Greetings:

There's an interesting contradiction found in Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. When he made his list of the virtues, he included "Moderation." He defined the virtue as "avoid extremes. . ." Yet, if you look at his life, he lived in an extreme way. So, if you're keeping up with these Health Strategies, and if you've read Franklin's Autobiography, and you've wondered why I threw out the virtue moderation, it's because I think health and happiness and productivity sometimes requires extremes. So, is there a virtue that Franklin omitted from his list and will it improve health?

In the spirit of a 13-week course that teaches the virtues (Franklin's original plan), I thought it would be worth looking at the healthy and productive to see if there might be a virtue that Franklin left off his list. I think it's the virtue of "Thinking" and it seems common to the healthy.

Thinking is the ability to pause in the space emphasized by Steven Covey in his books: the space between stimulus and response. It's the ability to pause in this space and consider (or Think) about what action or attitude might be best.

The best tool for pausing and considering seems to be a pen and paper since writing seems to focus and crystalize the thought. But, any tool that facilitates the pause will help. I've known some who turn off the radio and just think on the commute home, "Did my behavior today match what I know to be best for me and those around me?" Some use daily prayer or scripture reading. Some use their walking time for such thinking. Charles Dickens and Thoreau and many political leaders were ferocious with their walking and used this time for thinking.

Ignore thinking and it reduces the ability to earn and to contribute and the body suffers. Ignore thinking and relationships become more governed by prejudice, narcissism, and paranoia, Ignore thinking and conscience becomes numbed and vision dim. All of these changes lead to more stress, fewer resources, and damaged health.

Read on...