out of his own way, and by letting the character he is
playing, or the music he is interpreting, work through him as a clear,
unselfish channel receives new power for his work in the proportion
that he shuns his own interfering selfishness.

But it is with the self-consciousness of everyday life that we have
especially to do now, and with the practical wisdom necessary to gain
freedom from all its various discomforts; and, even more than that, to
gain the new power for useful service which comes from the possession
of that freedom.

The remedy is to be found in obedience to the law of unselfishness,
carried out into the field of nervous suffering.

Whatever one may think, however one may try to dodge the truth by this
excuse or that, the conditions to be fulfilled in order to gain freedom
from self-consciousness are _absolutely within the individual who
suffers._ When we once understand this, and are faced toward the truth,
we are sure to find our way out, with more or less rapidity, according
to the strength with which we use our wills in true obedience.

First, we must be willing to accept the effects of self-consciousness.
The more we resist these effects the more they force themselves upon
us, and the more we suffer from them. We must be willing to blush, be
willing to realize that we have talked too much, and perhaps made
ourselves ridiculous. We must be willing to feel the discomforts of
self-consciousness in whatever form they may appear. Then--the central
point of all--we must know and understand, and not dodge in the very
least the truth that the _root of self-consciousness is selfishly
caring what other people think of us,--and wanting to appear well
before them._

Many readers of this article who suffer from self-consciousness will
want to deny this; others will acknowledge it, but will declare their
inability to live according to the truth; some,--perhaps more than a
few,--will recognize the truth and set to work with a will to obey it,
and how happily we may look forward to the freedom which will
eventually be theirs!

A wise man has said that when people do not think well of us, the first
thing to do is to look and see whether they are right. In most cases,
even though they way have unkind feelings mingled with their criticism,
there is an element of truth in it from which we may profit. In such
cases we are much indebted to our critics, for, by taking their
suggestions, we are helped toward streng