about us. The habit gets so strong a hold of the
nerves, and is impressed upon them so forcibly as a steady tendency,
that it can be detected by a close observer even in a person who is
lying on a lounge in the full belief that he is resting. It shows
itself especially in the breathing. A wise athlete has said that our
normal breathing should consist of six breaths to one minute. If the
reader will try this rate of breathing, the slowness of it will
surprise him. Six breaths to one minute seem to make the breathing
unnecessarily slow, and just double that seems about the right number
for ordinary people; and the habit of breathing at this slower rate is
a great help, from a physical standpoint, toward erasing the tendency
to hurry.

One of the most restful exercises any one can take is to lie at full
length on a bed or lounge and to inhale and exhale, at a perfectly
even, slow rate, for half an hour. It makes the exercise more restful
if another person counts for the breathing, say, ten slowly and quickly
to inhale, and ten to exhale, with a little pause to give time for a
quiet change from one breath to another.

Resistance, which is the mental source of hurry, is equally at the root
of that most harmful emotion--the habit of worrying. And the same
truths which must be learned and practised to free ourselves of the one
habit are applicable to the other.

Take the simple example of a child who worries over his lessons.
Children illustrate the principle especially well, because they are so
responsive that, if you meet them quietly with the truth in
difficulties of this kind they recognize its value and apply it very
quickly, and it takes them, comparatively, a very little time to get
free.

If you think of telling a child that the moment he finds himself
worrying about his lesson he should close his book and say:

"I do not care whether I get this lesson or not."

And then, when he has actually persuaded himself that he does not care,
that he should open his book and study,--it would seem, at first sight,
that he would find it difficult to understand you; but, on the
contrary, a child understands more quickly than older people, for the
child has not had time to establish himself so firmly in the evil habit.

I have in mind a little girl in whom the habit had begun of worrying
lest she should fail in her lessons, especially in her Latin. Her
mother sent her to be taught how not to worry. The teacher, after
giving