FILL LIFE WITH FRISKY FEELINGS

Does it happen to you? Suddenly, for no obvious reason, you sink in the blues, lose your zest and vim. You
have no spark left which means no spirit to live life to the full. This happens despite the fact (you know it) that
the human body has limitless store of energy. This keeps renewing automatically. Like after six hours of sound
sleep. This means that the more you use, the more you have. That you should be able to work for long hours
without physical or mental fatigue.

Dr Donald Laird points out we use energy in two different ways: in visually seen activities, and partly non-seen
activities. Body functions like breathing, heart-beating and other automatic functions belong to the former
category. Energy is also used, for example, in hard thinking which belongs to the latter class. More is
consumed in worrying and other frustrating negative feelings.

If you find yourself sapped up or drained out, you should ask yourself the reason. "Why? When energy should
be ample what unseen activity is draining me out?" 

You are half-alive, struck in a rut, following deadening routine, hating it, but also shrinking away from
anything disrupting it. You go through life, wrapped up in a tiny bundle, wondering why life has become a
serial of monotony, nothingness, frustration and void. 

Life is as interesting as ever. It is you who have 'decayed'. Many things have happened. You have experienced
failure, setbacks and disappointments. You give up. You accept defeat and sink into despair; then, begin to
wallow in it—sign of self-pity, the worst of human feelings.

You develop the habit of closing the mind to anything that is new, different or difficult. You never give
yourself the chance to try something new. If you want to add vim to your life, you have to put life  into your
living.

Your eyes may be open in the sense that you do not hit posts or walk into the oncoming truck. But mentally,
you may be far away. Though the eye may see, the mind does not take it in. Life becomes monotonous because
you are not really part of it.

You avert your gaze because somebody may want you to do something, or reveal a desire to draw closer to you
in terms of seeking love or friendship.

You end as being a curiosity-seeker, one who swarms where an accident has occurred without any intention of
rendering help. 

Nobody is going to advise you to jump head first into everything that comes your way. But if you want to beat
listlessness, you will have to be responsive to people and try to like them than dislike them. You will have to be
reasonably trustful, not always suspicious and on your guard.

Fear, frustration or jealousy upset the balance of life, glands and automatic functions. The touchier you are the
more energy you waste on conflicts, clashes and irritations.

Any worthwhile interest demands quite a bit of effort and concentration. When we become interested, we get
enthusiastic, and there is nothing like enthusiasm for beating boredom.

Dr Norman Vincet Peale says, "A man will succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm."

The original meaning of the Greek word enthusiasm is "God in you" or "Full of God". This means a person
with enthusiasm has a supernatural power. He can lord over obstacles, difficulties and achieve the near
impossible.

Dr Peale says, "...you can put behind your efforts, the power of your conviction. Enthusiasm is thus activated,
develops and starts working." He goes on "And when real burning enthusiasm for something gets involved,
your persuasive powers are enormously increased." He calls it "persuasive enthusiasm".

If you want to beat lifelessness, do not sit back and brood. Do something about it. Do not feel blue. Become
outward-looking.

"Without enthusiasm, nothing great was ever achieved", wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. With enthusiasm, an
average man has boundless possibilities for successful achievement.
The capacity to develop fire in one's belly does not depend on whether or not one was born with or without
certain characteristics. When someone feels habitually tired out and fed up with life, it can be physical ill
health. Usually, however, it is not. Such a condition is apt to be a matter of having adopted a faulty mental
approach to life.

William James, the great psychologist, expressed the prescription  like this: "Every sort of energy and
endurance of courage and capacity for handling life's evils is set free in those who have religious faith."

"My philosophy of life is to do good and have a good time. Life is not worth living, I think, if we do not help
others and enjoy being alive."

"The four best things I have found in this world are knowledge, money, kindness and fun. If I have increased
these, then my life has had some value."

It is always worth remembering that  a single thought can transform a life. "Every day is a new life to a wise
man."

A person who complains that his job kills his enthusiasm is only half doing the job. He may not have learned
enough about it. He may be missing fascinating possibilities right under his nose. He may be expecting
spectacular results too soon.
A scientist may plod on with experiments and investigations day after day for years, without producing
anything of value. He is disappointed, he must continue to see each new day as a great opportunity for reaching
some goal or getting nearer to some ultimate target.

It may be to learn to do something really well. One of the finest recipes for developing greater enthusiasm is:
simply start learning something new.

Another lesson is to be found in a comparison of two men who both retired in reasonable health at about the
same time. One was embittered because his firm would not allow him promotion. He came to regard it as the
end of real life. He lives on regrets and memories.

The other man draws up for himself a plan, and starts living a new life. He is now doing many of the things he
had previously wanted to find time to do.