Qi Breathing Exercise 3

Belly Breathing

The previous exercise is an effective way of bringing down your breathing to the belly. Then you have to learn to breathe that way normally, making belly breathing something that comes naturally to you. That is what the below exercise is for, so try to do it right after the previous one.

The Book Qi — Increase Your Life Energy The life energy qi (also chi or ki) explained, with several very easy exercises to awaken, increase, and use it. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

       When you feel that you have no problem getting the breathing down to your lower abdomen, you can skip the previous exercise and go directly to this one. Actually, they do not differ that much.

How to do it

1. You can walk, stand, or sit down, but in the beginning the easiest is to lie on your back. Your clothes should be loose, especially on the belly, and the less clothes you have on, the better.

2. Put the palm of one of your hands on your belly, about midway between your navel and your crotch — or closer to the crotch if you can get your breathing that low. Remember to keep a good contact between your palm and belly, without pushing.

3. Start a slow and deep inhalation through your nose, and try to do it in such a way that your belly pushes on the hand. This means that the belly expands when you breathe in.

4. Continue with a long exhalation through your mouth — and this time, too, there should be a pressure from your belly onto your hand. That may seem odd, but both when you inhale and when you exhale the belly should expand, pressing on your hand. Thereby, the belly seems to be constantly growing, which is fine. Do not worry about your figure, since this is just how it feels.

5. Go on with this breathing, your belly pressing on your hand. When you feel that you do it right without any particular effort, you can take away the hand — but continue with the same breathing for a while.

6. If your breathing tends to move up toward your chest, and you notice that the chest starts moving at each breath, then put your hand back on the belly, and try again.

7. Continue to breathe this way as long as you want. Take your time — it is supposed to become a new habit of yours. If you notice that you get very tense when trying to belly breathe, you should not do it for more than a few minutes. Instead, repeat the exercise at another time.

       Of course, the hand is on your belly to help you learn deep breathing, and to make you feel clearly when you do it right. But the hand is not only a passive tool for measuring the effects of your exercise. It is active, and sort of calls on your breathing. A kind of dialogue appears between the hand and your belly, an exchange that helps you along. It would not work nearly as well if you tried putting a dead object on your belly. A live one other than your hand, though, would work at least as well. You can try with the friendly hand of a loved one, or a cat curled up on your belly, peacefully purring. Cats know everything about qi.

       A good way of testing your breathing is to put one hand on your belly, and the other on your chest. Then you will notice to what extent you breathe with your chest or your belly — under what hand there is the most activity. The best is if just about nothing happens under the hand on your chest, and lots under the hand on your belly. That might take a while.

       Do not start with this two-hands test when you try to learn belly breathing. Both hands might call on your breathing, so you will end up with breaths that are evenly divided between the belly and the chest. You want all the breathing in your belly, so wait with this test until you are well on your way.

       Count on needing to do this belly breathing exercise quite a lot, in order to establish this new breathing habit. I doubt that it can be done in a shorter time than a year, no matter how much you do it daily. You will learn to belly breathe quite quickly, but it will take time before that breathing becomes an automatic habit. It may even take significantly longer than a year, but you should notice that each time you do the exercise it comes easier and more freely. It gets increasingly natural to you. And your body will be delighted, because this is how it wants to breathe.

       Every infant knows this. Just watch them breathe.

       When you start to get the hang of it, you can exercise belly breathing in any position, whenever and wherever. You can do it on your work place, behind the wheels of your car, when you ride a bicycle, or when you run. Do it at any given opportunity during your everyday life, so that you really confirm to your body that this should be your new habit.

       The hand on your belly is a good help when you introduce yourself to belly breathing, but when you have gotten familiar with it, you will find that the hand is not necessary anymore. You just need to tell yourself to belly breathe, and you will. Then it is starting to become automatic. You just remind yourself, and you start belly breathing immediately — and it goes on, without you having to pay any attention to it.

       By time, you only need to remind yourself now and then, when for some reason your breathing jumped up to your chest, or maybe it just lost some of its grandeur. Then you only have to make one conscious deep breath to get it going again.

       Your breathing will become your foremost internal resource of power, confidence, and vitality. Whenever you need it, get it going by taking a big and deep breath. When you have established belly breathing as a habit, you just need to remind yourself of the fact that you actually do breathe correctly, in order to get on top of things — no matter how stressful or straining they are.

Qi Breathing Exercises

Here is a set of simple breathing exercises designed to increase your qi energy flow. I recommend that you do them in the given order, when you try them out. Once you've become familiar with them, you can do them in any order you please. Trust your instincts.

• Qi Breathing Introduction

• Extend Your Exhalation

• Lower Your Breath

• Belly breathing

  Breathe in a square

  
  

Qi Energy Exercises

Qi Exercise Settings

Qi Energy Breathing

Qi Posture

Qi Relaxation

Qi Extension

Qi Centering

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