2. Place your hands on your sides with your fingers over your stomach close to your navel.

3. Breathe into your belly. Feel the front and sides of your stomach actually rising as you breathe in.

4. Breathe out completely. Exhale all the air from your lungs, as much as you possibly can.

5. Continue breathing in deep and exhaling long for as long as you’d like. I recommend 1-2 minutes to start and gradually build up to 5 minutes of deep breathing.

Using the free breathing exercises below may seem extremely simple, but do not underestimate the power of the breath. Proper breathing is very important for your practice of meditation. So before we begin meditating, it’s very important to learn how to breathe properly. Sure, it’s something you do without thinking about it, but truly, there’s an art to it. And for all practical purposes, yes, there is a right and wrong way to breath.

Take my student, Elvie, for example. She’s 77 years old and she’s been studying meditation and Yoga with me for over a year. One day, she told me she’s had asthma since she was 6 years old, but since working with me, she hasn’t had to take her asthma medication. She told me, “I still can’t balance on one foot, but I can breathe!”

Just think, she spent her entire life breathing…but she wasn’t really breathing fully. Most people breathe into their chest and it’s very shallow. But don’t feel bad about it…I used to breathe this way too. But using a few simple techniques really helped me expand my lung capacity.

Are you ready? Here’s your free breathing exercises. Simple…yes. Profound…you bet. But only if you use them.

Belly Breathing

3-part Breath

When can you expect to see results?

As you do these breathing exercises, you may feel tightness in your body. That’s normal. If you haven’t breathed like this in a long time, you may feel like your whole body is unable to move with the breath. Keep practicing! Many of my students, like Elvie, have told me that they didn’t experience results right away. I know that’s tough for Western culture, where everything is about instant gratification. But believe me when I tell you there’s no way to short cut this. It takes time and dedication to these simple exercises to create lasting results.Give it at least 3 months. If you haven’t experienced noticeable, positive results in 3 months, please contact me and I’ll help evaluate your situation and see how we can improve it.

Ready to move forward with your practice of meditation? Learn your first meditation technique.