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Rejuvenated

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 11.

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Rejuvenated

By MRS. M. E. STEWARD

MRS. M. E. STEWARD
MRS. COLE felt “all run down,” as she expressed it. All summer she had done the work for two small children, her husband, and two farm hands. Mr. Cole was not heartless; he did not intend his wife should overdo, he simply did not understand. He built the fires in the morning, and brought in the wood and water, though she often had to draw some herself with a windlass from a well eighty feet deep. She never felt rested, was tired when she arose in the morning, for she did not sleep well, and had no appetite. This woman went to Dr. Alice Wayland for advice.
“In the first place, you must have a good strong girl to take the housework,” Dr. Alice told her. “Meantime, take an hour in the forenoon and another in the afternoon for rest.”
“That’s impossible! Besides, the baby frets too much for me to rest,” said Mrs. Cole, very decidedly.
“Lie down when he is asleep.”
“That’s the best time I have to work.”
“You will find after a time that the baby will be more quiet as you get stronger. Select a comfortable, quiet place in the sunshine, and lie on your back, with your clothing perfectly loose. Lay a cool, wet, dark cloth over your head and eyes. Then let go of yourself.”
“I fear I do not get your meaning.”
“A nervous person is never at rest. Clinching the hand, snapping the fingers, swinging the foot, he is always in motion, or some part of the body is stiff. When sitting in a rocker, he involuntarily keeps rocking. Even the bed is not allowed to hold him, on account of this nervous tension. One can learn to fall instantly like a dead weight, whenever one lies down.
“Let the mind rest, as well as the body. Think of nothing, yet do not try to think of nothing; avoid making any effort of any kind, whether to think or not to think. Simply be perfectly passive, letting the mind be a vacuum. You may not find this condition at once, but move toward it, and you will certainly succeed.”
“I fear I’d fall asleep; then I’d be sure to sleep too long.”
“That would be a good thing, surely. If you positively cannot take more time, your little girl might awaken you; but lie quiet an hour, whether you sleep or not.
“Live as much as possible outdoors, at least three or four hours every day, and do all the work you can in the open air. For instance, if you have apples or potatoes to pare, go outside into the sunshine. Sit all you can while at work; you could even iron small articles on a lapboard while sitting. I hope you let your little girl assist you? A child five years old can do many things to help her mother, which will be for her own benefit as well.”
“I have no time to teach her.”
“Pardon me, but some things she might learn in five minutes. This alone would save part of the time you need for rest.”
“I am glad you mentioned it; strange I had not thought of it in that way before.”
Mrs. Cole followed the doctor’s suggestions, and in a little time was so much improved that she decided she could do her work comfortably without a girl, especially as harvesting was over and they would have no hired man. Mr. Cole said she should never work so again. He himself assisted her in many ways; and he felt paid many times over when he saw his wife more as she was when he married her, six years before, rather than the prematurely old woman she was fast becoming.
One day her husband read the following in her diary; while he playfully rallied her about it, he was not above uniting with her in its observance:—

“A Good Prescription for Daily Use”

“Don’t worry; seek peace and pursue it. Don’t hurry; too swift arrives as tardily as too slow. Sleep and rest abundantly. The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merriman. Spend less nervous energy than you make; work like a man, but don’t be worked to death. Be cheerful; a light heart lives long. Think only healthful thoughts: ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Avoid passion and excitement; a moment’s anger may be fatal. Associate with healthy people; health, as well as disease, is contagious. Don’t carry the whole world on your shoulders, far less the universe; trust in the good Lord. Never despair; lost hope is a fatal disease.”