The first is the habit of deep breathing. If we stand habitually with an erect carriage, chest up and the body plumb, we make room for the lungs to expand in the chest cavity down toward the abdomen. If we take an interest in breathing deeply, and acquire the habit of taking long breaths, especially when we are in the fresh air, this will bring an ample supply of oxygen to the blood and affect the health of our whole bodies, including that of the brain. If we do this consciously for a certain length of time, it will become a habit after a while, and then we shall be able to do it without thinking. If we exhaust the resources of the body by forcing the stomach to do more than its proper share of work, we may find ourselves less able to resist, if we should be attacked by pneumonia or scarlet fever, or even if we should suffer from a very bad cold or be put to any severe physical test.
All vice is a leakage of strength and vitality.
It is a form of highly concentrated selfishness, associated with some particular sense or appetite, that destroys the balance of character and undermines all other elements of strength. The most dangerous kind of indulgence is that which is private, or indulged with a ew companions as a relief from the sensations of fatigue or depression. There is little doubt that the real reason why we are permitted to suffer from depression, discouragement, and all other ills of life, is that we should strengthen our wills and become more manly by rising above these evils with courage and fortitude. The drink and the drug habits are man and sneaking ways of dodging the work that every moral being has to do, and trying to slide out of our responsibilities unnoticed by the back door. And, like all other forms of cowardice, they defeat their own ends and bring about a far more terrible state of misery than the discomforts they originally were intended to relieve, for the ultimate reactions of indulgence cause the worst sufferings of all.