our speech affects our thought just as much as our thought affects our speech.

most of us live in a constant state of tension; always hurrying—because everyone else is hurrying —our minds tense, and our bodies tense even in apparent repose; and the voice being the chief means by which we tense individuals express ourselves, it is no wonder that the throat —the voice's channel way, and one of the most sensitive areas of the bo

The shape of the mouth—inside as well as out—can affect both tone and clarity; the structure of head and shoulders, the size of the tongue, even the shape of the nose—all have their part to play in the making of the individual voice,

This is the first principle of Better Breathing—that the breath should pass out and in, not in and out. The stale air must be expelled before the clean air can enter, so the act of breathing is just this—continuously and rhythmically creating a vacuum

we smell with our breath through six little channel-ways called the posterior nares, situated at the rear of the nostrils.

What good habits do we need to acquire? Habits for our breath, habits for our speech, habits for our words, even. Not the habit of using the same words—we shall make a habit of avoiding these—but the habit of choosing more apt and expressive ones, worthy of our new expressive voice.

The most frequent fault in the using of the voice is throat-contraction. It is at the root of nearly all speech troubles (as distinct from speech errors) of which the most general are inadequate breath, hard tone, thin quality, sore throat and loss of voice. Inadequate breath—because the air has to squeeze its way through; hard tone—because the voi

TELL YOURSELF YOU ARE BREATHING NOT JUST TO RETAIN LIFE BUT TO LIVE IT, AND LIVE IT MORE ABUND- ANTLY. THAT YOU ARE BREATHING TO BENEFIT YOUR BODY AND BRAIN AS WELL AS YOUR SPEECH, AND THAT EVERY LUNGFUL OF AIR IS HELPING TO ENRICH NOT ONLY YOUR VOICE BUT YOUR WHOLE PERSONALITY.

This air is stored in our lungs in three layers, and their names indicate their nature. At the top is the Tidal air, which comes and goes rhythmically like the tides of the sea, and which is used for the light breathing of sleep and inactivity. Below this is the Reserve air—the main reservoir which, when renewed by a deep breath, is replaced by wha