T H E H A B I T O F C O N S T R U C T I V E T H I N K I N G
We are told that a habit is a custom or practice acquired and strengthened by repetition and resulting in an increasing facility to perform a certain action, hold a particular attitude, or become involved in a certain sequence of events. Habits can be positive or negative; that is, they can impel to greater attainment or they can lower resistance and cause the individual to become more easily addicted to an unreasonable or destructive pattern of conduct. To a large degree, we are all creatures of habit, finding it easier and more convenient to drift along on the surface of our inclinations. Resistance to habit decreases in ratio to the strengthening of habitual procedures, until finally we find that the resolution or energy necessary to break a habit is no longer readily available. It is obvious, therefore, that the cultivation of good habits is valuable and necessary to successful and adjusted living. Each person is born with basic tendencies which contribute to individuality and result in the diversity of human achievements. Our present concern is the mental and emotional balance which must be developed if proper habits of thinking and feeling are to become instinctive. It may be assumed that humanity divides into two groups. One group is composed of persons naturally inclined to positive and constructive attitudes. These are broadly referred to as cheerful and optimistic. The other group is made up of individuals whose psychological integration is essentially negative. We know them as suspicious, fearful, and critical, and we refer to them as doleful or pessimistic. Both these groups live in the same world, face the same problems, engage in similar occupations, and are sustained by the same nourishment. It is not fair to say, therefore, that the more fortunate are the more cheerful or that the more unfortunate are the less cheerful. Disposition arises within the person and is sustained by his own resources. For the most part, optimism and pessimism result from habit-patterns which gradually take over the interpretation of events and conditions.
Constructive thinking is a term to designate the positive use of mental energies for the attainment of worthy ends and purposes. We usually associate this term with a happy and optimistic point of view. The character is sustained by hope, faith, and love, and these convictions are immediately accessible when emergency arises. All happenings are interpreted as contributing to ultimate good. Problems are seen as lessons rather than as affections. Reverses invite to strength, presenting opportunity for the active revelation of potential. Convinced that we live in a good world, under the sheltering protection of a divine plan essentially just and right, we face the future with quiet confidence and gentle determination. To enjoy such a benevolent state within ourselves, we must have developed patience, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, unselfishness, and a degree of impersonality. The only way to strength these gracious attributes of character is through habitual use, and this becomes a matter of self-discipline.
Thoughts do not energise themselves. The mind is a reasoning mechanism and of itself merely testifies either to facts or to logical sequences built upon true or false premises. The dynamic is always bestowed by the emotions, and these are forever mysterious. We can seldom explain or rationalize our basic likes and dislikes. We feel about things, and our feelings are strongly partisan. This we are for, and that we are against, and we suffer from the Aristotelian fallacy that if we are for something we must inevitably be against something. When we have given an allegiance, we serve it with a devotion not always reasonable or practical. It becomes the duty of the mind to justify the decisions of emotion. We cannot allow our likes and dislikes to exist without a measure of defence or support. We require that the mind shall prove our feelings to be correct and shall find various ways of sustaining our acceptances and rejections. Under emotional pressure, the intellect loses its power of censorship. It can no longer report about things as they are, but only about things as we desire them to be or wish them not to be. This means that all constructive thinking must be preserved against negative inroads of emotion. The fearful person will always find something to fear, and will be able to prove that this something is dangerous. The worrier can always defend his position, and the critic can rationalize his criticism until it appears virtuous and commendable. The education of emotion has been largely entrusted to religion, and it is true beyond doubt that faith, bestowing graciousness of spirit, is necessary in the cultivation of constructive thinking.
Constructive thinking is based upon the dignity of facts. What some philosophers have called “the thing as it is” is always rich in promise. The truth can never be bad, nor can it be discouraging or demoralizing. It may in some cases appear very difficult because of our own limitations, but this does not justify us in turning from truth to nurse our grievances. Even the gravest injustice should lead to better understanding rather than criticism and condemnation. No one is completely guiltless, nor is anyone completely guilty. All adversity is opportunity in disguise. We learn from everything; therefore everything helps us to grow. Growth in turn helps us to think better and live better, and so we move on along the great pathway of evolution. Trouble always arises in some kind of compromise, the failure to do that which is next, or the sacrifice of principles to personal profit of some kind. Nor is there any consolation in the obvious circumstance that misery loves company and that it has plenty of company. The mistakes of others never justify our acceptance or allegiance, nor do they set examples which we should follow.
All these and many other things we can do. In these benefits we share by divine right, and in the midst of these diversified and abundant privileges, we can be appropriately grateful. We can seek sincerely to know more and to become better. We do not need to try to seem important, especially by depreciating the works of others. We are important because we share in a universal life that is eternal. The Divine Power is within us, and in this we can do neither more nor less. We can, however, release that power, fully convinced that this is our duty and destiny. The very energy we use to cultivate and intensify our miseries is the power of God in ourselves. We should find better use for this power, and we should seek not only to release it in our conduct, but to discover and experience it in those around us. Criticism, intolerance, fear, and worry, will then be dissolved by the strong and rightful realization that we live in Eternal Good forever waiting to be accepted by the creatures which it has fashioned.