Problems

Categories: Uncategorized
Sources: As A Matter Of Course

THERE are very few persons who have not I had the experience of

giving up a problem in mathematics late in the evening, and waking

in the morning with the solution clear in their minds. That has been

the experience of many, too, in real-life problems. If it were more

common, a great amount of nervous strain might be saved.



There are big problems and little, real and imaginary; and some that

are merely tir d nerves. In problems, the useless nervous element

often plays a large part. If the "problems" were dropped out of mind

with sufferers from nervous prostration, their progress towards

renewed health might be just twice as rapid. If they were met

normally, many nervous men and women might be entirely saved from

even a bowing acquaintance with nervous prostration. It is not a

difficult matter, that of meeting a problem normally,--simply let

it solve itself. In nine cases out of ten, if we leave it alone and

live as if it were not, it will solve itself. It is at first a

matter of continual surprise to see how surely this self-solution is

the result of a wholesome ignoring both of little problems and big

ones.



In the tenth case, where the problem must be faced at once, to face

it and decide to the best of our ability is, of course, the only

thing to do. But having decided, be sure that it ceases to be a

problem. If we have made a mistake, it is simply a circumstance to

guide us for similar problems to come.



All this is obvious; we know it, and have probably said it to

ourselves dozens of times. If we are sufferers from nervous

problems, we may have said it dozens upon dozens of times. The

trouble is that we have said it and not acted upon it. When a

problem will persist in worrying us, in pulling and dragging upon

our nerves, an invitation to continue the worrying until it has

worked itself out is a great help towards its solution or

disappearance.



I remember once hearing a bright woman say that when there was

anything difficult to decide in her life she stepped aside and let

the opposing elements fight it out within her. Presumably she

herself threw in a little help on one side or the other which really

decided the battle. But the help was given from a clear standpoint,

not from a brain entirely befogged in the thick of the fight



Whatever form problems may take, however important they may seem,

when they attack tired nerves they must be let alone. A good way is

to go out into the open air and so identify one's self with Nature

that one is drawn away in spite of one's self. A big wind will

sometimes blow a brain clear of nervous problems in a very little

while if we let it have its will. Another way out is to interest

one's self in some game or other amusement, or to get a healthy

interest in other people's affairs, and help where we can.



Each individual can find his own favorite escape. Of course we

should never shirk a problem that must be decided, but let us always

wait a reasonable time for it to decide itself first. The solving

that is done for us is invariably better and clearer than any we

could do for ourselves.



It will be curious, too, to see how many apparently serious

problems, relieved of the importance given them by a strained

nervous system, are recognized to be nothing at all. They fairly

dissolve themselves and disappear.