e afraid of failure in
business, afraid of disappointments and mistakes, afraid of enemies,
open or concealed; afraid of poverty, afraid of public opinion, afraid
of accidents, of sickness, of death, and unhappiness after death. 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."
Most of us are foolish children, afraid of our shadows, so handicapped
in a thousand ways that we can not get efficiency into our life work.
A man who is filled with fear is not a real man. He is a puppet, a
mannikin, an apology of a man.
Quit fearing things that may never happen, just as you would quit any
bad practise which has caused you suffering. Fill your mind with
courage, hope, and confidence.
Do not wait until fear thoughts become intrenched in your mind and your
imagination. Do not dwell upon them. Apply the antidote instantly,
and the enemies will flee. There is no fear so great or intrenched so
deeply in the mind that it can not be neutralized or entirely
eradicated by its opposite. The opposite suggestion will kill it.
Once Dr. Chalmers was riding on a stage-coach beside the driver, and he
noticed that John kept hitting the off leader a severe crack with his
whip. When he asked him why he did this, John answered: "Away yonder
there is a white stone; that off leader is afraid of that stone; so by
the crack of my whip and the pain in his legs I want to get his mind
off from it." Dr. Chalmers went home, elaborated the idea, and wrote
"The Expulsive Power of a New Affection." You must drive out fear by
putting a new idea into the mind.
Fear, in any of its expressions, like worry or anxiety, can not live an
instant in your mind in the presence of the opposite thought, the image
of courage, fearlessness, confidence, hope, self-assurance,
self-reliance. Fear is a consciousness of weakness. It is only when
you doubt your ability to cope with the thing you dread that fear is
possible. Fear of disease, even, comes from a consciousness that you
will not be able to successfully combat it.
During an epidemic of a dreaded contagious disease, people who are
especially susceptible and full of fear become panic-stricken through
the cumulative effect of hearing the subject talked about and discu
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