BRILLIANCE IN PERFORMANCE
or... take a breath, you're turning blue!
Originally published in ShopTalk on 1/6/98.
Today, we talk breathing. Chances are if your reading
this, you're doing it. Congratulations! The question is, how effectively are you
accomplishing this vital function? From the health perspective, breathing
properly (meaning, doing it as the body was designed to do it) has a huge effect
on our physical state. During my training to become a voice coach, I saw
statistics from a study done to determine which professionals had the greatest
longevity. Turned out they were music conductors, singers and voice teachers.
The researchers wondered why this was so and ultimately determined that it was
the use of their breath that allowed the practitioners of each of these
professions such long term health and well being. It's a simple concept; starve
the vital organs of oxygen long enough and they will start to shut down.
Physical health is compromised, the brain doesn't function well, a whole host of
maladies can be attributed to lack of oxygen. The other bummer is ... no breath
= no voice! The vocal cords are designed to make sound as vibration and air from
your lungs passing through them. Doing this correctly allows them to release and
vibrate happily at various pitches. If the right
amount of air is not being used and supported to make your sound, they will
still create sound, but the poor little buggers have get tighter and more closed
to do it. The next thin you know, you’ve got a higher, thinner, tighter sound
that nobody really wants to listen to. So breathing is crucial for a great
sounding voice.
When focusing on your breathing, the first thing you need
to do is to check in with yourself. Reason being, it’s really tough to relax and
breathe if you are in a state of stress induced rigormortis and don't even know
it (Go ahead and laugh I've seen it. Not pretty). We get so accustomed to being
keyed to a certain level of stress and tension, we actually get numb to it. The
effects are the same, however… tightness that restricts breathing and a whole
host of other minimized functions.
Then, do the "arms and legs" exercise I explained in the
relaxation article article, and bring your focus and attention inward. Begin to
relax as you do the 4 or 5 slowed breaths. This means you'll also be lying down,
or sitting at the very least.
Next, find your breathing muscle by placing your hand
about midway between your navel and pubic bone and cough gently. You should feel
the big muscles in this part of your body move think of these as your breathing
muscles. Note: I often hear “experts” admonish “Breath with your diaphragm!”. In
truth you already are, or you’d be dead. Biomechanically, the diaphram IS how
you breathe – but due to tensions and stress-induced habits learned over a
lifetime, it’s functioning becomes restricted. Working with these larger muscles
helps the diaphragm to get free to do its job properly.
Our larger, lower abdominal muscles receive messages all
the time that essentially say “Suck in your gut!”, “Flat stomach!”, “Bad
stomach!” – along with media images abounding of models with impossible bodies
and flat abs, abs of steel, the 6-pack, and all the rest. These, in addition to
the rest of the “you’re bad” body image messages we imprint growing up, all
pretty much create the same result: lower abdominal muscles that won’t move.
They’re locked, still, trying to be invisible on some level. While the diaphragm
muscles do the actual heavy lifting of the lungs, these larger, lower muscles
are situated in such a way that they can actually stop the diaphragm from doing
its job properly… that of breathing life into your body! So focus on getting
these big, lower muscles positively into the action.
When you breathe in, the stomach and lower abdomen should
move outward away from your spine; when you exhale, they should drop toward your
spine. Like a bellows it fills full and expands, then it empties and contracts.
When you do it right, it feels like you're breathing with your whole body the
way animals and babies do when they're sleeping. Use images like; you are
filling your entire lower body and pelvic area with oxygen, or that you have
lungs in your thighs.
You may find that you’re an inveterate chest breather. If
you have to, just push those lower belly muscles outward to feel where they are
and how they can move. Then try and connect that motion to your breath on and
inhale. It may feel odd at first; or you may even feel as if you can't get
enough air. Don't worry… breathing this way, while deeply oxygenating to your
body – feels entirely different to your nervous system than chest breathing
does. You can make the change in stages… and if you need to, go back to your
normal way of breathing for a bit, do it. Then try the new way again. You'll get
used to it - and your body will be so happy about the whole thing.
The simple part is learning how to breathe this way. The
hard part is REMEMBERING! In order to become a full time body breather, you have
to put reminders up all over the place: post its, sticky stars, dots or whatever
– paste them on your desk, mirror, purse, computer, forehead everywhere! It's
called “inundation” and that's exactly what it takes, because breathing is such
an unconscious action (thank goodness!). Having these notices up will remind you
to focus on breathing in this new way AT LEAST once an hour for 5 or 6 breaths,
until you're at it full time!
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