Chapter 36
How To Crowd Worry Out of Your Mind
I shall never forget the night，a few years ago，when MarionJ.Douglas was a student in one of my classes.（I have not used his real name.He requested me，for personal reasons，not to reveal his identity.）But here is his real story as he told it before one of our adult-education classes.He told us how tragedy had struck at his home，not once，but twice.The first time he had lost his five-year-old daughter，a child he adored.He and his wife thought they couldn’t endure that first loss；but，as he said：“Ten months later，God gave us another little girl—and she died in five days.”
This double bereavement was almost too much to bear.“I couldn’t take it，”this father told us.“I couldn’t sleep，I couldn’t eat，I couldn’t rest or relax.My nerves were utterly shaken and my confidence gone.”At last he went to doctors；one recommended sleeping pills and another recommended a trip.He tried both，but neither remedy helped.He said：“My body felt as if it were encased in a vice，and the jaws of the vice were being drawn tighter and tighter.”The tension of grief—if you have ever been paralysed by sorrow，you know what he meant.
“But thank God，I had one child left—a four-year-old son.He gave me the solution to my problem.One afternoon as I sat around feeling sorry for myself，he asked：‘daddy，will you build a boat for me？’I was in no mood to build a boat；in fact，I was in no mood to do anything.But my son is a persistent little fellow！I had to give in.
“Building that toy boat took about three hours.By the time itwas finished，I realised that those three hours spent building thatboat were the first hours of mental relaxation and peace that I had had in months！“That discovery jarred me out of my lethargy and caused me to do a bit of thinking-the first real thinking I had done in months.I realised that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking.In my case，building the boat had knocked worry out of the ring.So I resolved to keep busy.
“The following night，I went from room to room in the house，compiling a list of jobs that ought to be done.Scores of items needed to be repaired：bookcases，stair steps，storm windows，window-shades，knobs，locks，leaky taps.Astonishing as it seems，in the course of two weeks I had made a list of 242items that needed attention.
“During the last two years I have completed most of them.Besides，I have filled my life with stimulating activities.Two nights per week I attend adult-education classes in New York.I have gone in for civic activities in my home town and I am now chairman of the school board.I attend scores of meetings.I help collect money for the Red Cross and other activities.I am so busy now that I have no time for worry.”
No time for worry！That is exactly what Winston Churchill said when he was working eighteen hours a day at the height of the war.When he was asked if he worried about his tremendous responsibilities，he said：“I’m too busy.I have no time for worry.”
Charles Kettering was in that same fix when he started out to invent a self-starter for automobiles.Mr.Kettering was，until his recent retirement，vice-president of General Motors in charge of the worldfamous General Motors Research Corporation.But in those days，he was so poor that he had to use the hayloft of a barn as a laboratory.To buy groceries，he had to use fifteen hundred dollars that his wife had made by giving piano lessons；later，hadto borrow five hundred dollars on his life insurance.I asked his wife if she wasn’t worried at a time like that.“Yes，”she replied，“I was so worried I couldn’t sleep；but Mr.Kettering wasn’t.He was too absorbed in his work to worry.”
The great scientist，Pasteur，spoke of “the peace that is found in libraries and laboratories.”Why is peace found there？Because the men in libraries and laboratories are usually too absorbed in their tasks to worry about themselves.Research men rarely have nervous breakdowns.They haven’t time for such luxuries.
Why does such a simple thing as keeping busy help to drive out anxiety？Because of a law—one of the most fundamental laws ever revealed by psychology.And that law is：that it is utterly impossible for any human mind，no matter how brilliant，to think of more than one thing at any given time.You don’t quite believe it？Very well，then，let’s try an experiment.
Suppose you lean right back now，close your eyes，and try，at the same instant，to think of the Statue of Liberty and of what you plan to do tomorrow morning.（Go ahead，try it.）You found out，didn’t you，that you could focus on either thought in turn，but never on both simultaneously？Well，the same thing is true in the field of emotions.We cannot be pepped up and enthusiastic about doing something exciting and feel dragged down by worry at the very same time.One kind of emotion drives out the other.And it was that simple discovery that enabled Army psychiatrists to perform such miracles during the war.
When men came out of battle so shaken by the experience that they were called “psychoneurotic”，Army doctors prescribed “Keep ’em busy”as a cure.Every waking minute of these nerve-shocked men was filled with activity—usually outdoor activity，such as fishing，hunting，playing ball，golf，taking pictures，making gardens，and dancing.They were given no time for brooding over their terrible experiences.
“Occupational therapy”is the term now used by psychiatry when work is prescribed as though it were a medicine.It is not new.The old Greek physicians were advocating it five hundred years before Christ was born！
The Quakers were using it in Philadelphia in Ben Franklin’s time.A man who visited a Quaker sanatorium in 1774was shocked to see that the patients who were mentally ill were busy spinning flax.He thought these poor unfortunates were being exploited—until the Quakers explained that they found that their patients actually improved when they did a little work.It was soothing to the nerves.