The Exercise in Week Three of “The Master Key System” Explained

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The first four exercises in The Master Key System are the ones that will build for us the foundation upon which the remaining twenty exercises — and by extension, the results we will obtain with them — will be built.

The exercise for Week Three is very important — more important than many people realize. You must master this exercise to not only take advantage of all of the exercises in The Master Key System, but also to take advantage of just about any other personal development techniques you may wish to explore.

It is my hope that this teleseminar and article will make it clear why that is so.

The Exercise

29. For your exercise this week, I will ask you to go one step further. I want you to not only be perfectly still, and inhibit all thought as far as possible, but relax. Let go. Let the muscles take their normal condition; this will remove all pressure from the nerves and eliminate that tension which so frequently produces physical exhaustion.

30. Physical relaxation is a voluntary exercise of the will and the exercise will be found to be of great value, as it enables the blood to circulate freely to and from the brain and body.

31. Tension leads to mental unrest and abnormal mental activity of the mind; it produces worry, care, fear, and anxiety. Relaxation is therefore an absolute necessity in order to allow the mental faculties to exercise the greatest freedom.

32. Make this exercise as thorough and complete as possible. Mentally determine that you will relax every muscle and nerve until you feel quiet and restful and at peace with yourself and the world.

33. The Solar Plexus will then be ready to function and you will be surprised at the result.

The Exercise for Week Three Explained

The exercise for Week Three of The Master Key System seems simple — deceptively so. Mr. Haanel wrote that this week you are to “not only be perfectly still, and inhibit all thought as far as possible, but relax.”

Relax.

In many of my responses to questions about The Master Key System, I type that word a lot. You see, it’s the foundation of everything that we will be doing from this point onward. That’s why this exercise is very important.

Haanel explains why: “Tension leads to mental unrest and abnormal mental activity of the mind; it produces worry, care, fear, and anxiety. Relaxation is therefore an absolute necessity in order to allow the mental faculties to exercise the greatest freedom.”

In order for you to be able to benefit from the exercises in The Master Key System, in order for you to effectively use techniques from the personal development field, in order for you to truly acquire the mental fitness that you so desire, relaxation is the key.

Being relaxed allows you to think clearly, to see truly, and to cogitate efficiently and purposely. It allows “things” to happen fluidly and easily. It brings to bear your entire mental arsenal and provides an alacrity that cannot be had otherwise.

Mental tension leads to physical tension. Mental tension begets constricted thoughts, much like a zipper that is stuck: it may wiggle and perhaps move a space or two, but it doesn’t flow and do what it is supposed to do.

That’s why this exercise is key. As Haanel states, physical relaxation is a “voluntary exercise of the will.” It is something that we allow ourselves to be. No matter the surroundings or the situation, we either choose to be relaxed or we choose to not be relaxed.

Thus, choose to allow yourself to fall into a state of relaxation. Allow yourself to become relaxed physically. Lose the tension that you may feel in your muscles, in your joints, on the surface of your skin. Allow it to drip from you.

Relax.

The Benefits of the Exercise for Week Three

As one masters becoming relaxed, Haanel wrote that “The Solar Plexus will then be ready to function and you will be surprised at the result.”

Haanel explains the function of the Solar Plexus in The Master Key System, so I won’t delve into that here. I will deal with the latter part of that statement.

I have found, both with myself and many Master Key Coaching clients, that the surprising result is a feeling of placidity, almost a euphoria, that may sweep over you. As you lose the physical tension, you’ll feel light, calm, at ease.

This result is surprising because you have so much tension within you, much of it barely perceptible because it is like background noise, that only when you release it do you realize just how much there was!

That benefit, as great as it is, leads to other benefits that you can take advantage of in your daily life. These benefits will also highlight what Haanel means by having everything working fully.

How many times have you been talking with someone and a movie gets mentioned, but for the life of you you cannot recall the name of the star, even though the name is “on the tip of your tongue”? Yup, that’s your body’s tension constricting your thoughts.

When you learn to relax, you’ll be able to improve your recall in situations such as these.

Here’s another situation: have you ever been engaged in a game such as billiards or baseball or golf and you just can’t seem to “find your groove”? Thus, you miss shots, perhaps some easy ones. Now, to be clear, it’s not because you’re necessarily a novice at the games. You may actually be fairly decent at them. Your tension, though, is preventing you from performing at your peak.

As you can see, the tangible benefits of learning how to volitionally achieving a state of physical relaxation are massive. You’ll see many more benefits of this as we delve deeper into the exercises in The Master Key System.

Tips for the Best Practice of Week Three’s Exercise

Week Three’s exercise is one that some people will find very easy. Others, perhaps not so much. To that end, it may help in the beginning to treat this exercise almost as if you would being hypnotized.

As you may know, a hypnotist does his job by placing his client in a state of hypnosis. That state is achieved by relaxing the client. That same technique can be used here, if you so desire.

Now, to be clear, you are not hypnotizing yourself here! You are merely relaxing yourself. You are not going into a “deep sleep” or a “trance.” You are merely using the techniques that work so effectively for hypnotists on yourself to achieve an as complete as possible physical relaxation.

So, start at your head and volitionally will yourself to release the tension. Then continue to move downward. You neck. Your chest. Your stomach. Your waist. Your legs. Your ankles. Your feet. Your toes.

Let go of all the tension. Allow it to fall from you.

If you would like some help with a self-hypnosis technique, please see Tom Nicoli’s book Thinking Thin. Yes, it’s a weight-loss book, but the techniques are the same and there is no better teacher that I know of than Mr. Nicoli.

Until next week, please get for yourself the best of everything…