Mindfulness: Core/deep breathing

Do you know how to breathe deeply? It is a key component for all health.

Are you a shallow or deep breather? Take Nancy Zi's simple test: Put your palms against your lower abdomen and blow out all the air. Now, take a big breath. If your abdomen expands when you inhale and air seems to flow in deeply to the pit of your stomach, you're on the right track.

More typically, though, shallow breathers are likely to take a breath and pull in their stomach, which pushes the diaphragm up so the air has nowhere to go. What happens next is that the shoulders go up to make room. "All this effort for something, which should be a natural gift!" Zi exclaims.

To fill the lungs more deeply, "Lower the diaphragm muscle by expanding the abdomen. When this happens, the lungs elongate and draw in air. You don't breathe into the abdomen; you allow it to expand comfortably all around its circumference — back, sides and front. Proper core breathing is really the foundation for all things — it's the foundation of health."

"Where is the core? It's below the navel a few inches or so. It isn't a thing, you can't see it: it's a sensation. Zi likes to use the image of a lotus blossom when teaching people how to breathe from their core: "When you inhale, imagine a blossom opening within your abdomen; when you exhale, the blossom closes. You open from the center of the blossom, the core. What causes the petals to open is the energy from the core; the more you breathe from the core, the more you stimulate and nourish its energy, and you become more in control."

To practice deep breathing, sniff in four times, hold for a count of four and then hiss or gently blow out on a count of eight. Work your way up to blowing out for progressively longer counts of twelve, sixteen, twenty, etc. Then try taking a deep breath, filling the diaphragm on one long intake, hold it, and blow out for progressively longer counts as before. Don't raise your shoulders or expand your chest. All the movement of the breath comes from the waist or below.