Step 6: After you have inhaled as much air as you can, hold your breath for as long as you can (but not forcing too hard). It should be three to six counts in the early stages.

Step 7: Finally, exhale from your mouth (not from your nose) as slowly as you can, again pushing the lower abdomen inward. Your exhalation should be 2 to 4 times longer than that of inhalation. In other words, if you take 4 counts to breathe in, you should take 8 or even 16 counts to breathe out. If you can't exhale in 8 counts, however, stick to 4 counts. It is important to maintain a steady rhythm in breathing, so don't just breathe in and out haphazardly with odd rhythms. Do not do this exercise forcefully. You should be feeling reasonably comfortable during this exercise.

Step 8: Repeat the cycle of inhaling, holding your breath and exhaling, for at least 10 minutes.

2. Practicing Abdominal Breathing

Practice the Abdominal Breathing Exercise outlined in the previous pages for at least ten minutes, twice a day.

Make sure you maintain your proper standing position, and perform the exercise slowly and carefully — don't rush! Don't forget to hold your breath, but even more importantly, make sure the timing of your inhalation and exhalation is correct. Again, your exhalation should be twice as long as your inhalation. Concentrate, and become aware of what your body is doing.

If You Have Trouble Breathing With Your Abdomen

Some of you may have gotten so used to breathing with your chest that you won't know how to use your abdomen to breathe. It has been found, for example, that more women breathe with the chest than men (perhaps because of the historically fashionable pursuit of tighter and smaller waist lines?). The following imagery might help: Imagine that your lungs are "full," so you are breathing air into your whole body and the air completely fills up your stomach. Let your stomach puff out like a balloon as your inhaled air pushes down deep into your body, bypassing your lungs, filling up your entire abdominal cavity.

Now you are completely filled with air. Next imagine letting the air out through your mouth, very slowly, with the air being pushed out from the lowest part of your abdomen first. Keep on pushing the air out until you are completely empty of air. Once you have the hang of the abdominal breathing movement, try again with the proper standing and hand positions, and see if you can still perform the abdominal movement in the same way.

If you still have trouble, try lying down. Exhale by pushing your stomach down into the floor. Now inhale by imagining that you are pushing your abdomen up and out to "make room" for the air coming in. Keep your chest flat; do not let it rise and fill up with air. Practice this until you get the feeling of using your abdomen to breathe. Then try it standing up in the proper position and see if you can maintain the motion.

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