“It so happens that his home is situated in a grove of trees. Very early one morning, unable to sleep, he arose and sat by the window. He became interested in watching a bird emerge from his night’s sleep. He noticed that a bird sleeps with his head under his wing, the feathers pulled all around himself. When the bird awakened, he pulled his bill out from under his feathers, took a sleepy look around, stretched one leg to its full length, meanwhile stretching the wing over the leg until it spread out like a fan. He pulled the leg and wing back and then repeated the same process with the other leg and wing, whereupon he put his head down in his feathers again for a delicious little catnap (only in this case a bird nap), then the head came out again. This time the bird looked around eagerly, threw his head back, gave his wings and legs two more big stretches, then he sent up a song, a thrilling, melodic song of praise to the day, wherewith he hopped down off the limb, got himself a drink of cold water, and started looking for food.
My high-strung friend said to himself, ‘If that’s the way the birds get up, sort of slow and easy like, why wouldn’t it be a good method for me to start the day that way?’ He actually went through the same performance, even singing, and noticed that the song was an especially beneficial factor, that it was a releasing mechanism.
‘I can’t sing,’ he chuckled, ‘but I practiced sitting quietly in a chair and singing. Mostly I sang hymns and happy songs. Imagine me singing, but I did. My wife thought I was bereft of my senses. The only thing I had on the bird was that I did a little praying, too; then, like the bird, I felt like some food, and I wanted a good breakfast – bacon and eggs. And I took my time eating it. After that I went to work in a released frame of mind. It surely did start me off for the day minus the tension, and it helped me go through the day in a peaceful and relaxed manner.’”
- Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Positive Thinking
No comments:
Post a Comment