I said to myself: ‘I have often observed that a happy state of mind has a wonderful effect upon my physical make-up, so I will try its effect upon others, and see if my right thinking can be brought to act upon them.’ You see I was curious. As I walked along, more and more resolved on my purpose, and persisting that I was happy, that the world was treating me well, I was surprised to find myself lifted up, as it were; my carriage became more erect, my step lighter, and I had the sensation of treading on air. Unconsciously, I was smiling, for I caught myself in the act once or twice. I looked into the faces of the women I passed and there saw so much trouble and anxiety, discontent, even to peevishness, that my heart went out to them, and I wished I could impart to them a wee bit of the sunshine I felt pervading me.
“Arriving at the office, I greeted the bookkeeper with some passing remark, that for the life of me I could not have made under different conditions; I am not naturally witty; it immediately put us on a pleasant footing for the day; she had caught the reflection. The president of the company I was employed by was a very busy man and much worried over his affairs, and at some remark that he made about my work I would ordinarily have felt quite hurt (being too sensitive by nature and education); but this day I had determined nothing should mar its brightness, so replied to him cheerfully. His brow cleared, and there was another pleasant footing established, and so throughout the day I went, allowing no cloud to spoil its beauty for me or others about me. At the kind home where I was staying the same course was pursued, and, where before I had felt estrangement and want of sympathy, I found congeniality and warm friendship. People will meet you halfway if you will take the trouble to go that far.
“So, my sisters, if you think the world is not treating you kindly, don’t delay a day, but say to yourselves: ‘I am going to keep young in spite of the gray hairs; even if things do not always come my way I am going to live for others, and shed sunshine across the pathway of all I meet.’ You will find happiness springing up like flowers around you, will never want for friends or companionship, and above all the peace of God will rest upon your soul.”
The world is too full of sadness and sorrow, misery and sickness; it needs more sunshine; it needs cheerful lives which radiate gladness; it needs encouragers who shall lift and not bear down; who shall encourage, not discourage.
Who can estimate the value of the sunny soul who scatters gladness and good cheer wherever he goes, instead of gloom and sadness? Everybody is attracted to these cheerful faces and sunny lives, and repelled by the gloomy, the morose, the sad. We envy people who radiate cheer wherever they go, who fling out gladness from every pore. Money, houses, lands, look contemptible beside such a disposition. The ability to radiate sunshine is a greater power than beauty, than mere mental accomplishments.
Oh, what riches live in a sunny soul! What a blessed heritage is a sunny nature, able to fling out sunshine wherever it goes, able to scatter the shadows and to lighten sorrow-laden hearts, having power to send cheer into despairing souls. And if, haply, this heritage is combined with a superb manner and exquisite personality, no money wealth can compare with its value.
This blessing is not difficult of acquisition, for a sunny face is but a reflection of a warm, generous heart. The sunshine does not appear first upon the face, but in the soul. The glad smile that makes the face radiant is but a glimpse of the soul’s sunshine.
By taking a large-hearted interest in everyone we meet, by trying to pierce through the mask of the outer man or woman, to the inmost core, and by cultivating kindly feelings toward all, it is possible to acquire this inestimable gift. It is really only the development of our own finest qualities that enables us to understand and draw out what is fine and noble in others. Nothing will pay one better than the acquisition of the power to make others feel at ease, happy, and satisfied with themselves.
Sunny people dispel melancholy, gloom, worry, and anxiety from all those with whom they come in contact, just as the sun drives away darkness. When they enter a roomful of people, where the conversation has been lagging, and where everybody seems bored, they transform the surroundings like the sun bursting through thick, black clouds after a storm. Everybody takes on a joyous spirit from the glad soul just entered, tongues are untied, conversation which dragged becomes bright and spirited, and the whole atmosphere vibrates with gladness and good cheer.
There is nothing which you could put into your life, except service to others, which would pay you so well as the cultivation of sunshine in your business or profession, and in your social relations. Business will come to you instead of having to be sought, friends will seek you, society open wide its doors to you. A cheerful disposition is a fund of ready capital, a magnet for the good things of life.
Force yourself, if necessary, to form the habit of seeing the best in people, of finding out their good qualities, and dwelling upon them and enlarging them. Do not see the distorted, crooked, cramped, burlesque of a man, but the man that God made. Ruskin says: “Do not think of your faults; still less of others’ faults. In every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong. Honor that; rejoice in it; and as you can, try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.”
If you make up your mind firmly that you will never again speak unkindly of any one, that if you cannot find anything good in them, if you cannot see the best side, you will see nothing and say nothing, it will make a wonderful difference in life for you. You will be surprised to see how soon everything will respond with a message of joy and peace. If you always look on the sunny side of every incident, you will find that there is really very little trouble in the world for you, and even that little can be turned to goodness. Your vinegary countenance and cynical remarks will be cast off as an ugly mask which has been hiding your real, wholesome, happy self, and all the blessings of human experience will be yours.
“Catch the sunshine! Don't be grieving
O'er that darksome billow there!
Life's a sea of stormy billows,
We must meet them everywhere.
Pass right through them! Do not tarry.
Overcome the heaving tide,
Therms a sparkling gleam of sunshine
Waiting on the other side.”
Talk happiness. The world is sad enough
Without your woe. No path is wholly rough.
Look for the places that are smooth and clear,
And speak of them to rest the weary ear
Of earth, so hurt by one continuous strain
Of mortal discontent and grief and pain.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Chapter X.
Negative Creeds Paralyze
Denials should be ignored entirely, for they are but reminders of a condition we are trying to erase from the memory—and by verbal expression of any condition or fact we form a mental image thereof.—Agnes Procter.
NEGATIVES never accomplish anything. There is no life in a negative, nothing but deterioration, destruction, death. Negatives are great enemies of the success candidate. The man who is always talking down everything, who is always complaining of hard times and bad business, poor health and poverty, attracts to himself all the
