Chapter 3 Exhausted Me!
Looking for inspiration and wishing for more energy, I picked up an old book that belonged to my grandmother.
The Power of Positive Thinking by Reverend Norman Vincent Peale is a book published back in 1952.
I lay down on the couch and stretched out, pillow under my head, to read for a while with hopes of relaxing and renewing my energy.
Chapter 1, Believe in Yourself, all right. To overcome imposter syndrome for writers, confidence shakiness for presenters, and negative thoughts for a tired teacher, believing in oneself can start to uplift thought and spirit. Thinking about reaching goals and picturing success in one’s aims does lead the mind and spirit to some new ideas.
Chapter 2, A Peaceful Mind Generates Power. I know this. Most people know that stress, anger, unforgiveness, and frustration deplete power. So, Peale’s advice about drowning out negative thoughts seems logical. However, when Peale wrote this book, the internet did not exist. In the early 1950s, few people had televisions; the president did not claim that factual unfavorable news was fake news, alternative facts aligned with dictators, violent attacks in political actions, pardoning people who actively attacked police officers, letting a non-elected person invade and devastate government systems, and the US aligning with Russia in votes and propaganda did not appear in Peale’s 1952. The transformative story illustrations in The Power of Positive Thinking are interesting but seem disconnected from 2025.
Get Virginia Heslinga’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
I often feel discouraged about ever achieving an unstressed mind except via meditation, prayer, and nature. Still, I went on to read Chapter 3.
Chapter 3, How to Have Constant Energy. I will say this was the chapter title that led me to start reading this book. I would love to feel more energy each day. Remember, I was stretched out comfortably on the couch while reading this chapter about attaining constant energy. By the end of reading Peale’s advice, I was exhausted! Though there was a table next to me with more books, I just let the book drop to the floor beside the couch.
I stared at the ceiling and remembered reading a quote by the once governor of Illinois. Presidential candidate and American ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, “Speaking as a Christina, I find the Apostle Paul appealing and the Apostle Peale appalling.”
Constant energy? The non-fiction suggestions from 1952 didn’t help.
I reached out toward the coffee table and picked up the latest installment of the Joe Pickett series by C. J. Box. Battle Mountain. We all have different battles on different sized mountains each day. The bibliotherapy I find in reading about people like Joe, Marybeth, Nate, Sheridan, and even Governor Rulon offers a calming sense of familiarity. I’ve been in Wyoming, but more influential is that I have followed this series by C.J. Box since its start in 2001. Evil, warped, and selfish characters exist, just like we have in our societies now, but the main character pursues justice even when it requires great sacrifice. Joe and Marybeth have a stable, often happy marriage. Even wild derailed loners, like Nate, grow more hopeful when their friendship grows with a person like Joe Pickett.
Characters in fiction or non-fiction who have a moral compass, act with care, take risks to have a positive effect on those they care about and on communities, and work to achieve goals give me energy. I became immersed in the tense choices and dangerous moments in this latest of the Joe Picket series. Through experiencing danger in safety, injustice that will eventually be revealed, and the persistent goodness of the main characters, I relaxed. Then, energized, I could get up and go after some good goals myself.
