Breath is life. We have a lungs to bring in oxygen and remove built up toxins and carbon dioxide from our body. It is said that the average person only uses about twenty percent of their lung capacity. With Tai Chi practice, you can learn to bring more oxygen into your body and improve your heath through deep breath into your stomach.

So what is "Breathe into your stomach"? If you are a singer, actor, or yogi, the answer may be obvious to your body, but for the rest of us, breathing deep into the stomach on regular basis can be a new territory in our body. (Otherwise why would so many people need to be reminded?)

My question used to be..."why are we talking about stomach where food is digested and not lung for our breath?" Simple answer: stomach is just an outer reference.  

When I visited "Body Worlds" http://www.bodyworlds.com, I was amazed to see how large our lung was relative to all other organs. My image of lung in my head was something sitting near top part of my chest. I guess in a typical day, I belong to "average" people who only use twenty percent of their lung capacity and doing "chest breathing" using just the upper part of the lung. How do you feel about your lung? When you visualize you lung in your head, how big is it- and where is it? The picture may give you some idea on how you are using your lung on regular basis.

In Tai Chi, we remind ourselves by telling our body to 'Breath into stomach" to fill the bottom part of our lungs as well. Looking at the lung picture, you will notice lung is larger on the bottom part. You want to fill in the cup from the bottom all the way to the top. Imagine your lung doing the same.

Step by Step:

1)  Notice how you are breathing naturally

Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe naturally and see what happens to your hand. If you are breathing more to your chest, then hand on the chest will come up more than the other.

2) Breath in by imaginging that your breath is filling up your stomach

Consciously keep your chest flat, shoulder relaxed and breathe in by expanding your stomach. You are pushing your diaphragm (it sits right below your lung) down and creating more space for lower lung to take in air. Diaphragm will push down towards abdominal cavity and press the stomach out.

Imagine you are bringing oxygen all the way to the stomach and filling it up like filling up the cup. Stomach should naturally come out instead of struggling to push out. Fill out your lung from bottom to top.

To me, it's more helpful to imagine fresh oxygen filling me up from the bottom my feet all the way to the top of my head. (As if tree drinking in water from the roots)

3) Breath out by releasing the pressure from your stomach

When breathing in, the contraction of the diaphragm created a pressure in your stomach area. When breathing out, ease the pressure from your stomach area by relaxing your diaphragm. Your stomach should naturally come in as there are more spaces for stomach content again.

Just like how you empty the cup, empty your lung from the top to bottom.

4) Repeat #2 and #3

Practice practice practice. 

Tai Chi practice and breath

Just the breathing itself is a great Tai Chi practice.

Once you master how to do it, add Tai Chi movements to your breath. You want to get to the point where breathing into our stomach is the way you breath naturally.

Occasionally come back to paying attention to where you breathing into and see if you can increase your lung capacity even more.

How to use in your life:

 The opportunity to master the art of breathing is every moment. More oxygen means cleaner blood, clear thinking, better heart rate, and more energy. Whenever you notice, check in with yourself and see if you can increase your lung capacity by breathing into your stomach.