Precept 1, Take Care of Yourself
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 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.
