For Elegance and Beauty

If you are in the era of youth, you must re-examine the rules of health that you are bound to follow. And be honest in your judgment, to decide whether you are working sincerely to apply them. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you do athletic exercises every day?
Do you drink at least six glasses of water daily? Make certain that your intestines are performing their required work without any hindrance. If you complain of any weakness in your body — in the chest, for instance, or the eyes, or the digestive system — do you try to forget it, or do you strive to correct it at once before it grows worse? Do you breathe deeply at regular intervals while at work?

And do you sleep seven and a half hours every night of the week?

It is quite possible for you to neglect these matters for ten years or more, but a day is bound to come when you will feel your mistake and what your negligence has brought upon your beauty and your youth, and you will be sorry. Yet in spite of this, you must hasten at once to correct the error without delay, for time has not yet escaped you, whatever age you may have reached. Therefore you should hold to the following instructions:

If your digestion is not as it should be, this may be caused by your excess in drinking tea or coffee, or by your eating heavily and at times when you are upset over some matter; or perhaps the condition of your teeth is bad — so go to the dentist repeatedly and at regular intervals.

The more you advance in years, the further you move from the era of youth, and the fewer your active pursuits become, since you are obliged to spend most of your time indoors. Accordingly, you should substitute deep breathing for exercise. There is no further need for the strenuous exertions you used to perform in the days of youth.

And perhaps you complain of nervous pains or the like — are you still treating the disease with the disease, drinking quantities of coffee and tea?

If that is the case, you must cut down on drinking tea, coffee, and acid drinks. And know that swelling in the joints, and the aches you feel before a change in the weather, are unsatisfactory signs showing that your state of health is not what it ought to be.

You should also drink plenty of pure water between meals.
For water cleanses the intestines and helps purify the blood. And bathe daily, for that removes acidity from the skin and helps greatly in preserving energy and vitality; it likewise benefits the joints, helping to remove the aches in them.

The customary daily movement you perform may indeed be tiring, and yet it may not take in all parts of the body, so that a number of them remain idle. You must therefore exercise these members daily — usually the fingers of the hands and the toes of the feet.

And perhaps the daily work you do is such as to tire your eyes and weaken them; so do not delay in taking the necessary measures to safeguard your sight by consulting a skillful doctor.

And finally: do you fret over things that cannot happen? Do trivial worries without any foundation flood your soul? Then it is time you gave yourself rest from them, lightening the load on your mind and your body, and slept more than you used to sleep, leaving aside these worries and illusions, which are of no use whatever.