Chapter Three: Effects Of Thoughts On Health And Body
by James Allen
The body is the
servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be
deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful
thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of
glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and
beauty .
Disease and health, like
circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express
themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill
a man as speedily as a bullet and they are continually killing thousands
of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear
of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the
whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure
thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will sooner shatter the nervous
system.
Strong pure, and happy
thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and
plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is
impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or
bad, upon it.
Men will continue to
have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they propagate unclean
thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of
a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is the
fount of action, life and manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all
will be pure.
Change of diet will
not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his
thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure
food.
Clean thoughts make clean
habits. The so-called saint who does not wash his body is not a saint. He
who has strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to consider
the malevolent.
If you would
perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify
your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, and disappointment, despondency, rob
the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it
is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion,
pride.
I know a woman of
ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man well
under middle age whose face is drawn into in harmonious contours. The one
is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other is the outcome
of passion and discontent.
As you
cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and
sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or
serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind
of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.
On the faces of the aged there
are wrinkles made by sympathy others by strong and pure thought, and
others are carved by passion; who cannot distinguish them? With those who
have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like
the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher on his death-bed. He
was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had
lived.
There is no physician like
cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no
comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and
sorrow. To live continually in thoughs of ill-will, cynicism, suspicion,
and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well
of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in
all--such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell
day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding
peace to their possessor.
Chapter Two
Chapter Four