Toss Pills Into A Puddle

What does breathing have to do with eating or taking pills? Remember that your descending food tube (esophagus) and your descending air tube (trachea) are basically Siamese twins. They descend more or less in tandem from the back of your mouth to deep down into your chest. When you irritate one tube, you generally annoy the other.

A tiny swallow of water will probably float your pills as far downstream as your second shirt button. Your job is to get those marbles ALL the way down, OUT of the esophagus and INTO your stomach. The esophagus doesn’t take kindly to having stuff stuck along the way. You risk spasm or rupture and that threatens your breathing!

Take a few swallows of water FIRST before the pills and then take your pills so that you are sending your pills down into “a puddle.” Chase the pills with a full glass of water. Remember, “Puddle Before Pills.”

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Upgrade Your Phone Tone

Tone trumps content. The way you sound hits a listener’s brain first and only then do they process with what you say. Perhaps our primitive ancestors didn’t have the luxury of the lengthy chat but had only a split-second to evaluate the mood and intent of a potential adversary. Since the era of the caveman, communication has evolved into a powerful and beautiful tool but the old split-second analysis is still with us and perhaps for good reason.

Obviously, if you work the phones professionally, it is absolutely essential that your phone presence be outstanding. You may be the only direct contact a client will ever have with your company. How you sound affects how much the client/customer trusts you, likes you and is willing to listen to you.

Even when you speak to your mom, your neighbor or your banker, tone matters! Everyone has to get past your sound before they will open up to your brilliant content. Remember that speech is only as good as the breathing that supports it.

1. NEVER rush to answer the phone and always take your time with your greeting.
2. BEFORE you respond, EXHALE as much air as is comfortable.
3. Take in a SLOW deep breath and answer.
4. Keep your chin tilted slightly upward.
5. Use an old radio announcer’s trick and smile a little while you are talking.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: True Voice

Review #2

How long should I continue a breathing exercise?
You can stay with it for as long as you feel mentally and physically comfortable. Working mindlessly is a waste of your time and does not honor the subject. If you lose focus, stop. Rest a few moments and begin again. This isn’t a race. It's an adventure.

How long should I wait after a meal to practice my breathing exercises?
Remember the diaphragm (your main breathing pump) is stretched directly over top of your stomach. I suggest that you give your food the right-of-way for a couple hours after a full meal. Both your digestion and your respiration are incredibly complex processes. Each needs to take its turn at center stage.

How do I find a proper breathing rhythm?
Unless otherwise suggested, allow your breathing rhythm to be set by your brain. Your natural feelings take into account the ever-changing needs of your body and mind. Breathing by the numbers dictated by someone else is like painting by the numbers. . . a respectable way to pass the time, requiring only that you follow orders.

Ancient Wisdom: There is no need to push the river. It will flow by itself.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: Review #1

Organs, Lobes And The Diaphragm

In addition to the intercostal muscles between the ribs, the multiple-muscled diaphragm stretches like a complex, elastic floor across the bottom of your ribcage, and serves as the most powerful and important breathing tool you have. Now your bony cage, with its strategically placed muscles, has become a powerful pump, able to move air in and out of your body on command.

The elusive muscle floor of the diaphragm attaches around the bottom rim of the ribcage and to the waist-level lumbar spine at the rear. This big diaphragm serves simultaneously as the elastic floor of your ribcage, and the elastic ceiling of your abdominal cage.

The constant rising and flattening action of this powerful sheath as it pumps the air in and out, gently massages the heart and lungs as it rises, and in turn, the stomach, liver, spleen and intestines as it flattens down to pull in new air.

Since the partition of the diaphragm slices more or less horizontally all the way through the standing body, it remains out of sight, and is almost impossible to touch. To further complicate matters, it does not lie flat and neat like the floor of a bucket or a birdcage. At the finish of each exhalation, the relaxed diaphragm resembles a lopsided hill with its high side stretched up over the mound of the large liver on your right.

Inactivity encourages a lazy diaphragm. An active diaphragm is essential for efficient breathing. If you are stuck at a desk, take frequent deep breaths to keep your energy up.

Be well. Breathe beautifully and efficiently.

Winged Breath

Breathe gently and slowly in and out through your nose all the way through this exercise. The Winged Breath gives you the opportunity to concentrate on the often-neglected LOWER, LATERAL areas of your lungs. As always, CONTINUE ONLY AS LONG AS YOU CAN HOLD YOUR CONCENTRATION AND YOU FEEL COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE. Eyes open for now.

1. Stand (or sit) with your feet hip–distance apart, toes pointed forward. It is important to keep your shoulders down and relaxed at all times. ONLY THE ELBOWS MOVE, floating up as you breathe in and down as you breathe out.
2. Join your palms in front of your chest, with your elbows resting near your sides. Your hands never move during the exercise.
3. Empty first. Then take a full and gentle breath, floating your elbows up for as long as you are breathing in.
4. Float your elbows down as you breathe out.

THE LENGTH OF YOUR BREATH ALWAYS DICTATES THE LENGTH OF YOUR MOVEMENT. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Sleeping with Monsters

Your sleeping body sheds copious amounts of dead skin cells because that’s what skin must do to keep you looking fresh and beautiful. To make matters worse, you are not able to be careful about your breathing when you sleep. Mouth open and all that.

Your skin cells are everywhere in your bedroom. So are the microscopic dust mites that feed on them and grow fat. Remember, Mother Nature doesn’t waste much. Mites survive because humans and their pets shed and, as thanks, they irritate your respiratory system because humans are super sensitive to proteins left behind in the mites’ feces.

Mites are microscopic, eight-legged, spiderlike, sightless super ugly critters that would be great in a horror film if they were as big as a cow. They eat. They poop. You cough. No symbiosis here.

They thrive by the millions in dusty, dark, humid, warm places. STARVE THEM OUT!

A perfect bedroom is bright, cool and dry without upholstered furniture and clutter (sorry, kids). If possible replace your carpet with flooring that can be wet-mopped. If you can’t bear to part with your lovely new bedroom rug, then steam clean it often. Shutters or blinds are better than drapes.

Vacuum and dust thoroughly at LEAST once a week. Wash your bedding OFTEN in HOT water. Keep pets and food out of the bedroom or at least bathe your pets frequently. Sweet dreams.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Two O’clock Crash

Two o’clock in the afternoon, Monday through Friday, is a dreadful time of day for most of us. Your body is busy digesting lunch and couldn’t give a flying fig about your report deadline. If you had any caffeine or sugar at lunch you are probably crashing about now from that very brief high. And yet you are still facing hours of appearing brilliant and perky. That’s what you get paid for.

Eat a lighter lunch. You are not a lumberjack (apologies if you are). Drink plenty of water. Coffee and sodas definitely do not count. Movement is king. Move your legs. Take a quick walk down the hall or on the stairs.

Move your diaphragm (no, I did not say remove your diaphragm). Without straining, gently blow out all your air, relax your abdomen and breathe in deeply and slowly. Stretch arms and legs. Remember your leg/bottom muscles and your diaphragm act as secondary hearts to deliver oxygen and keep your blood moving.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.