The ancients said that there can not be a healthy mind in an unhealthy
body. And they established this rule for all to follow: “Keep your body
healthy and your mind will be healthy.”
By a healthy mind is meant a calm, cool, clear, active brain that can
act up to its full capacity without faltering, or falling down at
trifles.
To have that sort of brain, you must preserve your bodily health.
One patent way to lose your bodily health is to acquire bad habits of
any kind that you know are bad for you.
You have a headache in the morning, and no appetite. It does not require
a Solomon to tell what ails you. You have been drinking, carousing,
staying up late instead of going to bed and getting your necessary
sleep.
You have eaten things that do not agree with you, and so you must see a
doctor. Besides that, you are too sick to go to work.
All you have to go upon in this world are your health and your mind. It
does not matter what you do for a living, you must keep your wits about
you all the time, and you can not do this unless you keep your health.
The mind is so closely connected with the body that what affects one
affects the other, favorably or unfavorably.
Eat proper food, something that you know by experience will agree with
you. Take your accustomed sleep, and exercise your muscles to keep your
nerves—those nerves that spread up into the brain—in full play and ready
for emergencies.
A healthy man does not worry; he is an optimist and looks at the bright
side of life. An unhealthy man is a pessimist and sees things through a
dark cloud. He ends by running down at the heels, and ceases to possess
any economical functions.