1. You can stand, sit, or lie down, just what you like. It does not matter. But try to have the good posture that you have learned from previous exercises, and avoid any clothing that sits tight on your body. Wear loose clothes, and as few as possible.
2. Inhale normally, through your nose.
3. Exhale through your mouth – as much as you can, without losing your good posture. Continue the exhalation as long as possible – and then some.
4. Close your mouth and let the inhalation happen automatically. Do not let your conscious mind control your inhalation. You will observe that you breathe in as suddenly as if the air was pushed down your lungs, like a vacuum suddenly opening to the outside world. This way, the inhaled air feels particularly fresh and refreshing.
5. When this sudden rush of air has entered your lungs, you should not consciously continue with the inhalation. Instead, you open your mouth and breathe out, at least as much as last time.
6. Repeat as long as it feels good. Remember to keep your good posture. If you get dizzy by the increased oxygen intake this kind of breathing causes, slow down by prolonging your exhalations. You can also take short pauses between inhalation and exhalation, but do not try to change the speed of the former.

1. You can stand or sit in this exercise, but the best is probably if you lie down on your back, like in some of the previous exercises. When you have learned to find a deep belly breathing, it is not necessary anymore to do it lying down. By then you should be able to do it sitting, standing, or even walking. Loose clothing is helpful, and in the beginning probably quite necessary. Loosen what might be tight, especially around your belly. The less clothes the better. Even very loose garments have a tendency to slightly inhibit your breathing.
2. Relax and take a few normal breaths, so that you calm down.
3. Put the palm of one of your hands on your belly, between the navel and the crotch. There should be good contact, but do not press the hand on your belly. Observe that it is the palm of your hand that is important, and not the fingers. They should be passive. Otherwise they can confuse and disturb your breathing.
4. Breathe in and then start a slow exhalation. Do not breathe out through your mouth, which tends to bring the breathing up toward your chest, but through your nose.
5. Now, make a sudden and forceful exhalation, by which you try to push the hand on your belly. Make it bump, only by your sudden exhalation. Do not push with your body. The hips should not move at all. The push should come from within your stomach. In the beginning it is probably a kind of wave from your chest and downward, but by time you should be able to do the push with your stomach, and nothing else. It is tricky at first. Try again and again, until you succeed.
6. Take a new breath and repeat the pushing of your hand with your exhalation. Remember to start the exhalation slowly, before you make the push. Otherwise the body tends to resist and get tense. You should repeat the exercise until you feel that you manage to push the palm of your hand from inside your stomach, without the rest of the body helping noticeably.

1. You can walk, stand, or sit down, but in the beginning the easiest is to lie on your back. Your clothes should be loose, especially on the belly, and the less clothes you have on, the better.
2. Put the palm of one of your hands on your belly, about midway between your navel and your crotch – or closer to the crotch if you can get your breathing that low. Remember to keep a good contact between your palm and belly, without pushing.
3. Start a slow and deep inhalation through your nose, and try to do it in such a way that your belly pushes on the hand. This means that the belly expands when you breathe in.
4. Continue with a long exhalation through your mouth – and this time, too, there should be a pressure from your belly onto your hand. That may seem odd, but both when you inhale and when you exhale the belly should expand, pressing on your hand. Thereby, the belly seems to be constantly growing, which is fine. Do not worry about your figure, since this is just how it feels.
5. Go on with this breathing, your belly pressing on your hand. When you feel that you do it right without any particular effort, you can take away the hand – but continue with the same breathing for a while.
6. If your breathing tends to move up toward your chest, and you notice that the chest starts moving at each breath, then put your hand back on the belly, and try again.
7. Continue to breathe this way as long as you want. Take your time – it is supposed to become a new habit of yours. If you notice that you get very tense when trying to belly breathe, you should not do it for more than a few minutes. Instead, repeat the exercise at another time.

Stefan Stenudd

The book about qi.