William James: The Gospel of Relaxation

By Jarett Ward Section 009

    William James was an American philosopher and clinical psychologist who is considered to have one of the greatest impacts on thought in the 19th century. Specifically, he was the founder of pragmatism which takes the middle road between religion and atheism and merely finds the best route to apply in daily life. Some of his notable works include The Principles of Psychology, The Will to Believe, Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking, and The Varieties of Religious Experience.

    One of the things that many people of all ages struggle with throughout their life is the concept of stress. Many of us spend countless amounts of hours wasted throughout the years filled with stress over concepts or ideas that ultimately do not matter. It is because of this that in his essay The Gospel of Relaxation James seeks to solve this issue for all. 

    Stress ultimately begins in our subconscious, the realm of our psyche that lies active but without our cognizant knowledge of it doing so. It is in this realm that James references a Vietnamese neurologist who talks about a concept known as Binneleben, the buried life of human beings. The idea of this "buried life" is that it is the essence of what defines our qualities. The little mannerisms and tones that society picks up upon during social interactions. James writes, "

This inner personal tone is what we can't communicate or describe articulately to others; but the wraith and ghost of it, so to speak, are often what our friends and intimates feel as our most characteristic quality. In the unhealthy-minded, apart from all sorts of old regrets, ambitions checked by shames and aspirations obstructed by timidities, it consists mainly of bodily discomforts not distinctly localized by the sufferer, but breeding a general self-mistrust and sense that things are not as they should be with him." If someone is to have a general self-doubt or mistrust of themselves, it becomes painfully obvious to everyone surrounding them that they lack self-esteem and are timid in nature without the individual necessarily having said a word. Some would call this concept the way we "carry ourselves" which is very discernable and easily picked up by all. In the case of those who have an unhealthy Binneleben we are able to tell that something is bothering them or "stressing them out" to some capacity. It is at this point that James provides the much needed advice to rectify this issue. 

    One of the classic adages that has persisted through many years of human history is that of "mind over matter," regardless of the situation one might find themselves in, all can be rectified through the simple process of willing it to be different. James expands upon this in the Lange-James theory which is somewhat paradoxical in nature. This theory concludes that it is not the emotions of our psyche that drives our feelings, but in-fact the stimuli that we are exposed to. This stimuli is then correlated into our brain as chemical signals which then induce the emotions we feel. James writes, "

An emotion of fear, for example, or surprise, is not a direct effect of the object's presence on the mind, but an effect of that still earlier effect, the bodily commotion which the object suddenly excites; so that, were this bodily commotion suppressed, we should not so much feel fear as call the situation fearful; we should not feel surprise, but coldly recognize that the object was indeed astonishing. 

One enthusiast has even gone so far as to say that when we feel sorry it is because we weep, when we feel afraid it is because we run away, and not conversely.

" In this example it is the object itself that then elicits a response from our brains and then the emotion of fear overtakes us in the aftermath of the chemical barrage. This theory alludes to the fact that it is because we are crying that we feel sad and not the opposite, which is quite confusing to most people. However, there is some truth to be found within this theory. While we may not be able to control our environment or the stimuli we are exposed to, we can however control our response to it. For example, if we were to think positively about a situation of which we currently feel apprehension, it is through the sheer force of our own will that our emotions will be regulated and change how we feel about something. If there is a daunting task before you and you instead choose to let this task overwhelm you and induce the feelings of terror and fear, then logically you -will- feel terrified and fearful of the task. However, if you were to instead artificially approach the situation with bravado and confidence, your emotions will fall in line with this attitude as opposed to the former. James says, "

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not." By using this principle and shifting how we act or approach the situations, we can use mind over matter ideology to shift our feelings and ultimately make things easier for ourselves. 

    A separate topic that James dealt with quite often in his time, as it was very stressful for some people, was that of religion. In the 19th century many were fearful that they were not good enough for their God and would spend their lives living in fear of it. James then refers to a book written by Hannah Whitall Smith titled "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life." Specifically, he cites this quote: "

Act faithfully, and you really have faith, no matter how cold and even how dubious you may feel. "It is your purpose God looks at," writes Mrs. Smith, "not your feelings about that purpose; and your purpose, or will, is therefore the only thing you need attend to.... Let your emotions come or let them go, just as God pleases, and make no account of them either way.... They really have nothing to do with the matter. They are not the indicators of your spiritual state, but are merely the indicators of your temperament or of your present physical condition." In this passage Smith is saying that people tend to focus on the dogmatic principles of their religion and worry about small insignificant details. Ultimately, this is pointless as the Christian God does not care about specifics, he cares about your intention and your purpose. If the purpose and intention/will is in the right ligth, then there is nothing to worry about. In a later article he refers to

"The Practice of the Presence of God, the Best Ruler of a Holy Life, by Brother Lawrence, being Conversations and Letters of Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, Translated from the French" James continues this line of thought from some of the passages written by Brother Lawrence.  In this passage it details how Brother Lawrence was worried that he might have lost his salvation for he could do nothing right by the eyes of God: "That he had long been troubled in mind from a certain belief that he should be damned; that all the men in the world could not have persuaded him to the contrary; but that he had thus reasoned with himself about it: I engaged in a religious life only for the love of God, and I have endeavored to act only for Him; whatever becomes of me, whether I be lost or saved, I will always continue to act purely for the love of God. I shall have this good at least, that till death I shall have done all that is in me to love Him.... That since then he had passed his life in perfect liberty and continual joy." The result of the conclusions this individual drew was that, again, in agreeance with Mrs. Smith, do not worry over the specifics of religion, so long as you do your best and focus on your love for God then you shall be saved. Ultimately, this is the best piece of advice James could have given to any religious person in the 19th century as there was much turmoil within the church at that time. It is also ironic in a way as James was able to give excellent advice to the faithful while not explicitly being a man of faith himself. However, this demonstrates his pragmatic lifestyle in that while he might not have been religious, he was able to find a way to apply his philosophy to religion and bring wisdom to the worrying congregation in his era. 

    The final aspect of this essay is the advice James gives to students and other common people. In many cases we now tend to focus our thoughts on perfectionism and take small failures to the extreme depths of worry and anxiety. In the case of students, this stress and worry comes from the exams and tests for any level of education. This leads to one of the arguably most famous pieces of this essay is the advice that James gives for how to study for an exam. James writes, "

If you want really to do your best in an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to yourself, "I won't waste another minute on this miserable thing, and I don't care an iota whether I succeed or not." Say this sincerely, and feel it; and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, and I am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method permanently." The philosophy behind this quote is that if the student has done their due diligence of studying up to the night before the exam, it is far more beneficial to then instead fling the book away and take some time to relax. When we do silly thing like staying up all night to cram information into our brains for the next exam or study while we are extremely stressed, all it does is breed worry and cause us to do worse on the exam than if instead we had merely relaxed the night before and focused on having a positive mindset before going into the examination. In this case, the mind over matter philosophy can once again be applied as if we take on the ever daunting exam with cheerful positivity instead of anxiety and worry, now having studied appropriately, merely fling the book away and enjoy ourselves so that we may take our exams with the maximal amount of comfort. 

 

    In his final remarks of the essay, he gives parting advice to everyone, not just students or religious people and that is quite simply to take time for yourself and relax, life is too short to stress and worry about pointless things. Some people had asked how was it possible to do such a thing? Life is already incredibly stressful and worrisome, how is it possible to just simply -relax-? To this James writes the following: "Even now I fear that some one of my fair hearers may be making an undying resolve to become strenuously relaxed, cost what it will, for the remainder of her life. It is needless to say that that is not the way to do it. The way to do it, paradoxical as it may seem, is genuinely not to care whether you are doing it or not. Then, possibly, by the grace of God, you may all at once find that you are doing it, and, having learned what the trick feels like, you may (again by the grace of God) be enabled to go on. And that something like this may be the happy experience of all my hearers is, in closing, my most earnest wish." Do not concern yourself with the specifics of how to be relaxed and turn relaxation into a worrisome ordeal. However, once you have figured out the way in which to achieve this state, you may find that it is quite easy to replicate with some practice. Most importantly, the best advice from this essay is the reminder to not worry about small trivial things, life is more than worry and stress why waste time on such silly things; and ultimately, never forget to fling the book away and to not waste your time upon that miserable thing but instead take a walk and enjoy life.