How To Stop Worrying And Start Living

though someone were trying to beat me to it; and when someone is talking to me, I'm as relaxed as a
sleeping baby.

The result? Life is much more pleasant and enjoyable; and I'm completely free of nervous fatigue and
nervous worry.

A Real Miracle Happened To Me
By

Mrs. John Burger

3,940 Colorado Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Worry had completely defeated me. My mind was so confused and troubled that I could see no joy in
living. My nerves were so strained that I could neither sleep at night nor relax by day. My three young
children were widely separated, living with relatives. My husband, having recently returned from the
armed service, was in another city trying to establish a law practice. I felt all the insecurities and
uncertainties of the postwar readjustment period.

I was threatening my husband's career, my children's natural endowment of a happy, normal home life,
and I was also threatening my own life. My husband could find no housing, and the only solution was
to build. Everything depended on my getting well. The more I realised this and the harder I would try,
the greater would be my fear of failure. Then I developed a fear of planning for any responsibility. I
felt that I could no longer trust myself. I felt I was a complete failure.

When all was darkest and there seemed to be no help, my mother did something for me that I shall
never forget or cease being grateful for. She shocked me into fighting back. She upbraided me for
giving in and for losing control of my nerves and my mind. She challenged me to get up out of bed
and fight for all I had. She said I was giving in to the situation, fearing it instead of facing it, running
away from life instead of living it.

So I did start fighting from that day on. That very weekend I told my parents they could go home,
because I was going to take over; and I did what seemed impossible at the time. I was left alone to
care for my two younger children. I slept well, I began to eat better, and my spirits began to improve.
A week later when they returned to visit me again, they found me singing at my ironing. I had a sense
of well-being because I had begun to fight a battle and I was winning. I shall never forget this lesson.
... If a situation seems insurmountable, face it! Start fighting! Don't give in!

From that time on I forced myself to work, and lost myself in my work. Finally I gathered my children
together and joined my husband in our new home. I resolved that I would become well enough to give
my lovely family a strong, happy mother. I became engrossed with plans for our home, plans for my
children, plans for my husband, plans for everything-except for me. I became too busy to think of
myself. And it was then that the real miracle happened.

I grew stronger and stronger and could wake up with the joy of well-being, the joy of planning for the
new day ahead, the joy of living. And although days of depression did creep in occasionally after that,
especially when I was tired, I would tell myself not to think or try to reason with myself on those days-
and gradually they became fewer and fewer and finally disappeared.

Now, a year later, I have a very happy, successful husband, a beautiful home that I can work in sixteen
hours a day, and three healthy, happy children-and for myself, peace of mind!

Setbacks (*)
By

Ferenc Molnar

Noted Hungarian Playwright "Work is the best narcotic!"

Exactly fifty years ago my father gave me the words I have lived by ever since. He was a physician. I
had just started to study law at the Budapest University. I failed one examination. I thought I could not
survive the shame so I sought escape in the consolation of failure's closest friend, alcohol, always at
hand: apricot brandy to be exact.

My father called on me unexpectedly. Like a good doctor, he discovered both the trouble and the
bottle, in a second. I confessed why I had to escape reality.

The dear old man then and there improvised a prescription. He explained to me that there can be no
real escape in alcohol or sleeping pills-or in any drug. For any sorrow there is only one medicine,
better and more reliable than all the drugs in the world: work!

How right my father was! Getting used to work might be hard. Sooner or later you succeed. It has, of
course, the quality of all the narcotics. It becomes habit-forming. And once the habit is formed, sooner
or later, it becomes impossible to break one's self of it. I have never been able to break myself of the
habit for fifty years.

----

[*] Reprinted with permission of the author, from Words to Live By-A Little Treasury of Inspiration
and Wisdom, published by Simon and Schuster, Inc., copyright, 1947, by William Nichols.

----

I Was So Worried I Didn't Eat A Bite Of Solid Food For Eighteen Days
By

Kathryne Holcombe Farmer

Sheriff's Office, Mobile, Alabama

Three months ago, I was so worried that I didn't sleep for four days and nights; and I did not eat a bite
of solid food for eighteen days. Even the smell of food made me violently sick. I cannot find words to
describe the mental anguish I endured. I wonder whether hell has any worse tortures than what I went
through. I felt as if I would go insane or die. I knew that I couldn't possibly continue living as I was.

The turning point of my life was the day I was given an advance copy of this book. During the last
three months, I have practically lived with this book, studying every page, desperately trying to find a
new way of life. The change that has occurred in my mental outlook and emotional stability is almost
unbelievable. I am now able to endure the battles of each passing day. I now realise that in the past, I
was being driven half mad not by today's problems but by the bitterness and anxiety over something
that had happened yesterday or that I feared might happen tomorrow.

But now, when I find myself starting to worry about anything, I immediately stop and start to apply
some of the principles I learned from studying this book. If I am tempted to tense up over something
that must be done today, I get busy and do it immediately and get it off my mind.

When I am faced with the kind of problems that used to drive me half crazy, I now calmly set about
trying to apply the three steps outlined in Chapter 2, Part One. First, I ask myself what is the worst that
can possibly happen. Second, I try to accept it mentally. Third, I concentrate on the problem and see
how I can improve the worst which I am already willing to accept- if I have to.

When I find myself worrying about a thing I cannot change -and do not want to accept-I stop myself
short and repeat this little prayer:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference."

Since reading this book, I am really experiencing a new and glorious way of life. I am no longer
destroying my health and happiness by anxiety. I can sleep nine hours a night now. I enjoy my food. A
veil has been lifted from me. A door has been opened. I can now see and enjoy the beauty of the world
which surrounds me. I thank God for life now and for the privilege of living in such a wonderful
world.

May I suggest that you also read this book over: keep it by your bed: underscore the parts that apply to
your problems. Study it; use it. For this is not a "reading book" in the ordinary sense; it is written as a
"guidebook"-to a new way of life!