CHEERFULNESS AN AID TO HEALTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 December 1913, Page 2

CHEERFULNESS AN AID TO HEALTH.

Some, of the sunniest dispositions are those of confirmed invalids who have the strength of will to ignore their own sufferings in order not to cast a gloom over their family and f-riends. So that it is not so much a condition of bodily health as of moral, and no reasonable person can doubt that the physical condition is largely influenced by the prevailing state of our mind. It is not only that "a merry heart makcth a cheerful countenance," but it also , helps to make*a l;ealth.y.body; for wC are told that ,*AA".' merry heart doeth good like a medicine.' 1 . The correctness of this latter statement is seen in the fact that it is much easier for a person to'recover from an attack of illness if he is cheerful and hopeful than when he is either indifferent as to his recovery or despairs of it. This is also altogether aside from the strength of purpose which often helps one to throw off an illness by sheer force of will. Just as the bodily health is improved by cheerfulness, so tho mental condition is benefited by it. A sour, nervous, irritable, melancholy person cannot take a correct view of anything, it affects his judgment in business matters, inclines him always to take a gloomy view of the state of trade, and to believe that every transaction in which he engages is sure to prove a failure. Were the business world largely made up of such men there would be an end to every enterprise which invovled any element' of chance; for they would be unwilling to risk money in any venture unless ite results were abso-

lutely certain to bo n Miecess. Besides this, a ihoroso maji never judges his fellow men fairly, but he is alwavs on "the lookout for flaws in their character, and few persons occupying subordinate -positions m business realise how much the value of their services is increased by the cheerfulness with which they are rendered.