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voice box using fluid uninterrupted contraction
Not only will the exercise above strengthen your diaphragm but it will also strengthen your
voice Lets consider a hypothetical example of how sustained diaphragmatic breathing can help
rehabilitate other parts of your body Take the neck for instance Imagine that you have been
forced to crank your neck into an uncomfortable position like looking up and to the extreme
left for five straight minutes Now imagine four scenarios
Inthe first scenario you breathe very shallowly as if you were frightened by something
terrible At the end of five minutes you would likely have developed a cramp that would
be painful for a few days
Inthe second scenario you breathe normally You might come out of this ordeal with
your neck feeling a little tight and uncomfortable and the feeling might disappear after
a few hours
Inthe third scenario you do your best to breathe slowly deeply and diaphragmatically
Breathing in this way you might avoid neck pain entirely at the end of the five minutes
Finally in the last scenario you breathe as you will be able to do after you spend
weeks completing the breathing retraining outlined in Chapter of this book In this
situation your neck would be much less likely to take on any longterm strain Rather
it would be strengthened and toned by the fiveminute effort
Diaphragmatic breathing protects us from the negative consequences of repetitive strain
while shallow breathing makes us vulnerable to it Shallow breathing at our desks destroys our
necks and lower backs Shallow breathing during exercise limits our potential gains and
recovery Shallow breathing while grinning destroys our smiles Shallow breathing while
socializing drives chronic anxiety The rest of this book will guide you to pair deep breathing
Chapter Optimal Quality of Life Training
with a diverse assortment of different muscle activation patterns The exercises will engage
muscles in the spine gut throat face genitals and many other locations building strength
flexibility mobility and optimal tone
The process of working through suboptimal postural habits to gradually retrain your body is
emotionally cathartic and will give you an opportunity to reinvent yourself The reprogramming
youre taking on will act like a cheat code allowing you to hack into the programming of
your nervous system and reset it to a lower level of stress Each chapter resets a different
bodily system Rather than listing them here the specific topics that will be discussed can be
found in the chapter titles in the Table of Contents The figure below illustrates the problems at
hand and how they are addressed by Program Peace
Cranial Facial
Physical Threat Amygdala Spinal Vocal
Submissive F Pain
Cardiac Genital
Pain Distressed Breathing KX Digestive
Aggressive Anxiet
Ego Respiratory y
Social Threat Nonverbals Skeletal
Relaxed Paced Optimal Debracing Nonresistant
Assertive Diaphragmatic Postures Massage Nonfearful
P P Personality Breathing Body Language AntiLaxity Mindset
Kele lanl nEISS Restructuring Retraining Training AntiRigidity
Therapeutic
Rehabilitative
Interventions
Figure Threats are interpreted by the brain and go on to affect breathing behavior and muscle tension
The Program Peace exercises address these issues individually
How This Book Is Organized
This book features over activities and exercises grouped by chapter After the description of
each exercise in the book youll find the recommended length of time that exercise should be
performed eg five minutes Also listed is the number of sessions you should expect to take
to reach proficiency eg four sessions per week for weeks Proficiency means you should
expect to have made a considerable gain and created a selfperpetuating habit that will provide
continued improvement with time This is followed by the recommended number of sessions to
maintain the ability after proficiency is reached eg two times per month Note that these
details are only given for the exercises and not the activities Activities are exploratory and
intended to be completed only once
Example Exercise Description Here
The directions for performing the activity or exercise are in this box including setup
steps to take and the general parameters of the exercise
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
Some exercises have a risk of injury warning which means that it is quite possible to hurt
yourself while doing the exercise as described Take great care with these and ensure that you
read the warning and disclaimer section in the books Preface Some exercises are given five
stars which means that highly recommend them and that they are especially valuable as part
of your retraining Nearly every exercise is intended to be performed with paced diaphragmatic
breathing synchronized with a breathing metronome as explained in Chapter Alternatively
you can synchronize each exercise with the breathing pattern from Exercise
My clients and generally find that keeping a record of completed sessions is helpful and
motivating There are two worksheets at the end of this chapter to keep track of your initial
progress Each contains key exercises and make it possible to log the number of times you
have completed them These are what consider the books most beneficial fivestar
exercises You can complete a threemonth crash course in Program Peace by performing
exercises two days per week over the course of weeks Each week you can alternate
between worksheets and Completing all exercises in a worksheet takes less than an
hour and there is no pressure to complete these on consecutive days or weeks
This book also has a companion workbook called Program Peace Exercise Manual and
Journal which comes complete with daily entries and a calendar in which you can record the
exercises you have completed as part of a week regimen It is not necessary but it is helpful
and can be downloaded for free from the website or purchased online as a hard copy
Using Program Peace by Yourself and with Others
Strangers arent the only ones who want us to use submissive displays The people closest to us
positively reinforce our endearing behavior rewarding us for acting in nonthreatening ways
They also punish assertive behavior chastening us for acting selfassured However we cannot
be mad at people for doing this to us because whether aware of it or not we do the same to
others It is an unconscious human instinct We are constantly using body language to check
and balance each other and in doing so we are mutually denigrated Tearing each other down
instead of building each other up is a waste of time and energy that ultimately programs our
brains for sadness and our bodies for disease
If you immediately start practicing the activities in this book in social situations they will be
feeble People will recognize this and may attempt to punish you for being what they may
interpret as rude When first started practicing some acquaintances were confused by the
new way carried myself because my assertiveness was not fully fledged For this reason
it helps to begin developing these postures alone Start in your room while driving or as you
take a walk Build up to active social engagement slowly Once it is evident that your dominant
behaviors have become ingrained people will not question them By practicing alone you can