The Tan-Tien Cleansing Breath

The Tan-Tien, is a Power center located approximately two and one half inches below the naval. It is the center of the physical body, your physical strength, and your awareness. This center is used in the martial arts to draw power from. The practice of cultivating the body's energy, chi (pronounced "chee," also written as qi), for greater vitality and better health has been around for the past 5,000 years, Chi Kung (also known as qigong) practitioners have used breath and body control to increase their energy.

The tan tien cleansing breath is a powerful, natural breathing exercise for both health preservation and self-healing, as well as for increasing your inner, vital energy. Based on natural, diaphragmatic breathing, it involves inhaling through the nose and directing the breath energy down into the lower tan tien, the area just beneath the navel, and exhaling waste products up and out through the nose or mouth while simultaneously condensing the breath energy into the cells of the lower abdomen. The tan tien cleansing breath requires a long, slow exhalation. By intentionally prolonging the exhalation, you not only promote the removal of toxins from your body, but you also help turn on your parasympathetic nervous system, thus furthering inner deep relaxation and healing.
Practice

The key to using tan tien breathing to help heal yourself is to inhale gently all the way down into the tan tien area, an inch or two below your navel. As you inhale, put your attention on the lower tan tien and sense your breath energy filling your lower abdomen. Feel how your abdomen naturally expands. If you like, you can put your hands on your belly to help attract your breath there. As you exhale, sense any tensions and toxins going out with the breath as your abdomen naturally contracts.

Learn to be attentive to the vital warmth or vibration of the breath energy remaining in your abdomen as you exhale. Guard it with your awareness. Feel it being absorbed deep into your cells as you exhale waste products upward and out through your nose or mouth. Do not use any force or effort in doing this practice. Use only your awareness and intention.

Tan tien breathing is an important aspect of natural, authentic breathing, so be patient and gentle as you undertake this exercise. The key is to work with your full attention, without any feeling of willfulness, and to sense the energy in your abdomen as you breathe naturally and effortlessly. If you can work in this way for several minutes each day for a few weeks, the tan tien cleansing breath will quickly become a regular and natural part of your life.

Tan Tien Chi Kung is the branch of Universal Tao dedicated to cultivating and condensing energy in the body. Tan Tien Chi Kung is a beautiful, sophisticated practice that increases vitality, strengthens your organs, and helps heal the body. Every day for the next two weeks, try the following basic warm-up movements to discover how this practice can give you an energy boost.

Sacral Space
This basic Tan Tien Chi Kung warm-up will begin to increase your capacity for chi by engaging your kua, the area that includes the sacrum, groin, hip joints, and hip flexors. Opening this space unblocks the nerves as well as the flow of chi, blood, and lymph fluid up and down the legs.

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and parallel, both big toes turned slightly inward. Firmly ground the feet by pressing through nine key points: the bottom side of each toe, the ball of the foot on the big toe and pinky sides, the arch, and the center of the heel.
2. Gently rub the sacral area, the bony triangle at the base of your spine, with both hands to stimulate the sacrum. Then, holding your hands on the sacrum, move it back and forth.
3. With your hands at your sides, lightly twist and spiral the ankles and knees in an outward-turning direction. Exhale, pressing the heels firmly into the ground, with the big toes slightly inward. Press the legs firmly into the earth. Continue to rotate the leg bones to the outside. This creates tension in the tendons and it makes the feet and legs feel like one piece that attaches to the hipbones. This helps open the hips and slightly separates them from the sacrum. When you open the sacrum in this way, it feels like you are pulling the hips to the sides. At the same time, you are pushing the sacrum to the back, tucking the coccyx (the base of the spine), and opening the pelvis.

Animal Nature
Tan Tien Chi Kung's warm-up is typically followed by 11 animal postures. The powerful animal postures build on the skills practiced in the warm-up, significantly enhance chi pressure, and strengthen the perineum. Crane, for instance, develops the chi pressure in both sides of the lower Tan Tien. After each animal exercise, there is a movement to energize your body and to collect the chi generated in the lower Tan Tien.

In the Taoist tradition, the lower body and its organs and functions are associated with the earth, and the upper body and its organs and functions are associated with heaven. Yet the spiritual body cannot be born and grow without being nourished by an unceasing supply of fresh chi, generated in the lower body by the practice of Tan Tien Chi Kung.

Through grounding, centering exercises like these, you will become more skilled at reconnecting with your complete mind-body-spirit self, the world you live in, and the universe that contains you. And in that practice, you become a better blend of heaven and earth.