How to Breathe

In order to feel lower breathing, concentrate on keeping your chest from rising or falling at all while you breathe.  Instead, pooch out your stomach as you inhale, and suck it back in as you exhale. Eventually, this won't be necessary. But for now, it provides your body with an essential physical clue; this is where your breath belongs.  The ideal breath is low and round.  It should fall down in your stomach, almost in your hips, and you should be able to feel not just your stomach but also your lower back gently expand with each breath.

If this sounds weird, it's because we're not used to thinking of breathing in this way.  But breathing down in the abdomen allows much more room for those healthy, healing breaths that we need to take.  Many illnesses, especially common ones such as colds and flus, are the result, in part, of not breathing right.  Similarly, fatigue, stress, and lack of concentration are all, in part, either caused or exacerbated by poor breathing.  In order to perform at its peak, the human body needs precious oxygen.  Breathing properly provides the oxygen your body needs, where improper breathing does not.