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good person and being a bad person You can utilize your newfound composure altruistically or
malevolently At this crossroads believe most people will realize that being good is the only
real path because once your submissive behaviors have disintegrated it will become clear that
they were always the primary drivers for bad behavior
can tell you from firsthand experience because went from one extreme to another
When felt was on the bottom was sulky illtempered and hateful always felt like had
something to prove The majority of my time alone was spent planning retorts and retaliation
experienced other people as a type of hell Since being desensitized by Program Peaces
exercises no longer feel these emotions at all Other people are just not a source of negativity
anymore
Our ingrained bodily habits make it difficult to just stop sending submissive signals Even if
somehow we could leave behind our mental concerns related to status our bodies would
continue to carry symptoms of social defeat like shortness of breath the rock in the pit of our
stomachs and the hot tension in our faces These are spiritual burdens that will inevitably drag
us back into the hierarchical fray This book will show you how to mend these symptoms and
how to lay down the burden of submission shame and stressful social comparison Where do
we start With the cornerstone of confidence breathing easy
Breathing Easy Will Pull You Out of Survival Mode
In most mammals shallow breathing accompanies submission and aggression while deep
breathing accompanies dominance and assertion A submissive chimp always greets a more
dominant chimp first and does so using a sequence of short pantgrunts These depthless pants
are indicative of selfhandicapped breathing Chimps whimper when acting submissively
producing a highpitched sound accompanied by attenuated breath We also breathe shallowly
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
around others especially when experiencing social anxiety believe that if it were studied
researchers would find that the extent of deep diaphragmatic breathing is an accurate
predictor of social dominance the number of offspring quality of life and a wide variety of
other positive outcomes in primates and all mammals generally Unfortunately there has been
extraordinarily little related research on breathing style in animals or humans
Recent experiments have offered us glimpses into the benefits of breathing with the
diaphragm Study participants that practiced deep breathing achieved significant reductions in
selfreported anxiety stress hormones heart rate breathing rate blood pressure and the
activity of the sympathetic stress system It also enhances mood oxygen levels pulmonary
function cardiorespiratory fitness and respiratory muscle strength as well as parasympathetic
activity Findings like these along with the benefits have experienced myself have led me to
believe that the most important message that you can send your body and its cells is Hey its
totally safe to breathe slowly and deeply
The scientific community knows shallow breathing to be an indicator of stress and
sympathetic overactivation But it is rarely recognized as a submissive and conciliatory display
Recognizing it as such is important in understanding how to counteract it We breathe shallowly
to show people we are listening to them that we are concerned and do not think of ourselves
as better than them We face strong unspoken social norms telling us to breathe shallowly
Tragically however it results in stress adaptation increases our tendency to startle creates
tension in chakras throughout the body and rewires our mind for negativity
It is possible to escape the social pressure to breathe shallowly We can do so by building
strong consistent diaphragmatic breathing habits training ourselves to breathe deeply under
every possible circumstance Deep breathing in social situations breaks the link between social
friction and fight or flight It allows you to stop responding to social pressures as if they are
matters of survival
Whether you are sitting in a meeting chatting with a friend having an argument or taking
an exercise class there should be only one competition that is going on in your head Out of
everyone in the vicinity you want to have the most relaxed breathing The only way to
accomplish this is to breathe slowly smoothly and deeply reducing the number of breaths you
breathe per minute Relaxed breathing will liberate you from the status hierarchy and is the
only thing that you should do aggressively The next chapter will show you how
Chapter Persistent Adaptation to Chronic Stress
Chapter Bullet Points
e Your body is a survival machine designed to support a competitive molecular
replicator namely your DNA
e Our biology prioritizes the DNA and for that reason our bodies are designed to sacrifice
our physical and emotional wellbeing for the sake of survival and reproduction
e Asone example of this we are built to adapt to stressful environments by upregulating
our stressresponse activity resulting in anxiety and pain
e Even in the modern world everyones stress system has been overactivated to some
extent This anxiety or hyperarousal results in chronic muscular respiratory and
cardiovascular fatigue
e Anxiety and chronic stress negatively affect every organ in the body These organ
systems are roughly congruent with the ancient Hindu system of chakrasfamiliar body
parts that need to be rehabilitated with love and care
e We use anxiety as a submissive display to prove to others that we are neither too
calm nor too good for them
e The overuse of submissive signals leads to the accumulation of trauma within our
tissues and organs especially the breathing muscles The result is often chronic defeat
otherwise known as depression
e Being nonsubmissive is not about being tougher than anyone else it is about not
wasting energy on competitive nonsense that leads nowhere
e Dominant mammals are usually the most composed and the least traumatized and
hyperaroused They dont feel any need to use anxiety as a form of social lubrication
e Deep diaphragmatic breathing is the foundation of dominant behavior because it builds
unconscious selfconfidence
e You can escape the cycle of social anxiety by breathing deeper and longer breaths in
social situationsfearing no one but treating everyone well
e Through developmental plasticity new gene expression you want your body to make
persistent beneficial adaptations that are responses to an optimal environment
To do this you must give the body the right cues to trick it into assuming that your
environment is safe and full of resources This is accomplished by breathing with
the diaphragm
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
Chapter Endnotes
Dewitt T J Sih A Wilson D S February Costs and limits of phenotypic
plasticity Trends in Ecology Evolution
Kelly S A Panhuis T M Stoehr A M Phenotypic Plasticity Molecular
Mechanisms and Adaptive Significance Comprehensive Physiology
Gabriel W How stress selects for reversible phenotypic plasticity Journal of
Evolutionary Biology
Pigliucci M Phenotypic plasticity Beyond nature and nurture Johns Hopkins
University Press
Reser J E Chronic stress cortical plasticity and neuroecology
Behavioral Processes
DeWitt T J Scheiner S M Phenotypic plasticity Functional and conceptual