—I DO—I’m HAPPY, I tell you—I AM !“ And I’d stamp it down hard. And this little exercise never failed to help me to relieve me from that horrible burden at my “heart”—at the solar plexus. I have “concentrated” and “affirmed” by the hour, all to no effect apparently; but five minutes of this sort of shaking up always freed me, and I went about my work feeling as if I had thrown off a nightmare and found the sunshine. Try it.

Then, there is another way, suggested to me by Dr. Paul Edwards. He said whenever he is in need of refreshing, as after a long day’s work, he goes away and shakes himself up for ten minutes or so. He stands up and gets as loose and limp as possible, all over; and then shakes himself just as a big dog does when it comes out of the water. He calls it taking physical exercise with relaxed muscles.

Prolonged effort reduces the power faster than it can, under ordinary conditions, flow through the solar plexus. All the nerves get into a partly collapsed condition, as if the energy had been sucked out of them, leaving them dry and flabby. All the little muscles which encase the nerves are contracted. This keeps the Infinite from flowing in again. So Dr. Edwards’ idea is scientific. He relaxes from head to foot and literally shakes the kinks out; and immediately he is filled again with power from the Infinite reservoir.

All sorts of depressed feelings come from this depleted condition of nerves; and anything which will loosen up the muscular contraction will remedy the condition. Sometimes a single thought will be dynamic enough to do it. Sometimes a single hour or so of right thinking will do it. If one can be perfectly still, body and mind, for even five minutes, the desired end will be accomplished. But it takes an adept, made adept by years of practice, to attain quickly the state of mental and physical stillness necessary to quick recuperation from states of depression. It takes a real master to speak peace to himself in such a way that he is quickly obeyed.

And the master attains mastery by a long series of just such lttle exercises as those I have just given you. All these little “physical” drills get your body into the habit of minding your

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