Robert feels his anger rise when he's stuck in traffic. Carol's heart races before she makes a speech. Susan often has difficulty getting to sleep. Tom gets winded after just a few minutes of exercise. Some panic when reflecting on terrorist attacks. Others wish to excel at athletics, theater and singing and other endeavors. All of them -and you- can improve their lives simply by improving the way they breathe.

Welcome to The Art of Breathing ONLINE. The purpose of this web site is to enhance the lives and personal growth of our visitors by providing breathing instructions, breathing exercises, and breathing meditations. We've provided a number of resources here to help you resolve your breathing problems and acquire total well-being.

Says author Nancy Zi, "Breathing is our most important act -- we do it every moment of our lives, some 20,000 times each day.  Breathing incorrectly can produce tension, exhaustion and vocal strain, and can interfere with athletic activity and encourage aches and illnesses. Breathing correctly, however, nourishes every fiber of our body and soul. Breathe correctly and you can melt away tension and stress, improve energy or simply relax and unwind.

The opposite of effective abdominal deep breathing is shallow breathing.  How do you know if your breathing is shallow?  If you lift your shoulders when you inhale or audibly gasp for air when you speak, you are probably breathing incorrectly.  To find out if you are a shallow breather, try this simple test:  Put your palms against you 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.

However, if your lower abdomen expands when you exhale and compresses when you inhale, you are a shallow breather.  Pulling in your stomach as you inhale creates tension and wastes energy.  Squeezing the abdomen pushes the diaphragm upward, minimizing your lungs' capacity, simultaneously pushing and fighting against the inflow of every breath.  While one is young and in apparent good health, these bits of wasted effort and restrained oxygen intake may not seem apparent, but in time, exhaustion and tension will take their toll on your mental, physical and emotional well-being.

Physical posture and physical texture both greatly affect breathing.  In other words, if you have perfect posture and are as stiff as a marble statue, proper breathing is not possible.  We need to texture our body so that it is flexible, soft and supple.  A good, relaxed posture represents a more receptive container into which air can flow deeply and fully.    In today's  busy times, we all have to deal with stress in various forms."

Partial reprint of article by Nancy Zi, Health & Fitness Journal.

Includes 24 simple breathing exercises plus imagery drills
Also 14 applications and 50 Q & A in the book

More information on book, video, and DVD

Foreign Translations

To order