of necessity be “all right”; not knowing that Nature does not withhold from us her results according to Law—often called her “punishments”—merely because large numbers of other individuals are making similar mistakes! ”

“ If—as Virchow and many others hold—cells have some individuality and some intelligence, will they not respond to our Happiness, at least as much as you and I respond to the Happiness of our Nation and Empire when there is good news and success of the whole of which we form a particle? ”

“ Happiness brings the right vibrations throughout the mind and body, partly through the Solar Plexus and the Sympathetic Nervous System. Only lately have we begun to realise the importance of the rate and character of vibrations. ”

“ Happiness has its own type of Breathing (as shown by the Pneumograph and the registering cylinder-drum) quite different from the type when there is fear or anger. If we establish as a habit the deepness and fulness and rhythm of the Breathing that goes with Happiness, we are half way towards removing Non-Happiness and getting Happiness itself.
3. When there is anger or restless worry, there is, regularly, some muscular tension. ”

“ Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. ”

“ Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. ”

“ In the moral and ethical and spiritual, as in the intellectual and financial and social spheres, Happiness is a precious and integral factor in success and progress. We might almost say that Happiness includes the much-praised virtues of Courage, Persistence, and Poise, and goes far towards Self-Control and Self-Mastery.
Therefore, keep happy.
It is kind to others to keep happy. Happiness tends to Forgiveness (not of the usual perfunctory and “I-forgive-but-I-can’t-forget” type) , Goodwill, and pleasant Warmth as of the sunshine. ”

“ Then your sight and your perspective will change, and you will see the good in every one and every thing.
Keep Happy, and give out Happiness. When we give out Happiness, we always receive more blessings than we give to others. ”

“ Fear not only affects the mind and the nervous and muscular tissues, but the molecular chemical transformations of the organic network, even to the skin, the hair, and the teeth. This might be expected of a passion that disturbs the whole mind, which is represented or externalised in the whole body. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Before reading further, think what happens when one keeps the opposite of happy, whatever be the actual stage between the extreme homicidal or suicidal violence or suicidal melancholia on the one hand, and, on the other hand, ordinary fear, worry, resentment, depression, grumpiness, and so on. ”

“ As we advance in life, we become instinctively, or by experience, afraid of almost everything. We are afraid of our parents, afraid of our teachers, afraid of our playmates, afraid of ghosts, afraid of rules and regulations and punishments, afraid of the doctor, the dentist, the surgeon. Our adult life is a state of chronic anxiety, which is fear in a milder form. ”

“ A Perfect God—and this applies whether we believe in a Personal Being or not, for an Impersonal Being cannot easily be imagined as sad!—cannot surely be sad; and we are told to become perfect as God is Perfect. ”

“ When things seem amiss, then is the time to give all your thoughts the upward [Pg 38] direction. Keep happy. Hold on to Happiness, not like grim death but like irrepressible life.
Remember that “everything serves some useful purpose.” If you refuse to keep happy, at least determine to find out the useful purpose. But, as soon as you can, come back to yourself, and keep happy.
Help Others
Help others. This is the old and ever new way. As Maeterlinck says:
“Before we can bring happiness to others, we must first be happy ourselves. Nor will happiness abide within us unless we confer it on others. ”

“ There is everything to be said in favour of it.
Keep Happy. Happiness is as much a duty towards God, our “Neighbours,” and ourselves, as is Purity or Kindness or any other Virtue, and Happiness makes every other Virtue easier and pleasanter. ”

“ 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 [Pg 70] our self, and the myriads of cell-lives working within us. ”

“ We should go far towards keeping happy, also, if we practised Appreciation. We breathe fresh air, drink pure water, see glorious scenery, or architecture, and so forth, without a tithe of the proper enjoyment which would come from the proper valuation—for instance, of the water as refreshing us, satisfying us, helping [Pg 47] our assimilation of nourishing food, helping our elimination of toxic waste matter, and symbolising much besides. ”

“ Therefore, keep happy by helping others. We can help others by our thoughts—by wishing them to be well and happy and successful, or by imagining them to be well and happy and successful. We can help them by all our expressions—our words, our looks, our acts—and by our very abstinence from non-happiness.
Abstain from Thoughts against Others and against Self
Merely to send out no thoughts and to harbour no thoughts against other persons or things, or against ourselves, is a step in the right direction. ”