More on Coue's "Method"

Coue’s Method

Take a piece of string and tie in it 20 knots. By this means you can count with a minimum expenditure of attention how many times you say “Day by day, in every way, I’m getting better and better. On getting into bed close your eyes, relax your muscles and take up a comfortable posture. These are no more than the ordinary preliminaries of slumber. Now repeat twenty times, counting by means of the knots, “Day by day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.

The words should be utter aloud, that is, loud enough to be audible to your own ears. In this way the idea is reinforced the movements of lips and tongue and by the auditory impressions conveyed through the ear. Say it simply, WITHOUT EFFORT, like a child absently murmuring a nursery rhyme. Thus you avoid an appeal to the critical faculties of the conscious mind which would lesson the emergence  of the Unconscious mind. Don’t try to think what you are saying. On the contrary, let the mind wander whither it will; if it rests on the formula, all the better. If it strays elsewhere do not recall it. As long as your repetition does not come to a full stop, your mind-wandering will be less disturbing than would be the effort to recall your thoughts as an act of will.