Surely not constipation though

Cyril Connolly on things which stimulate or calm the mind, rev up the 'Flight of Ideas' or rev it down to a kind of calm tick-over.

Thought can be made to take certain liberties by artificial stimulation of the brain. The cortex is a machine for thinking. It can be revved up, slowed down, choked, fed various types of fuel according to the thought it is required to produce. When the mixture is too rich, as in the small hours, the engine pinks, whence ‘Flight of Ideas’.

Thus tea, coffee, alcohol stimulate.

So do heights, wet days, south-west gales, hotel bedrooms in Paris and windows looking over harbours. Also snow, frost, electric bells outside cinemas at night, sex-life and fever.

Cigars, tisanes, long draughts of water or fruit-juice have a clearing, calming effect. They rev down the motor and overcome stoppages. So also do sitting still, relaxing climates, luxury, constipation, music, sun-bathing, hang-overs, listening to fountains, waves and waterfalls.

Palinurus (Cyril Connolly) – The Unquiet Grave (1944)

 

Lots of possibilities crowd my mind. Misty autumn mornings, coffee shops, hospitals, silent streets, stars on a clear night, fog, wet days, parquet floors, old films, old photographs, old wood, quiet valleys, the sea, deserted beaches, the call of a curlew, the Roman road between Newhaven and Buxton and many more. 

To dwell on the possibilities, even that is stimulating.