your jaw unclenches. you take another deep breath. you feel your heartbeat slow down. and though you won't notice it, all your blood flow is rebalancing itself to support all your major organs again. your brain is easing out of survival mode. you can have a choice-- make a choice about what action to take. your deep breath has unplugged you and your physiology from the conditioned response to that situation. your brain is able to switch gears, come up with alternatives, focus, and assess the situation. and--pay attention to this-- your deep breath is the only mechanism you have available to you that can make all that happen. that's it. there's no other mechanism that you can consciously use to shift and signal your brain to shift into the relaxation response. so have i convinced you that it might be worth it to learn how to breathe properly? so i've asked josh to help me demonstrate. josh is the personal trainer from my gym. first, i'm going to ask josh to breathe incorrectly, the way most of us breathe in day-to-day life. notice how his chest is rising as he inhales.