If any one wants to prove the correctness of this observation let him watch himself, especially if it is necessary for him to go downstairs to get to the station, while he is walking down the steps.  The drawing back or contracting of the muscles, as if they were intelligently trying to prevent us from reaching the train on time, is most remarkable.  Of course all that impeding contraction comes from resistance, and it seems at first sight very strange that we should resist the accomplishment of the very thing we want to do.  Why should I resist the idea of catching a train, when at the same time I am most anxious to do so?  Why should my muscles reflect that resistance by contracting, so that they directly impede my progress?  It seems a most singular case of a house divided against itself for me to want to take a train, and for my own muscles, which are given me for my command, to refuse to take me there, so that I move toward the train with an involuntary effort away from it.  But when the truth is recognized, all this muscular contraction is easily explained.  What we are resisting is not the fact of taking the train, but the possibility of losing it.  That resistance reflects itself upon our muscles and causes them to contract.  Although this is a practical truth, it takes us some time to realize that the fear of losing the train is often the only thing that prevents our catching it.  If we could once learn this fact thoroughly, and live from our clearer knowledge, it would be one of the greatest helps toward taking all things in life quietly and without necessary strain.  For the fact holds good in all hurry.  It is the fear of not accomplishing what is before us in time that holds us back from its accomplishment.

This is so helpful and so useful a truth that I feel it necessary to repeat it in many ways.  Fear brings resistance, resistance impedes our progress.  Our faculties are paralyzed by lack of confidence, and confidence is the result of a true consciousness of our powers when in harmony with law.  Often the fear of not accomplishing what is before us is the only thing that stands in our way.

If we put all hurry, whether it be an immediate hurry to catch a train, or the hurry of years toward the accomplishment of the main objects of our lives,—­if we put it all under. the clear light of this truth, it will eventually relieve us of a strain which is robbing our vitality to no end.

First, the times that we must hurry should be minimized.  In nine cases out of ten the necessity for hurry comes only from our own attitude of mind, and from no real need whatever.  In the tenth case we must learn to hurry with our muscles, and not with our nerves, or, I might better say, we must hurry without excitement.  To hurry quietly is to most people an unknown thing, but when hurry is a necessity, the process of successive effort in it should be pleasant and refreshing.

If in the act of needful hurry we are constantly teaching ourselves to stop resistance by saying over and over, through whatever we may be doing, “I am perfectly willing to lose that train, I am willing to lose it, I am willing to lose it,” that will help to remove the resistance, and so help us to learn how to make haste quietly.