try breathing from the belly

Perhaps you already do this. But many of us begin to breathe in a rather constricted way, using only the chest. This is only using a fraction of our lung capacity. And what's more, the lungs are not taking the air deeply within us when we are just using the chest muscles to breathe.

The largest part of the lung capacity is accessed when we are breathing with the diaphragm – a large sheet of muscle between the lungs and the abdomen. When we are breathing with this muscle, and breathing in, our belly extends outwards. The organs of the abdomen are pushed downwards and outwards, and also the lower part of the lungs expand outwards. This is breathing deeply. We take in a lot more air, a lot more oxygen. And what's more, the energy is reaching to that deeper part of our body, really right to our navel, to the energetic centre of our being.

In the east, breathing is felt to be of primary significance. There are whole meditation methods built just around breathing. In India, pranayama is this method of using the breath, as a discipline. And there are many different forms of pranayama. But here, we're concerned with just the basic way of breathing in our day-to-day life. It represents how we live our life. Do we live it in a relaxed, deep way, or do we live it in a rather tight, constrained way?

Often, as we are conditioned by society, we feel ourself constrained and needing to behave in certain ways. Our breathing becomes constrained too, and we start to breathe rather shallowly, using just the chest. This is not healthy. And ultimately, it restricts our spiritual growth. And that's why this – seemingly rather mundane matter – is of the deepest significance.

It will happen anyway: as we grow spiritually, our breathing will become deeper. But why not help that process along? We can start off consciously breathing more deeply, slowly, fully; first allowing that abdomen to expand as we breathe in, and allowing the chest to follow. We can use the full lung capacity. In fact, in yogic breathing, the shoulders can also be pulled slightly up and back at the end of the in-breath.

So there are these three sets of muscles that can be used. But the most significant by far is the diaphragm, the belly. The other two are of much less significance.

So try it: try breathing deeply. You do not need to breathe fast. This is not about hyperventilating. In fact, if we are breathing deeply in this way, our breath can slow down. We can become more relaxed. All of this is part of the spiritual way.

So try it: try breathing from the belly.