[To listen to an audio version of this blog, please click here: http://bit.ly/2iV8hVz]

I always associate that phrase with slightly sweaty, red-faced, public-school type chaps who have just come off the rugby field and wouldn't recognise a complex if it hissed at them and battered them over the head with a two-by-four. Even then, they might frown slightly and wonder if this was some kind of new-fangled mathematical theorem.

But it popped into my mind yesterday and so I thought I'd play with it for a while.

These words are widely used in sporting and educational contexts to express the theory that physical exercise is an important or essential part of mental and psychological well-being.

But it's not just exercise, is it?

What is it to have a healthy mind in a healthy body?

For many of us reading this, it is just a dream. Our minds have been so battered by depression for so long we wonder if they will ever heal. Many of us have chronic physical health conditions which contribute to the mental anguish.

But maybe we could do something to help a bit. After all, every little helps, doesn't it?

Exercise is part of it of course, but we probably all know someone who is fit but not healthy. The brain needs to be exercised as well as the body and nutrition plays a big part in maintaining the health of both mind and body.

So – for my next three blogs I will be thinking about nutrition, exercise and meditation. I will be your guinea-pig (with apologies to my own lovely guinea-pigs, Nugget and Patchy). And I will let you know how I get on.

• Healthy Eating: what diet helps best with depression and how can we stick to it?

• Exercise: how much and of what type is good for us?

• Meditation: What form, if any, is right?

I'll be honest and say that I have been playing with the healthy eating thing for a long time, but have only recently taken it on seriously (the tummy was getting to the stage where it needed its own postcode). You know that I swim, but I don't do anything else in the least bit strenuous, and – meditation always seemed to demand time I would rather spend doing other things. So, this will honestly be a new experiment for me too.

I'm sure many of you have your own views. Many of you will have found strategies which work for you. Maybe I have missed something vital in my elements above. So – please do click through to the comments to make your point; you can do it anonymously if you like – I won't tell!

After all, we all know that body and mind are not separate – every one of us is a holistic unit.

I'll see you next week when I report in on nutrition.

Mary

A Moodscope member.