Selling With Confidence 61
The trouble is that you can’t
check on your breathing while you
sleep, so in order to experience
this type of breathing, try these
exercises.
Exercise 1
Lie on your back. Fold your
arms across your diaphragm and
close your eyes. Notice that by
the third or fourth breath, your
breathing rhythm is normal and
correct. Your diaphragm is mov-
ing away from your spine on in-
halation and back toward the
spine as you exhale.
It’s harder to accomplish this
rhythm when you’re standing, so
now try standing up. Place your
fingers on the diaphragm. Take
a gentle but forceful breath.
Don’t think about “deep breath-
ing.” Think about pushing out on
your fingers as you inhale. Now,
exhale and let your fingers return
to your body. Inhale again. Push
your fingers away. Return to the
original inward position as you
exhale. Repeat it several times.
Repetition makes perfect.
Close your eyes and repeat it sev-
eral more times. Notice that
when you’re doing it right,
there’s a surge of relaxed, com-
fortable well-being flowing through your body. Your metabolism
is normalizing, moving toward peace. This is the state
hypnotherapists try to induce leading up to the hypnotic state. It’s
the breathing method taught by yoga and meditation classes. It’s
taught for natural childbirth methods to help reduce the pain that’s
stress-related. And when in doubt, watch a sleeping baby breathe.
Notice the difference in the muscles
of the head and neck. Chest breath-
ing tightens and stresses.Diaphragmatic breathing relaxes
and normalizes.