Reference: The Happiness Rundown
1. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
1-1. Get care when you are ill. When they are ill, even with communicable diseases, people often do not isolate themselves or seek proper treatment. This, as you can easily see, tends to put you at risk. Insist that when someone is ill that he or she takes the proper precautions and gets proper care.
1-2. Keep your body clean. People who do not bathe or wash their hands regularly can carry germs. They put you at risk. You are well within your rights to insist that people bathe regularly and wash their hands. It is inevitable that one gets dirty working or exercising. Get them to clean up afterwards.
1-3. Preserve your teeth. If one brushed one’s teeth after every meal, it has been said that one would not suffer tooth decay. This, or chewing gum after each meal, goes far toward defending others from oral diseases and bad breath. Suggest to others that they preserve their teeth.
1-4. Eat properly. People who do not eat properly are not of much help to you or themselves. They tend to have a low energy level. They are sometimes ill-tempered. They become ill more easily. It doesn’t require strange diets to eat properly but it does require that one eats nourishing food regularly.
1-5. Get rest. Although many times in life one has to work beyond normal sleep periods, a person’s general failure to get proper rest can make him or her a burden to others. Tired people are not alert. They can make mistakes. They have accidents. Just when you need them they can dump the whole workload on one. They put others at risk. Insist that people who do not get proper rest do so.
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Exercise
0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Prologue. Study the precept above.
1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).
(a) “Have you been told or taught not to take care of yourself?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to taking care of yourself?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t take care of yourself?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with taking care of yourself?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about taking care of yourself?”
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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers:
(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Take care of yourself’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Take care of yourself’?”
Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.
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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:
“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Take care of yourself’?”
If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:
“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”
If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.
“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?”
“Is there any time when you decided that not taking care of yourself was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely.
”Do you have any reservations about taking care of yourself?”
If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.
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5. Contemplate on the following question.
“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to take care of himself or herself?”
If any reservation comes up, then consider the following:
“How would that be a problem?”
Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.
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