p the same weight in the
legs; then your body and head. Use your imagination to the full extent
of its power, and think the whole machine heavy; wonder how the floor
can hold such a weight. Begin then to take a deep breath. Inhale
through the nose quietly and easily. Let it seem as if the lungs
expanded themselves with, out voluntary effort on your part. Fill first
the lower lungs and then the upper. Let go, and exhale the air with a
sense of relief. As the air leaves your lungs, try to let your body
rest back on the floor more heavily, as a rubber bag would if the air
were allowed to escape from it. Repeat this breathing exercise several
times; then inhale and exhale rhythmically, with breaths long enough to
give about six to a minute, for ten times, increasing the number every
day until you reach fifty. This eventually will establish the habit of
longer breaths in the regular unconscious movement of our lungs, which
is most helpful to a wholesome physical state. The directions for deep
breathing should be carefully followed in the deep breaths taken after
each motion. After the deep breathing, drag your leg up slowly, very
slowly, trying to have no effort except in the hip joint, allowing the
knee to bend, and dragging the heel heavily along the floor, until it
is up so far that the sole of the foot touches without effort on your
part. Stop occasionally in the motion and let the weight come into the
heel, then drag the foot with less effort than before,--so will the
strain of movement be steadily decreased. Let the leg slip slowly down,
and when it is nearly flat on the floor again, let go, so that it gives
entirely and drops from its own weight. If it is perfectly free, there
is a pleasant little spring from the impetus of dropping, which is more
or less according to the healthful state of the body. The same motion
must be repeated with the other leg. Every movement should be slower
each day. It is well to repeat the movements of the legs for three
times, trying each time to move more slowly, with the leg heavier than
the time before. After this, lift the arm slowly from the shoulder,
letting the hand hang over until it is perpendicular to the floor. Be
careful to think the arm heavy, and the motive power in the shoulder.
It helps to relax if you imagine your arm held to the shoulder by a
single hair, and that if you move it with a force beyond the minimum
needed to raise it, it will drop off entirely. To those who hav