The hygiene of mind / by T.S. Clouston.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The hygiene of mind / by T.S. Clouston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    through suitable food and through systematic periods of rest to carry a comfortable amount of fat. Mrs. Carlyle wrote to a friend after she had had a month’s rest from housekeeping and from the temper of the great philosopher, “ Thank God for that blessed stone of fat!—it has made a new woman of me.” Some men and women,' so long as there is no special stress and trial in life, go on quite well, doing their work effectively, but they have no spare energy laid up in the shape of fat or nervous tone, and so they live always on the edge of a precipice. The pessimist or the hypo- chondriac may be so by reason of his organisation, and nothing could have saved him from it, or he may be so through neglect of obvious health rules and of a reason- able Mental Hygiene. Such people do not get the most out of life, and they often become a nuisance to their friends and relations and a dead weight to society. Some nervous people are liable to sudden collapses, slackness in work, getting jaded long before holiday-time, and becoming stale and irritable. Unquestionably in many cases such conditions might have been avoided. Then to go to the other extreme. The over-sanguine, boisterous and rash man might, if he studied his own constitution, largely curb himself from over-speculation and excitement if he knew himself well enough. There is no doubt that there is a mental gymnastic that can be and should be practised by reasonable men who wish to keep their mental faculties correlated and under control, just as bodily gymnastics do for the muscles and the internal organs. One such mental gymnastic recommended by my friend. Dr. George Wilson, is for every man for some period of each day, short or long as opportunity occurs, calmly to look at the sky or the hills or big trees or sheets of water, absolutely excluding every other mental impression, while the great things of nature are thus got into the life. Most men will find this will add a little to their conscious equanimity and make them more