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Chapter XXII: The Science of Relaxation.1901
just what many of us are doing all the time—we are allowing our prana to
trickle away in a constant stream, with a consequent wear and tear upon our
muscles, and, indeed, upon the whole system, from the brain down.
Our students are doubtless familiar with the axiom of psychology, “Thought
takes form in action.” Our first impulse when we wish to do a thing is to make
the muscular movement necessary to the accomplishment of the action
proceeding from the thought. But we may be restrained from making the
movement by another thought, which shows us the desirability of repressing
the action. We may be inflamed with anger and may experience a desire to
strike the person causing the anger. The thought is scarcely formed in our
mind before the first steps toward striking are taken. But before the muscle
fairly moves our better judgment causes us to send a repressing impulse (all
this in the fraction of a second), and the opposite set of muscles holds back
the action of the first set. The double action, ordering and countermanding,
is performed so quickly that the mind cannot grasp any sense of motion, but
nevertheless the muscle had begun to quiver with the striking impulse by
the time the restraining impulse operated the opposing set of muscles and
held back the movement.
This same principle, carried to still further refinements, causes a slight
Current of prana to the muscle, and a consequent slight muscular contraction,
to follow many unrestrained thoughts, with a constant waste of prana and a
perpetual wear and tear upon the nervous system and muscles, Many people
of an excitable, irritable, emotional habit of mind constantly keep their nerves
in action and their muscles tense by unrestrained and uncontrolled mental
states. Thoughts take form in action, and a person of the temperament and
habits just described is constantly allowing his thoughts to manifest in the
currents sent to the muscles and the countermanding current immediately
following. On the contrary, the person who has naturally, or has cultivated, a
calm, controlled mind, will have no such impulses with their accompanying
results. He moves along well poised and well in hand, and does not allow his
thoughts to run away with him. He is a Master, not a slave.