This short audio will show you how to change from "chest breathing" to "abdominal breathing" which is the foundation of many Qigong exercises. This breath is more efficient, allowing you to take in more oxygen so that you can feel more relaxed and refreshed. You can also use this method to release tension or discomfort from your body as you exhale.
Exercise 1 Abdominal Breathing Find a comfortable place to either lie down or sit down and when you're comfortable just check that the mouth is closed with the tongue resting against the roof of the mouth and the tip of the tongue resting against the back of the upper teeth breathing in and out through the nose as you're breathing right now don't change anything but just observe the breath and make a mental note so you can compare how this feels now with how the breath feels at the end of the exercise so firstly observe whether your breath is fast or slow is the breath shallow or deep can you hear yourself breathing or is it silent and are you aware of any obstruction either as you inhale or exhale so now just placing one hand flat on the lower abdomen below the belly button and as you continue breathing now just start to draw the breath in a little deeper breathing in and out through the nose and as you breathe in think of taking that breath in and blowing up the lower abdomen like blowing up a balloon so as you breathe in the lower abdomen expands and your hand rises or pushes out as you breathe out the abdomen shrinks and the hand sinks in again sinks in again so really relaxing in the abdominal area as you breathe in and the belly expands and then breathe out and the belly shrinks as you're familiarizing yourself with that movement of the hand up and down be aware that this is how you used to breathe as a baby if you watch babies breathing when they're sleeping or if you watch your pets your animals at home breathing you'll see that they use abdominal breathing and this is a much more efficient way to breathe because you're using much more of your lung capacity now keeping going with the movement what you need to do next is bring your mind into this so as you breathe in think of breathing in and catching that very first little bit of breath that very first little bit of breath that enters the nostrils with your mind follow the breath down into the lower abdomen with your mind allow that breath to turn around keeping your mind down there and then as you breathe out follow the breath up and out the nostrils with your mind so the mind is following the breath so breathing in and catching that very first little bit of breath as it enters the nostrils following it down and then as you exhale following the breath back up and out the nostrils and just keep going with this now trying to coordinate the mind and the breath and this catching of the first little bit of breath as it enters the nostrils in qigong we call it catching the head of the qi the head of the the first little bit of air and some people like to visualize this as maybe a stream of white light or energy or energy rushing down into the lower abdomen area and then leaving again as you exhale some people like to visualize it as the head of one of the chinese dragons you know the very long swirly whirly ones that you see in chinatown at chinese new year so the head of the dragon is what you're catching with your mind and following this very energizing dynamic dragon down into the lower abdomen to really energize the whole body and then following the dragon back up again as you exhale so just use whichever method visualization works for you you may have something else in mind but just trying to allow the mind to follow the breath so you should now have the first two aspects of this exercise firstly the movement of the hand up and down as you inhale and exhale and secondly coordinating the mind with the breath for the third part of this exercise i'm going to show you how to use abdominal breathing for a more therapeutic purpose so as you breathe in each time now be thinking of breathing in really good clean energizing air which is going down into the lower abdomen to circulate around that area and then circulate around the whole body from this lower abdominal area and each time you breathe out what i want you to think of is anything in the body that you don't want so this could be a physical ache or pain or feeling of stiffness it could be a headache a stomach cramp so anything physical but also it could be anything more mental or emotional like anxiety or worry overwhelm sadness grief fear anger frustration confusion anything that springs to mind so of any of those things or anything else that springs to mind for you if you have a number of things that you're thinking of then just pick one just work with the main one in any particular session of abdominal breathing breathing and as you breathe out think of breathing that thing up and out through the nostrils being very conscious of letting that go with your mind and allowing it to float away from you far away up into the sky and as you do so try not to breathe out with any great malice or force in your attempt to rid yourself of what you don't want rather think of opening up a pathway from the lower abdomen right the way up to the nostrils to make it easy for what you don't want to let go leave so you're just gently guiding it out using the breath and then thinking of it floating far away from you so you're breathing in the really good stuff the clean energizing air and you're breathing out anything you choose not to have in your body or mind so just keep going with that for a few more breaths and then to finish the exercise just bring your mind back to the movement of your hand as you breathe in and out so breathing in through the nose and the belly expands the hand pushes out or upwards and breathing out through the nose the belly sinks down and now just to bring yourself back into the room or the space where you're practicing this exercise just think about the weight and the contact of your body on whichever surface you're lying or sitting listen for any sounds around you and then when you're ready you can gently open the eyes just lying there for a few more moments now and making the observations about your body so now is your breath faster or slower than at the beginning is it deeper or shallower is it more audible is it more subtle is it more or shallower is it more audible or is it silent and does it feel any more or less obstructed than at the beginning so that concludes the exercise of abdominal breathing and the effects of this exercise should leave you feeling calm and relaxed feeling clear in your mind and at the same time nice and energetic
