Hippocrates — "If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for …"
If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.
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More from Hippocrates
"Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that make him sick."
"If you cut open a man and find his liver black as pitch, he will die within seven days."
"It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."
"The powers of the elements are shown in the seasons."
"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
When emotions spiral downward, physical movement interrupts the cycle. Walking forces the body into rhythmic action, shifts attention outward, and triggers neurochemical changes that ease distress. The doubled instruction acknowledges that one attempt may not suffice — persistence matters. It's a practical, zero-cost prescription that bypasses the need for diagnosis or treatment: nature itself, accessed through simple locomotion, is the remedy. Modern neuroscience confirms exercise reduces cortisol and boosts endorphins.
Relevance to Hippocrates
Hippocrates (~460–370 BCE) rejected supernatural explanations for illness, insisting disease arose from natural causes — diet, environment, and lifestyle. His Hippocratic Corpus prescribes exercise as medicine, and he believed walking specifically aided digestion and mental clarity. This quote reflects his foundational conviction that the body heals itself when given proper conditions, and his pragmatic, patient-centered approach: simple, repeatable interventions over complex treatments.
The era
In 5th-century BCE Greece, illness was typically blamed on divine punishment or demonic forces, treated through prayer and ritual at temples of Asclepius. Hippocrates's radical contribution was insisting disease had physical, observable causes. Greek culture simultaneously celebrated physical excellence through athletics and the gymnasium. Recommending walking as medicine was both a philosophical break from superstition and an extension of the culture's deep reverence for the trained, active body.
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