HABITS Their Effect Upon Life THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BY SUSANNA COCROFT AUTHOR OF SELF SUFFICIENCY THE VITAL ORGANS POISE AND SYMMETRY OF FIGURE ORIGINATOR OF THE PHYSICAL CULTURE EXTENSION SOCIETY FIRST EDITION 1906 SECOND EDITION 1911 PUBLISHED BY THE PHYSICAL CULTURE EXTENSION SOCIETY 2351 C66 1911 HABITS Their Effect Upon Life BY SUSANNA COCROFT "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." This proverb of Solomon is as true from the physical as from the moral standpoint. The child who forms the habit of uprightness, of cheerful thought, of unselfish impulse, finds it just as hard to stoop to a mean act, to be long unhappy, or to be unmindful of others, as does water to remain on an incline. He may have occasional lapses, according to the pressure of circumstances or environment, but he never goes far wrong. 65544 The right habit being formed, no matter how weak the will power, or directing energy, it is easier to follow the line of least resistance, and one does not deliberately and consciously try to do wrong. The molecules in the brain cells become fixed in shape and arrangements, to conform to the character of thought in the growing child, as his bones or the contour of his muscles form their shapes. Just as it takes definite, conscious, persistent effort to change the contour of a muscle, so does it take definite persistent effort to change a trend of thought and the resultant arrangement and shape of brain cells-hence one's nature. Happily no habit or shape of brain and nerve cell is so fixed that it cannot be changed by conscious, persistent effort, else, started wrong, there would be no redirecting the thought, or correcting a wrong habit. Cheerful thoughts, hence happiness, may become just as fixed a habit as the carriage of the shoulders or the manner of walk. |