ount of
human energy wasted in the strain of nervous fear could be measured in
pounds of pressure, the figures would be astonishing. Many people who
have the habit of nervous fear in one form or another do not throw it
off merely because they do not know how. There are big and little
nervous fears, and each and all can be met and conquered,--thus
bringing a freedom of life which cannot even be imagined by those
carrying the burden of fear, more or less, throughout their lives.

The fear of what people will think of us is a very common cause of
slavery, and the nervous anxiety as to whether we do or do not please
is a strain which wastes the energy of the greater part of mankind. It
seems curious to measure the force wasted in sensitiveness to public
opinion as you would measure the waste of power in an engine, and yet
it is a wholesome and impersonal way to think of it,--until we find a
better way. It relieves us of the morbid element in the sensitiveness
to say, "I cannot mind what so-and-so thinks of me, for I have not the
nervous energy to spare." It relieves us still more of the tendency to
morbid feeling, if we are wholesomely interested in what others think
of us, in order to profit by it, and do better. There is nothing morbid
or nervous about our sensitiveness to opinion, when it is derived from
a love of criticism for the sake of its usefulness. Such a rightful and
wise regard for the opinion of others results in a saving of energy,
for on the one hand, it saves us from the mistakes of false and shallow
independence, and, on the other, from the wasteful strain of servile
fear.

The little nervous fears are countless. The fear of not being exact.
The fear of not having turned off the gas entirely. The fear of not
having done a little daily duty which we find again and again we have
done. These fears are often increased, and sometimes are aroused, by
our being tired, and it is well to realize that, and to attend at once
carefully to whatever our particular duty may be, and then, when the
fear of not having done it attacks us, we should think of it as if it
were a physical pain, and turn our attention quietly to something else.
In this way such little nagging fears are relieved; whereas, if we
allowed ourselves to be driven by them, we might bring on nervous
states that would take weeks or months to overcome. These nervous fears
attack us again and again in subtle ways, if we allow ourselves to be
influenced by