y ones, such as courage, patience,
optimism, and reverence.

[Sidenote: The Habit of Happiness]

When the mind turns from shadow to sunshine, the body will tend also to
assume the radiance of health. Stevenson said that there is no duty we
so much underrate as the duty of being happy. The habit of being happy
enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of
outward conditions. Though the trait is apparently totally lacking in
some, while existing to a high degree in others, experience has shown
that conscious cultivation will develop it to an appreciable degree,
even in very stubborn cases. As in little Pollyanna's "Glad Game," it is
possible to find something to be glad about in every situation in life.

[Sidenote: Control of Attention]

The secret of equanimity consists not so much in repressing the fear or
worry, as in _dropping_ or ignoring it--that is, diverting and
controlling the attention. It does no good to carry a mental burden.
"Forget it!" The main art of mental hygiene consists in the control of
attention. Perhaps the worst defect in the Occidental philosophy of life
is the failure to learn this control. The Oriental is superior in such
self-training. The exceptional man in Western civilization who learns
this control can do the most work and carry the most responsibility. On
much the same principle as the Indians used when their young men were
trained to endure pain self-inflicted, we might well devote a few
minutes each day to the difficult task of changing at will our attention
from the thing which is engrossing it to anything else we choose; or,
what is more difficult still, to blank nothingness. When we have
sufficiently strengthened this power, we can turn off the current of our
thoughts as we turn off the lights and lie down to sleep in peace, as a
trained sailor does in a storm.

[Sidenote: Making Up One's Mind]

If a person's work is drudgery but has to be endured, the making up of
the mind to endure it cheerfully, the relinquishment of the doubtful but
fascinating pleasure of dwelling upon one's misery, is found to largely
obviate the burden. It is the making up of the mind which presents the
difficulty. The truth is that we instinctively shrink from making,
_without reservation_, important decisions as to our future course of
conduct. We balk even at really committing ourselves not to worry. A man
who, when he complained of his lot, was advised to "grin and bear it,"
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