MENTAL PICTURES FOR RELAXATION

Stand on a balcony of a little cabin at the edge of a crystal-clear mountain lake in the deep woods. On the floor of the balcony have a basket of heavy balls of various sizes. Pick up the largest ball, give it a mighty heave. It will splash into the placid water and disappear, sending a series of strong ripples circling out towards the shore. Finally, the ripples fade, the lake is smooth again, mirroring the sky and surrounding trees. Now throw the next largest ball and watch the ripples, not quite so far-moving or so violent. Choose and toss ball after ball, watching the splash and the ripples, each ball smaller until you take the very smallest, the size and weight of a marble. This makes little fast-travelling ripples that very quickly, quiet down and once more allow the water's surface to smooth and reflect a puff of passing cloud.

One pupil, a motion picture star, liked to remember a summer day as he sat at the edge of a deep swimming pool, under an umbrella. In memory, he would sip cool drinks and watch a feminine diving contest. He would see one contestant after another climb the ladder to the springboard, trip out to the board's end and pose. He would note the gay colour of her bathing suit as she balanced with arms extended, then imagine her executing a fancy dive, cutting the water clean, to disappear from view. In memory, he watched for her to reappear at the opposite end of the pool and join the others.

An elderly woman enjoyed a visit to a florist shop. She would -remember all the beautiful flowers likely to be found there in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Abridge fan enjoyed going through a pack of cards mentally, recalling the spots on each card and how they were arranged. Then, being an expert, she would reconstruct a winning rubber she had played- recently.

One young man whose sport was bowling liked to remember a bowling match in which he had run up a big score against his opponent. A little girl liked to shoot with her bow and arrow at beautiful coloured balloons as they were released into the breeze, one after' another, floating across the sky. One who loved the ocean liked to watch, in memory, sparkling summer seas with heavy surf, each breaker as it gathered and plunged to shore tossing its lace-fringed ruffles to the breeze. Suppose, however, you are in no mood to think beautiful scenes but have five minutes respite in a hectic day that you could use for palming if only you were able to relax your mind. Here is a suggestion: Remember the shapes of some familiar things, the most familiar shapes in our civilisation being letters or numbers.

Can you remember how a white board fence would look if you stood at one end and glanced down its row of thirty boards? They are wide boards, spaced neatly about two inches apart. But this is not the usual rough whitewashed board fence. These boards have been sandpapered to a satin smoothness, then painted with shiny white enamel so that they glisten in the sun. Can you imagine approaching the first white board, small paintbrush in one hand, a pail of blackest enamel in the other? Dip your brush into the black paint and carefully print a black numeral 'Y' on that white enamel board, then step over to the next board. On it, paint a numeral and step over, paint numeral etc. When your brush runs out of paint, dip it again into the black enamel to keep your numbers on the white boards uniform in blackness. Probably long before you have arrived at your mind and your eyes will be relaxed for, you cannot do two things at one time, fret -and loosen, or worry and relax: