DEEP BREATHING CURES NERVOUSNESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 263, 10 December 1914, Page 4

DEEP BREATHING CURES NERVOUSNESS.

WHAT THE NERVES REQUIRE. Tn these (lays of hurry and - scurry and strenuousness, people suffer more from nerves than once was the case. Too prone are the victims of nerves to fly to the chemist for a cure-all, warranted, as per the extravagantly-word-ed advertisements, to make a "now woman" of the purchaser before she has more than half-emptied the bottle. Lilian Russell, in the Chicago" Tribune, '' advocates a different method of dealing with nerves —deep breathing*- "Your nerves,'' she writes, | i ' must haye three things—food, rest-, land oxygen. The greatest of these is ' oxygen* Brattice lung gymnastics in fresh air every day, and you won't know the meaning of ' nerves.' ' Deep breathing in fresh air is the surest, safest, and cheapest preventive and cure for nervous trouble.' 5 FIRST SYMPTOMS OF NERVOUSNESS. The subject of deep breathing is one that needs to be dwelt upon at great length and' in many ways, as it is a cure for so many important troubles (continues Miss Russell). For instance, you r have studied with great care a long and difficult composition to play on the piano or to recite. You have committed it perfectly and are so sure of yourself that you do not hesitate to come before your audience, be it one or one thousand. You may make an excellent beginning and be doing finely, when suddenly you become confused, you cannot control your brain, you hardly know even where you are. Self-consciousness, every one will tell you. if you ask, but if you study yourself you will see that you are not " breathing farther down than your collar-bone, are perhaps holding your breath and taking little gasps in order to get breath at all.

A sure cure for all this is to begin, the moment you feel it affecting you, to draw long, deep breaths, way down from the diaphragm, slowly and evenly. This will keep your nerves working properly, your brain working normally, and you will gain such confidence in yourself that you will pass over the most

difficult parts with astonishing ease, but keep up the deep breathing. HOW TO EXERCISE THE LUNGS. A. fine exai'inse for deep breathing, and an easy one, is to throw open- all of the windows in your bedroom in the morning, go back to bed for a few moments, and, lying flat on your back, without a pillow, close your lips and draw in the breath through the nostrils slowly, taking in N just as much air as the lungs will bold while counting six, then hold the breath while you count ! six more, then expel it suddenly through the month. Do this three times the first morning ! and once more each morning till you are repeating it six times, then six times every morning. It is astonishing how this develops the lungs and their capacity for breathing. I .Another easy exercise you may use while walking upon the street. At each street crossing you come to begin to inhale through the nostrils the moment you cross the curb, and inhale until you get to the opposite curb, when you must exhale quiekly through the mouth. These are such simple means to a great end that every child should be taught them. ' - If deep breathing were a regular habit with you, you never would be troubled with "nerves," unless, of course, you were suffering from some serious organic trouble. But '' nerves,'' as we Americans know them, are in ninety-nine out of a hundred the result of lack of oxygen;