In a centered state, begin the conversation

If you had to do it over, what would these positive statements include? Can you think of examples when humor helped reduce a criticized person's defensiveness? Both of these states renew the body, although some studies indicate that restful awareness may provide even deeper rest than sleep. However, for our purpose of age reversal, both experiences are equally important. Restful awareness occurs during meditation. Restful sleep includes both dream sleep and dreamless deep sleep. Your subjective experience of the restful response is relaxation. The physiological changes that occur are: Your heart rate slows. Your blood pressure normalizes. You consume less oxygen. You use oxygen more efficiently. There are no wasted surges. Deal with each one as it comes; Do this four times over and by the time you finish, the surge will have passed and you know you are another step closer to meeting your baby. Another favourite affirmation of mine is `inhale peace and exhale tension'. I imagine my body expanding and filling with peace as I inhale for four and then, as I exhale for eight, I image all tension releasing as my whole body softens and relaxes. I hope you will enjoy practising this breathing technique and use it not just for birth but for life, in times of stress. It's a very simple but incredible powerful tool you have. Best of all, you have it with you always and it's completely free.

You never need to remember to pack it! You carry your breath with you wherever you go, so don't forget to use it. Although she was physically having to say good-bye, this devoted mom was ensuring that she'd continue to live in her daughter's life through these precious expressions of love. There is no end to the ways in which we can share what's in our hearts. Still another story of artful living is this sweet example of a family that created a article entitled Love Is. This beautiful article was created to celebrate a forty-fifth wedding anniversary. The children and grandchildren of the lovebirds each thoughtfully described the lessons they'd learned about love from their mother and father (or grandmother and grandfather). Each one begins Love is: followed by the lesson: By always welcoming us into your home with open arms and hearts you have taught us how to be generous. And The cute nicknames you have given us, like Kissa Marysa, shows how much you love us. And Giving us lots of hugs and kisses. And When you share your sand castle, pool, beach, toys, snacks, and chocolate with us. And my favorite, To say `I love you' more often than not, and always before saying `good-bye. Practice the Sandwich Technique when the next instance occurs in which a performance problem needs to be addressed promptly. Now think of times when you needed to employ these skills in your personal life, with a significant other, a child, or a parent: Why is that so? Is the Technique comfortable to use with them? How did you feel using the Technique, as opposed to engaging in more impulsive responses? POWERFUL PRACTICE #7: ADOPTING A COACHING STYLE Micromanagement tells an employee that you do not trust her work or judgment. Introduction

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, researchers at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric (in Cicero, Illinois) uncovered what was then a revolutionary new concept: people will work harder and be more productive if they sense that their work is being observed and valued. This notion--that there are interpersonal relationship dynamics between managers and their direct reports that have a significant impact on the performance of an organization--has its roots back in this research now called the Hawthorne Experiments. You expel less carbon dioxide. Your breathing slows. Your heart pumps less blood. You perspire less. Your adrenal glands produce less adrenaline and noradrenaline. Your adrenal glands produce less cortisol. You make more sex hormones, particularly dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Your pituitary gland releases more growth hormone (an antiaging hormone). Your immune function improves. The Restful Awareness Response Down breathing At some point your uterus muscles will start to push downwards and you will feel the change in direction, and then the mounting pressure as your baby descends. This is the time to switch your breathing technique. This stage is less about relaxation (although it's always important to be relaxed) but is more active; I use the analogy of blowing out a candle; You would direct your breath with purpose. You would use your breath with intent. This is what happens with down breathing;

As you exhale through your mouth, you channel your breath downwards to help your muscles push your baby down and out. There is no counting involved when it comes to the down stage of labour. Whether you recognize it or not, you have always included some form of artfulness in your day-to-day living. But there are three good reasons why Living Skillfully is particularly important today. Living Skillfully is important because we all hunger for more self-expression. I don't mean that we fail to speak our hearts (although that's probably true in many cases). I mean that deep inside, we all yearn to create things and moments that make our feelings tangible. We want to convey more than what spoken words alone can say. Sometimes there simply are no words to express what we're feeling. Sometimes a gesture of kindness says it all. And yet, these days, not enough of us heed--or even acknowledge--this desire to create. Everyone in my studio knew and loved Jean, who used to answer the phones a few days a week. Researchers had placed two groups of employees doing the same work into separate rooms. One group was treated as the control, and the second was exposed to various experimental stimuli such as increased lighting, decreased lighting, and rest pauses. The researchers, Elton Mayo and F. Roethlisberger of Harvard and W. Dickson of Western Electric Management, expected the experiments to lead to different levels of performance for the experimental group. To the amazement of the researchers, both groups increased their performance. What the researchers finally grasped was that the two groups being studied responded with greater productivity to the simple effect of attention being paid to what they were doing, to being treated in a special way. This phenomenon became known as the Hawthorne Effect.

The fundamental lesson that emerged from this early research was that employees who are given attention by management, who are treated as special, and who perceived their work as significant, can become highly motivated and thus become more productive. Today, this insight might elicit a very unexcited response, given its apparent obvious, self-evident truth. Restful awareness is a natural mind/body response, as natural as the stress responses. The most direct way to experience restful awareness is through meditation. Meditation has been a part of Eastern cultures for thousands of years, but it is comparatively new in the West. Despite its recent arrival here, many studies have shown that anyone can easily learn to meditate and enjoy the physiological changes of experienced meditators. The bodily changes of restful awareness in meditation are almost the exact opposite of the fight-or-flight response. During meditation, breathing slows, blood pressure decreases, and stress hormone levels fall. The consumption of oxygen during meditation falls almost twice as much as during sleep. What is fascinating about these physiological changes is that even as the body is resting deeply in meditation, the mind is awake, though quiet. Brain wave studies show improved coherence between different parts of the brain during meditation. These changes in body and mind are not seen during wakefulness or sleeping. You simply take a quick, big breath in through the nose, filling your lungs and then as you exhale through your mouth, you channel that out breath down through your body. And then you repeat. And you do this until the surge has passed at which point you can return to your normal breathing. I appreciate most people find the up breathing easier to master; Down breathing without the counting, on the other hand, is a little trickier to get your head around. To help you, I have a few tips and tricks. As you practise down breathing, rest your hands just above your hips, at the bottom of your ribs. As you inhale you will feel little movement but as you exhale, if you're exhaling with focus and intent, channelling your breath downwards, you should feel your muscles respond and almost push downwards with your breath.