Shout Exhale

The shout is difficult to describe in words. First it uses "UH" rather than "AH."

Next, a shout is not a scream. A scream is long and piercing. A shout is short and emphatic.

Also a shout is not a yell. Yelling is only loud and, since it involves whole words rather than just a short sharp sound, a shout must involve open and closing the throat (that is the voice box).

Next, in order to do a shout you have to have good motion in the chest. A shout comes from sudden rapid contraction of the chest rather than from the diaphragm.

Next, a shout can be accomplished only if the throat is open. A proper shout can not have any sense of the guttural.

There is a curious result of a good open-throated shout. I can't explain why it happens, but it always does. If there is any metal in the room, then it will ring with the shout. I have heard it produced by metal space heaters, by over-head fans, and by air conditioning grills.

Finally, the shout sound starts the exhale but the rest of the exhale is normal, it is not faster or more forced. That is to say the exhale starts with a loud short shout sound but then continues on as a normal exhale.

For all that description you can get a good idea of what a shout should be like and the trouble that people have with it by checking the audio that accompanies this book.

I have resisted the impulse throughout this book to tell you patient stories, but here I really must just to give you an idea of why things happen and why they change with this work.

The patient was a female who from about the age of seven to about the age of nine was subject to "genital fingering" by a step-brother. It took her two years to tell her mother about it. When she came to therapy and tried this exercise, her shout was mild, to say the most for it. She had built into her character (not deliberately, that's just the way character works) that she could not protest in life. She had to accept things she did not like and consequently walk through life angry all the time. It took time, but she learned to shout; she learned to stand up for herself without having to wait for anger to give her permission.

Growl Exhale

The best description I can give of this is that it sounds rather like a motor boat. Your vocal cords are relaxed and flapping in the wind of the exhale. The growl is deep and throaty. A reasonably good example of the growl is on the audio.

It is important that you not close your mouth while making this exhale sound. Keep your mouth well open as shown earlier in the top panel of Figure 13 on page 66.

Don't try to get this one until you have already mastered the normal breathing with the 'ah' sound and the shout sound. At the end of Part One of this book I will give you a guide for the sequence of steps to get the breathing correct.

The growl sound, despite its every-day name, is extraordinarily hard to produce. It requires a truly open throat to make this sound. Further and importantly, this sound will produce major effects in your body (like tingling, throbbing, dizziness, and others). Until you have become accustomed to the appearance of strange body experiences, it is very unwise to do this exercise.

The growl is continuous for most of the exhale or as long as you can to extend it. If you find that your throat is closed and you can not get this one, don't force it. Stop during this session and try it again at the next session.

While it sounds very simple to do a growl sound, in fact it is not. It requires a completely open throat in order to make this sound.

Words Exhale

This is a powerful exercise, but the exact words to use vary with the person.

Here you start the exhale with one word or a string of words. Some examples: 'please', 'no I won't', 'help me', 'go away', 'why', 'I need you', 'why me', 'I'm not bad' etc. With any word or phrase, attempt to add some feeling tone to it. The word 'why' can be said as a normal word in a sentence or it can be said with an element of self-pity or sadness or longing or protest etc. Moreover the feeling tone does not have to stay the same any more than the word needs to stay the same.

Start with any word or phrase. If it seems that you can not get any feeling tied to it, then try a different word or phrase. Invent your own. Whatever seems to mean something to you emotionally. Stay with the word or phrase only as long as it seems to be meaningful. Then stop and return to normal breathing or change to some other word or phrase.

If you do this exercise mechanically, that is just saying some word or phrase with no feeling tied to it, it not only will not accomplish its purpose, it will do the opposite. You will have, in effect, practiced this exercise in a way that produces no results. That only makes it easier the next time to be mechanical.

Like so many of the exercises in both Part One and Part Two of this book, this exercise seems trivial. And it can be if that is how you approach it. But if you honestly try to find the right word or phrase and you honestly attempt to attach some feeling to the word or phrase, then you will find the power of this seemingly benign exercise.

Bogeymen

Have you ever wondered why there are no bogey women? I have but I have no answer (at least none that I am willing to print, point of personal privacy).

When you were young you probably had the same fears that almost every child has: alligators or snakes under the bed, someone hiding in the closet, someone sneaking in through the window, the fear that one or both of your parents would not be there the next morning when you woke up. And likely you learned to call that fear: the bogeyman. And each night you were reassured that there was no bogeyman and that in any event your parents would protect you.

Guess what? There are bogeymen. They are, however, not out there; they are in here. There is a bogeyman inside you. Well, to tell you the truth, actually there are two of them.

The first bogeyman hides under a number of names. It goes by the name of the superego, the parental introject, the "should" system. It makes you do things you don't want to do and prevents you from doing things you want to do. It converts life from a process, a continuous experience, into a habit.

That superego bogeyman is not a bad thing, it has to be there or we could not live in a social group. It is only that that bogeyman keeps growing and growing and growing until there is no room left for joyous spontaneous living. You know all this, you just haven't put it into specific words.

Why do we "take" a vacation? Why do we "plan a party?" Why do we "schedule our children's time?" In high school or college you just partied; you did not plan a party. As children (if you were old enough) you just played, you did not schedule play time. Couldn't we just vacation rather than take a vacation?

People are time-waiting animals. We wait to graduate from grammar school, then we wait to graduate from middle school, then we wait to graduate from high school, then we wait to graduate from college, then we wait to get married, then we wait to have children, then we wait for the children to grow up, then we wait to retire, then we wait to die. Life comes down to waiting for death.