When I was a kid, people were always telling me to "take a deep breath." The football coach would admit that a pile-up of squirming, flailing bodies was a somewhat frightening sight. "But," he'd say, "take a deep breath and plunge in."
When my father taught me to dive, he said: "Take a deep breath, and jump right in."

Many of my teachers used to say that, too. "Take a deep breath, and dive right in." And there I'd be, up to my ears in work.
As you know, a great many medical truths are to be found in folk sayings, and the value of a deep breath is one such truth. A deep breath gets additional oxygen into the lungs.

Not just one deep breath—but three deep breaths —constitute my substitute for smoking when I need a "concentration break."
Yes, I admit it. Deep breaths aren't exciting. No one will ever write a popular song about "Six Deep Breaths in the Dark."

But . . . they are the magic that will enable you to live instead of exist. When coupled with the power of self-hypnosis, they'll be a source of energy. Those pedestrian, dull, unexciting deep breaths will make it possible for you to quit smoking forever—painlessly!

And they do more than help you stop smoking

They're going to do more than that. They're going to relax you. They're going to eliminate grinding tension.

Throughout our day, we find ourselves in situations that must, physiologically, make us feel fatigued, tight, stale. If we're at a desk, we may bend over our work. If we're reading, we may slump in our chair. We may sit or stand in a stoop-shouldered posture. We may lean forward, gripping the steering-wheel of our car.

All these things indirectly diminish the amount of air we breathe into our lungs; they make it less comfortable for us to breathe deeply. Try it for yourself right now: when your shoulders go forward and your neck and head bend forward, you simply cannot breathe deeply without causing yourself discomfort.

If you don't get enough oxygen into those poor cramped lungs, then your body falters in its job of burning up waste materials. And if that happens, you must feel "stale," "achey," "cramped."

And so there is a sound physical reason for using three deep, deep breaths in our battle against the cigarette habit.

Even if you did nothing else after reading this book . . . even if you continued to inhale and exhale all those irritants and poisons ... even if you continued to smoke excessively—you'd nevertheless feel a lot better if you could teach yourself to punctuate your day with deep breaths.

But let's hope that you won't settle for that. It's not just that you don't want to become another statistic that will someday convince someone else that the cigarette habit is not exactly healthy. The big point is that not smoking will make you a new person—more energetic, far healthier, a more effective worker, a brighter personality.

You have learned to "plant impressions" in your subconscious mind—images of yourself as happier, healthier, and now able to resist the old, harmful urge to smoke. You must also teach your subconscious mind that the "three deep breath" technique will enable you to ignore a momentary desire to hold a cigarette and puff on it.

Before you go to sleep, relax your body from top to bottom. See yourself walking into a room where many people are smoking; suddenly you feel the urge to smoke, too. Instead, you quietly take three deep breaths. You smile and shake your head. "No cigarette for me, thanks."

Think to yourself: "When habit makes me want to reach for a cigarette, I'll take three deep breaths instead. I won't want that cigarette. I won't be breathing poisons into my lungs, because the three deep breaths relax me and ease my tensions."

Think about those deep breaths as you fall asleep. Get into the habit of an occasional "deep breath countdown." It might go this way:
"As I count from ten to zero, I'm going to relax . . . and review . . . and understand—why three deep breaths will help me whip the cigarette habit.

Ten—three deep breaths give me vigor . . . I breathe deeply and feel stronger ... I don't need a crutch . . . Nine ... a deep breath gets me over worry and tension . . . I'm relaxed ... a cigarette would harm me, not help me . . . each time I breathe deeply I feel stronger, more at ease . . . Eight . . . three deep breaths make me lose any desire to smoke . . . Seven . . . I'm breathing deeply, and I don't want a cigarette ... Six ... if I ever want to smoke again, I'll take three deep breaths instead ... then I won't want to smoke .. . I'll never want to smoke again . . . I'm going to feel better and be better . . . I'm going to think better and sleep better . . . breathing deeply, like this . . . Five . . . deep breaths make my feelings of tension disappear . . . Four ... I feel more relaxed now, just breathing deeply . . . Three . . . I'll sleep well tonight, because I breathe deeply ... Two ... deep, deep breaths ... feel better ... don't want to smoke . . . One . . . deep breaths take away any desire to smoke . . . Zero . . . I'm relaxed ... at ease . . . feel no tensions . . . just breathing deeply."