With Every Breath You Take

By Nancy Daniels
The official guide to Public Speaking

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The first thing we do in life is take a breath; the last thing we do in life is take a breath; one of the worst things we do in life is take a breath.

How can that be? We all breathe. Continually and non-stop, we average between 12 – 18 breaths per minute. And yet, most people are not breathing with the support of the diaphragm, a muscular partition separating the chest from the abdomen. [To find that muscle, place your hands under your rib cage and cough. That muscle ‘kicking out’ is your diaphragm.]

All mammals have a diaphragm; all mammals use that diaphragm for breath support except for the most intelligent of the mammals. While we are born utilizing diaphragmatic breathing, sometime during our childhood development, we stop this practice and revert to lazy or shallow breathing, using only the upper portion of the chest for respiration. It’s a medical fact and it effects 99% of the population!

In today’s world where stress is a symptom of our lives, breathing with the support of the diaphragm is one of the most important things we can do to lessen, to ease, and, in some cases, to even eliminate the stress.

As a voice specialist, I teach people how to improve the sound of the speaking voice by first learning how to breathe diaphragmatically. I learned to breathe this way in college because I was majoring in voice (singing); however, it wasn’t until I was in graduate school that my singing professor informed me that the pitch (highness or lowness of sound – not the volume) of my speaking voice was too high. She showed me where my optimum pitch was and that day changed the direction of my life as well as my career.

Later hired to teach Voice & Diction to the graduate students of journalism at the University of Western Ontario, I discovered that using the diaphragm to breathe did much more than just improve the sound of the speaking voice and control nervousness in public speaking. I was indeed lessening and, in many cases, eliminating much of my stress as were my students and clients.

One man with whom I worked found that his blood pressure dropped if he breathed with support while on his exercise bike. A professional golfer discovered that she was hitting the ball further and thus winning more tournaments if she breathed properly when addressing the ball. A long-distance runner found he was able to run further once he started the supported breathing.

Personally, I fell asleep during a double stereotactic breast biopsy – in case you’re not familiar with this technique, it’s a 45-minute ‘mammogram’ for each biopsy and you are awake during the procedure!

I can’t tell you how many women with whom I have worked who complain that their neck and/or shoulders are sore by the end of the day. As one who lives with varying amounts of stress, I can tell you that I never experience tension in those regions and I know it is because of the breathing. When you breathe with support, you are actually eliminating many of the toxins in the body. When you employ shallow or lazy breathing, you are not only increasing the toxins but you are also increasing your tension.

If, for example, you stand to give a presentation and you are nervous, your tension will only increase with each breath; however, if you can take a diaphragmatic breath before speaking and concentrate on allowing your diaphragm to do the work, you will notice that you are much more relaxed. Please understand, I like nervousness; but I prefer to control that nervousness, not the other way around.

We cannot stop all the stress in our lives but if breathing with the support of the diaphragm can actually lessen, decrease, and, in some cases, even eliminate it, wouldn’t it be worth it for you to learn how to make diaphragmatic breathing a part of your life?