ASSERTING THE LIFE-FORCE
I have spoken to you of the advantage of getting rid of Fear. Now I wish to put LIFE into you. Many of you have been going along as if you were dead – no ambition – no energy – no vitality – no interest – no life. This will never do. You are stagnating. Wake up and display a few signs of life! This is not the place in which you can stalk around like a living corpse – this is the place for wide-awake, active, livepeople, and a good general awakening is what is needed; although it would take nothing less than a blast from Gabriel’s trumpet to awaken some of the people who are stalking around thinking that they are alive, but who are really dead to all that makes life worthwhile.
We must let Life flow through us, and allow it to express itself naturally. Do not let the little worries of life, or the big ones either, depress you and cause you to lose your vitality. Assert the Life Force within you, and manifest it in every thought, act and deed, and before long you will be exhilarated and fairly bubbling over with vitality and energy.
Put a little life into your work – into your pleasures – into yourself. Stop doing things in a half-headed way, and begin to take an interest in what you are doing, saying and thinking. It is astonishing how much interest we may find in the ordinary things of life if we will only wake up. There are interesting things all around us – interesting events occurring every moment – but we will not be aware of them unless we assert our life force and begin to actually live instead of merely existing.
No man or woman ever amounted to anything unless he or she put life into the tasks of everyday life – the acts – the thoughts. What the world needs is live men and women. Just look into the eyes of the people whom you meet, and see how few of them are really alive. The most of them lack that expression of conscious life which distinguishes the man who lives from the one who simply exists.
I want you to acquire this sense of conscious life so that you may manifest it in your life and show what Mental Science has done for you. I want you to get to work today and begin to make yourselves over according to the latest pattern. You can do this if you will only take the proper interest in the task.
AFFIRMATION AND EXERCISE
Fix in your mind the thought that the “I” within you is very much alive and that you are manifesting life fully, mentally and physically. And keep this though there, aiding yourself with constant repetitions of the watchword. Don’t let the thought escape you, but keep pushing it back into the mind. Keep it before the mental vision as much as possible. Repeat the watchword when you awaken in the morning – say it when you retire at night. And say it at meal times, and whenever else you can during the day – at least once an hour. Form the mental picture of yourself as filled with Life and Energy. Live up to it as far as possible. When you start in to perform a task say “I AM Alive” and mix up as much life as possible in the task. If you find yourself feeling depressed, say “I AM Alive,” and then take a few deep breaths, and with each inhalation let the mind hold the thought that you are breathing in Strength and Life, and as you exhale, hold the thought that you are breathing out all the old, dead, negative conditions and are glad to get rid of them. Then finish up with an earnest, vigorous affirmation: “I AM Alive,” and mean it when you say it too.
And let your thoughts take form in action. Don’t rest content with merely saying that you are alive, but prove it with your acts. Take an interest in doing things, and don’t go around “mooning” or day-dreaming. Get down to business, and LIVE.
Chapter X