WEBVTT 00:00.269 --> 00:44.840 [Music] 00:44.840 --> 00:50.240 [Narrator:] After the day's work and worries are done, what is more fun for a man than to come   00:50.240 --> 00:54.676 home to a quiet house with happy children and a loving spouse? 00:54.676 --> 00:56.795 [Child's voice:] "Gimme my book, it's my book! 00:56.795 --> 00:58.511 [Child 2's voice:] But I just want to see something. 00:58.511 --> 00:59.766 [Child's voice:] But it's my book! 00:59.766 --> 01:02.994 Crybaby, crybaby! It's my book anyway. 01:02.994 --> 01:07.546 [Woman:] Quiet, both of you. We'll discuss it in the morning. Good night. 01:07.546 --> 01:13.086 [Child 2:] Good night mother, good night father. [Door slams] 01:13.366 --> 01:19.847 [Narrator:] Some attempts at relaxing prove  quite taxing. No joking, the effort may be most provoking. 01:19.847 --> 01:24.233 [Music] 01:24.233 --> 01:29.337 [Woman:] Now, you just drink this  and you'll be fast asleep in no time. 01:29.337 --> 01:38.296 [Music] 01:38.296 --> 01:39.641 [Door slams] 01:39.960 --> 01:46.080 Darling, are you all right? You weren't  supposed to gulp it, just sip it. 01:46.080 --> 01:48.960 After all, how can a drink relax you if it isn't nice and warm? 01:48.960 --> 01:51.853 [Door opens and shuts] 01:51.853 --> 01:55.827 [Man:] Relax? Impossible! 02:02.733 --> 02:05.833 [Woman:] Trouble is, you've been reading  the wrong book. 02:05.833 --> 02:11.433 You know, I was as tense as you before I learned to relax. 02:12.320 --> 02:28.860 Now let me see...here's what you need. "How to Relax." Just start  reading it. See if it doesn't make you feel better. 02:28.860 --> 02:42.379 [Music] 02:44.460 --> 02:51.640 [Narrator:] Some people find relaxing very taxing. Forever in a hurry, all they do is worry worry worry. 02:51.640 --> 02:55.786 [Music] 02:56.586 --> 03:03.180 Are you tense, anxious, worried, always  tired but can't fall asleep? 03:03.180 --> 03:11.954 Are you afraid  you're losing your grip? You may not know it but that's good. Yes, good. Because this book can help you. 03:11.954 --> 03:16.980 Yes it can. No matter who you are you'll feel better and live better when you learn to relax   03:17.167 --> 03:23.027 You can start right now by thinking of some of the things that make you tense. Go ahead, think.   03:24.520 --> 03:29.760 Without much trouble any of us can mention dozens of things that fill us with tension. 03:29.760 --> 03:46.720 [Wind, train whistle, clanking sounds, phone ringing] 03:46.720 --> 04:04.206 [Squeaky staccato voice on phone line, words unintelligible] 04:04.206 --> 04:07.600 [Narrator:] Although the feverish  male is sure nobody else   04:07.600 --> 04:11.760 can have his troubles, we know his wife  doesn't pass her days just blowing bubbles. 04:11.760 --> 04:14.750 [Phone rings] 04:14.750 --> 04:16.750 [Children:] I'll get it, I'll get it. 04:16.750 --> 04:23.242 [Music] 04:23.242 --> 04:29.687 [Narrator:] Chapter 1, Understanding your Tensions. To understand how tension affects you,  04:29.687 --> 04:36.790 make believe a mosquito is buzzing around the back of your hand. Hear it, see it, right there over your knuckles. 04:36.790 --> 04:42.370 Now get ready to swat that mosquito as  soon as it lights. Go on, get set, raise your hand... 04:42.370 --> 04:49.120 Slowly, not too high, now wait, the buzzing's coming closer. Watch closely, it hasn't lit yet, 04:49.120 --> 04:56.440 but it will and it will sting. Hear it buzz? Are you set to squash it, eager to whack it   04:56.440 --> 05:03.160 to kingdom come? Is your hand quivering, your teeth clenched, your eyes staring, your brow wrinkled?  05:03.160 --> 05:13.000 Don't move. Wait 'til it alights...but suppose it doesn't alight? Suppose it never alights?   05:13.000 --> 05:19.327 Suppose you stayed like this for hours, forever, with only that awful buzz buzz buzzing? 05:19.327 --> 05:26.121 Wouldn't you be worried, anxious, fearful, tense, irritated, exhausted? 05:26.121 --> 05:28.360 There, that's how tension works . 05:28.360 --> 05:35.440 Mentally and physically you're so keyed up you're a wreck, but look, the mosquito's flying away. 05:35.440 --> 05:43.420 It's vanished. Gone forever, you can forget it, you can relax. Now doesn't that feel good? 05:43.420 --> 05:49.840 That's what relaxation does for you, unwinds you from the top of your head to the toes of your feet. 05:49.840 --> 05:56.080 Wouldn't you like to feel this way all the time? Once you discover how to relax your mind and your muscles,   05:56.360 --> 06:03.767 you'll never be plagued by fatigue. You'll just be pleasantly tired. Worries won't give you headaches, 06:03.767 --> 06:09.840 problems won't drive you crazy, you'll  fall asleep as easily as when you were you a baby... 06:09.840 --> 06:19.842 [Music] 06:19.842 --> 06:21.975 [Man:] What, huh? 06:21.975 --> 06:23.585 [Woman:] You were fast asleep, darling. 06:23.585 --> 06:25.000 [Man:] Sleep, I can't. I'm wide awake. 06:25.000 --> 06:31.122 [Woman:] Yes you can, here, listen to this. 06:33.679 --> 06:42.687 True relaxation comes from conquering both nervous and physical tensions by calming both mind and muscles. Did you hear that, dear? 06:42.687 --> 06:43.583 [Man:] Sure. 06:43.583 --> 06:44.601 [Woman:] What did I say? 06:44.601 --> 06:48.604 [Man:] Nervous tension comes from the mind, physical tension from the muscles. 06:48.604 --> 06:57.105 [Woman:] Although mind and muscle affect each other, tension begins in the mind, in the way we approach our daily problems at work and at home. 06:57.105 --> 07:05.000 Mental tension starts when a person stews about things, like a pressure cooker. Well, think of that, a pressure cooker. 07:05.000 --> 07:08.120 [Man:] All right, I'm thinking of it! I'm a pressure cooker! 07:08.913 --> 07:16.786 [Woman:] Picture how you increase the pressure on yourself by stewing in worry and fear, anger, and despair. 07:16.786 --> 07:21.636 To get relief you must reduce the pressure, let the world take care of its own worries., 07:21.636 --> 07:26.664 You'll help yourself most by concentrating on your own affairs. 07:26.664 --> 07:34.553 But when you tackle your problems, remember that mighty few of them will prove so critical that you have to solve them perfectly. 07:34.553 --> 07:44.728 Under such reduced pressures, you'll begin enjoying yourself wherever you are, untroubled by life's daily problems. 07:44.728 --> 07:46.079 Beginning to feel better? 07:46.079 --> 07:47.125 [Man:] Mmmhmm. 07:47.125 --> 07:48.887 [Woman:] And this is only the beginning.  07:48.887 --> 07:53.063 Once you get rid of nervous tension, then relaxing your muscles is a cinch. 07:53.063 --> 08:01.160 Look, whenever you notice any muscles anywhere getting tight and tense, relax them. 08:01.160 --> 08:07.274 Your frown, your lips, your jaw, you can relax no matter where you are. 08:07.274 --> 08:09.422 Here's what I do, and it works. 08:09.422 --> 08:18.000 If I find my hands are as tense as yours,  I relax them. I shake my hands from the wrists,  08:18.000 --> 08:22.021 flip them, flop them until they feel as loose  as a scarecrow's. 08:22.021 --> 08:30.374 The same thing with my arms and shoulders. Even in the middle of a job, you can ease your tensions 08:30.374 --> 08:37.050 by stopping and rolling your shoulders and neck muscles, like a prizefighter warming up before the bear. 08:37.050 --> 08:45.000 Try it. [Bell clangs.] There's nothing like a good physical workout to relax your muscles and soothe your nerves [Man grunts], 08:45.000 --> 08:51.063 provided you don't overdo it. The  important thing is not to go at it too hard. 08:51.063 --> 09:00.000 Just change your pace. Go from standing to sitting. From the activity of a jack in the box   09:00.000 --> 09:08.413 to the limp relaxation of a rag doll. Whenever you feel yourself tensing up, take time to go limp all over... 09:08.413 --> 09:16.301 from the soles to the scalp. Try it now. Curl your toes slightly, then let them loose. 09:16.301 --> 09:29.000 Now tighten the leg muscles, knees, thighs, the stomach muscles...then let them go soft and mushy again and again.   09:29.000 --> 09:39.240 Now the fingers, arms, shoulders, neck. Let your jaw drop, take a slow, deep breath... 09:39.240 --> 09:44.513 No, not with your chest, with your abdomen... there. 09:44.513 --> 09:50.837 Yawn as deeply as you can and stretch wider like a cat. 09:50.837 --> 10:00.757 Chew on air slowly, fully...notice how wonderful you're beginning to feel, like you are floating away into dreams. 10:01.853 --> 10:07.510 [Narrator:] As for everything else, the Greeks had a word for this mental and physical state of bliss. 10:07.510 --> 10:14.577 Ataraxia was the term they chose to  use for the opposite of anxiety, fatigue, and blues. 10:14.577 --> 10:21.758 Ataraxia means peace of mind and that, even more than money, is what most of us want to find. 10:21.758 --> 10:29.007 [Music] 10:29.480 --> 10:36.527 [Narrator:] Today, medical science recognizes that some folks aren't helped by relaxing exercises. 10:36.527 --> 10:45.490 In cases of difficult tension and nervous apprehension, doctors are now prescribing an ataraxic medicine. 10:45.490 --> 10:49.330 [Music] 10:49.386 --> 10:54.210 [Narrator:] It makes those who fear they're about to quit feel like they're ready to begin 10:54.210 --> 10:59.560 bidding their darkened spirits goodbye for the calming peace of a cloudless sky. 11:04.343 --> 11:10.283 Of all the states throughout this nation, the happiest by far is the state of relaxation 11:10.283 --> 11:16.525 There will be fewer breakdowns and insomniacs  when more of us have learned to be relaxed 11:16.525 --> 11:22.894 We'll be free to relish the joys of life, no  longer tense over daily worries and strife. 11:22.894 --> 11:52.703 [Music] 11:52.703 --> 11:59.360 Who was it said that we begin to grow wise when we learn not to chase too hard the things we prize? 12:02.486 --> 12:09.740 No one ever paid too high a price to gain  his goal who kept a relaxed mind and an untroubled soul. 12:09.740 --> 12:16.855 [Music] 12:17.718 --> 12:22.266 [Woman:] When your mind and muscles are relaxed, your body pleasantly tired rather than   12:22.266 --> 12:29.640 nervously exhausted, you're not only free of  worries, you are no longer troubled by insomnia.  12:29.640 --> 12:35.840 A relaxing bath, a warm drink, and a  good dull book are enough to make you 12:35.840 --> 12:42.564 [yawns] turn out the light. 12:42.564 --> 12:51.477 For those of us who succeed in changing our attitudes have learned the secret of mastering our moods. 12:51.477 --> 13:15.521 [Music]