Tai Chi, How to Breathe & Get More Energy

"Breath is the link between the inner and outer worlds."
-- Alice Christensen

John Crewdson is another enthusiastic T'ai Chi Blogger. He recently posted about how most people have forgotten how to breathe properly. He points out that we all knew how to breathe as children, but that we forgot as we became adults and that we struggle because of it.

John writes that breathing "wrong" is bad for us over the long term. Because of the way most of us have learned to breathe we slowly loose lung capacity over the years. Our lungs stop working as well because we only use part of them, and as John points out, what we don't use, we lose.

To improve your breathing use your stomach to pull down on your diaphragm so your lungs can fill up with air. Let your ribs expand naturally. Don't lift your chest. Sometimes it's easier to do this lying down until you get the hang of it. Soon this way of breathing will become more natural to you again as you begin to feel the benefits of filling your lungs with more air. You will have more endurance, more energy, be more relaxed and think more clearly.

Regular T'ai Chi practice helps you do this naturally.