Temperance
The Virtue of Moderation
What is Temperance?
Temperance involves the moderation of our desires for sensible goods. As such, many virtues are located beneath its wings: virtues related to eating, drinking, sex, and so forth. The goal for temperance and all of its sub-virtues are about finding a virtuous mean of moderate usage between the extremes of overusage (such as gluttony for eating) and underusage (such as anorexia). This is not always the case—one can fully abstain from beer, for example, without a problem, so a 'virtuous mean' can range from healthy drinking habits to not drinking beer at all. But it does involve moderation against excess where excess is harmful, as is often the case for sensual desires.
How do we develop Temperance?
We grow in temperance through learning and practicing consumption of sensible goods according to virtuous means. The more we learn about and practice attaining the means of, say, eating healthily, drinking alcohol responsibly, and so on, the more we learn how to be moderate in our approach to our desires and grow in this virtue. As such, our twofold approach to Temperance is: to develop the virtues under temperance (Eating and Exercise habits, for example) as well as reflecting on any excesses in temperance when they arise and recording such in our Diary or Incident Log. There, we can better identify where our excesses are, seek to learn more to identify possible excessive behavior and healthy behavior, and then plan to rectify excessive behavior.