a is a deenergization. By this is meant that
either there is an actual reduction in the energy of the body (as after
a sickness, pregnancy, etc.) or else something impedes the discharge of
energy. This latter is usually an emotional matter, or arises from some
thought, some life situation of a depressing kind.

It is necessary and important that we consider these two aspects of our
subject a little closer, not so much as regards the housewife, but over
the wider field of the human being.

The human being, like every living thing, is an instrument for the
building up and discharge of energy. He takes in food, the food is
digested (made over into certain substances) and these are built up into
the tissues,--and then their energy is discharged as heat and as motion.
The heat is the body temperature, the motion is the movement of the
human body in all the marvelous variety of which it is capable. In other
words, the discharge of energy is the play of our childhood and of our
later years; it is the skill and strength of our arms, the cleverness of
our hands, the fleetness of our feet, the joyous vigor of our
love-making, the embrace; it is the noble purpose, the long, hard-fought
battles of any kind. It is all that is summed up in desire, purpose, and
achievement.

Now all these things may be impeded by actual reduction of energy, as in
tuberculosis, cancer, or in the lassitude of convalescence. In addition
there are emotions, feelings, thoughts that energize,--that create vigor
and strength of body and mind. Joy rouses the spirit; one dances,
laughs, sings, shouts; or the more quiet type of person takes up work
with zeal and renewed energy. Hope brings with it an eagerness for the
battle, a zest for work. The glow of pride that comes with praise is a
stimulus of great power and enlarges the scope of the personality. The
feeling that comes with successful effort, with rewarded effort, is a
new birth of purpose and will. And whatever arouses the fighting spirit,
which in the last analysis is based on anger, achieves the same end.

There are _deenergizing emotions and experiences_ as well, things that
suddenly rob the victim of strength and purpose. Fear of a certain type
is one of these things, as when one's knees knock together, the limbs
become as it were without the control of the will, the heart flutters,
and the voice is hoarse and weak. Fear of sickness, fear of death,
either for one's self or some beloved one, may c