Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
If ill, eat nothing, but live on water.
Eat only when there is a desire for food.
Masticate all foods thoroughly.
Always be moderate in your food intake.
These are the four golden rules regarding eating, and if they were
adhered to, they would save us from an incalculable amount of sin and
suffering. They would increase the duration of life and the joy of
living. They would add to our physical and mental prosperity. Hence they
are worthy of the emphasis given them.
In brief: Physical health is based on internal cleanliness, which can be
attained only through moderation, that is, by not habitually
overburdening the system, especially with food. Our bodies thrive when
used, but not when abused. It is necessary for our physical well-being
to get air, sunshine, water, food, sleep, rest, exercise, work and play
in proper proportion, and in addition cultivate a kindly, balanced
spirit. Drugs, such as alcohol, coffee, morphine, bromine, and hundreds
of others which could be named, are not only unnecessary, but harmful.
The mental side is as important as the physical side. With a healthy
body it is easy to have a happy outlook. Indigestion and biliousness can
make a dreary waste out of the most beautiful landscape. The body and
mind react and interact, one upon the other. When one is poised it is
easy to get the other into balance. It requires a poised body to produce
the best fruitage--a fine spirit.
It is necessary to be honest with one's self. Face life courageously and
honestly. If you do, you will soon realize that the physical and mental
ills from which you suffer are mostly of your own making. Then you can
choose whether to let them continue or to end them, but if you choose to
remain ill, bear your cross uncomplainingly, for you have no right to
afflict others with your self-imposed sufferings.
On the other hand, try to see life from the view point of others, and
you will often find that what you think is the highest good and most
desirable in life does not seem worthy of great effort to them. Variety
adds spice to life. To impose one's own views and ways on others has
always seemed desirable to the majority of people, but it is the height
of folly and stupidity. So long as the race exists there will be many
men of many minds, and it is best so. We can not force any benefit, such
as health or goodness, upon others. Instead of attracting, the process
of forcing repels.
What we can do mentally to benefit ourselves and others is to get
adjusted, to cultivate kindness and charity, to be broad-minded and
forgiving, to be slow to take and give offense, to accept the little
buffetings that fate has in store for us all with good grace, and
through it all to possess our souls in patience.
Physically, be moderate.
Mentally, cultivate equanimity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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