A traveling salesman is driving through Kansas.

For hours, he sees nothing other than golden plains (and an occasional tornado in the distance), until he finally spots a farmhouse. He heads up a long gravel drive to the farmhouse, parks, and tramps up to the house. An old farmer on the porch invites the salesman to sit for a spell. The farmers ife !rings out iced teas. As the salesman and the farmer sip their cold drinks and chat, the salesman notices a hound dog sleeping at the corner of the porch. "very fe minutes or so, the hound dog raises its head and H#$%&, then goes !ack to sleep. Finally, the salesman has to ask, '$hy does your hound dog ho l() 'Hes settin on a nail,) replies the farmer. '$hy doesnt he move off of the nail() asks the salesman. The farmer replies, 'He ill, hen it hurts enough.)

Like most of us, I experience highs and lows, ups and downs. There are times when Im incredibly happy and productive, when I feel that life flows effortlessly, when I am definitely manifesting abundance. There are other times when I get into a funk, when things dont seem to be working exactly as Id like them to. Interestingly, although Im aware of myriad tools I can use to turn that funk around, I dont always utili e them. Last !ctober, I started noticing that I was waking in the morning with sad, resentful, depressing thoughts. "ather than recogni ing and releasing them, I let them carry me slowly but steadily in a descending spiral. #y the time $ecember rolled around, even though in %reality& there was nothing to be upset about, I had allowed myself to become a dismal, despondent, self'deprecating Lump. Time to move off the nail( )ah. Thingsll turn around by themselves eventually''they always do. !ne mid'$ecember afternoon I was feeling particularly put upon, with more tasks on my plate than usual, one of which was *and still is+, my all'time favorite- housecleaning. I remember thinking with great vehemence, %* dont ant to clean the house anymore,& .ust before heading outside for a short .aunt to the mailbox. )ow/every year, from the onset of winter through spring thaw, the road in front of our house is sheathed with a thick expanse of ice. 0eve become accustomed to carefully navigating the ice1 we slip occasionally, but have never actually fallen. 2ntil now. !ne second I was upright, the next I was flat on my back, thoroughly da ed. Long story short- I had broken my wrist and in.ured my lower back. 3nd4hey+ 5y wish had been granted. I didnt have to clean house anymore. 6o''I was in pain, my cast was frightfully uncomfortable, and I felt terribly guilty because my dear husband was now saddled with household chores on top of his already demanding schedule. I wasnt able to play my instrument, so I couldnt work to make money to pay the medical bills that were coming in. I couldnt dress myself, or even easily brush my teeth, for crying out loud. I was not a happy camper. Time to get off the nail yet( )ope, not yet. Lets see .ust how bad things can really get. 5y computer, which had been sent out for repairs in late )ovember, came back with a new hard drive. I began the process of setting it up again. 0hen I attempted to move saved data from my external hard drive back onto the computer, all my files showed up, and every single one of them was empty. 6omething, either in the computer or the external 7$, had been corrupted. 8ears of writing, artwork, photos and financial records were/gone. I spoke to numerous tech people. 6ome were clueless''others said there was a possibility they could retrieve the data for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Time to get off that nail yet( 8es, Id say high time. 9irst thing one morning, I started Larry :ranes "elease Techni;ue<3bundance :ourse from the top. I cried like a baby. #y the following morning, things began to change dramatically. !ver the following week... I woke up feeling excited and happy.

!ut of sheer synchronicity, I learned of an ama ing computer tech, who ultimately retrieved all of my missing data for a very nominal fee. 5y husband came up with an idea and made a few phone calls. 3s a result, I will be reimbursed for medical expenses from the accident. I received a substantial check in the mail for work I had done eight months earlier. I got a call for a two'day modeling shoot. In order to do the shoot, though, I had to get my cast off four days early. 7ooray+ 0e suddenly found ourselves inundated with gigs.

=ssentially, life got back to being rewarding, effortless and fun. I consider the events above to be irrefutable proof that the "elease Techni;ue works. #ut, as Larry :rane says, %$ont take my word for it. Take it for checking.&