Nature Cure by Henry Lindlahr (best short books to read txt) 📕

Conclusion

Our critics say: “If Nature Cure is all that you claim for it, why is it not more generally accepted by the medical profession and the public?”

The greatest drawback to spreading the Nature Cure idea is the necessity of self-control which it imposes. If our cures of so-called incurable diseases could be made without asking the patients to change their habits of living, without the demand of effort on their own part, Nature Cure sanitariums could not be built fast enough in this country.

No matter how marvelous the results of the natural methods—when investigators learn that the treatment necessitates the control of indiscriminate appetite and self-indulgence and the persistent practice of natural living and all that this involves, they exclaim: “The natural regimen may be all right, but who can live up to it? You are asking the impossible. You are looking for a perfection which does not exist. Your directions call for an amount of willpower and self-control which nobody possesses.”

Fortunately, however, this is not true. Human nature is good enough and strong enough to comply with Nature’s laws. Furthermore, the natural ways must be the most pleasant in the end or Nature is a fraud and a cheat. True enjoyment of life and happiness are impossible without perfect physical, mental and moral health and these depend upon natural living and natural treatment of human ailments.

Strengthening of WillPower and Self-Control

If I were asked the question: “What do you consider the greatest benefit to be derived from the Nature Cure regimen?” I should answer: “The strengthening of willpower and self-control.”

This is the very purpose of life. Upon it depends all further achievement. Self-control is the master’s key to all higher development on the mental, moral and spiritual planes of being; but before we can exercise it on the higher planes, we must have learned to apply it on the lower plane, in the management and control of our physical appetites and habits. When we have learned to control these, higher development will come easy.

A good method for strengthening the willpower is autosuggestion. The most opportune moments in the twenty-four hours of the day for practicing this mental magic are those before dropping to sleep. At this time there is the least disturbance and interference from outside influences, the mind is most passive and susceptible to suggestion and impressions made under these favorable conditions upon the “phonograph records” of the subconscious mind are the most lasting and the most powerful to control physical, mental and moral activities.

When thoroughly relaxed, at rest and at peace, say to yourself: “Whatever duties confront me tomorrow, I shall execute them promptly, without wavering or hesitation. I shall not give in to this bad habit which has been controlling me. I shall do that only of which reason and conscience approve.”

In order to be more specific and systematic and to obtain results more surely and quickly, concentrate upon one weakness at a time. When that has been overcome, take up another one, until in this way you have attained perfect control over your thoughts, feelings and actions.

Suppose you have acquired the habit of remaining in bed and dozing after your mental alarm clock has given its signal to arise and you dread the effort of going through your morning exercises and ablutions. Then, the night before, impress upon the subconscious mind deeply and firmly the following suggestions: “Tomorrow morning, on awakening, I shall jump out of bed without hesitation and go through my morning exercises with zest and vigor.”

Or, suppose you are subject to the fear and worry habit. Say to yourself: “Tomorrow or any time thereafter when depressing, gloomy thoughts threaten to control me, I shall overcome them with thoughts of hope and faith, and with absolute confidence in the Divine power of the will within me to overcome and to achieve.”

In this manner you may give the subconscious mind suggestions and impressions for overcoming bad habits and for establishing and strengthening good habits.

If a serious problem is confronting you, and you are unable to solve it to your satisfaction, think upon it just before you are dropping off to sleep and confidently demand that the right solution come to you during the hours of rest. The inner consciousness is always awake. It is the watchman who awakens you at the appointed time in the morning. It will work upon your problem while your physical brain is asleep. In this lies the psychological justification for the popular phrase: “Before I decide the matter I’ll sleep over it.”

In the practice of mental magic, as in everything else, success depends upon patience and perseverance. It would be entirely useless to go through these mental drills occasionally and in a desultory fashion; but if persisted in faithfully and intelligently, they will prove truly magical in their effects upon the development of willpower and self-control, and on these depend the mastery of conditions within and without, the conquest of fate and destiny. PAIN’S SOLILOQUY

By C. J. Buell, President Minnesota Health League

I

I am Pain—most people hate me,

Think me cruel, call me heartless,

Study ways to bribe and fool me,

Try by every means to slay me,

Dope themselves with anaesthetics,

Fill themselves with patent nostrums,

Call the doctor with his poisons,

Seek the Christian Science healer,

Beat the tom-tom of the savage,

Build the altar, burn the incense,

Seek to sate the wrath of devils,

Pray to saints, and Gods, and angels;

Not to cure the ills within them,

Not to cleanse and purify them,

Just to calm the pain that hurts them,

Just to-kill the guide that warns them.

II

Pain am I, but when you know me,

When you once have learned my secret,

How I come to help and bless you,

Warn you, guide you, teach and lead you

When you know my loving nature,

How at first I gently twinge you,

Lightly twinge you as a warning,

Hoping thus, by kind reminder,

You will bear my voice and listen—

Sure am I that when you know me,

You will gladly then embrace me,

Call me friend and give me welcome,

Call me friend and ask my message.

III

This the message I would bring you,

This the reason for my visits,

This the warning I would give you,

This the secret I would teach you:

When you learn to live as Nature

In her great and boundless mercy,

In her tender, loving kindness,

In her wisdom and her goodness

Meant that men should live and labor,

When you learn to shun the by-ways

Leading off to vicious habits,

When you learn to keep your body

Strong and clean and pure and active,

Give it work in right proportion,

Give it air, and food, and water,

Fit to build its every member,

Fit to nourish every function,

When you teach your mind and spirit

Pure and noble thoughts to harbor,

Drive out fear, and hate, and malice,

Cherish love and kindly motive,

When you learn these things I’ve told you,

~When you know them, when you do them,

~Then I will depart and leave you,

Then no more will Pain be needed.

IV

This is, then, the truth I bring you,

That I hurt you but to warn you,

Not to harm you but to heal you,

That I come to guide and teach you.

I am God’s most blessed angel,

Sent to point the way to virtue,

Sent to teach the noblest manhood,

Sent to fill the mind with wisdom,

Sent to rouse the soul to action.

V

Love me, trust me, heed my message;

I will bring you peace and bless you!

End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nature Cure by Henry Lindlahr