PEACE OF MIND

PEACE OF MIND

By Alex P. Vidal 

"Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none." RICHARD M. DEVOS 

When survey results show we lag behind by a mile in the mayoral, congressional and gubernatorial race, there is no peace of mind. When there is no food on the table, there is no peace of mind. When monthly bills are stockpiling and there is no immediate cash available to settle them, there is no peace of mind.
When health is deteriorating, there is no peace of mind. When we lie and it remains under wraps for a long period of time, there is no peace of mind as we will languish in guilt. When we fabricate issues against our rivals, friends, classmates and officemates, there is no peace of mind. When we harbor hatred towards Facebook friends for no apparent provocation or casus belli there is no peace of mind. When we are at odds with our loved ones, there is no peace of mind.
Without peace of mind we can hardly start anything or pursue something and perform productive activities as this psychological baggage will bedevil us wherever we go like a Sword of Damocles.

LIST
When he was a young man, Dr. Joshua Liebman, author of a great inspirational bestseller, Peace of Mind, made a list of things he would like to have. The list was long and included such things as health, love, talent, power, wealth, and fame.
He showed the list around, asking others for their opinion. A wise, old friend of the young man's family looked the list over and said, Joshua this is an excellent list. It is set down in a reasonable order. But it appears, my young man, that you have omitted the most important element of all. You have forgotten one ingredient, lacking which, each possession becomes a hideous torment, and your list as a whole an intolerable burden.
And what is that missing ingredient? Joshua asked. The wise, old friend replied by taking a pencil and crossed out Joshua's entire list. Then he wrote down three words: Peace of Mind. That young man, Joshua Liebman, later became the author of the inspiring book which has sold millions of copies.
Peace of Mind answers a vital need. It correlates discoveries in the science of psychology with the eternal verities which have been handed down by generations of prophets and great religious leaders. Dr. Liebman explores the many factes of human emotions and reveals how, in the inward quest for peace of mind, the penetrating visions of psychology are an indispensable ally.

WISER

In his "word to the reader", Dr. Liebman wrote: "Many men far wiser that I are at work today planning social and economic change. For their creative labors, every thinking person must be grateful. We must join with them in the struggle to obtain a common victory for economic, industrial, and political democracy through the world. At the same time it should be recognized that the healthier society must be built by healthier human beings!
"The average person is at moments consumed with feelings of guilt about his relations to those closest to him; he wants to love people but feels withdrawn, rigid, and somehow frozen. At other moments he grows afraid without knowing exactly why he is afraid; he is particularly confused and unhappy when he faces the loss of a loved one or confronts the thought of his own death.

CONSPIRE

"Many religious books only conspire to make him feel more guilty and more sinful while many psychological books, although trying to reassure him, merely add to his inner confusion by making him feel somehow that he is a 'case history' in abnormal psychology. People keep their troubles and worries often too much to themselves because they do not know where to turn for wise guidance.
"Personal experience plus rich and varied contacts in my ministry led me to believe that a book written by a religionist explaining just what modern psychology has discovered about human beings, why we sometimes hate ourselves and hate others, why we grow afraid, why we lose faith in life and a God, might be of real help to perplexed moderns. This science also tells us what we can do to change ourselves and our mental attitudes in relation to our own personalities and in inter-relations with other human beings."