The decision which is perhaps the hardest to make and, at the same time, the most important from the standpoint of health and working-power, is the decision not to care too much about the objects we are seeking to achieve. We need not subscribe to the Nirvana philosophy. A certain intensity of desire is normal, but modern life tends to a morbid frenzied intensity. Most of us need, in the interest of mental health or sanity, to moderate our desires. A business man who had set his heart on fulfilling a large responsibility nearly wrecked his health from worry over the outcome. His wise physician prescribed that, before sitting down to his desk each day, he should spend five minutes repeating and impressing on his mind the words, “I don’t give a hang! I don’t give a hang!” The truth is many people fail because of over-anxiety lest they fail. Some invalids die from an exaggerated desire not to die.

Ruling Ourselves

A helpful precept, when one is failing in some crucial undertaking from his very over-anxiety to succeed, is to replace the ambition to succeed by a determination to pass the crisis unruffled, whether one succeeds or fails, “He that ruleth himself is greater than he that taketh a city,” and incidentally if we rule ourselves we are far more likely than otherwise to take the city, if that be possible at all.

An ideal course of conduct implies a constant readiness, after all has been done which can be done, to renounce one’s feverish desires and accept whatever higher powers decree, even if it be death. This is one of the supreme aims of every great philosophy or religion. Job (13:15) said, “Though He slay me, yet will I put my trust in Him,” and Christ exclaimed, “If it be possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

CHAPTER V
HYGIENE IN GENERAL

Section I—The Fifteen Rules of Hygiene

The aids to health discussed in the preceding chapters may be summarized in specific formulas classified under the four heads, Air, Food, Poisons, and Activity, corresponding to the four chapters, and under fifteen sub-heads, corresponding to the fifteen sections.

  1. Air.
    1. 1. Ventilate every room you occupy.
    2. 2. Wear light, loose and porous clothes.
    3. 3. Seek out-of-door occupations and recreations.
    4. 4. Sleep out, if you can.
    5. 5. Breathe deeply.
  2. Food.
    1. 6. Avoid overeating and overweight.
    2. 7. Eat sparingly of meats and eggs.
    3. 8. Eat some hard, some bulky, some raw foods.
    4. 9. Eat slowly.
  3. Poisons.
    1. 10. Evacuate thoroughly, regularly and frequently.
    2. 11. Stand, sit and walk erect.
    3. 12. Do not allow poisons and infections to enter the body.
    4. 13. Keep the teeth, gums and tongue clean.
  4. Activity.
    1. 14. Work, play, rest and sleep in moderation.
    2. 15. Keep serene.

The application of these rules to one’s daily life must be varied with each individual. The most practical method is for the individual to begin the improvement he would seek by constructing a typical day’s program in which time is provided for, say, breathing and other exercises in bed, bath, toilet, walk to business, meals, amusement, etc., with special notes and memoranda as to the particular faults of omission and commission to be corrected. One might also, as Benjamin Franklin records in his autobiography, keep a daily record for a week as to how nearly the program is lived up to. By dint of such and other stimuli, the transition in habits can be made, after which the “rules” cease to be rules, as carrying any sense of restriction, and become automatic like putting on or taking off one’s clothes.