The other man—­to give a practical instance—­returned from a journey taken in order to regain the strength which he had lost from not knowing how to work.  His business agent met him at the railroad station with a piece of very bad news.  Instead of being frightened and resisting and contracting in every nerve of his body, he took it at once as an opportunity to drop resistance.  He had learned to relax his body, and by doing relaxing and quieting exercises over and over he had given himself a brain impression of quiet and “let go” which he could recall at will.  Instead of expressing distress at the bad news he used his will at once to drop resistance and relax; and, to the surprise of his informant, who had felt that he must break his bad news as easily as possible, he said “Anything else?” Yes, there was another piece of news about as bad as the first.  “Go on,” answered the man who had been sick with nerves; “tell me something else.”

And so he did, until he had told him five different things which were about as disagreeable and painful to hear as could have been.  For every bit of news our friend used his will with decision to drop the resistance, which would, of course, at once arise in response to all that seemed to go against him.

He had, of course, to work at intervals for long afterward to keep free from the resistance; but the habit is getting more and more established as life goes on with him, and the result is a brain clearer than ever before in his life, a power of nerve which is a surprise to every one about him, and a most successful business career.

The success in business is, however, a minor matter.  His brain would have cleared and his nerve strengthened just the same if what might be called the business luck had continued to go against him, as it seemed to do for the first few months after his recovery.  That everything did go against him for some time was the greatest blessing he could have had.  The way he met all the reverses increased his nerve power steadily and consistently.

These two men are fair examples of two extremes.  The first one did not know how to meet life.  If he had had the opportunity to learn he might have done as well as the other.  The second had worked and studied to help himself out of nerves, and had found the true secret of doing it.

Some men, however, and, I regret to say, more women, have the weakening habit so strong upon them that they are unwilling to learn how to get well, even when they have the opportunity.  It seems so strange to see people suffer intensely—­and be unwilling to face and follow the only way that will lead them out of their torture.

The trouble is we want our own way and nervous health, too, and with those who have once broken down nervously the only chance of permanent health is through learning to drop the strain of resistance when things do not go their way.  This is proved over and over by the constant relapse into “nerves” which comes to those who have simply been healed over.  Even with those who appear to have been well for some time, if they have not acquired the habit of dropping their mental and physical tension you can always detect an overcare for themselves which means dormant fear—­or even active fear in the background.