Your coworkers won’t always agree with you. And when they do, they might sound aggravated or frustrated. You need keep your cool…however sometimes when they don’t get their way they have a hissy fit. Their voices rise in volume and pitch. Do you wonder if or how to sound cooperative?
One of the best ways to sound warm and cooperative is to deep breathe. When you properly deep breathe before a conflict situation, you can lower the pitch of your voice and soften the tone of your voice.
Some people can confuse sighing with breathing deep. Deep breathing is that you inhale 5 seconds, hold 15 seconds, and exhale slowly for 10 seconds.
Let’s give it a try:
Inhale 5
Hold 15
…and exhale slowing for 10
Do that 4 times. It only takes two minutes. It gives the heart the opportunity to pump your blood through the system twice. Oxygenated blood is fuel for the brain, and you have just gone from unleaded gas to jet fuel.
Deep breathing increases your lung capacity to nearly 80%. It lowers the pitch of your voice and softens the tone of your voice, and you sound warm and cooperative even if you’re not.
Conflict can ignite the stress response and cause us to take shallow breaths. This stress response can raise the pitch of our voice and cause us to sound anxious. If you know you are going into a meeting, where there is going to be conflict, make sure you do the deep breathing exercise before the meeting, not during it, otherwise people may misunderstand your intentions.
For more on Conflict, watch this presentation. And don’t forget to check back next Monday for another video blog.