MENS HILARIS, REQUIES MODERATA, DIAETA*

Thus promoted the professors of the Salerno school of medical thinking some very many years ago, and I guess, to a degree, it holds good today – at least on a day-to-day basis.

Concerning diet, it is well known that we eat both too much and in wrongly balanced amounts; look at the rise in the number of cases of obesity (especially in young people) and you will understand.

It’s not my place to tell you how and what to eat – that’s your responsibility mentally and physically – but balance is essential. Moderate rest is another matter; some of us can get along very well on a mere few hours of sleep, others need a good, full 8 and this goes into another matter of which I am highly dubious. There has been a “movement” towards what is called ‘power-napping’ – the concept of having short sleeping breaks during the working day. On the one hand, sleep refreshes the brain; on the other I fail to see how breaking the working day in such a manner can lead to sustained concentration on specific tasks and meeting objectives within a certain time-frame.

 A serene mind is again problematic. I wonder whether the good doctors of Salerno fully understood the meaning of “serenity” or perhaps this is a poor translation of their original intentions. My interpretation would be “composed” as I think this encompasses all that was intended originally. In these blogs over the past few months, a weird cross-section of “things” has appeared – blind squirrels, chameleons, tall poppies – all with the intention of passing on views and thoughts on how the individual can proceed in life. Personally, “composure” is all the aspects considered in these pages; and the first priority is, as always, personal understanding – who you are, what you need, where you wish to go – without answers to these and other questions I have asked, personal composure is a journey in progress.

* a serene mind, moderate rest, diet

Until next time,

P.S.