About eating and drinking
“So when a person eats and drinks, his vessels are filled and warmed with the juice from the food and drink, and that juice warms the blood and liquid in the vessels, and the blood that is in the flesh acquires its red color from the juice in the vessels.
Since your own well-being depends very much on the right diet, you should always make sure that you eat “the right thing”. Hildegard's nutritional advice is based on “subtlety” (medicinal value of food), “viriditas” (green power/life energy) and “discretio”, moderation. According to Hildegard, spelled is the basis of the “correct” diet.
The bile and its diseases
“...But the person in whom bile has greater powers than black bile can easily control anger. The person in whom the black bile is stronger than the bile is easily provoked to anger... But the black bile increases from bad, bitter, unclean and poorly prepared food...
Hildegard once again points out that eating and drinking correctly, in conjunction with moderation and avoiding kitchen poisons and bad eating habits, influences black bile. We should always pay attention to a balance between black bile and bile. A “Hildegardian” meal promotes the flow of bile and thus brings about better digestion, while kitchen poisons and excess cause the black bile to overflow and thus also bring about anger.
Movement and rest, i.e. H. The healthy rhythm of life between work and leisure
“... If a man who is physically healthy walks around for a long time or stands upright for a long time, he does not suffer much harm from it... but he who is frail should sit... because but the woman is weaker than the man...she should only walk or stand moderately...Whoever rides on the horse, on the other hand, hardly suffers any damage because he is in the fresh air.
Today we know how important it is to get enough exercise in fresh air, especially in order to have enough oxygen, reduce aggression and cope better with noise and stress. Gardening, horse riding and hiking are ideal here. However, everyone should only expect as much as they can physically tolerate. The right measure also applies here!
Sleeping and waking
“When a person sleeps, his marrow recovers...If someone sleeps for a moderate amount of time, he will remain healthy...But it often happens that a person is awake and cannot sleep when his mind is occupied by various thoughts and circumstances and problems or caught in great joy...Man should not sleep immediately after eating...
Hildegard warns us not to turn night into day, so to get enough sleep to regenerate our overstressed nerves. But she also explains the psychological hygiene you do every evening, reviewing the day again, reconciling with the people with whom you were not in harmony that day and then consciously letting go of the day. This is the only way to guarantee a restful sleep.
The Right Awakening
“Just as the light of day is announced by the dawn, so the human sensibility, together with reason, opens up all the powers of the soul. It enlivens the face of the human being, so that the human being's emotional life becomes touched and wide awake for all things.