Thursday, December 18, 2008

Improve Your Sound

A beautiful voice is completely dependent upon beautiful breathing. A beautiful voice is a true reflection of the mind, body and spirit of the speaker. While we are stuck with the vocal chords we inherited, they are almost always good enough.

Improve your breathing and you will improve your sound. That’s a fact. It is a good bet that the sound you typically produce is higher, thinner and less resonant than your true and natural tone. You and everyone around you have come to accept this as your normal voice. It isn’t.

How you sound strongly influences the way people respond to you and remember you. This is more than just an aesthetics exercise. To find your true pitch say “uh huh” a few times as if you are agreeing with someone. That sound is close to your true pitch.

A relaxed face (remember your sinus cavities resonate your sound), relaxed tongue and jaws, “tall” spine and a slow deep breath are the strings on which this instrument, your voice, is played. Each rich full exhalation is incredibly important as it flows through your vocal chords. If you doubt this, try speaking while you’re are breathing in!

Take your time when you have something important to say. Actually if it isn’t important then why are you saying it? When you rush, you don’t have time to take a full breath and you will sound like a badly tuned cheap violin when you are actually a well-tuned priceless cello.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Hill and Valley Breathing

When we are tired, stressed, distracted, rushed or nervous, we tend to push our breathing high into the narrow and tight upper chest. Tension begins to build around the jaws, shoulders and throat and we end up investing far too much energy to get too little oxygen in return. Hill and Valley is an easy way to relax quickly and return your breathing to the wide elastic lower ribcage.

Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor, knees bent at 90 degrees, hip-distance apart. Eyes open or closed. Lay your palms down just above your waist with the tips of your middle fingers touching halfway between your bellybutton and the bottom of your breastbone. Imagine that there is a small delicate balloon under your fingertips.

Your breathing will move in and out of that “balloon” (with absolutely no involvement at all in the ribcage). Yes, you can do this because you always breathe this way when you sleep.

1. Inhale slowly and quietly, allowing the “balloon” to fill. There is no need to overfill because you take in a surprising amount of air without much effort when you breathe into your low-resistance lower lungs.
2. Exhale, allowing your abdomen to sink down toward the floor and become slightly concave. Keep the breathing quiet and gentle. Continue for as long as you are comfortable and focused.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.



Asthma? Call in the Big Guns!

Are you absolutely certain that you have asthma? Are you absolutely certain that you do NOT have asthma? Who said so? Asthma is a reeeeeeeally confusing and complicated problem that can quietly gnaw away on your breathing equipment like dry rot in the attic. Coming up with a precise analysis and treatment plan without expert (I mean EXPERT) help is like spitting through a knothole from across a very wide road. . . you might get lucky but it’s a dangerous gamble!

If you frequently wheeze or squeak when you breathe, have a nagging little cough that won’t go away, are frequently short of breath, if you produce copious amounts of thick or sticky or discolored mucous . . . time to call in the big guns. Yes, I know you have a great primary care doc and you may think you are doing fine with your over-the-counter stuff but until you know exactly the extent of the problem and figure out the combination of factors that sets off an attack, you are losing lung tissue faster than necessary.

A pulmonary specialist is immersed in the latest diagnostic studies and publications, is in touch with other outstanding specialists in the field and is dealing with asthma and other respiratory problems every single day. A couple visits will probably do the job.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.