Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Fatigue

Fatigue comes in many forms, some more of a hindrance to happiness than others.Mere physical fatigue, if it is not excessive, is often a cause of happiness.It gives sleep, an appetite, and a boost to any fun games you might have on holiday.But when it is overdone, it can become a great hazard.Except for those highly developed areas, peasant women in impoverished areas are often rickety old ladies at the age of 30 due to overwork.In the early days of the British Industrial Revolution, children's growth and development were considerably suppressed, and they often died prematurely due to overwork.This situation is not difficult to find in China and Japan, where the industrial revolution has just begun, and to some extent also exists in the southern states of the United States.Physical labor, when passed beyond a certain point, is cruel to man, and often makes life itself unbearable.However, in some of the most developed parts of the modern world, physical fatigue has been greatly reduced due to improved working conditions in industrial production.In these areas, however, nervous fatigue becomes the most serious problem.This fatigue, astonishingly, is most common among those of the well-to-do classes, and much less common among wage-workers than among those of tradesmen and intellectual labor.

How to get rid of nervous fatigue has become an extremely difficult thing in modern life.First, urban workers are surrounded by noise throughout their working hours, even during commuting time.While he did learn to consciously ignore most noises, the tension created by subconsciously trying to avoid them made him even more exhausted.Another kind of fatigue that we are not aware of is the constant presence of strangers.Man's natural instinct, like that of other animals, is to observe and investigate every stranger of his kind, in order to decide whether to treat him in a friendly or hostile manner.This instinct is restricted when people ride the subway at rush hour, and the result of this restriction is that they have a feeling for each stranger, who is not willing but forced to be crowded together. A pervasive, diffuse anger.There was also a hurry to catch the early train, which caused indigestion.When he arrived at the office, the day's work had just begun, and the employee's nerves were already tense and exhausted, so he regarded the whole human being as an abominable thing. His employer also rushed to the office with this emotion. Fatigue and nausea are ignored.Employees are forced to put on an air of docility and respect for fear of being fired, but this unnatural behavior only further exacerbates the nervous tension.If employees were allowed a chance once a week to pinch their employer's nose, or express their true opinion of him in other ways, their nervous nerves might be relieved; but from the employer's point of view, he has his own troubles , so doing so does not solve his problem.What employees fear is dismissal, and what employers fear is bankruptcy.Indeed, some employers are wealthy enough not to worry about it.But before they achieve such a position, they usually have to go through years of hard and tenacious struggle. At this time, they must always be vigilant, pay attention to the changes in the market conditions around the world, and constantly try to defeat their opponents.The upshot of all this is that when real success comes, the man is so nervous that he has become so used to the state of anxiety that when he needs to get rid of it, he still can't get rid of it.It is true that rich men have some sons, but they also mostly bring to themselves anxieties, and almost the same anxieties as they might have suffered had they not been born rich.They gather together to gamble, and thus incur the same troubles as their fathers; they sleep little, and spend all night in carousing, and wear down their bodies.When everything calmed down, they, like their father, had no strength to enjoy happiness.Whether voluntarily, by choice or need, most modern man leads a life of such intense nervousness that it is so sleepy that it is not stimulated by alcohol.They cannot enjoy the joys of life.

I don't want to say too much about these stupid rich people.Let us look instead at the more common weariness of ordinary men who have to toil hard in order to live.To a large extent, fatigue in this situation is often caused by anxiety, which can be avoided with a more positive philosophy of life and some mental control.Most people lack control over their thoughts—I mean, they often cannot stop themselves from thinking about problems that they cannot take effective action on at the moment.Men go to bed late at night, tossing, brooding, and worrying about work when they should be recovering for tomorrow's problems.In fact, they are powerless to do anything about these problems at this time, and they are not trying to find a solution that will work tomorrow, but they are only caused by a state of semi-insanity.This state is exactly the disordered thinking that accompanies insomnia.As dawn came, the delirium of midnight still clinged to them, clouding their judgment; their tempers grew more irritable, and they were terribly annoyed at every difficulty and obstacle.Wise men think of them only when they have some definite purpose, and think of other things at ordinary times, or even, if it is night, they think of nothing at all.I am not arguing that in a great crisis—such as bankruptcy—or when a husband has reason to suspect that his wife is unfaithful to him, except for a few occasional hardened hearts, since there is no way to liberate Shirk their responsibilities.Of course, this can also be done for a few people who are particularly clear-headed, but some of the troubles of daily life can be put aside for a while, except those that must be dealt with immediately.After systematically training the brain's thinking, people can obtain more happiness and improve the efficiency of problem-solving, instead of inappropriate and uninterrupted thinking.When making a difficult and mentally exhausting decision, once the relevant data and information have been collected, you should give it the fullest consideration and make a decision; Amendment, nothing is more exhausting and unproductive than indecision.

Most worries can be eliminated by recognizing the unimportance of those things that cause anxiety.I have given many speeches in my life, and at first every audience terrified me, and my nerves were so strained that I was extremely unsuccessful.I was so terrified of this situation that I often wished my legs would break before giving a speech.After a speech, it is common to feel exhausted from overstressing.Later, I gradually taught myself.It doesn't matter if it's successful or not, no matter how bad things are, the earth is still going.I later found that the less I worried about the success of the speech, the better the speech, and the nervous tension gradually decreased to zero.Many kinds of nervous fatigue can be treated in this way.What we do doesn't matter as much as we think it does, and success or failure ultimately doesn't matter that much.Great pains can be borne and overcome, and those difficulties that seem to make happiness impossible to return will gradually disappear with the lapse of time, so that people can hardly remember how great the difficulties were at that time. .Beyond these egocentric considerations, it is even more important to remember that the individual self is not the largest part of the world at large.A man who is able to rise above his own thoughts and hopes is also able to find for himself peace and quiet amidst the woes of everyday life, which is impossible for the thoroughgoing egoist.

The so-called neurohygiene has not received much research and attention.Industrial psychology has indeed done detailed research on fatigue, and it has been confirmed by detailed survey data: if you do one thing continuously for a long enough period of time, you will eventually become quite tired-this is This result can actually be guessed without much scientific knowledge.Although some fatigue research has focused on school children, its main goal is physical fatigue.However, none of these studies touched on the key issues.For humans, emotional fatigue has always been a major form in modern life.Purely mental fatigue, as well as purely bodily fatigue, is compensated by sleepy eyes.Whoever has engaged in a great deal of mental work that does not involve emotion—for example, tedious and complex calculations—can sleep at the end of each day to relieve the weariness of the day.The dangers of overwork go far beyond that, but some form of annoyance and anxiety.The trouble with emotional fatigue is that it disrupts rest.The more fatigued a man becomes, the more difficult it is for him to get rid of.One of the symptoms of this nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is so important that even a single day off can lead to an unmanageable situation.If I were a doctor, my prescription for patients who valued their work would be: vacation!What appears to be a work-induced nervous breakdown is, in fact, in every case I know of, due to emotional difficulties from which the patient often tries to escape by working. .He was reluctant to give up his job because, if he did, he would not be able to dispel the feeling of unhappiness, whatever it might be, that haunted him.Of course, his work is directly linked to his anxiety when his trouble is facing bankruptcy, but even so, this anxiety often drives him to work long hours, long hours will cloud his judgment, and bankruptcy will come sooner than if he had worked less.In any case, it was the emotional dilemma, not the work, that caused the nervous breakdown.

Anxiety is by no means a simple thing.I have already discussed the issue of psychological self-discipline, which mainly refers to the habit of thinking about problems at the right time.This habit is extremely important, first because it enables a person to carry out daily tasks with a minimum of mental effort; secondly, because it is a good cure for insomnia;However, this method does not touch the subconscious or unconscious.When the problem becomes serious, any method that does not penetrate below the level of human consciousness will be of little use.Much research has been done by psychologists on the role of the unconscious on the conscious, but much less has been done on the role of the conscious on the unconscious.The latter is an extremely important subject in mental hygiene, which must be understood if rational belief is to act on the unconscious.This is especially important for anxiety issues.It is very easy for a man to say to himself that there is nothing to fear even if such misfortunes happen; but as long as the anxiety remains in the conscious belief, this masturbation will not work in the dead of night, nor will it Prevent nightmares from happening.Personally, I believe that if enough energy and intensity are injected into the conscious mind, it can penetrate deep into the unconscious.Most of the unconscious stuff is made up of highly emotional conscious thoughts that are now buried deep down.It is possible for this deep burial process to be carried out purposefully so that we can do many things with our unconscious mind.I have found, for example, that if I have to write on a difficult subject, the best way to do it is, for a few hours or a few days, to concentrate—the highest concentration I can achieve— Think it over, and at the end of this period, issue an order, for example, that the work be taken underground.After a few months I consciously returned to the subject and found that the work had been done.Before I discovered this method, I was used to worrying a lot in the next few months because the work was not progressing, but instead of solving the problem because of worrying, I wasted those months. .Now, I can use this time to work on other jobs.A process similar in many respects to this one can be used in dealing with anxiety problems.When threatened by some unfortunate event, think carefully and consciously, what is the worst possible thing that could happen?After a superficial examination of this possible misfortune, give yourself a strong reason to believe that, whatever happens, there will be no catastrophe of the utmost dread.There are always reasons of this kind, because, after all, nothing that happens to us personally has any universal significance.After you have taken a long, sustained look at the worst-case possibilities and said to yourself with conviction, "Well, it's not such a big deal after all," you will find that your anxiety has subsided to a point. the smallest degree.It may be necessary to repeat this process a few times, but in the end, if you have not flinched from the worst possibility, you will find that your anxiety has completely disappeared and replaced by a feeling of exhilaration .

This approach is also part of a more general approach to avoiding fear.Anxiety is a form of fear, and all forms of fear lead to fatigue.A person, if he has learned not to be afraid, will find that the fatigue of daily life is greatly reduced.Fear, in its most pernicious form, creeps in now where we don't want danger.Fear creeps into our heads from time to time; the objects of our fears vary from person to person, but nearly all of us have some sort of underlying fear.One fears cancer, another fears financial ruin, a third fears that his ignominious privacy will be discovered, a fourth suffers from jealous suspicions, a fifth thinks at night of his childhood. The story of the hellfire I heard may be true, but I toss and turn, and my thoughts linger and linger.Perhaps these people are dealing with fear the wrong way.Whenever fear enters their minds, they try to think about something else, trying to distract themselves with entertainment, work or otherwise.This reluctance to face up to reality has intensified all forms of fear.The practice of diverting one's thinking target is caused by the fear of ghosts and ghosts, and people thus divert their gaze.The correct way to deal with its fear is to think rationally, calmly, and with full attention until the fear is no longer strange at all.In the end, familiarity weakens the horror, and the whole object becomes odious, and our thoughts are diverted; not, as before, by an action of the will, but by pure aversion to the thing, Don't worry if you find yourself brooding over everything.The best way to deal with it is to think about it more deeply than you normally would, until eventually it loses its frightening character.

The thing most missing in modern morality is the method and attitude to deal with fear.Indeed, physical bravery, especially in war, is what society expects of men.But society does not expect courage in other ways from them, nor does it expect any courage from women.A brave woman has to hide her bravery if she wants a man to like her.It is considered a bad thing for a man to show bravery in other ways than when he is physically attacked.Indifference to public opinion, for example, is considered a provocation, and the public will do everything in its power to punish anyone who dares to corrupt public authority.All of this is the opposite of normal.Courage in all its forms, whether in men or women, should be celebrated as much as physical courage is in warriors.The generality of physical courage in young men is proof that public opinion inspires and fosters courage.The greater the courage, the less the sorrow, and the less fatigue there is, for the greater part of the nervous fatigue now suffered by men and women, whether conscious or unconscious, is caused by fear.

The most common cause of fatigue is the penchant for excitement.A man is healthy if he spends his leisure time in sleep, but his work is dull and monotonous, and he feels a need for recreation and relaxation in the hours at his disposal.The trouble is that the most readily available, and most outwardly appealing, entertainment is, for the most part, a nerve-wrecking activity.The desire for excitement, after a certain point, is a sign of either a distorted nature or a certain insufficiency of nature.In previously happy marriages, most men had no need for excitement, but in the modern world, marriage is often postponed for so long that when finally the financial conditions are right, excitement becomes a habit, it just Can be suppressed in a short time.If public opinion would allow men to marry at twenty-one without the heavy financial burdens that modern marriage requires, many would never seek entertainment as exhausting as their own work.Advocating it, however, is considered immoral, as perhaps judged by Judge Lindson's fate.In spite of his long and honorable career, he was reprimanded for trying to save young people from the misfortunes caused by the bigotry and intolerance of their older brothers.I do not intend to dwell on this subject now, however, as it falls under the general subject of envy, which will be dealt with in the next chapter.

It is difficult for individuals, unable to change the laws and institutions under which they live, to deal with the situation created and maintained by despotic moralists.But it is worthwhile to realize that exciting entertainment is not the road to happiness, although one would think that since more satisfying pleasure is elusive, it cannot be achieved except through exciting stimulation. Life becomes unbearable.The only thing a prudent man can do under such circumstances is to restrain himself from seeking such excessive and wearisome pleasures as would injure his health and interfere with his work.The most fundamental remedy for the troubles of youth lies in changing the morals of the public.At the same time the young man should realize that he will marry in the end, and that it would be unwise to live in such a way that a happy marriage would be impossible, while the tension of the nerves and the desire for more refined forms of entertainment The lack of ability can easily lead to this kind of lifestyle.

One of the worst features of nervous fatigue is that it acts as a barrier between the person and the outside world.It can be said that it makes the impression vague and silent.The person pays no attention to those around him, except when provoked by some petty deceit and eccentric habits.He takes no pleasure in food or in sunlight, but is inclined to be intensely preoccupied with a few things, and to be indifferent to all others.This mental state makes one restless, so that fatigue increases, and finally resorts to medical treatment.Fundamentally, this is all punishment for losing touch with the earth, which we talked about in the previous chapter.But with today's large concentration of urban population, how much connection we can maintain with the earth is definitely not something that can be easily understood.Here again, however, we find ourselves on the verge of great social problems which I am not going to discuss in this pamphlet.