Using the Will

In the practice of the Science of Being Well the will is not used to compel yourself to go when you are not really able to go, or to do things when you are not physically strong enough to do them. You do not direct your will upon your physical body or try to compel the proper performance of internal function by will power.

In the practice of the Science of Being Well, you do not use your will to force yourself to go when you are not really able. Nor do you force yourself to do things when you are not physically strong enough. You do not direct your will at your body or try to make its internal functions work properly through willpower.

You direct the will upon the mind, and use it in determining what you shall believe, what you shall think, and to what you shall give your attention.

You direct your will toward your mind. You use your will to decide what to believe, what to think, and what to pay attention to.

The will should never be used upon any person or thing external to you, and it should never be used upon your own body. The sole legitimate use of the will is in determining to what you shall give your attention, and what you shall think about the things to which your attention is given.

You should never use your will on any person or thing outside yourself. You should never use it on your own body, either. The only proper use of your will is to decide what to focus on and what to think about it.

All belief begins in the will to believe.

All belief begins with the willingness to believe.

You cannot always and instantly believe what you will to believe; but you can always will to believe what you want to believe. You want to believe truth about health, and you can will to do so. The statements you have been reading in this book are the truth about health, and you can will to believe them; this must be your first step toward getting well.

You cannot always believe something instantly just because you choose to. But you can always choose to believe what you want to believe. You want to believe the truth about health, and you can choose to do so. The statements you have read in this book are the truth about health, and you can choose to believe them. This must be your first step toward getting well.

These are the statements you must will to believe:—

These are the statements you must choose to believe:

When you will to believe these statements, you must also begin to act upon them. You cannot long retain a belief unless you act upon it; you cannot increase a belief until it becomes faith unless you act upon it; and you certainly cannot expect to reap benefits in any way from a belief so long as you act as if the opposite were true. You cannot long have faith in health if you continue to act like a sick person. If you continue to act like a sick person, you cannot help continuing to think of yourself as a sick person; and if you continue to think of yourself as a sick person, you will continue to be a sick person.

When you decide to believe these statements, you must also begin to act on them. You cannot hold a belief for long unless you act on it. You cannot strengthen a belief into faith unless you act on it. And you certainly cannot expect to benefit from a belief while acting as if the opposite were true. You cannot have faith in health for long if you keep acting like a sick person. If you keep acting like a sick person, you cannot help thinking of yourself as sick. And if you keep thinking of yourself as sick, you will continue to be sick.

The first step toward acting externally like a well person is to begin to act internally like a well person. Form your conception of perfect health, and get into the way of thinking about perfect health until it begins to have a definite meaning to you. Picture yourself as doing the things a strong and healthy person would do, and have faith that you can and will do those things in that way; continue this until you have a vivid CONCEPTION of health, and what it means to you. When I speak in this book of a conception of health, I mean a conception that carries with it the idea of the way a healthy person looks and does things. Think of yourself in connection with health until you form a conception of how you would live, appear, act, and do things as a perfectly healthy person. Think about yourself in connection with health until you conceive of yourself, in imagination, as always doing everything in the manner of a well person; until the thought of health conveys the idea of what health means to you. As I have said in a former chapter, you may not be able to form a clear mental image of yourself in perfect health, but you can form a conception of yourself as acting like a healthy person.

The first step toward acting like a healthy person outwardly is to start acting like one inwardly. Form an idea of perfect health. Keep thinking about perfect health until it has a clear meaning for you. Picture yourself doing the things a strong, healthy person would do. Believe that you can and will do those things in the same way. Continue until you have a vivid IDEA of health and what it means to you. In this book, an idea of health includes how a healthy person looks and does things. Think of yourself in connection with health. Form an idea of how you would live, look, act, and do things as a perfectly healthy person. Keep thinking this way until you imagine yourself always doing everything as a healthy person would. Continue until the thought of health conveys what health means to you. As I said in an earlier chapter, you may not be able to picture yourself clearly in perfect health. But you can form an idea of yourself acting like a healthy person.

Form this conception, and then think only thoughts of perfect health in relation to yourself, and, so far as may be possible, in relation to others. When a thought of sickness or disease is presented to you, reject it; do not let it get into your mind; do not entertain or consider it at all. Meet it by thinking health; by thinking that you are well, and by being sincerely grateful for the health you are receiving. Whenever suggestions of disease are coming thick and fast upon you, and you are in a "tight place," fall back upon the exercise of gratitude. Connect yourself with the Supreme; give thanks to God for the perfect health He gives you, and you will soon find yourself able to control your thoughts, and to think what you want to think. In times of doubt, trial, and temptation, the exercise of gratitude is always a sheet anchor which will prevent you from being swept away. Remember that the great essential thing is to SEVER ALL MENTAL RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND TO ENTER INTO FULL MENTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HEALTH. This is the KEY to all mental healing; it is the whole thing. Here we see the secret of the great success of Christian Science; more than any other formulated system of practice, it insists that its converts shall sever relations with disease, and relate themselves fully with health. The healing power of Christian Science is not in its theological formulæ, nor in its denial of matter; but in the fact that it induces the sick to ignore disease as an unreal thing and accept health by faith as a reality. Its failures are made because its practitioners, while thinking in the Certain Way, do not eat, drink, breathe, and sleep in the same way.

Form this idea, and then think only thoughts of perfect health about yourself and, as far as possible, about others. When a thought of sickness or disease comes to you, reject it. Do not let it enter your mind or give it any consideration at all. Instead, think about health. Think that you are well, and be sincerely grateful for the health you are receiving. Whenever thoughts of disease come thick and fast and you are in a "tight place," turn to gratitude. Connect yourself with the Supreme. Thank God for the perfect health he gives you. You will soon find yourself able to control your thoughts and think what you want to think. In times of doubt, trial, and temptation, gratitude is always a reliable anchor that will keep you from being swept away. Remember that the essential thing is to SEVER ALL MENTAL RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND ENTER INTO A FULL MENTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HEALTH. This is the KEY to all mental healing. It is the whole thing. Here we see the secret of Christian Science's great success. More than any other established system of practice, it insists that its converts sever their relations with disease. It also insists that they connect themselves fully with health. The healing power of Christian Science does not lie in its theological formulas or its denial of matter. It lies in the fact that it leads sick people to ignore disease as unreal and accept health by faith as real. Its failures occur because its practitioners think in the Certain Way but do not eat, drink, breathe, and sleep in the same way.

While there is no healing power in the repetition of strings of words, yet it is a very convenient thing to have the central thoughts so formulated that you can repeat them readily, so that you can use them as affirmations whenever you are surrounded by an environment which gives you adverse suggestions. When those around you begin to talk of sickness and death, close your ears and mentally assert something like the following:—

Repeating strings of words has no healing power. But it is very useful to put the central thoughts into words you can easily repeat. You can then use them as affirmations whenever your surroundings suggest negative ideas. When those around you begin to talk about sickness and death, close your ears and silently affirm something like this:

Exercise your will power in choosing only those thoughts which are thoughts of health, and arrange your environment so that it shall suggest thoughts of health. Do not have about you books, pictures, or other things which suggest death, disease, deformity, weakness, or age; have only those which convey the ideas of health, power, joy, vitality, and youth. When you are confronted with a book, or anything else which suggests disease, do not give it your attention. Think of your conception of health, and your gratitude, and affirm as above; use your will power to fix your attention upon thoughts of health. In a future chapter I shall touch upon this point again; what I wish to make plain here is that you must think only health, recognize only health, and give your attention only to health; and that you must control thought, recognition, and attention by the use of your will.

Use your willpower to choose only thoughts of health. Arrange your surroundings so that they suggest health. Do not keep books, pictures, or other things that suggest death, disease, deformity, weakness, or age. Keep only things that convey health, power, joy, vitality, and youth. When you encounter a book or anything else that suggests disease, do not pay attention to it. Think of your idea of health and your gratitude, and affirm as described above. Use your willpower to focus your attention on thoughts of health. I will return to this point in a later chapter. For now, I want to make this clear: you must think only of health, recognize only health, and pay attention only to health. You must use your will to control your thoughts, what you recognize, and what you pay attention to.

Do not try to use your will to compel the healthy performance of function within you. The Principle of Health will attend to that, if you give your attention only to thoughts of health.

Do not try to use your will to make your body function properly. The Principle of Health will take care of that if you focus only on thoughts of health.

Do not try to exert your will upon the Formless to compel It to give you more vitality or power; it is already placing all the power there is at your service.

Do not try to use your will to force the Formless to give you more vitality or power. It is already putting all the power there is at your service.

You do not have to use your will to conquer adverse conditions, or to subdue unfriendly forces; there are no unfriendly forces; there is only One Force, and that force is friendly to you; it is a force which makes for health.

You do not have to use your will to overcome bad conditions or control unfriendly forces. There are no unfriendly forces. There is only One Force, and it is friendly to you. It is a force that promotes health.

Everything in the universe wants you to be well; you have absolutely nothing to overcome but your own habit of thinking in a certain way about disease, and you can do this only by forming a habit of thinking in another Certain Way about health.

Everything in the universe wants you to be well. You have nothing to overcome but your own habit of thinking about disease in a certain way. You can overcome this habit only by forming a new habit of thinking about health in another Certain Way.

Man can cause all the internal functions of his body to be performed in a perfectly healthy manner by continuously thinking in a Certain Way, and by performing the external functions in a certain way.

A person can keep all the body's internal functions perfectly healthy by continually thinking in a certain way. This also requires performing external functions in a certain way.

He can think in this Certain Way by controlling his attention, and he can control his attention by the use of his will.

He can think in this Certain Way by controlling his attention, and he can control his attention through willpower.

He can decide what things he will think about.

He can decide what to think about.