Physical Exercise
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are always busy, and go cheerfully about the performance of their daily
tasks, are the most happy and healthy. The rest and composure of night
brings to their wearied frames unbroken slumber....
Exercise will aid the work of digestion. To walk out after a meal,
hold the head erect, put back the shoulders, and exercise moderately,
will be a great benefit. The mind will be diverted from self to the
beauties of nature. The less the attention is called to the stomach
after a meal, the better. If you are in constant fear that your food will
hurt you, it most assuredly will. Forget self, and think of something
cheerful.
Colds and Fresh Air
Many labor under the mistaken idea that if they have taken cold,
they must carefully exclude the outside air and increase the temperature
of their room until it is excessively hot. The system may be deranged,
the pores closed by waste matter, and the internal organs suffering
more or less inflammation, because the blood has been chilled back
from the surface and thrown upon them. At this time, of all others,
the lungs should not be deprived of pure, fresh air. If pure air is ever
necessary, it is when any part of the system, as the lungs or stomach,
is diseased. Judicious exercise would induce the blood to the surface
and thus relieve the internal organs. Brisk, yet not violent, exercise in
the open air, with cheerfulness of spirits, will promote the circulation,
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giving a healthful glow to the skin, and sending the blood, vitalized
by the pure air, to the extremities. The diseased stomach will find
relief by exercise. Physicians frequently advise invalids to visit foreign
countries, to go to the springs, or to ride upon the ocean, in order
to regain health; when, in nine cases out of ten, if they would eat
temperately and engage in healthful exercise with a cheerful spirit,
they would regain health and save time and money. Exercise and a
free and abundant use of the air and sunlight—blessings which Heaven
has freely bestowed upon all—would give life and strength to the
emaciated invalid....