Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
It is necessary to be interested in the activities about us. Those who
think of nothing or no one except themselves are almost dead to the
world, even though they go through the same physical activities as other
people. The tendency is to get into a rut with advancing years and
remain there. It is easy to keep both a pliable mind and a pliable body
in spite of age, and this can be done by intelligent use. A short time
daily should be spent in becoming informed of what is happening
throughout the world and thinking it over. A mental hobby is most
excellent. A garden or a few birds can furnish an almost inexhaustible
source of interest. Those who doubt this should read of the comedy and
tragedy among such humble beings as the spider, the fly and the beetle.
J. H. Fabre has written charmingly about these, investing them with an
interest rarely to be found in good fiction. This naturalist is a good
example of what can be accomplished when one has years to do it in and
is content to labor along from day to day without giving too much
thought for the morrow. At fifty Mr. Fabre was practically unknown. Now,
at about ninety, he is one of the most admired and best loved of men.
His recognition came late and he has done much of his best work during
his later years. If Mr. Fabre had died at the average age of forty, the
world would have been deprived of his beautiful insight.
Another cause of old age is getting mentally old. An individual begins
to grow old by dwelling on the subject. The girl of thirteen must cease
romping and racing about because it is not lady-like. At twenty-five it
is very, very undignified to run a little. At forty a woman must be
rather sedate, for being natural would mean frivolity. People are
continually growing too old to do this and that, not because they have
lost the desire and the ability, but because it is unbecoming at their
age. This is folly. Keep a young heart all through life. A heartfelt
laugh is one of nature's best tonics. There is no more harm in dancing
at fifty than at fifteen and not so much danger.
The relaxation of muscles and sagging of the face are as much the result
of mental attitude as of loss of tonicity. Thinking young and
associating with children are helpful and healthful. People who are very
stiff and dignified are mentally sterile. The charming people are the
ones who are willing and able to understand and sympathize with the aims
and aspirations of others, and in order to do so it is necessary to thaw
out.
The art of life is delightful if properly developed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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