A gifted American psychologist has said, 'Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches
hold of something and will not let it go.' It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition.
The stronger the will, the more futile the task. One can only gently insinuate something else into
its convulsive grasp. And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the
illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip
relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins.
The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of the first importance
to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised
by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. The
seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if
the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed.
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must
all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: 'I will take an interest in this or that.'
Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of
topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet get hardly any benefit or relief. It is no use
doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be
divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and
those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard
week's sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday
afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been
working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at
the weekend.
As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice
and lay their hands on almost every object of desire -- for them a new pleasure, a new excitement
is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying
to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or
another is the most hopeful path.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two
classes: first,those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly those
whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their
compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not
\only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most
modest forms. But Fortune's favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural
harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary
holidays, when they come, are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to
both classes, the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of
effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those
who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.