CHAPTER IV

TREATMENT FOR PROBLEMS

Do you want to be an integrated human being? Who does not? If you do, you must unload some of the junk you have carried around with you in your subconscious mind. That is the price we must all pay. You can make a program for yourself, which is quite simple,- not easy. The program is called the “resentment therapy.” It is this: make a list of all the persons you have ever resented or been hurt by or been angry with, starting with the present “crop,” and working back as far as your memory takes you. If done correctly, you will wind up in the very early years of your childhood. The usual reaction in nine cases out of ten is to say, “Really, I don’t resent anyone.” Ignore that, if you have that reaction, because it is not true. Think about it for a while. Then take a pencil and a notebook --not a sheet of pa-per--and start working.

Take your time over it. It may take you a week or two to complete the list, once you have found the thread in the tangled skein of subconscious memory. After having seen hundreds of these lists compiled, I can report the average list runs to about two hundred names! That is the first step.

The next step consists of sitting quietly, keeping in mind the thought, “Whatever has happened to me, no matter how bad or how sad, consciously or unconsciously I have brought it to pass. Therefore, I can have no feeling against So-and-so. Absolutely none. So I fully and freely forgive him NOW.” And so on, doing it with each and every name on the list. It is wise to spend no more than ten or fifteen minutes a day, starting with the names at the top of the list, then repeating the next day, starting with the name at which you stopped, until you come to the end of the list.

Very simple, is it not? It seems so,completely ineffectual. One of the things that always puzzles me about people is that they always put such tremendous belief--such faith--in negative ideas.

They will speak with dread in their voices and in their hearts about the “dire things they know are going to happen.” How often do we hear, “We are going to have another World War!” Or, “We are heading into another depression!” Or, “This new administration is going to ruin the country!” I just KNOW it!” And it is uttered with such conviction l If you reply, “I don’t think anything like that will happen at all. Why be so pessimistic?” Then you are told, “Look how bad things are now. They can only get worse l” I have never understood why we think good, positive, constructive thoughts are silly, impractical and weak. But we do, do we not? It is probably because we have neither discovered nor tried the power of good, constructive thinking.

But to return to the Resentment Therapy. Make your list. Do it thoroughly. When you have completed it, you are apt to find that some of the names you have listed, particularly those which have gnawed at you through the years, frequently pop back into your mind. If you have already forgiven them when you met them on the list, merely say, “God bless you.” You may find that you have to say that quite often, for the subconscious does not like to relinquish a memory about which it has had deep feelings. But-stick to it. Then, within a remarkably short time,- a matter of days, as a rule, there will be no more of the old resentments left in you. You will also find that your health will be 100% better, You will feel younger,- and you will look younger. You will feel free. You will suddenly feel as though you could draw a deep breath,- as though a tremendous load was gone from your heart, although until the time of the therapy you had never realized what a load you carried. You will find yourself wondering, “What has happened?” You will find that quietly, gently, imperceptibly, which is the way God always works through us, life has become more comfortable, more pleasant, more serene.