ugh
the supply of air given to the lungs as through that of food given to
the stomach? The right supply of fresh air has such wonderful power to
keep us rested!

Practical teaching to the children here would, among other things, give
them training which would open their lungs and enable them to take in
with every breath the full amount of oxygen needed toward keeping them
rested. There are so many cells in the lungs of most people, made to
receive oxygen, which never receive one bit of the food they are hungry
for.

There is much more, of course, very much more, to say about the working
of the machinery of the inside of the body and about the plain common
sense needed to keep it well and rested, but I have said enough for now
to start a thoughtful mind to work.

Now for keeping the body well rested from the outside. It is all so
well arranged for us--the night given us to sleep in, a good long day
of work and a long night of rest; so the time for rest and the time for
work are equalized and it is so happily arranged that out of the
twenty-four hours in the day, when we are well, we need only eight
hours' sleep. So well does nature work and so truly that she can make
up for us in eight hours' sleep what fuel we lose in sixteen hours of
activity.

Only one-third of the time do we need to sleep, and we have the other
two-thirds for work and play. This regular sleep is a strong force in
our aim to keep rested. Therefore, the plain common sense of that is to
find out how to go to sleep naturally, how to get all the rest out of
sleep that nature would give us, and so to wake refreshed and ready for
the day.

To go to sleep naturally we must learn how to drop all the tension of
the day and literally _drop_ to sleep like a baby. _Let go into
sleep_--there is a host of meaning in that expression. When we do that,
nature can revive and refresh and renew us. Renew our vitality, bring
us so much more brain power for the day, all that we need for our work
and our play; or almost all--for there are many little rests during the
day, little openings for rest that we need to take, and that we can
teach ourselves to take as a matter of course. We can sit restfully at
each one of our three meals. Eat restfully and quietly, and so make
each meal not only a means of getting nourishment, but of getting rest
as well. There is all the difference of illness and health in taking a
meal with strain and a sense of rush and pressure of work,