Body Affects Mind
11
Wrong Habits Yield Distorted Concepts—Brother ____, you
dwell upon yourself. You view many things in a perverted light. You
have suspicion of men, great distrust and jealousy, and you surmise
evil. You think everybody is determined to ruin you. Many of these
trials originate with you yourself. Many things are construed by you
to be premeditated to injure you, when this is farthest from the real
truth. You do yourself the greatest injury by your wrong course.
You are your greatest enemy. Your wrong habits unbalance the
circulation of the blood and determine [direct] the blood to the brain,
and then you view everything in a perverted light. You are quick and
high-tempered, and you have not cultivated self-control. Your will and
your way seem right to you. But unless you see the defects in your
character and wash your robe and make it white in the blood of the
Lamb, you will surely fail of everlasting life. You love the theory of
the truth, but you do not let it sanctify your life. You do not carry out
in your daily deportment the principles of the truth you profess.—Lt
27, 1872.
Physical Habits Affect the Brain—The brain is the citadel of
the being. Wrong physical habits affect the brain and prevent the
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attainment of that which the students desire—a good mental discipline.
Unless the youth are versed in the science of how to care for the body
as well as for the mind, they will not be successful students. Study is
not the principal cause of breakdown of the mental powers. The main
cause is improper diet, irregular meals, a lack of physical exercise, and
careless inattention in other respects to the laws of health. When we
do all that we can to preserve the health, then we can ask God in faith
to bless our efforts.—
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students,
299
(1913).
Peter and Body-Mind Relationship—The apostle Peter under-
stood the relation between the mind and the body and raised his voice
in warning to his brethren: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers
and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (
1
Peter 2:11
). Many regard this text as a warning against licentiousness
only; but it has a broader meaning. It forbids every injurious grati-
fication of appetite or passion. Every perverted appetite becomes a
warring lust. Appetite was given us for a good purpose, not to be-
come the minister of death by being perverted, and thus degenerating
into “lusts which war against the soul.” [
See next chapter, “Diet and