Advance Breathing C

Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life
How to Use Tai Chi Breathing in Your Daily Life
Written By: C. Guan Soo
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com
DISCLAIMER
This e-book is intended for information only. The author and publisher do not imply any results to those using this information, nor are they responsible for any results brought about by the usage of the information contained herein. The author and publisher of this e-book and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this e-book. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this e-book. The author and publisher disclaim any personal liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use of any information or advice contained herein, either directly or indirectly. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in this e-book, you are taking full responsibility for your actions. Furthermore, the author and publisher do not guarantee that the holder of this information will improve his or her health from the information contained herein. Each individuals health will be determined by his or her desire, dedication, background, effort, motivation to practice and follow the program, and his or her current health conditions. There is no guarantee you will duplicate the results stated here. You recognize that health programs are dependent on many factors to be successful. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose. This e-book is copyrighted by C. Guan Soo. No part of this may be copied, or changed in any format, sold, or used in any way other than what is outlined within this e-book under any circumstances.
You do not have the right to sell, resell, bundled it with other products for sales, or distribute to anyone with or without any price charges.
Table of Content
Part 1: Introduction to the Book ............................................................ 7
Introduction..............................................................................................................8 Background ..............................................................................................................8 Importance of Basic Tai Chi Breathing ...................................................................9 Who can use this book ...........................................................................................10 How to use this book..............................................................................................11
Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing .......................... 14

Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing...........................................................15 Bathing After the Practices ....................................................................................15 Various Breathing Rhythms...................................................................................16
Ineffective Retention ................................................................................................... 16 Full Retention ............................................................................................................. 18
Exercise 2-1: Basic Full Retention ...................................................................................19 ***Caution Senior Citizen .............................................................................................20 Exercise 2-1: Longer Full Retention.................................................................................21
Empty Retention ......................................................................................................... 22

Exercise 2-3: Basic Empty Retention ................................................................................23 ***Caution Senior Citizen .............................................................................................24 Exercise 2-4: Longer Empty Retention .............................................................................24
Full and Empty Retention Combined ......................................................................... 26

***Caution Senior Citizen .............................................................................................27 Exercise 2-5: Basic Full and Empty Retention .................................................................27
Introducing Visualization Techniques ...................................................................29 Importance of Focus and Concentration ................................................................30

Exercise 2-6: Concentration Test............................................................................... 31 Exercise 2-7: Concentration Practice ........................................................................ 34
Importance of Quiet or Calm Environment ...........................................................36 Basic Visualization Exercise..................................................................................37

***Caution Pregnant Women ................................................................................. 37 ***Caution Senior Citizen ...................................................................................... 37 ***Caution High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions .......................... 38 The Visualization Exercise ......................................................................................... 38
Exercise 2-8: Basic Visualization Exercise Brilliant White Ball ...................................38
Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices .................. 41

Introduction to the Full Practices...........................................................................42 Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practices..........................................................43
Practice 1: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Normal Adult................ 43 Practice 2: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Senior Citizen, High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Condition ............................................ 47 Practice 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Pregnant Women.......... 50 Notes on Advance Tai Chi Breathing ......................................................................... 51
Visualization Practice ............................................................................................52

***Caution: Senior Citizen ........................................................................................ 54 ***Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ............................ 54
***Caution: Pregnant Women ................................................................................... 54 Practice 4: Visualization Practice.............................................................................. 54
Energy Absorption .................................................................................................63

***Caution: Smoker................................................................................................... 64 ***Caution: Senior Citizen ........................................................................................ 64 ***Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ............................ 65 ***Caution: Pregnant Women ................................................................................... 65 Practice 5: Energy Absorption Practice .................................................................... 65
Recharging and Healing.........................................................................................69

***Caution: Smoker................................................................................................... 70 ***Caution: Senior Citizen ........................................................................................ 70 ***Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ............................ 71 ***Caution: Pregnant Women ................................................................................... 71 Practice 6: Recharging and Healing Practice ........................................................... 71
Part 4: Tai Chi Breathing in Daily Life ............................................... 75

Mastering the Fundamental Four ...........................................................................76 Other Situations .....................................................................................................76 Tai Chi Breathing in Driving .................................................................................77 Tai Chi Breathing in Sports ...................................................................................78
Continuous Activities.................................................................................................. 79 Non-continuous Activities........................................................................................... 79 Practices for Continuous Activities ............................................................................ 80 Practices for Non-continuous Activities..................................................................... 80 Energy Absorption for Sports..................................................................................... 81
*** Caution: Smokers.......................................................................................................81 *** Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ..................................81 *** Caution: Pregnant Women.........................................................................................81 Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports.........................................................................82
Tai Chi Breathing in Work ....................................................................................84

Short Visualization for Work ...................................................................................... 84
*** Caution: Senior Citizen..............................................................................................85 *** Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ..................................85 *** Caution: Pregnant Women.........................................................................................85 Practice 8: Short Visualization for Work..........................................................................85
Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping.............................................................................87

Practice 9: Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping .............................................................. 88
Tai Chi Breathing in Classroom ............................................................................89 Tai Chi Breathing and Tai Chi Chuan ...................................................................91
*** Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ........................... 92 *** Caution: Pregnant Women .................................................................................. 92 Practice 10: Energy Absorption for Tai Chi Chuan .................................................. 92
Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation .........................................................................95

Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation.................................................................... 96
Practice 11: Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation......................................................97
Advance Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation............................................................... 98
Tai Chi Breathing and Other Practices ..................................................................98 Tai Chi Breathing and Prayers...............................................................................99 Other Daily Practices ...........................................................................................101
Part 5: Tai Chi Breathing for Specific Conditions ........................... 102

Specific Conditions..............................................................................................103 Reducing Stress and Tension ...............................................................................104
Practice 12: Quick Practice for Managing Stress.................................................... 105
Reducing Insomnia ..............................................................................................108 Relaxation ............................................................................................................108

Practice 13: Relaxation............................................................................................ 109
Healing on Specific Areas ...................................................................................111

*** Caution: Smokers .............................................................................................. 111 *** Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions ......................... 112 *** Caution: Pregnant Women ................................................................................ 112 Practice 14: Healing on Specific Area(s)................................................................. 112
Increasing Mental Energy Immediately...............................................................114 Increasing Physical Energy Immediately.............................................................114

***Caution for increasing mental and physical energy immediately ...................... 115
Increasing Joy and Happiness..............................................................................115

Practice 15: Increasing Happiness and Joy............................................................. 117
Improving Relationships......................................................................................119
Practice 16: Improving Relationships...................................................................... 122
Promoting Peace and Harmony ...........................................................................126

Practice 17: Promoting Peace and Harmony .......................................................... 127
Note on Increasing Happiness, Improving Relationship and Promoting Peace and Harmony .......................................................................................130
Part 6: Conclusion ............................................................................... 130

Conclusion ...........................................................................................................131
Part 7: Summary Guide ...................................................................... 134

Summary of Practices ..........................................................................................135 Exercise 2-5: Basic Full and Empty Retention ....................................................136 Exercise 2-7: Concentration Practice...................................................................137 Exercise 2-8: Basic Visualization Exercise Brilliant White Ball......................138 Practice 1: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Normal Adult ..........139 Practice 2: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Senior Citizen, High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions......................................140 Practice 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Pregnant Women.....141 Practice 4: Visualization Practice ........................................................................142 Practice 5: Energy Absorption Practice ...............................................................143 Practice 6: Recharge and Healing Practice ..........................................................144 Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports ............................................................145 Practice 8: Short Visualization for Work.............................................................146 Practice 9: Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping.........................................................147 Practice 10: Energy Absorption for Tai Chi Chuan.............................................148 Practice 11: Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation .........................................149 Practice 12: Quick Practice for Managing Stress ................................................150 Practice 13: Relaxation ........................................................................................151 5
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Practice 14: Healing on Specific Area(s).............................................................152 Practice 15: Increasing Happiness and Joy..........................................................153 Practice 16: Improving Relationships..................................................................154 Practice 17: Promoting Peace and Harmony .......................................................155
Contact Information ............................................................................ 156
Part 1: Introduction to the Book
Part 1: Introduction to the Book

Introduction
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life is the second instructional book of the Complete Guide on Tai Chi Breathing: Breathe Your Way to Healthier and Happier Life! to complement the first book Basic Tai Chi Breathing: A Simple Step by Step Guide to make you healthier and have better mental strength, using much advance techniques that have been combined from other derivatives and practices. This book is the advance manual that is built upon the skills that are taught in the basic manual, and these two will form the basis for my next book Quick and Simple Tai Chi Chuan for Better Health in 7 Days.
Background
I have always been fascinated by alternatives way for health improvement. Over the past 23 years, I have learned, practiced, taught many, many different ways. Some of those methods involve various methods of meditation and mindfulness practice, various healing arts, reflexology, acu-points massaging, Guasha, and martial arts. From this diverse practices and methods, I simplified one system so that it will be easier for me to practice daily. Then, I shared the methods with my friends, and they liked it. So, I thought, hey, how about making this available to the public? And thus, the first book Basic Tai Chi Breathing was written. I have also modified and tested with other methods, and cross-mixed certain common practices which produces more effective results. These methods were used by me in certain special occasion for specific purposes. I have shared these with my families and friends, and they too found it to be beneficial to their well-being. And when I was writing Basic Tai Chi Breathing, I was thinking to include all these methods into it. However, after much consideration, I decided otherwise. The reason was these advance techniques may not be suitable for certain people and it is not advisable for them to practice it. And if I include them in the basic book, I would have a lot of clarification to do - you can do this, you cant do this, you have to pay attention to this and that, and it will end up confusing you! It will not be effective too, for an instructional book. Therefore, I decided to separate them into two different books so that Basic Tai Chi Breathing can be practiced by everyone, and these advance techniques, which is suitable for advance practitioners, are made available for those who can do it. Thus, this book you are reading now, Advance Tai Chi Breathing, consist of those separate techniques that I have previously left out from the basic manual.
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com I have also modified and simplified the Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, and now experimenting it with my families and friends and the results were very positive. This new Tai Chi Chuan has also incorporated both the basic and advance breathing techniques from these two books. These breathing techniques are the essential practice of my new Tai Chi Chuan and have to be done correctly in order to achieve the desire effect within seven days. And if you have mastered these techniques, this new Tai Chi Chuan will be easier for you to learn, and to get the results quickly. Even if you are now practicing Tai Chi Chuan, you can use the techniques in this book for increase the Qi flow for you. Since, the major focus of the basic breathing techniques is based on Tai Chi Chuan practice, I name it as Basic Tai Chi Breathing and since the advance techniques were built upon the basic techniques, naturally, I will have to name this as Advance Tai Chi Breathing. Thus, now I introduce you Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life as a complementary book to my earlier work Basic Tai Chi Breathing: A Simple Step By Step Guide in this 2 books package of Complete Guide on Tai Chi Breathing.
Importance of Basic Tai Chi Breathing

This book is written with the assumption that you have already mastered the techniques and methods in Basic Tai Chi Breathing and that you can do Tai Chi Breathing without much difficulties. You must have also mastered the Fundamental Four in the basic manual. However, as a reminder, I put the 5 Steps of Tai Chi Breathing as follows: Step 1: Connect the channels with the tongue touching the upper palate. Step 2: Abdominal breathing by using the lower abdomen. Step 3: Use the nose to breathe, with the mouth tightly closed. Step 4: Breathe deeply, with long, slow and with tiny flows of inhaling and exhaling. Step 5: Maintain the slow and constant breathing rhythm. As you have already mastered the 5 Steps, for the rest of this book, I will not go into details on how to practice these 5 Steps. Instead, I will mention only Basic Tai Chi
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Breathing, which means that you have to do all the 5 Steps before continuing with the next. And in case you do not know what these 5 Steps are, I suggest you not to continue with these advance techniques. Reasons are: 1. You must have the proper foundation in order to practice the advance techniques because Basic Tai Chi Breathing is the core technique that will be used here. 2. It may be risky if you do not have the basic skills. 3. Advance techniques may not be effective if you do not do the proper breathing techniques. 4. To avoid confusion learning so many techniques at once. 5. You need to know what are the Fundamental Four in order to practice in your daily life In addition to that, you should also be familiar with the terms that I have used in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing, like normalize your breathing, your personal maximum breathing counts etc. In case you have yet to get familiar with it, please go through Basic Tai Chi Breathing to get yourself familiarize with those terms. I will not repeat and describe them in detail here, except for some exercises or practices that I think I should remind you of. I suggest that you take one step at a time learn the basic 5 Steps, then Fundamental Four, before continuing with this book.
Who can Use This Book

This book consists of advance techniques that are mainly for normal healthy adult. Care should be taken if you are having high blood pressure, or heart related conditions. Usually, if you have these conditions, advance techniques that involve visualization elements are not suitable for you. However, to be on the safe side, throughout the book, under appropriate headings, I will put ***Caution High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions. Read through those sections first before practicing. Children should not be using this book at all! Even for other milder techniques like full and empty retention techniques, I would not recommend them learning those techniques as well. In other words, it is best to keep children from whatever techniques recommended in this book. ***Warning Children should keep away from all techniques described in this book.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com I have given the warning, and you will be responsible for them if you have chosen to ignore my warning. As I have already put the warning here for children, I will not specifically mention in each of the sections for whatever techniques after this. For pregnant women, you will also need to exercise some precaution. As a general rule, all other techniques described in the book can be used, except those involving visualization techniques. Involving here means whichever practices that have the elements of visualization, like energy absorption, recharge and healing, or those specific practices that use visualization techniques. Any other techniques that do not have visualization elements are perfectly alright. In fact, in those section that involves visualization techniques, I will put a caution section as ***Caution Pregnant Women. Please read them as it will have adverse effect on your child! For senior citizen, it is alright for do all the practices described in this book, but for visualization, do it sparingly. However, for those with high-blood pressure, and heart related illness, visualization related techniques are not for you. It will worsen your condition of high blood pressure, as well as heart-related illness. In each of the section that involves visualization techniques, I will also put a caution section as ***Caution Senior Citizen. Please read through these caution sections before proceeding. However, there are exceptions for Practice 15: Increasing Happiness and Joy, Practice 16: Improving Relationships and Practice 17: Promoting Peace and Harmony. These three practices involves visualization techniques, but are mild and do not involve much energy absorption into the body. Thus, they are safe to be practiced by all. In any section that I do not specifically include the caution heading, it means that the technique is perfectly alright for whoever you are. You can practice those techniques safely and gain the benefits.
How to Use This Book

There are seven parts in this book: Part 1: Introduction to the Book Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices Part 4: Tai Chi Breathing in Daily Life Part 5: Tai Chi Breathing for Specific Conditions Part 6: Conclusion Part 7: Summary Guide
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Part 1 serves as an introduction in general and stresses on the importance of you mastering the skills in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing book. This is a very important part that also states who is and who is not suitable to use the techniques in this advance manual. You should read through this part carefully before proceeding. Part 2 is essential and I suggest that you read through this part first before going into the full practices. In this part, you will learn and master the basic skills required for you to do the advance methods. You will learn the various breathing rhythms, visualization techniques and how to increase your concentration for better results in the advance techniques. The exercises are arranged in progressive sequence, but you can pick whichever you feel comfortable first. However, you must master all these techniques first before going into the full practices in Part 3. Part 3 is the core of this book. You will learn and practice all the four advance techniques described in this book. The advance Tai Chi Breathing is organized into 3 categories of people: normal adult, senior citizen, high blood pressure and heart related conditions and pregnant women. The full practices of the other three techniques are described here, together with cautions for different category of people. Part 4 and Part 5 are the applications of all the advance techniques described in Part 3, which includes suggestions, discussions and practices for you to put Tai Chi Breathing into your daily life and/or for specific purposes. Part 4 is focusing on how to apply Tai Chi Breathing in various situations of your daily life. The practices designed based on some common situations that you may face. Part 5 is for you to do Tai Chi Breathing for specific purposes. The practices in Part 5 are designed for you to apply Tai Chi Breathing for specific conditions that you may want to overcome or achieve. You should have mastered the techniques in Part 3 first before going into these 2 parts. Part 6 is the conclusion of the book, and a little sharing of my vision and hope. Part 7 is the summary guide which I have included so that you can print out specific exercises or practices that you are concentrating on, on one single A4 page, and stick it somewhere you can refer to easily as an aid to your practice. The instructions in both the exercises and practices are arranged in sequence, with keywords in bold, and the explanation in normal fonts. The keywords are there to trigger off your memory of each step in the exercises and practices. Please read through the whole exercise or practice first, understand what each steps means, then only you follow the steps and do exercise or practice. To avoid confusion, the 5 Steps of Tai Chi Breathing are the core steps in the basic book. You should have mastered them before reading this book. For each exercises and practices, there will be additional steps depending on the situation and category. These steps, I will refer to as No. # in the exercises. For example, if Im referring to step 6 of
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com the exercise, I will quote it as No. 6. So, please do not be confused with the 5 Steps of Tai Chi Breathing, when I mention No. 6 or so on. As for the 5 Steps of Tai Chi Breathing, I will not mention each of the 5 steps in the exercises or practices as I assume that you know very clearly what those 5 steps are from the previous book. Clear? To make your learning easier, I have included many diagrams and pictures at the appropriate point of the book. These pictures are full-colored pictures unless you print them out with a black and white printer. The pictures especially those which have the front view, have been flipped left and right so that it will be less confusing as to the left and right directions. This means that, if the picture is shown to move to the left direction, you follow to the left direction too, and vice versa. You dont have to follow in the reverse direction, due to the fact that the picture facing you and you face the picture in the reverse (or opposite) sides. You just follow the same direction in the book. On top of that, whenever I use the term count it refers to the number of count for retention techniques. And if I use the term times it refers to the number of breath needed for the step. For example, I may say Do Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times, with 1 count of full and empty retention please do no be confused. This means that you need to do 5 breathings, and in each breathing, you do full and empty retention for 1 count. I have, in every effort, made this instructional book as user friendly as possible, and with the thought that Im speaking directly to you as if Im here in front of you, teaching you the exercises and practices. Do give me feedback (see Contact Information at the last page) if you feel that there are rooms for improvement to make the instructions easier and more user friendly. Wishing you success in your path towards better health and greater mental strength!
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Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing
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Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing

Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing
As I have already explained in details about the background of Tai Chi, Tai Chi Chuan and its relationship with meditation, healing, qigong and how Tai Chi Chuan was created in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing, I would not want to waste your time in repeating the same thing again. I will skip those. Thus, I will now go straight into the advance techniques. The actual full practice of the various advance techniques will be covered in Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices. However, before you go into the advance techniques, you need to understand a few concepts and principles, and to do some of the following exercises to master certain basic skills for the advance methods. These skills can be done as a stand alone exercise. This means that you can either learn them one at a time progressively, or you can pick the one that you are in favor of, and learn them first. In whatever sequences that you learn, at the end you will have to learn them all in order to be able to proceed to Part 3 to do the different complete sets of the Advance Tai Chi Breathing practices. All these exercises require the 5 Steps from the Basic Tai Chi Breathing. In fact, some of these exercises, for example, Exercise 2-5, Exercise 2-7, and Exercise 28, can be a stand alone practice which you can do as your regular. So take some time now, read through all these concepts and principles, and practice the exercises constantly until you are sure of doing it correctly:
Bathing After the Practices

Unlike the Basic Tai Chi Breathing, the techniques used in Advance Tai Chi Breathing will involve more energy, and activation of the meridians and channel. Therefore, you should not be bathing or taking shower after practicing, or allow your skin to come into contact with water. The reasons are as follows: 1. In Chinese medicine principles, when Qi enters your body and activates the meridians and channel, the elements of yin and yang will balance each other out, to create a harmonious body. Water is of yin nature. If you bath or taking shower, you will be putting more yin elements onto your body. This will be very unhealthy. 2. When your meridian and channels are been activated, it will carry bad energy along the meridians and channels and discharge them from your body. If water
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com touches and got onto your body, the excessive water elements will add on to the bad energy, and instead of discharging the energy, it will hold them back in your body. 3. In the healing traditions, water is generally known to have the properties of washing energy away. So, after charging with energy, you bath or shower, then whatever fresh energy that you have just absorbed will be washed away. It will not have the chance to settle down into your body. So, whats the point of practicing? So, you must not bathe or take shower in less than 4 hours after practicing the advance techniques. If you can wait until 6 hours, it would be better, as fresh energy will be totally settled down into your body. Exception: You can of course drink water in fact, you need to drink a lot of fresh, plain water!
Various Breathing Rhythms

In Basic Tai Chi Breathing, you are required to maintain constant breathing rhythm. In the advance techniques, this remains the same. The only difference is holding your breath in between inhaling and exhaling processes. Whenever, you are doing the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing, you will still need to continue with Step 5: Maintain the slow and constant breathing rhythm. So, what is the various breathing rhythm here for advance techniques? Basically, there are two more additional breathing rhythms that I will share with you in the advance techniques. You can still use the basic techniques, without holding your breath in between inhaling or exhaling, or you can shift to these two to achieve higher level of effectiveness. These two techniques can be combined as one. In fact, it is just the two different angle of looking at it. However, before going into the two techniques, let me share with you why these two techniques can have better effectiveness with the proven concepts of ineffective retention, in the next heading.
Ineffective Retention
Recently, I came across a report about scientific explanation on the effectiveness of Tai Chi Breathing on our health. It was written in Chinese, and I felt that I should translate it for the public to read it. I published it in a number places, both online and offline. You probably have read it somewhere. If not, I include it here for your reading.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Another reason why I put it here is it is much related to what Im going to share with you later Empty and Full Retention Breathing Techniques. On average as an adult, you breathe 16-18 times per minutes, each time with about 500ml of air exchanged in the lungs. When breathing in from the outside air, the oxygen content is about 21% while carbon dioxide is 0.03%. On the other hand, breathing out produces about 16.5% oxygen content and 4.5% carbon dioxide content. Based on the average of 16-18 breath per minutes, you are estimated to have a volume of 8000-9000ml of air exchanged in the lungs. From this, you can also estimate the content of both oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged per minute. However, this is simpler than it seems. In calculating the air exchanged, you will have to consider one very important factor, that is, in every breath, theres about 150ml of air left in the Ineffective Retention space. Now, what is ineffective retention space?
Ineffective Retention Space
Diagram 1: Ineffective Retention Space
Ineffective retention space refers to the space between the lungs and the nose, that is, the space in the nasal, throat, trachea, and bronchus which contains residual air of about 150ml (See Diagram 1). The residual air is used air that is not discharged back to the outside air but remained in the ineffective retention space. As it is used air, it has more carbon dioxide and lesser oxygen compared to the air outside. For each inhale you take, it will have the 500ml of the air from the outside plus this 150ml residual air in the ineffective retention space. This means, for every minute, you will be taking in on average about 2400-2700ml of residual air from the ineffective retention space! This means the effective oxygen content in each inhale you take in is in fact lesser than 21%!
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com And through Tai Chi Breathing, achieved through abdominal breathing the air exchange in the lungs can be increased to 2000-6000ml, and at times, exceeding 6000ml per inhale! And with slow and deep Tai Chi Breathing technique, you will take longer time per breath. On average, you can reduce the rate of breathing to 9 times per minutes, taking more than 2000ml of air per inhale. This will in effect, reduces the number of times where the 150 ml of air in the ineffective retention space going back into the lung to only 9 times per minute. This means that on average, only 1350ml of residual air going back into the lung exchange, but the fresh air taken in is more than 18000ml per minute! This increases oxygen intake significantly. Blood circulation and metabolism rate will increase, and immune system will be enhanced through deep, abdominal breathing! This is only the benefit you will gain from just Basic Tai Chi Breathing alone! For Advance Tai Chi Breathing, the next two breathing techniques that Im going to share with you will reduce the intake of residual air from the ineffective retention space even further! Now go on and find out how. I have designed a few exercises for you to master Full Retention and Empty Retention techniques separately. It will be easier to learn and master them separately one at a time. Once you have mastered them, you can then move on to Full and Empty Retention Combined to practice both together. Of course, this is my suggestion, based on my experience teaching my students these breathing techniques. There are some who are quick learner who can practice both full and empty retention techniques right away. If you are one of those gifted quick learner, take a glimpse at full retention (Exercise 2-1 and Exercise 2-2) and empty retention (Exercise 2-3 and Exercise 2-4) separately, then move on to the combined part to practice, in Exercise 2-5.
Full Retention
Full retention means holding your breath for a short while, usually for one to three counts, after inhaling. You can do the exercise below to get use of it. Full retention has two major benefits. Firstly, holding your breath after inhaling will let the cells of your lung to fully oxygenated before releasing the air back to the environment. This allows more oxygen to go into your blood systems, and allowing more Qi to be retained in your Dantian. Secondly, holding your breath will cause a slight increase in the pressure when releasing the air during exhaling process. This slight pressure will push the residual air out slightly, allowing less than 150ml of residual air to remain in the ineffective retention space.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com To do full retention breathing technique, you need to use Basic Tai Chi Breathing, using your personal breathing counts as the benchmark for your breathing speed. The only difference is to hold your breath after inhaling. Of the two, full retention is easier to learn and master. Even without much exercises, Im sure you have done breathing ways somewhat similar to full retention method. However, I still designed the following two exercises for a more systematic learning and mastering of the techniques. From the masters and grandmasters that I have learned about breathing techniques, some stressed on certain breathing rhythm in order to achieve full retention. However, from my experience, different people have different lung capacity, and thus the number of counts of each breath for different people is different. Therefore, in Basic Tai Chi Breathing, I did not stress on fix counts for your breathing. You take a test to benchmark your own breathing count, then work on slowing down your breathing by adding one count to your normal breathing count as you progress. For this, your breathing count would be the same as the one you use for Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Only for full retention, I have to give a fix count base on two reasons. You can choose to hold your breath after inhaling for one, two or three counts, but not more than three counts. Holding your breath after inhaling for more than three counts will strain your abdominal muscles, and the tendency for you to rush the air out in the exhaling process is higher. Rushing the air out defeated the whole purpose of Tai Chi Breathing, which stresses on slow, deep and breathing with tiny flows. Depending on your progress and breathing flexibility, you can adjust between one to three counts. The following exercises will begin with only one count (Exercise 2-1), and then you can progress to the next exercise which will add more counts until you can master full retention with three counts with Exercise 2-2. So, with this understanding, now you can go on to begin your exercise with full retention breathing rhythm.
Exercise 2-1: Basic Full Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times, and until you have achieved your slowest breathing speed your maximum personal counts.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 4. Inhale. To start off, slowly inhale your breath. 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. 6. Exhale after 1 count. Start exhaling again when you have made that 1 count. Slow Exhaling Speed. You will tend to breathe out faster after holding your breath. I have that tendency too! You may need some training for this. Make sure that after holding your breath, you can still exhale with your slowest exhaling speed. Try not to rush the air out, otherwise it will not be effective! 7. Repeat No. 4 to 6. Continue breathing for 10 times* for this practice, holding your breath for 1 count after each inhaling. 8. Normalize your breathing and stop now. * The time is the basic count for you to start exercising full retention techniques. For the full practice, please refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice.
I suggest you repeat the above exercises until you are comfortable: 1. Holding your breath for at least 1 count, naturally. 2. Maintaining your slowest exhaling speed after holding your breath. Once you have achieved the above two criteria, then I suggest you go on to the next exercise that will get you to increase your full retention counts.
***Caution - Senior Citizen

For senior citizen, if you feel uncomfortable to do full retention up to 3 counts, please dont do so. If you can hold for even 1 count, it is good enough. If you abdomen is flexible enough for you to go for 2 or 3 counts, then go ahead. But, please do not force yourself. In case you feel dizzy, stop the exercise first. Continue later, for shorter duration. So, for Exercise 2-2, if you feel uncomfortable after No. 9, then revert back to only 1 count and remain there for a while until you feel comfortable to hold it longer.
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Exercise 2-2: Longer Full Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times, and until you have achieved your slowest breathing speed your maximum personal counts. 4. Inhale. To start off, slowly inhale your breath. 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. 6. Exhale after 1 count. Start exhaling again when you have made that 1 count. Slow Exhaling Speed. Make sure that after holding your breath, you can still exhale with your slowest exhaling speed. Try not to rush the air out, otherwise, it will not be effective! 7. Repeat No. 4 to 6. Continue breathing for 10 times*, holding your breath for 1 count after each inhaling. If you find it difficult to mentally keep track of the number of breathing you have made, use your fingers instead. 8. Add one more count in holding your breath. Add one more count meaning that you will be holding your breath for 2 counts now. 9. Continue Tai Chi Breathing. Start Tai Chi Breathing again, but this time, hold your breath for 2 counts after inhaling instead. Remember, you need to maintain your breathing speed after holding your breath. Repeat No. 9. Continue your breathing with holding your breath for 2 counts, for 10 times*. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of your breathing. 10. Stop or continue. If you feel comfortable holding for 2 counts, you may continue. Otherwise, please normalize your breathing and stop at here, and repeat the exercise until No. 9 only, until you feel comfortable holding for 2 counts.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 11. Add one more count in holding your breath. If you can continue, add one more count meaning that you will be holding your breath for 3 counts now. Please remember this is the maximum count you can go. Repeat No. 11. Continue your breathing with holding your breath for 3 counts, for 10 times*. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of your breathing. 12. Normalize your breathing and stop now. * The time is the basic count for you to start exercising full retention techniques. For the full practice, please refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice.
Full retention is easier to learn and master. It is also easier to do in your daily life, at any situation and anytime. Unlike empty retention, theres no need to have a suitable time for you to do full retention breathing rhythm. You can do it while you are working or doing something else. It requires less concentration and conscious effort, compared to empty retention. I suggest that you do it whenever you can as it will give you more benefits for your health and to boost your mental energy. You can also incorporate full retention into The Fundamental Four. One additional note: please do the full retention naturally. Do not over strain your self, particularly your abdominal muscles.
Empty Retention
Empty retention means holding your breath for a short while, usually for one to three counts, after exhaling. You can do the exercise below to get use to how it works. Empty retention has two benefits. First, holding your breath after exhaling will means that the residual air in the ineffective retention space will reduce to less than 150ml. The pressure of holding your breath will push the residual air out slightly, making it less than 150ml. And when you inhale again, with higher amount of fresh air, and even lesser residual air, the oxygen intake will be closer to 21% of the total air you take in. Secondly, inhaling after holding your breath for a short while will tend to create a tremendous rush of fresh air into your lungs, and bringing in higher level of energy or Qi into your body. This will make each inhaling more effective.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Same case as with full retention, you use your Basic Tai Chi Breathing counts for both your inhaling and exhaling processes. Only for the empty retention you will need to follow a certain count. Even though I say certain count, it is still dependent on your ability. Do not force yourself. I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this heading the definition of empty retention: holding your breath for one to three counts, didnt I? Similarly to full retention, you can do it for only one count if you find it difficult to hold it longer. If you have achieved greater flexibility in your breathing rhythm, you can hold it for up to three counts. Three counts max, not more than that! However, you can adjust the timing between each count, isnt it? The reason why you can only holding your count to maximum of three counts is: 1. You will tend to rush your inhaling after holding your breath for longer than 3 counts. Rushing your breathing in is not effective for Tai Chi Breathing, which needs to be slow, deep and in tiny flows. 2. Holding your breath longer than 3 counts may make you lack of oxygen and causes dizziness, which is an unhealthy practice. So, with this understanding, let us proceed with the exercise involving empty retention breathing rhythm Exercise 2-3 to begin your learning with one count first, then move on to Exercise 2-4 to add on the counts until you reach 3 counts for empty retention:
Exercise 2-3: Basic Empty Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times, and until you have achieved your slowest breathing speed your maximum personal counts. 4. Exhale. To start off, slowly exhale your breath. 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 6. Inhale after 1 count. Start inhaling again when you have made that 1 count.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Slow Inhaling Speed. You will tend to breathe in faster after holding your breath. You may need some training for this. Make sure that after holding your breath, you can still inhale with your slowest inhaling speed. Try not to rush the air in, otherwise it will not be effective! 7. Repeat No. 4 to 6. Continue breathing for 10 times*, holding your breath for 1 count after each exhaling. 8. Normalize your breathing and stop now. * The time is the basic count for you to start exercising full retention techniques. For the full practice, please refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice.
I suggest you repeat the above exercises until you are comfortable: 1. Holding your breath for at least 1 count. 2. Maintaining your slowest inhaling speed after holding your breath. Once you have achieved the above two, then go on to the next exercise that will get you to increase your empty retention counts.

Similarly to the full retention exercises, for senior citizen, if you feel uncomfortable to do full retention up to 3 counts, please dont do it. Go for 1 count its good enough. And if you abdomen is flexible that you can go for 2 or 3 counts, then go ahead. Again, do not force yourself. Therefore for Exercise 2-4, if you feel uncomfortable after No. 9, then revert back to only 1 count and remain there for a while until you feel comfortable to hold it longer.
Exercise 2-4: Longer Empty Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times, and until you have achieved your slowest breathing speed your maximum personal counts. 4. Exhale. To start off, slowly exhale your breath. 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 6. Inhale after 1 count. Start inhaling again when you have made that 1 count. Slow Inhaling Speed. Make sure that after holding your breath, you can still inhale with your slowest inhaling speed. Try not to rush the air in, otherwise, it will not be effective! 7. Repeat No. 4 to 6. Continue breathing for 10 times*, holding your breath for 1 count after each exhaling. If you find it difficult to mentally keep track of the number of breathing you have made, use your fingers instead. 8. Add one more count in holding your breath. Add one more count meaning that you will be holding your breath for 2 counts now. 9. Continue Tai Chi Breathing. Start Tai Chi Breathing again, but this time, hold your breath for 2 counts after exhaling instead. Remember, you need to maintain your breathing speed after holding your breath. Repeat No. 9. Continue your breathing with holding your breath for 2 counts, for 10 times*. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of your breathing. 10. Stop or continue. If you feel comfortable holding for 2 counts, you may continue. Otherwise, please normalize your breathing and stop here and repeat the exercise until No. 9 only, until you feel comfortable holding for 2 counts. 11. Add one more count in holding your breath. If you can continue, add one more count meaning that you will be holding your breath for 3 counts now. Please remember this is the maximum count you can go. Repeat No. 11. Continue your breathing with holding your breath for 3 counts, for 10 times*. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of your breathing.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 12. Normalize your breathing and stop now. * The time is the basic count for you to start exercising full retention techniques. For the full practice, please refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice.
Mastering empty retention does not means that you have to do it every time you practice Tai Chi Breathing. Do it only when the situation allows. I dont do this all the time. Usually the best time to do it is when you are doing the main practices in The Fundamental Four. Incorporate this into any of the main practices of The Fundamental Four, in particularly sitting, standing and lying down to increase the effectiveness. If you can concentrate on doing empty retention techniques while walking, go ahead. Or you can do it in conjunction with the other practices outlined in this book. In fact, for these practices, I actually included the step for both full and empty retentions. Same thing here, please do not over strain yourself. Do the empty retention exercises naturally. Take care of your air requirement and abdominal muscles during the exercises. If you feel dizzy or uncomfortable, stop the exercise immediately. Continue later. It is actually easier to do full retention in your daily life, and in any other situation than doing empty retention. Choose an appropriate time to do empty retention practices. Once you have mastered both full retention and empty retention as separate exercises, you can now combine both together to achieve even higher level of effectiveness with your Tai Chi Breathing.
Full and Empty Retention Combined

Full retention and empty retention breathing rhythm is in fact a combined technique that you will be using together. For learning purposes, I separated them. As you have mastered both, you should be able to practice these two techniques together easily. Please note although this is one of those exercises that are designed with the purpose for you to master each and separate techniques used in the Advance Tai Chi Breathing. For Basic Full and Empty Retention however, you can practice this exercise (Exercise 2-5) as a practice per se. This means, for the next exercise that you are going to follow, it can be a practice that you can do as your regular practice, if you like to. However, this is just the basic practice.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com For the full practice, you can refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice. At the Summary Guide, I included Exercise 2-5 as it is a practice by itself, as an aid to your practice of Advance Tai Chi Breathing. At the higher level, you can combine these two techniques with the rest of the advance techniques that you are going to learn and master as you progress with this book. So, you can now go on with this practice. Additional note I give you the option to hold your count for 1, 2 or 3 counts. Choose the count that you wanted to do. However, your full retention count must be the same as the empty retention count. For example, if you choose to hold your breath after inhaling (full retention) for 2 counts, then you must also hold your breath after exhaling (empty retention) for 2 counts too.

Similar to the separate exercises in full and empty retention, you should feel comfortable to do full retention up to 3 counts. If not, please dont do so. Thus, in the practice, I give you option to hold your count for 1, 2 or 3 counts. Choose the count that suits you most. Both your full and empty retention count must be the same. See the explanation in the last paragraph before this caution section.
Exercise 2-5: Basic Full and Empty Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times, and until you have achieved your slowest breathing speed your maximum personal counts. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x* counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your inhaling process or count. The retention count depends on your condition (for senior citizen), or on your choice (others). Whatever count you plan to do, please make sure that it is the same for both full and empty retention counts.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 6. Exhale after the x counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Exhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest exhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Inhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest inhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 10 times**, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. Remember to maintain the 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing throughout the whole duration of the exercise. 10. You can stop now. * Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3. ** The time is the basic count for you to start exercising full retention techniques. For the full practice, please refer to Part 3 Full Tai Chi Breathing Practice.
If you can do both full and empty retention up to three counts without much conscious efforts, congratulation! You have mastered both of these very important techniques. You can use it as a stand alone technique, or you can combine them with the rest that you will learn as you go on. Move on now to the next advance technique, which is the far most important and effective among all the techniques I will share with you in this book Visualization.
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Introducing Visualization Techniques

One of the most potent powers of Advance Tai Chi Breathing is based on the power of visualization. Over the centuries, people use visualization for many purposes, for example, for healing, energies, meditation, loving-kindness, prayers, self-hypnotization etc. In the modern times, people use the power of visualization to motivate themselves, change habit, managing stress and conflicts, re-charge, relaxation and for getting what they want etc. The power of visualization is a well known technique. However, not many people understand the underlying principles and the correct methods. Some are skeptical about the technique. Some are afraid of its possible negative effects. The fact is if you understand and do it correctly, the benefit far out-weights the harm. But, I will have to forewarn you if you are not sure, dont do it. Contact me with your online consultation to clarify whichever area or concern that you are doubtful about. I am here to help you. This is a powerful technique, but it has to be exercised with care! How does this work? When you mind is very focused and single-pointed, it itself is a very powerful tool to manifest whatever that you want it to. But for here, I would not touch on using the mind for other purposes or means, but more for health and healing purposes. Healing here means putting whatever in bad shape or whatever that has been damaged back into its original shape or repairing the damage, plus making it better. With this definition, healing here can mean to heal your body, your emotion, your mental strength, your life, your relationship with others etc. Not just on healing your body! Thus, with a focused mind, you can divert that single-pointedness to heal your body, to absorb energy, to mend relationships, or to even heal the world! I am person who likes to see a better world where everyone every single person, living harmoniously and peacefully in this world. And it is through visualization that I hope that this can be achieved. However, with my efforts alone, it is not easy for me to achieve that. Therefore, Im sharing the finer aspects of visualization with you so that you can also help to promote a better world for all of us to live in. Is this alright with you? This, I specifically put under Practice 17. The technique involves here is to visualize brilliant white lights in liquid form entering our body, or to divert these white lights to certain parts of your body, or to the people with whom you want to heal your relationship etc. This was taught to me by the masters of Pranic Healing practitioners. I combined it with Tai Chi Chuan and Tai Chi Breathing to make it a complete system.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Why the white light? White signifies purity and consist all other colors which gives complete benefits of all colors of the spectrum. Scientifically, white color is made up of the combination of other colors. And if you are using white colors as the energy for your healing and energizing, you will reap the benefits of all individual colors that will bring to you. I will not go on to elaborate what individual colors can bring to you. For one reason, color manipulations require even higher level of practice in healing energy in order for you to practice safely. It is beyond the scope of this book. I am only looking into incorporating these fine arts into Tai Chi Breathing to make your breathing and Tai Chi Chuan practice to be even more effective. How to visualize? Visualize involves seeing what you want in your minds. In some specific practices, visualization here involves feeling what you want to feel in your mind. For example, if you are asked to visualize your hand getting energized, then you imagine (seeing) your hand in your mind, then imagine the energy going to your hand, covering it, and in the same time, feel its warmth and good feelings. It depends entirely on your seeing and feeling mind to work. It may be difficult for a start, but with some practices, you will soon get use to it. The exercise I included in this part lets you start off with visualizing a brilliant white ball, and then as you progress, you will visualize many other different things. Unlike full retention and empty retention, I will only include the exercises later, after I have finished explaining the next two headings. The following headings are very, very important for you as I have mentioned just now, visualization is a powerful tools and have to be exercised with great care. What care you need to exercise? Read on further to understand them before going into the exercises.
Importance of Focus and Concentration

To focus means you can bring forth your mind to one single point or object. To concentrate means that you can consistently maintain your focus on one single point or object for a duration of time. Our mind is like a monkey. It is easy for you to focus, but to remain focus concentrate, can be quite a challenge to most people. Have you ever had such an experience? I have put in a little exercise to gauge how far you can focus and concentrate. Try out, and I will then show you how you can increase your focus and concentration later.
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Exercise 2-6: Concentration Test

1. Set alarm to ring in 10 minutes. Please do not ignore this step. This is to really clear your mind on focusing and concentrating on this exercise without distraction to keep track with the time. Please do this test only for 10 minutes. 2. Find a suitable posture and relax. I suggest a sitting posture for this practice, though lying down is equally good. In whichever posture, keep your head and body straight. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 5 times. 5. Focus on your nose. Bring forth your mind to focus on the tip of your nose, the point where the air goes in and out of your nasal. Concentrate and feel the air going in and out of your nasal. Maintain your concentration throughout the whole test. Do not think about the time. Let your alarm works on its own. Once the 10 minutes is up only you can stop this exercise. Do not think about the time. Do not think about other things else. Straight forward, isnt it. Just maintain your focus on your nose. 6. 10 minutes up. Once your alarm rings, you can stop this test. 7. You can stop now.
What is this test all about??? If you have not been trained in focusing and concentration, like in meditation or yoga, this is probably your longest 10 minutes in your life, isnt it? You dont have to answer me, but just answer yourself honestly. How long can you maintain focus on your nose? Perhaps you will say, you DID focus on your nose throughout the 10 minutes. Let me put it in other ways:
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Did you ask when the 10 minutes going to end before it even end? Some will have the very strong tendency to open your eyes and look at the time, havent you? In fact, in my teaching experience, majority of my students actually opened their eyes, or gave up before the 10 minutes was up! Did you wonder what in the world this test is all about during the 10 minutes time? Some will have thoughts and flashes of Is this going to work? Why Guan asked me to do this? What is this test for? or even This is stupid! What am I doing it for?! Did your mind wander off, and think of what are you going to do next? Some will think of what they will do after this exercise, what they will prepare for dinner, where to go to this evening, whom to hang out with tonight, when can I proceed with the next exercises, etc. Better still, some doze off during the 10 minutes test! This is highly possible if you are lying down, or have been very relaxed. If you say that you do not have any of those thoughts, or dozing off, it could only means two things: 1. You have attained a very high level of focus and concentration that you can consistently maintain your focus just on your nose nothing else, and your mind did not wander off at all, not even once. I have to congratulate you if you have attained such a level, and I will strongly urge you to proceed with this book because your visualization will be very, very potent and strong, and your practice will bring forth great benefits for yourself, as well as others. 2. You are not even aware of the activities of your very own mind. This is highly possible if you have not ever brought your mind to quietness and focus before. In this case, you will not know that your mind actually wandered off during that 10 minutes test. This gives you a false impression that you have consistently maintained focus and concentration on your nose, without thinking about anything else. If this is the case, I suggest you take a few deep breaths, and calm yourself down, and reflect on the activities of your mind during that 10 minutes test. Im sure you will realize that your mind DID wander off. If you have done Basic Tai Chi Breathing regularly in the past, you would have achieved certain level of quietness and calmness, that your awareness should have been heightened. You should be aware of the activities of your mind. In that case, you will need to work on increasing your concentration so that you can practice visualization techniques better. Why was I confident in saying that your mind will wander off during that 10 minutes test?
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Share with you a little secret. First, from my experience, even from my own practice, those who have not practice concentration type of activities like meditation, yoga or qigong regularly, their mind will definitely wander away. I mentioned that our mind is like a monkey, didnt I? Secondly, I used a little mind programming trick in the exercise just now. Did you notice that I have asked you Do not think about the time and Do not think about other things else? This has some psychological effect. Our mind cannot accept a negative statement like Do not If your mind sees the statement do not it will not ring any bell on it. Instead it will see what is after the statement do not and in this case, your mind saw think about the time and thing about other things else, and with that little programming, you mind actually obeyed and wandered off to think about the time, and other things else! Cool? And whats more, if you have not trained your mind to the level that you can maintain focus at will??? If you like to, you can try out the test again to see if your mind can wander off, or your can be aware of the activities of your mind. Alright, I shall now continue. Why is focus and concentration necessary here? And I even mentioned that advance techniques like visualization is not suitable for children as their mind tend to wander off quicker than an adult. Firstly, with a focused mind, the visualization technique can achieve great potential in bringing forth benefits and healings to you. Secondly, the concentration is necessary for you to maintain focus on the white lights, and to direct them for beneficial use in your practices. If the concentration is lacking, the energy may be wasted, or the full potential benefits cannot be achieved. However, this does not mean that without full concentration, you cannot use visualization techniques. Or it does not mean that theres no way you can work on improving your concentration. Depending on your current duration of time that you can remain concentrated, you can practice visualization for that duration, and you can actually push a little further as a way to increase your concentration. For example, if you find yourself to be able to keep constant focus for 5 minutes, then you practice visualization for 5 minutes, and push a little more for another 30 seconds or 1 minute. It does not matter if your concentration goes lower in that extra time. Take that as training.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Alternatively, I suggest you practice Basic Tai Chi Breathing, especially the main practice of sitting posture for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day, as a way to increase your focus. Alternatively, I have also included here, in Exercise 2-7, a practice that can help you increase your level of concentration. This is also a stand alone practice that you can do at any time that you like to. It is not part of the progressive exercises, but it is also necessary in the sequence. This exercise is a catalyst for higher effectiveness for other advance techniques. I included this in the Summary Guide, to be used as an aid for your practice. I must forewarn you this can be one of the most difficult exercise, or practice in this entire book! But if you can practice it regularly and can maintain focus, you will not only gain concentration power for your visualization techniques, you will also gain mental strength for your daily life! A very difficult practice, but a very worthwhile one!
Exercise 2-7: Concentration Practice

1. Set alarm to ring in 5 minutes. Preferably alarm with soft beeps. This is to help you focusing and concentrating on the exercise without distraction to keep track with the time. 5 minutes is a suggested duration to start off. Once you have gain better concentration, you can increase the time to 10 minutes, and then to 15 minutes. Please do not do this for more than 15 minutes. Im not here to teach you about meditation. It is only an exercise to increase your concentration. Thus, not more than 15 minutes, unless you have a meditation instructor to guide you longer than 15 minutes. 2. Find a suitable posture and relax. I suggest a sitting posture for this practice. Lying down is alright, provide you do not doze off. Keep your head and body straight, in either case. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 5 times.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 5. Focus on your nose. Bring forth your mind to focus on the tip of your nose, the point where the air goes in and out of your nasal. Concentrate and feel the air going in and out of your nasal. Maintain your concentration throughout the whole test. Bring back your mind. At any instances that your mind wanders away, relax. Bring it back to focus on your nose again. Some instances, you may not be aware that your mind has wandered away, keep cool. Once you are aware of it, bring it back to focus on your nose again. Ignore your thoughts. At any instances that thoughts arises in your mind, ignore them, and bring your mind to focus on your nose, nonetheless. Keep cool. Whatever tricks your mind is playing on you, keep cool. Maintain a stable emotion and feeling, and bring the mind back to focus on your nose. Bring back your mind. Stressing this again, whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the nose! 6. Times up. Once your alarm rings, you can stop the practice. 7. Normalize your breathing, and you can stop now.
No. 5 is the most difficult step in this entire practice. In fact, from my experience, people tend to give up this practice because they find it impossible to maintain focus. They got frustrated because their mind kept wandering away. Thats the point frustration is also part of the wandering activities of your mind! Do away with the frustration, and bring your focus back to the nose. Thats all you need to do! Some said that before they do this, they dont seem to have many, many thoughts. But once they started this, there are so many thoughts arising in their mind. They wanted to put a stop to this! The point here is our mind has thoughts all, I really mean ALL, of the time. We were not aware of it. And because our mind has thoughts all of the time, it is not focused, and even if you do focus it is a weak focus because your focus is mixed with other thoughts as well. That is why we cannot get what we want in our mind because the focus is weak!
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com By doing this concentration practice, you are increasing your awareness of your minds activities. Only when you are aware, you can reduce those unnecessary thoughts. With less thought, your mind can be more focused. The focus or single-pointedness will result in stronger energy and power that can manifest many, many things that you want your mind to do so! So, if you want to really go far with advance techniques in this book, or even in the other areas of your life, practice this constantly. Over time, you will see lesser and lesser thoughts, and your concentration will improve significantly! And one more way to help you increase your focus and concentration is to find a quiet and calm environment for your practice. This is covered in the next heading.
Importance of Quiet or Calm Environment

You and your environment are inter-connected. As the saying goes, no man is an island (sorry if I sound sexist just quoting what it has been said). Whatever that you do will affect the environment, and whatever changes or happening in the environment will affect you. In practicing Tai Chi Breathing, this is even truer. One of the ways to increase your concentration is to have a suitable environment. Suitable here usually means quiet and calm environment. Quietness here can be a little bit debatable for certain people. To my definition, quietness here does not necessary means total silence. It is more referring to physical quietness meaning no physical interruption such as telephone calls, peoples interferences, or intrusion of space etc. If quietness of sound can be achieved it is highly desirable, but is not a necessity. The reason is in highly urbanized area, complete silence is quite impossible to achieve. For example, I live in a quiet residential area. Occasionally, my neighbors would blast their amplifiers; argue in the peak of their voice; and children screaming in their play etc. It is not possible to find a complete silent place to practice for me. If you can find a place with highly reduced sound, that you can maintain focus and concentration for your practice, it is good enough. The important thing is that you are alone in the room. No telephones, no mobile phones, no television, no people entering and going out of the room. It is a good place. To increase the calmness of the room, you can play soft music, particularly Meditation music. Crystal music, New Age music, or soft Baroque music is also recommendable. Prayers music, Chanting music or Religious music is not preferable, because it may
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com include messages, verses, lines, or chanting, which may distract your mind. If it is purely music, and its slow, then it is absolutely alright. Some masters may even stress that you should have a place where you can do it regularly. The regularized place can make you feel comfortable quickly, and you can enter into strong concentration instantly. However, there are some who state otherwise. I would not want to enter into a debate as to which is which and I live it to you to choose, whether to have a regular place for practice, or to change frequently. The most important point is it helps you to concentrate, thats all. And also in relation to this, the postures that you choose should also help you to concentrate as easy as possible. The key factor is that you should feel comfortable in that posture for the duration of the practice, and you are relaxed enough. Your head and body, however, should be straight and relaxed in the same time. Once you are ready, go on now to the next heading to start your visualization exercise.
Basic Visualization Exercise

This visualization exercise is only a short exercise, with the purpose of getting you started on using this advance technique. The full practice will be explained in details in Part 3. For pregnant women, senior citizen and those with high-blood pressure and heart related illnesses, please read through the caution section carefully before doing this exercise:
***Caution Pregnant Women

Although this is only a short exercise, it is only meant for normal adult. Pregnant women MUST refrain from doing this. Visualization technique will inject a lot of energy into your body. It is alright for you, but not for your child. Therefore it is not advisable for you to practice this if you are pregnant. The reason is that your child body is not suitable to absorb large amount of energy or Qi. Large amount of energy in the body will cause Kundalini effects, and for them, Kundalini effect may have very, very negative effect on their general well-being! And visualization is a very powerful technique that will inject a lot of energy into their body. So, please keep away from using this during your pregnancy, at any stage.

For senior people, it is advisable to limit visualization practices to once in 3-4 days, and for the duration of less than 10 minutes per practice. For those with certain illness like high-blood pressure, heart related illnesses, it is advisable to totally REFRAINED from
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com using visualization techniques. Full and empty retention with Basic Tai Chi Breathing is good enough for the time being, until your health condition has improved significantly. Qi is good for your body, but because your body has aged to some extend, too much Qi is not good. It may cause an effect the Kundalini effect. It is like taking medicine in large quantity and the effect of over-doses may have adverse effect on the body. Kundalini effect is only advisable for very advance meditation or Qigong practitioners. As the adage going: Too much of a good thing is not good!
***Caution High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions

For those with certain illness like high-blood pressure, heart related illnesses, it is advisable to totally REFRAINED from using visualization techniques. Full and empty retention with Basic Tai Chi Breathing is good enough for the time being, until your health condition has improved significantly.
The Visualization Exercise

This is the first exercise involving visualization techniques, and I would suggest that you go through Exercise 2-8 carefully and seriously until you have achieved the level of competency that is described at the end of the exercise. A few things before going into this exercise: remember earlier I mentioned that you will be using white lights? For this visualization exercise, you will be visualizing a brilliant white ball, half feet above your head. Remember it must be white. If you find difficulty to visualize or imagine this brilliant white ball, take a look at a white bulb, or a white fluorescent light. It should be emitting rays of white light like the white bulb. The size of the brilliant white ball that you are going to visualize should be small for the start, around one inch in diameter. When doing this exercise, please isolate yourself from who ever around you. Soft music is alright, if you like. The environment should be as quiet as possible, and should be calm and peaceful. It is good if you can start the exercise with a fairly joyous and good mood. This will give you better effect.
Exercise 2-8: Basic Visualization Exercise Brilliant White Ball

1. Set alarm to ring in 5 minutes. 2. Find a suitable posture and relax. I suggest a sitting posture for this practice. Lying down is also alright. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed 38
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 5. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus.
Picture 1: Brilliant White Ball Over Your Head
6. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happens, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 7. Times up. Once your alarm rings, you can stop the practice. 8. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 9. Normalize your breathing, and you can stop now.
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Bai Hui
Diagram 2: Baihui Acu-point (Crown Chakra)
At the end of the exercise, you can touch the top most part of your head. This is where the acu-point Baihui () is located (See Diagram 2). For Indian tradition, it is known as the Crown Chakra. This is a point where energy or Qi enters into our body. However, for this exercise, you are not visualizing the energy entering your body yet. This is mainly to activate your Baihui or Crown Chakra, to increase its sensitivity so that later you will be absorbing the energy more effectively. After the exercise, your Baihui should be warm. If you have done the exercise correctly, with constant focus on the brilliant white ball, this should be the case. If you can feel warmth on the top of your head, you are on your way now to fully practice Advance Tai Chi Breathing! If you have yet to feel warmth on your head, continue practicing this exercise until you can. Do not rush through this exercise. Take it one at a time.
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Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices
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Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices

Introduction to the Full Practices
The earlier exercise that I have already arranged in Exercise 2-5, is an advance technique by itself, using both full and empty Retention techniques to vary your breathing rhythm. You can practice that exercise as your regular practice. It is however, only a basic. In Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practices, these techniques will be more elaborated, and designed suitably for different category of people. Likewise for Exercise 2-8, the basic visualization is itself a practice that you can do regularly, independently, in your daily schedule. Although it bears the name basic, it is a very potent practice. In Visualization, I will take you further, continuing from the brilliant white ball. Exercise 2-7, is the only independent exercise introduced in Part 2, which does not form the basic for the full practices. However, it is still a very important catalyst for the advance practices. In the Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices, I have arranged complete sets of practices for different categories and purposes. Basically all of them use the basic techniques introduced in Part 2, and you should have at least mastered them in the earlier exercises. Except for Energy Absorption and Recharging and Healing, these two will have additional skills and techniques which will be introduced in their respective headings, in conjunction with basic visualization. Others are mainly combination of those basic skills that you have mastered earlier. The Full Practices will cover these four aspects: 1. Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practices 2. Visualization 3. Energy Absorption 4. Recharging and Healing All these practices use the skills that you have acquired in the exercises in the previous parts. Or rather I put it this way: These are the applications of those skills.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practices

Advance Tai Chi Breathing here means the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing, plus Full and Empty Retention. Sounds familiar, isnt? Yes, in Exercise 2-5, you have done this, but only up to 10 counts. It was only the basic. For full practice, I have arranged the full breathing repetition and detail steps for you. Like what I did in Basic Tai Chi Breathing, for Advance Tai Chi Breathing, I have arranged different practices for three different categories of people: normal adult (Practice 1), senior citizen (Practice 2) and pregnant women (Practice 3). Did I forget about children? Oh! Children should keep away from these practices! And did I forget about those with high blood pressure and heart related conditions? If you are in this category, please follow Practice 2.
Practice 1: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Normal Adult
Following the basic exercise in Part 2, you can now do this practice in full, following the details steps and guidance here. In each steps, I will include some explanation and tips. So, please read through these steps first to understand the principles and concepts. Once you are clear what all those steps entail, you can go back to No. 1 again to start practicing. Some of the steps included here, for example normalizing your breathing, maintaining the Qi etc, have already been taught in Basic Tai Chi Breathing. I included them here for your convenience, so that you can switch to this practice as a replacement of your basic practices. The number of your full and empty retention count is your choice, but both must be the same count.
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times. You should reach your slowest breathing speed after 10 times. Tips: In case you lose count, try to using your fingers to count the number of breathing, while you are still mentally count the inhaling and exhaling duration. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 5. Hold your breath for x* counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Please make sure that the counts are the same for both full and empty retention counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Exhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest exhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Inhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest inhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 30 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. Remember to maintain the 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing throughout the whole duration of the exercise. 10. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without full and empty retention. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly.
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Picture 2: Hands above the navel
12. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos.
Right
Left
Clockwise direction from your view
Picture 3: 36 times spiraling outward in clockwise direction
Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center.
Right
Left
Counter Clockwise direction from your view
Picture 4: 24 times spiraling inward in counter clockwise direction
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13. You can get up or move your body now. * Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3.
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Practice 2: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Senior Citizen, High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Condition
For those with high blood pressure and heart related illness, please refer to the practice under this heading. Following the basic exercise in Part 2, you can now do this practice in full, following the details steps and guidance here. In each steps, I will include some explanation and tips. So, please read through these steps first to understand the principles and concepts. Once you are clear what all those steps mean, you can go back to No. 1 again to start practicing. Some of the steps included here, for example normalizing your breathing, maintaining the Qi etc, have already been taught in Basic Tai Chi Breathing. I included them here for your convenience, so that you can switch to this practice as a replacement of your basic practices. The number of your full and empty retention count is your choice, but both must be the same count.
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times. You should reach your slowest breathing speed after 10 times. Tips: In case you lose count, try to using your fingers to count the number of breathing, while you are still mentally count the inhaling and exhaling duration. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Please make sure that the counts are the same for both full and empty retention counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Exhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest exhaling speed throughout the whole duration.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 7. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Inhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest inhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 20 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. Remember to maintain the 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing throughout the whole duration of the exercise. 10. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without full and empty retention. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly.
Picture 5: Hands above the navel
12. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos.
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Right Left
Clockwise direction from your view
Picture 6: 36 times spiraling outward in clockwise direction
Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center.
Right
Left
Counter Clockwise direction from your view
Picture 7: 24 times spiraling inward in counter clockwise direction
13. You can get up or move your body now. * Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3.
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Practice 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Pregnant Women
Following the basic exercise in Part 2, you can now do this practice in full, following the details steps and guidance here. In each steps, I will include some explanation and tips. So, please read through these steps first to understand the principles and concepts. Once you are clear what all those steps entail, you can go back to No. 1 again to start practicing. Some of the steps included here, for example normalizing your breathing, maintaining the Qi etc, have already been taught in Basic Tai Chi Breathing. I included them here for your convenience, so that you can switch to this practice as a replacement of your basic practices. The number of your full and empty retention count is your choice, but both must be the same count.
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times. You should reach your slowest breathing speed after 10 times. Tips: In case you lose count, try to using your fingers to count the number of breathing, while you are still mentally count the inhaling and exhaling duration. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Please make sure that the counts are the same for both full and empty retention counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Exhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest exhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. Hold your breath and mentally count x after you have completed your exhaling process or count.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 8. Inhale after the x counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. Slow Inhaling Speed. Maintain your personal slowest inhaling speed throughout the whole duration. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 15-20 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. Remember to maintain the 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing throughout the whole duration of the exercise. 10. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without full and empty retention. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. 12. You can get up or move your body now. * Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3.
Notes on Advance Tai Chi Breathing

After the full practice, your body will feel slightly warm. If your lower abdomen, or Dantian feel warm, congratulations! The Qi is gathering there. Slowly when it has gathered enough, it will move throughout the channels and meridians, unblocking whatever blockage along the way. You would be able to achieve high level of effectiveness in your Tai Chi Chuan, or any other practices. If you are not a practitioner, it will give you great health benefits. How fast can this be depends entirely on individuals body conditions, as well as on the strength of their concentration. The more concentrated you are, the calmer and quieter is your mind, the stronger the focus the faster you will see this result. Although it is my responsible to share with you what to expect it is best not to expect anything in your practices. Expectation is also the trick of your mind. This will mix your thoughts and weaken your focus.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Just to share with you my very own experience. Almost 10 years ago, I have been meditating regularly for almost a year, every night before sleep. One night, my mind was so clear and so calm. Suddenly, I could feel strong flow of Qi surging out of my Dantian and traveled along the Du channel () at my back. I was so overjoyed and filled with expectation: Will I get my Du channel fully activated? Will I also get my Ren channel fully activated too? Will I gain strong internal energy? Many more thoughts came in and the next thing I knew was, the Qi stopped halfway on my back! The next night I when into practice with the high expectation that the Qi will travel further up and activate the whole Du meridian. Nothing happen that night! Night after night I went to practice with the expectation nothing had happened. Until my master advised me to Let Go only I stop expecting anything. Few weeks later, the Qi was at their elements again, and finally completed its travel along the Du channel. So, practice with a clear mind, and without any expectation. Other signs you may feel: At certain time of the day, certain points of your face, body, hands or legs will jump by itself. The sensation you feel is slightly similar to when you are pressing up and down on the point with your finger tip. It is the work of the Qi, which flows actively around the meridians and channels of your body. The point where you feel the jump is the point where the Qi is trying to remove the blockage. After a while, the jump at that point will disappear. This means that the blockage has been removed.
Visualization Practice
The visualization practice arranged here is actually a progression from Exercise 2-8. In the exercise, you learn how to visualize the brilliant white ball over your head. It itself is a powerful technique. That can remain as your practice if you choose so. In the full practice, I will take you one step further that is to visualize a bigger ball, with brighter glows and rays, to increase its energy potential. The larger the energy ball, the more energy entering your body. I did not explain earlier how the energy enters your body. Let me do so here. Remember I asked you to touch the top of your head, at Baihui acu-point, after your visualization practice? This is exactly where the energy enters. Though you need not focus on this point yet, it is good that you observe if you feel any sensation or warmth while practicing.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com The brilliant white ball on top of your head is near to your Baihui acu-point. The energy, represented in white lights, will radiate and reach your Baihui. From there, the energy will enter into your body. Because you are new to this, your body has yet to be accustomed to large amount of energy. Thats why I started you with this brilliant white ball technique. You are only receiving the energy radiated by the white ball. Baihui acu-point plays a very important role in the next two advance techniques, namely Energy Absorption, and Recharge and Healing. Unlike using the energy radiated by the brilliant white ball, these two techniques will visualize the white energy entering directly through Baihui into your body. Therefore, these two are even more powerful than the brilliant white ball technique. However, for the time being, just take notice on your Baihui. For this practice, I suggest you get yourself a very quiet place without interruption. If soft music can help you to calm down and focus, use it. After the practice, you will need to do some massaging on your face and body. This is to ensure that no excessive energy are been trapped in the meridians and channels. Massaging your body will remove any blockage too. I included some massaging exercises in the practice, with pictures as demonstration. If you are used to your own massaging methods, which you may use for Qigong or meditation, then use them. It is better to do the methods most familiar to you. Once you have done the massaging, you should get up and do some stretching exercises, and the Bouncing exercises. Stretching exercises has the same effect as massaging the release excessive energy trapped in the meridians and channels. Bouncing exercises will further release excessive energy from your body. Why do you need to release the excessive energy from your body? As the adage says, too much of a good thing is not good! Your body has a natural mechanism that will absorb the amount of energy it requires. Even if you put in intent and will to make it absorb more, the little more that it can take is not really a lot, unless and until it has accustomed itself to that slight increase of energy intake. Then you can push it to the next level. As the technique will inject a lot of energy of your body, there is tendency that the energy is more than what your body can absorb. So, the excessive needs to be discharged. Why then absorb so much, if my body cannot cope with it? There are reasons why you need to absorb more, and why you need to discharge. In the process of absorbing fresh energy into your body, some of the old energy in your body will be replaced or cleansed. Thus, releasing the excessive energy will also
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com discharge some of the old and used energies from your body. Therefore, you need more energy and you need to discharge them. Secondly, do you know exactly how much energy your body can absorb? You and I will not know for sure. Only your body itself will know. So, what you are doing here is to bring in as much, and let your body take whatever it requires, and the rest release them back to the atmosphere. This is all done by your bodys own natural mechanism. This practice is suitable for normal adult, and to some extent, for senior citizen. For the rest, please read through the caution section. Other than that, I would suggest you reading the last few paragraphs after the instructions for the practice. I will describe what are the signs and effects that you need to be aware of for practicing this technique. The practice steps are included in the Summary Guide at the end of the book. You can print it out as an aid to help you remembering the steps.
*** Caution: Senior Citizen

This technique is alright for you to practice. However, unlike for normal adult, you can practice this every 3-4 days. Not for everyday. Please take note.
*** Caution: High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions

High level of energy entering body tends to make your body warmer, activating the channels and meridians. This will also cause a slight increase in the blood pressure, and heating on the heart. Therefore, it is not advisable for you to practice this technique if you have high blood pressure and heart related conditions.
*** Caution: Pregnant Women

This is very potent technique. Though it is good for expectant mother, it can be harmful for the child. So pregnant women, do not practice this.
Practice 4: Visualization Practice

1. Set alarm to ring in 10 minutes. 2. Find a suitable posture and relax. I suggest a sitting posture for this practice. Lying down is also alright. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 5. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus.
Picture 8: Brilliant White Ball Over Your Head
6. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 counts. 7. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. The glow, the ray of the brilliant white ball is getting stronger and brighter. Keep you focus at it. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Imagine yourself smiling joyfully at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 counts.
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Picture 9: The Brilliant White Ball Grows Bigger
8. Visualize that the brilliant white ball is growing in size. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now the brilliant white ball increases in size, slowly, up to 2 inches in diameter, then to 3 inches, then to 4, 5 and 6 inches in diameter. IMPORTANT: Increase the size of the brilliant white ball progressively as you practice, for example, the first time you practice, increase only to 2 inches. After 3 to 5 practices, you can then increase to 3 inches, then again practice for 3 to 5 times, then increase to 4 inches and so on. You have to let your body accustomed to the energy it radiates onto you. The maximum size that I have gone to is about 12 inches in diameter. That, I did after many, many practices. Until today, I have yet gone beyond 12 inches. The energy it generates is very strong, and I would not recommend you going to 12 inches in size in before 3 months of regular practice. Maintain your focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile joyfully at it joyfully. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 9. Times up. Once your alarm rings, you can stop the practice. 10. Visualize the brilliant white ball getting smaller slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball getting smaller and smaller from the size you have imagined just now.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 11. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 12. Normalize your breathing. 13. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly.
Picture 10: Brush Your Palms
Picture 11: Massage Your Face
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Picture 12: Massage Your Neck and Shoulder
Picture 13: Massage Your Chest and Stomach
Picture 14: Massage Your Arms and Forearms
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Picture 15: Massage Your Hips and Feet
Picture 16: Massage Your Back and Kidney Areas
1. Massage your face and body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm (Picture 10). Slowly: a. Massage your forehead, cheeks, ears, back of your neck and shoulder. (Picture 11 and 12) b. Brush your palms again. c. Massage your chest, stomach, your arms and forearms, your hip and feet (Picture 13, 14 and 15). d. Brush your palms again. e. Massage your back - particularly the kidney area (Picture 16).
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 2. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center.
Picture 17: Stretching Exercises On Your Neck
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Picture 18: Stretching Exercises On Your Fingers and Hands
Picture 19: Stretching Exercises On Your Thighs and Legs
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Picture 20: Bouncing Exercises
1. Do some light exercises. This is to discharge excessive energy that you have gotten during the visualization practices. a. Stretch your head and neck (Picture 17). b. Stretch your finger, hands, thighs and legs (Picture 18 and 19). c. Stand on your feet, knee slightly bent. Bounce up and down for 20 times (Picture 20).
You should feel your Baihui feeling very warm after this practice. Your body should also feel warm. It is normal. The energy enters your body, causing the Qi to flow, activating the meridians and channel. When your meridians and channels are activated, you tend to feel a bit warm. If you have done massaging or guasha () before, your body will get warm too, especially when you are resting. Do this practice just once a day, when you begin. Until you have done this regularly, you can do twice a day, but not more than twice. Personally, I have not done more than two times a day. Drink a lot of plain water if you are doing this practice, before and after the practice. Water can help to cool down your body. It acts as cleansing agent together with the fresh energy to remove blockage or bad Qi from your body. You may need to change some of your diet. Not to worry I say You may need Meaning, it is not necessary. However, I found that eating a lot of fruits and vegetables is highly desirable when practicing this. For Energy Absorption and Recharge and Healing, chances of you changing your eating diet are high. But in this case, it is not necessary.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com However, I will make a note here in case you face such situation in your regular practice of Visualization Practice. If your body is more than just feeling warm or heated up, cut down on red meats temporary, or cut down on the practice. As the energy entering your body is not as high as the next two techniques, it is quite unlikely. But I would still like to mention this, just in case. That may cause you to ask one more question is it necessary for you to be a vegetarian to carry on with this practice? I would encourage, but not necessary. Im not a vegetarian myself. I asked you to cut down on red meats meaning you can still go on with white meat. (White again? Sorry, no puns intended! )
Energy Absorption
Energy Absorption is also the visualization practice that is also built upon Exercise 2-8. In the exercise, you learn how to visualize the brilliant white ball over your head. In this practice, you will learn on how to absorb energy directly from this energy ball. I have explained how the energy entering your body through Baihui acu-point. Now, this principle plays a very important role here. You will still need to visualize the brilliant white ball on top of your head, except now you will also visualize the energy, represented in white liquid lights, entering your body through your Baihui acu-point. To visualize the white liquid lights, switch on the white fluorescent light, and take a look at it. Imagine the white light flowing like water in liquid forms. Why in liquid forms? The energy needs to flow inside your body. So, it is easier for it to flow and be absorbed by your body if it is in liquid form. Similarly, get yourself a very quiet place without interruption. Play soft music if you like to. You will also need to do some massaging on your face and body to ensure that no excessive energy left in the meridians and channels. Massaging your body will help removing any blockage too. If you are used to your own massaging methods, which you may use for Qigong or meditation, then use the methods most familiar to you. After the massaging, you need to do stretching exercises, as well as the Bouncing exercises. Both will further discharge the excessive energy from your body.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com This practice is suitable for normal adult, and to some extent, for senior citizen. For the rest, please read through the caution section. For senior citizen, please read through the caution section thoroughly for this technique. For this technique in particular, I included a special caution section for smoker. Please read through this if you smoke. The last few paragraphs after the instructions for the practice contain some important information for your practices, for example, what are the effects that you need to be aware of for practicing this technique. Please read through them as well. The practice steps are included in the Summary Guide at the end of the book too. You can print it out as an aid to help you remembering the steps.
*** Caution: Smokers

If you smoke, it is high time for you to quit smoking. One of my readers had actually stopped smoking within one week after practicing Basic Tai Chi Breathing. So, work on throwing off the habit. The reason is when you smoke there is a lot of bad Qi entering your body. Qi in this case means air bad air. It is like taking in poison through the air. This bad Qi remains in your body and if you inject a lot of fresh energy into your body, using Energy Absorption techniques, it will mix with the bad energy left by your cigarette smoke. Because the quantity of bad energy from the cigarette is very high, it is difficult to discharge them. As a result, a lot of your fresh energy, mixed with the bad energy, remain in your body, and will be circulated actively throughout the channels and meridian. Worse than if you dont do Energy Absorption at all! So, if you are a regular smoker, please REFRAIN from this practice.

This technique is alright for you to practice. Same as Visualization Practice, you can practice this every 3-4 days. Not for everyday. However, if you are also doing the Visualization Practice and the Recharge and Healing as well, please maintain the 3-4 between these practices. The 3-4 days in between does not means that you can do Visualization Practice in day 1, Energy Absorption in day 2, Recharge and Healing in day 3, rest in day 4 and continue with Visualization Practice in day 5. Yes, you maintain 3-4 days in between the two Visualization Practices, but this is not what I mean. The 3-4 days between practices means that if you do Visualization Practice in day 1, you can only do Energy Absorption, or Recharge and Healing, in day 4 or day 5, got it?
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This technique will cause even higher level of energy entering body. So, REFRAIN from this practice.

Similarly, REFRAIN from this practice.
Practice 5: Energy Absorption

1. Find a suitable posture and relax. I suggest a sitting posture for this practice. You may want to sit cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 6. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. The glow, the ray of the brilliant white ball is getting stronger and brighter. Keep you focus at it. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Imagine yourself smiling joyfully at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times.
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Diagram 3: Energy Entering Through Baihui
7. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now, white energy in liquid form comes from the brilliant white ball, arriving at your Baihui acu-point. The liquid white energy is entering your body through Baihui. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 8. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head. As the energy is entering through your Baihui acu-point, visualize that you head is now filled with this white liquid energy. 9. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your body. As your head is filled with energy, visualize that the energy is now going to your neck and down to your body. Take some time here. Visualize that you body is getting brighter and brighter, and filled with white liquid energy. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your hands. Once your body is filled with the energy, visualize that the energy is now going through your right shoulder into your right arm, right forearm, right hand and fingers. Visualize the energy shooting out from the tips of your right fingers. Visualize now the energy is going through your left shoulder into your left arm, left forearm, left hand and fingers. Visualize the energy shooting out from the tips of your left fingers.
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Yong Quan
Diagram 4: Yongquan Acu-point
11. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your legs. Visualize now the energy goes into your right hips, right leg, through the ankle and to your right foot. Visualize the energy shoot out from your Yongquan () acupoint at the bottom of your right foot. Visualize now the energy goes into your left hips, left leg, through the ankle and to your left foott. Visualize the energy shoot out from your Yongquan acu-point at the bottom of your left foot. 12. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. Once your whole body is filled with the white liquid energy, visualize now your body is getting brighter and brighter. Visualize that the ray is radiating further, and is getting finer. 13. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. Stop the visualization, and focus now on your breathing for 15 times. 14. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. State in your mind, that you are now releasing excessive energy from your body through Yongquan acu-point. 15. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 16. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 17. Normalize your breathing. 18. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 19. Massage your face and body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm (Picture 10-16: See Page 57 to 59). Slowly: a. Massage your forehead, cheeks, ears, back of your neck and shoulder. b. Brush your palms again. c. Massage your chest, stomach, both your arms and forearms, your hip and feet. d. Brush your palms again. e. Massage your back - particularly the kidney area. 20. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center. 21. Do some light exercises. This is to discharge excessive energy that you have gotten during the visualization practices. (Picture 17-20: See Page 60 to 62) a. Stretch your head and neck. b. Stretch your finger, hands, thighs and legs. c. Stand on your feet, knee slightly bent. Bounce up and down for 20 times.
During the practice, you may feel warm at certain part of your body when you visualize the energy going there. It is normal. At the end of the practice, your body should feel warm. The energy enters your body, causing the Qi to flow, activating the meridians and channel. When your meridians and channels are activated, your body will tend to feel warm. Do this practice just ONCE a day, irrespective of how long you have practiced. Same thing, drink a lot of plain water before and after the practice. Water can help to cool down your body. It is also a cleansing agent that works very well with the fresh energy to remove blockage or bad Qi from your body.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com You may need to change your diet for this technique. If your body got heated up, cut down on red meats, or stop the practice until your body normalizes again. Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables is highly desirable when practicing this. Again, dont get me wrong - it is not necessary for you to be a vegetarian in order to carry out this practice. I encourage this practice though not necessary. You only need to reduce the amount of red meats. You should be doing physical exercises or sports activities regularly. This will help discharging unwanted and used energy. Discharging unwanted energy will allow your body to better absorb this fresh energy. Physical exercise can also balance your general well being, and with increase oxygen intake and blood circulation, your body is better prepared for Energy Absorption practice. And if you are practicing Tai Chi Chuan, better still as this will increase the Qi level in your body.
Recharging and Healing

Recharging and Healing is quite similar to Energy Absorption, except that you will need to visualize each and every body parts and organs of yours, and to mentally cleanse, recharge and heal them. On top of that, you will use the power of affirmation programming your mind with positive messages for your well-being. Why this is a separate technique from Energy Absorption? In Energy Absorption, it is for general charging of your body with fresh and potent energy. It requires shorter time to practice. You just visualize the energy into your body, and let go. You rely on the natural mechanism of your body to cleanse, discharge and absorb the energy. For Recharging and Healing, it is for specific healing process. It requires longer time to practice. You will now direct the energy to the specific parts of your body, or specific organs, to willfully cleanse, discharge, recharge and heal. This is also the full practice for healing your whole body, which you can customize to only healing specific parts of your body, as described in Part 5 Healing on Specific Areas. This technique is more powerful than the Energy Absorption. It is more effective if you are concern with healing your body. Note that when you are recharging your body parts, do not visualize each parts or organs for too long. Even if you have desire to heal that particular organs faster, it is still not advisable to over recharge.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Just visualize that the brilliant liquid white light entering and covering the organs, and that the organ is shining brightly with fine white rays. Let go, and then go on to the next part. Let your body parts and organs absorb the energy naturally on their own. Also, do not use too much will or intent, nor having any expectation. This will hinder your mind from giving a strong focus. Just focus, visualize and let go. You will also need to practice this in a very quiet place without any interruption. Soft music? OK, if you like to. After the practice, you will also need to massage your face and body to ensure that no excessive energy in the meridians and channels, and to remove any blockage. You can use your own massaging techniques if you are familiar with other methods. You will also need to do stretching exercises, and the Bouncing exercises. Please note that you need more repetitions of the Bouncing exercises for this technique, compared to the previous practices. This is suitable only for normal adult, and to some extent, for senior citizen. For others, please read the caution section. For senior citizen, please read the caution section carefully. I have also included a special caution section for smoker. Please read it if you smoke. The last few paragraphs after the instructions have some important information for this practice. Please read them carefully as well. The practice steps are included in the Summary Guide at the end of the book too. You can print it out as an aid to help you remembering the steps.

If you are a regular smoker, please REFRAIN from this practice. Please read the caution part under the heading Energy Absorption.

Please maintain the 3-4 between these practices, if you do all them together: Visualization Practice, Energy Absorption, Recharge and Healing. An example for clearly show you how to space out the practices between the 3-4 days: If you do Visualization Practice in day 1, you can only do Energy Absorption, or Recharge and Healing, in day 4 or day 5.
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Please REFRAIN from this practice.

Practice 6: Recharge and Healing Practice

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. You may choose to sit in cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. Smile at that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 6. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. The glow, the ray of the brilliant white ball is getting stronger and brighter. Keep you focus at it. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Imagine yourself smiling joyfully at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 7. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now, white energy in liquid form comes from the brilliant white ball, arriving at your Baihui acu-point. The liquid white energy is entering your body through Baihui. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 8. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head. As the energy is entering through your Baihui acu-point, visualize that you head is now filled with this white liquid energy. Cleanse and heal various parts of your head. Visualize your brain filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your eyes are filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your ears are filled with brilliant liquid white light. You nose and mouth is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your teeth, gum, tongue, jaw are filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your throat and neck is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your whole head is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally they are recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy. 9. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your body. Visualize that the energy is entering your body. Cleanse and heal various parts of your head. Visualize your chest filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your lungs are filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your heart is filled with brilliant liquid white light. You stomach is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your liver, gall bladder, spleen, pancreas, colon, and small intestine are filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your spine is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your kidneys are filled with brilliant liquid white light. Visualize your sex organ and urinary organ filled the brilliant liquid white light. Your whole body is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally they are recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 10. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your hands. Visualize that the energy is now going through your shoulders, arms, elbows, forearms, hands and fingers. Visualize the brilliant liquid with light shooting out from the tips of your right fingers. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally they are recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy. 11. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your legs. Visualize now the energy goes into your hips, legs, knees, ankles and feet. Visualize the energy shoot out from your Yongquan acu-point at the bottom of your feet. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally they are recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy. 12. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. Visualize every blood cell and every body cell is filled with brilliant liquid white light. Your body is getting brighter and brighter. Visualize that the ray is radiating further, and is getting finer. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally they are recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy. Your body is strong and healthy. And you feel very happy about it! 13. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. Stop the visualization, and focus now on your breathing for 15 times. 14. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. State in your mind, that you are now releasing excessive energy from your body through Yongquan acu-point. 15. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 16. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 17. Normalize your breathing. 18. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 19. Massage your face and body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm (Picture 10-16: See Page 57 to 59). Slowly: a. Massage your forehead, cheeks, ears, back of your neck and shoulder. b. Brush your palms again. c. Massage your chest, stomach, both your arms and forearms, your hip and feet. d. Brush your palms again. e. Massage your back - particularly the kidney area. 20. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center. 21. Do some light exercises. This is to discharge excessive energy that you have gotten during the visualization practices. (Picture 17-20: See Page 99 to 99) a. Stretch your head and neck. b. Stretch your finger, hands, thighs and legs. c. Stand on your feet, knee slightly bent. Bounce up and down for 20 times.
During the practice, you may feel warm at certain part of your body when you visualize the brilliant liquid white light going there. It is perfectly normal. At the end of the practice, your body should feel warm. Your meridians and channel are highly activated with this practice, and your body will tend to feel warm. Your body will also be relaxed and you will achieve certain level of tranquility. This practice is just for ONCE in a day, irrespective of how long you have already practiced. Drink a lot of plain water before and after the practice. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Reduce eating red meats. You should also be doing your exercises or sports activities regularly to normalize the energy, and allow your body to absorb these fresh, healing energies better. It will be better if you are practicing Tai Chi Chuan regularly.
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Part 4: Tai Chi Breathing in Daily Life
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Part 4: Tai Chi Breathing in Daily Life

Mastering the Fundamental Four
Before going into this, again I assume that you have mastered and got used to The Fundamental Four. Which four? Sitting, standing, walking and lying down. These are the four basic postures that all of us do every day. These four postures are based on my experience in Vipassana meditation and mindfulness practices. It is also the basic postures cited by a Chinese rhyme: Like a bell, we sit as firmly, we stand as erected as a pine, like the wind, we move as swiftly, and in the shape of a bow, we recline. (zuo ru zhong) (li ru song) (xing ru feng) (wo ru gong) Thus, it is important for you to master these four before going into practicing in other situations, as what I am going to share with you next is built upon these four basic postures. It is derived and modified creatively from the four. Again, I suggest that you master The Fundamental Four in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing manual before going into these.
Other Situations
What I have lined up here is what I have, myself, done in my daily life with Tai Chi Breathing, using both basic and advance techniques for specific purposes. These are from my personal experience, as well as the experience of my friends and students. Of course, these are not comprehensive and exclusive. You can have your own situation where you can modify Tai Chi Breathing, and incorporate it into your unique situation. And I would be happy to hear from you about this. So, these are some of the situations that I found myself, my friends and students practicing Tai Chi Breathing effectively and what are the conditions and things to pay attention to in each specific situation. Go on now to find out how you too can practice it in your daily life!
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Tai Chi Breathing in Driving

Driving, in effect, is similar to Tai Chi Breathing practice in sitting posture. The difference here is that the car seat is usually lower, and the body tends to lean back. This is absolutely alright, if it does not hinder you from doing Tai Chi Breathing.
Picture 21: Sitting posture in driving - Driver
If the driving is not for a long distance, I would recommend you to sit slightly upright where the upper part of your back maintain a small distance from your car seat. The lower part of your back can remain leaning on your car seat. This way, you can remain alert throughout the journey, and the flow of Qi is smoother.
Picture 22: Sitting posture in driving - Passenger
If you are the passenger, you can have your feet firmly planted on the floor of the car. Of course, if you are driving, this is not possible. Just make sure you legs are extended in a comfortable and nature position. If you can, let your heels touch the floor of the car, and press the accelerator, clutch and brake with the upper part of your feet.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com You hands should be on the steering, or the gear shift. Do the 5 steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing as usual, minus the full and empty retention. Your focus should be on the road not on your breathing. Thus, you should not be doing the full and empty retention techniques. Techniques involving visualization are out of the question here! In any situation that requires your full attention, that you cannot continue your Tai Chi Breathing, then stop the practice. Pay full attention to the road and continue your Tai Chi Breathing when the situation allows. Safety first! This is just a simple application of Tai Chi Breathing in your daily life. So, I did not arrange any specific exercises or practices for this, nor include any aids in the Summary Guide. No need reminder here! The only reminder is to practice common sense and safety while driving!
Tai Chi Breathing in Sports

Over the years, I have played soccer, hockey, badminton, basketball, volleyball and handball. I do swimming, jogging, cycling, hiking, kayaking, and jungle trekking. I did some rock climbing, abseiling and rappelling. I was trained in Karate-do, Thai Boxing, Hua Boxing, and then Tai Chi Chuan. I have been experimenting with Tai Chi Breathing in these various activities that I did and still do, since 12 years old. From my experience, Tai Chi Breathing can be beneficial for sports and physical activities. Let me share with you one example. I was 96kg at one point of my life. I was not fit, and whenever I went jungle trekking with my friends, I will be trailing as the last person, gasping for air. I stopped regular practices of Tai Chi Breathing at that time. Thus, I resolved to do Tai Chi Breathing Practice with Visualization consistently everyday after that. After a period of 1 month, my friends invited me for jungle trekking again. I was still 96kg, but for that time, I focused on my breathing throughout the 13km trek. My stamina increased, my speed increased, my agility going through the ups and downs increased significantly. I was leading by breezing through that time. That was in fact a tougher trek than the earlier one, and my friends were gasping for air and one of them exclaimed, Guan, how did you become so fit in a short period of time! I just smiled at him. That is just one of the many examples. I do not want to list all of them here. Tai Chi Breathing does help in sports and physical activities. Most activities can be applied, except for swimming and snorkeling, or any other activities that requires breathing through the mouth.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com You may argue, that breathing through the mouth can still maintain the long, deep breathing with tiny flows, while the tongue connected to the upper palate. Yes, you can do so but it is near to useless doing so. Tai Chi Breathing is only effective if done through the nose. You need to take note a few issues in order to avoid any complication or negative effects. What do you need to know about doing Tai Chi Breathing in sports? Let me categorize sports activities into types, and for each type, different approaches of Tai Chi Breathing should be taken: 1. Continuous Activities 2. Non-continuous Activities First, lets see what these two types of activities are:
Continuous Activities
Continuous Activities are those activities that you do constantly without stopping for certain duration of time. You will be doing the activities continuously for certain duration without stopping or having breaks. Jogging, running, walking, cycling, hiking, trekking, aerobics, dancing, rowing, kayaking are some examples of continuous activities.
Non-continuous Activities
Non-continuous Activities are those activities that you will have constant break in between, over the duration of the activities. You will do the activity, break, do again, break, do again and break. Most ball and racquet games like soccer, basketball, hand ball, volley ball, tennis, badminton, squash (may be continuous) etc are some examples of non-continuous activities. In reality, I would not want to differentiate the types of sport or activities per se as continuous or non-continuous. Rather, I prefer to differentiate it base on the nature of the activities. For example, badminton while the shuttlecock is in play, which may last for quite a while in rallies can be a continuous activity. Until one party misses and drops the shuttlecock, theres a break in between, before the next serving begin a noncontinuous activity. I categorize them into two types mainly to focus on the different approach for practicing Tai Chi Breathing. It is up to you to use them accordingly, base on the requirement of the activity that you are doing. Basically, the two approaches are listed in Practices for Continuous Activities and Practices for Non-continuous Activities as follows:
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Practices for Continuous Activities

For continuous activities, keep you mouth close and breath through the nose. Your tongue should touch the upper palate. Theres no requirement for the speed of your breathing while you are in action. Breathe normally, but still using the abdomen. No full or empty retention during continuous activities. For example, if you are running, continue breathing normally, using abdomen as the mechanism. You focus should be on your breathing, and of course, on your running. If however, during the continuous activities should you feel lack of air, stop Tai Chi Breathing immediately. Breathe with your mouth if you must. If you still can, use your abdomen as the breathing mechanism. From my experience, if I am not very tired and seriously in need of air, I can still breathe with my abdomen. However, if you are seriously in need of air. Breathe through your chest if necessary, while continuing your activities. I would not recommend you to force yourself to maintain that if you cannot, especially in very rigorous activities which test your stamina and endurance.
Practices for Non-continuous Activities

For non-continuous activities, while you are in action, continue Tai Chi Breathing as you would in continuous activities. And if during the activity, you need more air, then stop Tai Chi Breathing. Any breaks in between the activities are for you to regain your stamina slightly and to continue with the next set of actions. It is during this break you can use Tai Chi Breathing to help you regain your stamina and composure quickly. If you have just take the break, and are still in need of air, breathe as you would normally do. Once your breathing is slower, close your mouth, connect your tongue to the upper palate, and start breathing with your abdomen. Use full retention if you like to, but not empty retention. Depending on how much time you have in between the breaks, start Tai Chi Breathing with your normal breathing speed. Then progressively slow down the breathing, with longer and deeper breathe, and lesser breathing rate per minutes. When you reach this rate, you can use both full and empty retention with 1 or 2 counts. This will increase the volume of air you take in for each breath, and oxygen content would be higher. You will be able to regain composure and stamina faster than anyone else in that very short break in between the activities. If you have longer break in between, I suggest that you use Energy Absorption techniques and Recharging techniques to even quickly increase your strength and
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com stamina. As techniques involving visualization are only suitable for certain people, I will put them under a separate heading which follows.
Energy Absorption for Sports

Whether it is before you begin your sport activity, or in between breaks, visualization techniques will be very useful for you. It can help to charge up your stamina, strength, energy, endurance, speed, agility, concentration, determination, confidence and calmness. I have personally done this just before starting and my games improved significantly. However, this is also because that I have been doing Advance Tai Chi Breathing regularly. Before beginning, use Energy Absorption or Recharging and Healing techniques to increase your overall ability to perform better in your activities or games. If it is not very convenient, then do it with your eyes open. If there may be interruptions then do a quick visualization on energy absorption, instead of going through the head, body, hands and legs. Just visualize large amount of the brilliant white light entering your Baihui acupoint and your body getting brighter and brighter. The same goes to the time between the games, or you are having breaks in between. As a way to help you doing a quick practice for the purpose of increasing your energy just before sports, or in between breaks, I have designed a simple energy absorption practice here in Practice 7.

For a short practice as this, it is alright for you to do so. Make sure that you are engaged in active sports activity after the practice.

Same thing, as this is a short practice, you can do this, provided that you are engaged in active sports or exercises after the practice.

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Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports

1. Sit in a suitable posture and relax. 2. Close your eyes lightly. Optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 3 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. 6. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. Imagine now, white energy in liquid form comes from the brilliant white ball, arriving at your Baihui acu-point. The liquid white energy is entering your body through Baihui. 7. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head, body, hands and legs. As the energy is entering through your Baihui acu-point, visualize that you head, body, hands and legs are now filled with this white liquid energy. 8. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. Once your whole body is filled with the white liquid energy, visualize now your body is getting brighter and brighter. Visualize that the ray is radiating further, and is getting finer. 9. Visualize energy comes out from your fingers and Yongquan acupoints. In the same time as No. 8, imagine the brilliant liquid white energy coming out from the tips of your fingers and from Yongquan acu-point at the bottom of your feet. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing thorough No. 4 to 9. 10. Do Tai Chi Breathing for 5-10 times. Stop the visualization, and focus now on your breathing for 5-10 times, duration depending on your situation. 11. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 12. Normalize your breathing. 13. Do a quick massage on your face and body. 14. You are ready for action!
Though, I did not stress on the importance of quiet place or no interruption, it is still highly desirable that you observe these requirements. Find a corner, or in the changing rooms where you can be alone for around 3-5 minutes, to prepare yourself for action. You will also notice that No. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are continuous steps which you do almost in the same time. This will allow you to finish off the practice quickly. If you have more time, then you can do this slowly to allow better energy absorption by your body. If you need to recharge certain parts of your body, for example your hands or legs, that you will need to use in the activities, use the above practice, but direct the brilliant liquid white energy to your hands and legs, and affirm mentally they are strong and healthy, and they are flexible and quick. This is part of the Healing practice. Alternatively, if you want to have more detailed and specific practice, please refer to Practice 14: Healing for Specific Area. Theres no need for thorough massaging or light exercises as you will be heading straight into action. Any excessive energy will be discharged when you do physical activities. Drink more water in this case. As the energy is absorbed just before the activities, you will experience more sweating then normal. To avoid dehydration, drink more water between breaks and after the activity. You may even experience warm body for the whole day. So, drink more water even long after your sport activities. Allow your body to properly cool down after the sport activities, before going for a bath or shower. The energy should have settled down and excessive been discharged while you are in action. You just need to cool down your body so that the yin element from the water does not affect your body.
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Tai Chi Breathing in Work

Depending on your work nature whether it is the office type, physical type, or traveling type. Different nature of work will give you different situation or opportunities to practice Tai Chi Breathing. If the nature of your work is the office type one this means you will probably spend most of your time seated. There may be cases you will move around the office floors, production floor, between different floors etc. These situations use the three of the basic postures sitting, standing and walking. In order word, The Fundamental Four in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing is good enough for you to practice while working in the office. In certain time, where you may need a break, or to relieve yourself from stress or pressure, to cool yourself down after a debate or conflict with your other fellow workers, you can do a short visualization practice (See Practice 8) in order to relieve yourself from stress or pressure; calm yourself down; and to recharge yourself. You may try Practice 12: Quick Practice for Managing Stress too. If the nature of your work is physical type, then I would suggest you read through Tai Chi Breathing in Sports as by nature, it is almost similar. The section described how you can practice your Tai Chi Breathing while you are in action. And Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sport offers you a good practice in between breaks. If your job is more of a traveling type, then there will be two scenarios, either you are driving, or you are the passenger. If your traveling involves a lot of driving, then please refer to Tai Chi Breathing in Driving for tips on how you can practice Tai Chi Breathing while you are traveling. If you are the passenger, whether it is in a bus, cab, MRT, ferry or flight, basically you are seated. I have mentioned shortly this scenario in Tai Chi Breathing in Driving. Since most of the time you are sitting, you can do is the sitting posture in The Fundamental Four. However, you may want to do some visualization, energy absorption or recharge and healing in a very long distance. If you want to do any of these three practices, please do more massaging and stretching at the end of the practice, and if possible, walk around a bit, perhaps to and fro the washrooms. If it is inconvenient to walk around, then I suggest you do a short one, such as in Practice 8.
Short Visualization for Work

This short visualization practice is modified from the actual visualization practice. This is for you to conveniently practice while you are at work, when the situation arises. For this practice, you can either choose to open or close your eyes. For my case, when I am traveling, say in a bus or on a plane, I would close my eyes as if Im sleeping. But I maintain my body and head as erected as possible, and continue my Tai Chi Breathing and the visualization practices. In this way, no one actually notice if you may feel weird doing it in a public transport. 84
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com However, in work, sometimes I close my eyes, sometimes I open. It depends very much on the situation. For example, in one company where I used to work in, my colleagues knew that I was the meditative type. So they are not surprise to see me closing my eyes, sitting upright there on my desk and meditate! Actually, I was more of doing the visualization to relieve stress. So for you, it is really depending entirely on your preference and situation, whether to close your eyes or not. After the visualization practice, please walk around. If you are on a public transport and it is inconvenient to do so, then you need to do more massaging and stretching exercises, to release excessive energy. If your working environment or office can allow you to do some exercises, particularly the Bouncing exercises, then go ahead. It is better!

Just take note that you should visualize the brilliant white ball up to the maximum size of 3 inches in diameter, unless there are spaces for you to do the Bouncing exercises.

Same thing, you should only visualize the brilliant white ball up to the maximum size of 3 inches in diameter, unless there are spaces for you to do the Bouncing exercises.

Practice 8: Short Visualization for Work

1. Sit in a suitable posture and relax. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. Optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 3 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happens, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 6. Visualize that the brilliant white ball is growing in size. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now the brilliant white ball increases in size, slowly, up to 2 inches in diameter, then to 3 inches, then to 4, 5 and 6 inches in diameter. IMPORTANT: Increase the size of the brilliant white ball progressively as you practice, for example, the first time you practice, increase only to 2 inches. After 3 to 5 practices, you can then increase to 3 inches, then again practice for 3 to 5 times, then increase to 4 inches and so on. You have to let your body accustomed to the energy it radiates onto you. The maximum size for this practice is 6 inches in diameter. Not more than that, unless your work environment gives you plenty of space to do the bouncing exercises to discharge the excessive energy. Reminder for senior citizen, high blood pressure and health related conditions, please visualize up to 3 inches only, unless your work environment gives you plenty of space to do the bouncing exercises. Maintain your focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile joyfully at it joyfully. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. Use your finger to keep track as you are still required to focus on the brilliant white ball. 7. Visualize the brilliant white ball becomes smaller and then vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball reduce in size, and then slowly disappear from the above your head. 8. Normalize your breathing. 9. Do a quick massage on your face and body. If it is not convenient for you to walk around, as in No. 10, then please do a more thorough massaging.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 10. Do some stretching exercises and walk around. It is preferably that you walk around a bit, perhaps to the washrooms etc after this practice. If there are space for you to do some light exercises and stretching, go ahead. It is better! If it is not convenient to walk around, then do more stretching exercises.
Drink a lot of water after the practice. Keep yourself away from coming into contact with water for at least 1 hour, though longer time period is preferred.
Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping

Frankly, I do not know how I breathe in my sleep. But, because I have been doing Tai Chi Breathing as a habit, I believe that Im doing it while sleeping. Perhaps I should get someone to observe me sleeping and verify this! Anyway, it is possible for you to practice Tai Chi Breathing just before sleeping, and when you have gained consciousness after your sleep. Anything in between that is, while you are sleeping, I cant guarantee because Im not sure myself. To practice Tai Chi Breathing just before sleep, you can use the main practice for lying down in The Fundamental Four in the Basic Tai Chi Breathing. I would not recommend using any advance techniques just before sleeping as high level of energy entering your body will cause you to be more alert. Not sleepy! Unless, you want to stay awake for the night, to get your work done, or for any other purposes. I would not recommend using advance techniques less than 2 hours before sleep for the same reason you will be more alert with higher level of energy. That will affect your sleeping pattern. Just use basic breathing techniques, plus full and empty retention should be good enough. In case you have forgotten about the basic techniques for just before sleeping, I included the practice here in Practice 9, incorporating full and empty retention techniques. After you have awake from your sleep, you can do the step to charge yourself up for the day.
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Practice 9: Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping

1. Lying Down Posture. Lie down on the bed in your usual comfortable position. As sleeping position is a matter of habit for individual, I dont suggest any requirements over here. Why? Well, I have tried to observe the requirements, following the fixed posture just before sleep I couldnt sleep! You can try out, but if you find yourself sleepless, then I suggest you dont follow fix postures before sleeping. Hands? No requirement too. Just put them at your most comfortable positions. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the Basic Tai Chi Breathing. You can start of with slow breathing straightaway. I suggest no counting at for this. Just let your breath continue naturally until you fall asleep. * For senior citizen, children and pregnant women, also the same. 4. Full and Empty Retention. Hold your breath for ONLY 1 count after each inhaling and exhaling. No more than 1 count, otherwise, you will be focusing on the counts and that will make you more alert not sleepy!
Picture 23: Lying Down Posture
5. When you wake up. The next day when you wake up, if you have the luxury of the time, I suggest you lie down there for a while instead of getting up straightaway. Do Tai Chi Breathing, with full and empty retention, on your back, flat on the bed for about 10-15 counts. For this case, please follow the posture suggested in The Fundamental Four. (See Picture 23) This is particularly good for senior citizen, and those with high-blood or low blood related problems. It helps to normalize your blood circulation after slowing down for the nights rest. For those needing alertness for the day, I recommend this too. It will increase Qi intake and oxygen absorption to your brain. I do this every morning before getting up.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com For people who are very, very busy during the day, with tight schedules and work load, Tai Chi Breathing just before sleeping offers you a very good way and opportunity to work on your health and releasing your stress. You can skip the rest of the practice if your time is really tight, but I would highly recommend you doing this practice. You are using the little time before you sleep to do this and Im sure that you will be lying down there for a while, even a very short one, before dozing off, isnt it? You only need to change your breathing pattern in the sleeping process to gain the unlimited benefits for yourself. Isnt it a worthwhile practice? Moreover, if you are really busy and rushing type, most likely, you would not be able to sleep directly. You will need some time to cool down and settling yourself into the bed. During that cooling down time, or while you are settling yourself into the bed, just do Tai Chi Breathing. In fact, it will help you cool down and relaxed faster, and will put you to sleep quickly. This practice can also help those with sleeping disorder, though it is not the cure. You should consult your doctor if your sleeping disorder persists.
Tai Chi Breathing in Classroom

For children, students, or even adult who is attending classes to learn something, you can do Tai Chi Breathing to increase your concentration and learning ability. When you are doing Tai Chi Breathing, your body relaxes and your mind will calm down. This will increase the Beta wave of your brain, instead of the Alpha wave. Beta wave is known to be very important for absorption of information and data by psychologist. With higher level of Beta wave, the better and faster you will be able to learn. Memory capabilities will increase. That is why I strongly suggest that children be taught how to do Tai Chi Breathing so as to increase their learning capabilities. And because it is only breathing they and you can do it even in the classroom. This is my secret tool on how I climbed from the back of the class to be the first few students when I was a child. My concentration increased. I can memorize facts faster. I can understand what has been taught easily. And now, Im revealing this secret to you! In the classroom, basically you will be sitting down. I would suggest that you sit according to the main practice of The Fundamental Four. The requirements are:
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Picture 24: Sitting Posture in the Classroom
1. Sit comfortably on the chair. If possible, choose the chair with a suitable height. 2. Your feet must be firmly planted on the floor flat on the floor. 3. Your back must not lean on the chair - keep about one third of the distance from the back of the chair. 4. Keep your head and body straight but relaxed. 5. Do not arc your waist outward. Just straighten it naturally. 6. Put both of your hands on your thigh with the palm facing upward. (See above pictures) The palm facing upward is to receive the energy or Qi from the atmosphere around you. If this is not possible, for example, you need to write something or take notes, or referring to the textbooks, then put them on the table with the palm facing upward whenever you can. 7. Do the 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing, with Full and Empty Retention of 1 counts. Your focus should be still on the class and what the teacher is explaining.
If it is in the lecture hall, or auditorium arrangement, it is still the same, except that you may vary slightly on your sitting postures. In any case, keep your head and body straight and relaxed.
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Tai Chi Breathing and Tai Chi Chuan

Since Tai Chi Breathing is part and parcel of my efforts in creating a new set of Tai Chi Chuan that is easier and quicker to learn, and in the same time giving the best possible effect within 7 days, definitely Tai Chi Breathing can be applied in Tai Chi Chuan. Irrespective of what style that you are learning, Tai Chi Breathing can be applied. Most instructors would have already taught their students about the proper breathing method that which I have covered in Basic Tai Chi Breathing. What Im going to share here is application of the advance techniques which I believe, no other instructor would have taught you yet! I hope I dont sound egoistic, but the fact is I combined many other methods into Advance Tai Chi Breathing, some of which are actually beyond the scope of Tai Chi Chuan itself. Even my master, Mr. Quah, who had taught us about visualizing Qi entering our entire body through Baihui and exit through through Yongquan acu-point under our feet, we did not know how to imagine or visualize the Qi. But because previously I have learned visualization techniques in my healing practices, I can clearly describe what is that you need to visualize. And each time when I do my Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, I use this visualization and energy absorption technique, and after only one round of practice I can feel the Qi all over my body which lasts for the whole day! That is why I dare say that my Tai Chi Chuan which is now under experiment can give you the kind of effect within 7 days of practice! One point to note here however, that my Tai Chi Breathing application in your Tai Chi Chuan does not cover the breathing pattern for each form. For example, I will not say that when you are Holding the Ball with the T-Stance () in Parting the Horses Mare (), you should be breathing in, and neither will I say that when you are Pushing the Palm with Bow Stance () in Single Whip () that you need to exhale and so on and so forth. These are not within the scope of this book. What Im more interested in preparing your body and mind before you begin practicing Tai Chi Chuan, and how to maintain the Qi after you have completed your practice. This is what this book is about. For this practice, you will be looking into the Energy Absorption technique just before The Beginning, Qishi (), and on Qi maintenance after you have completed The Ending, Shoushi (). The practice I included here is a continuous practice of the Energy Absorption, your Tai Chi Chuan form, and then Maintaining the Qi. This way, you can incorporate the advance techniques into your Tai Chi Chuan practices, if you like to. Yes, it will take slightly longer time for your regular practice, but that extra time you put in is really,
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com really worth it. Im doing this each time I do my Tai Chi Chuan practice, and I know clearly that it is definitely worth much more than the few extra minutes I put in. If you can proceed with a short meditation after your Tai Chi Chuan practice, it would even be better. Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation will be covered in the next heading after this.

You can do this exercise just before your Tai Chi Chuan practices. You may however feel your heart beating slightly faster than usual while you are going through the form practices. Some of my students felt so, but none that have any problems. The fact is if you have done Tai Chi Chuan for some time, your blood pressure should have normalized, and whatever heart conditions that you may have should have improved by now. Thus, it should be alright for you to use this technique here, but just for the purpose of increasing the effectiveness of your Tai Chi Chuan. As for other techniques which I asked you to refrain from, more care should be exercised. In case that you should feel uncomfortable doing your Tai Chi Chuan just after this practice, then I suggest that you stop using the advance techniques first, until your doctor has confirmed that your conditions have improved.

Please practice whatever Tai Chi Chuan form that you are practicing, without using any of these techniques for the time being.
Practice 10: Energy Absorption for Tai Chi Chuan

1. Do warm up exercises, if any. If you have any warm up exercises before your normal Tai Chi Chuan practice, do it first. 2. Stand in your Tai Chi Chuan starting posture and relax. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 3 times in your slowest breathing speed. 5. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 6. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. You are smiling on that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 7. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. The glow, the ray of the brilliant white ball is getting stronger and brighter. Keep you focus at it. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Imagine yourself smiling joyfully at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 counts. 8. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now, white energy in liquid form comes from the brilliant white ball, arriving at your Baihui acu-point. The liquid white energy is entering your body through Baihui. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 9. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head. As the energy is entering through your Baihui acu-point, visualize that you head is now filled with this white liquid energy. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your body. As your head is filled with energy, visualize that the energy is now going to your neck and down to your body. Take some time here. Visualize that you body is getting brighter and brighter, and filled with white liquid energy. 11. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your hands. Once your body is filled with the energy, visualize that the energy is now going through your shoulders into your arms, forearms, hands and fingers. Visualize the energy shooting out from the tips of your fingers. 12. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your legs. Visualize now the energy goes into your hips, legs, through the ankles and to your feet. Visualize the energy shoot out from your Yongquan acu-point at the bottom of your feet.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 13. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. Once your whole body is filled with the white liquid energy, visualize now your body is getting brighter and brighter. Visualize that the ray is radiating further, and is getting finer. 14. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. Stop the visualization, and focus now on your breathing for 5 times. 15. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. State in your mind, that you are now releasing excessive energy from your body through Yongquan acu-point. 16. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 17. Normalize your breathing. 18. Tai Chi Chuan Practice. Do your Tai Chi Chuan Practice, any styles or any forms. 19. Stand in your Tai Chi Chuan ending posture. 20. Maintain the Qi. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center. 21. Massage your body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm. Slowly: a. Massage your forehead, cheeks, ears, back of your neck and shoulder. b. Brush your palms again. c. Massage your chest, stomach, both your arms and forearms, your hip and feet. d. Brush your palms again. e. Massage your back - particularly the kidney area.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 22. Maintain the Qi again. Put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. Please note that I did not flip these photos. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center. 23. Do cool down exercises, if any. If you have any cool down exercises after your normal Tai Chi Chuan practice, do it now.
If you have done this properly, you should sweat a lot, and your body will feel warm, for the next few days. And if you are doing this everyday, your resistance to coldness is very high. Same with other practices, you should be drinking a lot of fresh, plain water to avoid dehydration or over heating of your body.
Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation

Actually, I did not want to include this topic in this book. The reason is, if you have been practicing meditation for a long time, chances are: you have mastered the breathing technique quite similar to Basic Tai Chi Breathing, and you point of focus will be on something else. Once you have gained strong focus on something that you have been practicing, it is quite unlikely that you will want to shift your focus into something else. However, I still include this topic in this book, mainly with two ideas. First of all, if you are a beginner in meditation, you may want to learn how to master the abdominal breathing methods. The Basic Tai Chi Breathing is written with that purpose in mind. So, if you are looking to improve your meditation, or to master the abdominal breathing techniques, then the Basic Tai Chi Breathing is a good way for you to learn and master them. This will also increase the effectiveness of your meditation practices. Secondly, if you are an advanced meditator, by right, you should be able to switch your focus easily on something else. This is how you can direct your single-pointedness into different areas of application.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Therefore, I finally decided to share a little bit of my experience in meditation with Tai Chi Breathing. It is however, totally up to you to decide whether you want to try out my methods, or to use the basic techniques as a way to fully master abdominal breathing and to enhance the effectiveness of your current meditation practices. As such, I will divide this topic into two areas: one on mastering the basic skills and one on the advance techniques if you want to try out other methods. The one on the basic skills is basically a short reminder of those practices I have touched in The Basic Tai Chi Breathing book. The latter one has more detailed steps on how to practice. So, if you are a beginner in meditation, you can read the next heading. However, I would suggest that you go through the Basic Tai Chi Breathing e-book to really get the right exercises and practices. In case you feel like you want to learn my methods, then you can try out the following heading. And if you are an advance meditator and want to try out my method, then go to the heading after next.
Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation

This heading is basically a reminder of the techniques used in Basic Tai Chi Breathing, and in particularly the sitting posture in The Fundamental Four. Why sitting? Well, most meditation practices are done while sitting. It could be sitting normally on a chair, or in Single or Double Lotus position, or just plain cross-leg position. As Im not particular about the sitting position, nor am I here to teach in length about meditation practices, and in particular, Im looking into how you can practice in your daily life. Thus, what I included here is sitting in a normal posture on a chair. And if you have gone in length to practice The Fundamental Four earlier, this practice should be familiar to you:
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Practice 11: Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation
Picture 25: Sitting Posture for Meditation Practice Front & Side
1. Sitting Posture. Sit on a comfortable chair. Choose the chair with a suitable height. Your feet must be firmly planted on the floor flat on the floor. Your back must not lean on the chair - keep about one third of the distance from the back of the chair. Keep your head and body straight but relaxed. Do not arc your waist outward. Just straighten it naturally. Put both of your hands on your thigh with the palm facing upward. (See above pictures) The palm facing upward is to receive the energy or Qi from the atmosphere around you. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. 4. Maintain the slow and constant breathing rhythm for 30 times*. 5. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without counting. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 6. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. Put away your hand and let it hand on your side.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 7. Maintain the Qi. Slowly, put your both of your hands slightly above your navel. Rotate your hands slowly above the navel in clockwise direction for 36 times. The rotation should start from the center of the circle, spiraling slowly outwards. Once you have reached the outer circle, start off again from the center. While sitting, your rotation may be smaller. Its alright. Once you have done so, rotate your hand slowly above the navel, now in counter-clockwise direction for 24 times. The rotation should start from the outside circle, spiraling slowly towards the center. 8. You can get up now. * You can do as much as you want according to your preferred meditation timing.
Advance Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation

For advance meditator, I would not have any specially designed practices or exercises. What I would suggest is you try out the advance techniques that I have described in Part 3, covering Visualization, Energy Absorption and Recharge and Healing techniques as complement to, or experiment on your own meditation practices. These three techniques are mainly health focused. If you are looking for methods that is more spiritual inclined, then these three are not for you, though to some extend it will have some spiritual benefits. It is not within the scope of this book to share on meditation that has spiritual or meta-physical objectives. Perhaps, I will share them in my later books.
Tai Chi Breathing and Other Practices

Similarly, for other practices like Qigong, Yoga or martial arts, Basic Tai Chi Breathing can help to increase the effectiveness of your practices. Moreover, you only need to change your breathing patterns without affecting your practices. Therefore, you can easily incorporate it into your regular practices. In case that you have been taught a specific breathing patterns or techniques for your Qigong, Yoga or martial arts, then I suggest that you stick to what you have been taught. Incorporate only the techniques that are not in conflict with your existing methods. For example, in Karate-do, you need to shout in each blocks or punches or kicks. That way,
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com you will not be able to keep your mouth close and the tongue touching the upper palate. You may only do abdominal breathing, in such situation. If you have yet to do any particular breathing method or what I have shared with you goes in line with what you have been taught by your master then I would suggest that you do Tai Chi Breathing, with Full and Empty Retention techniques while doing your other practices. As for visualization, energy absorption and recharge and healing techniques, do them as a separate practice, unless you can find a lot of common areas with your practice. I would not want you to get high level of energy in differing ways, or worst in conflicting manners. High level energy entering your body is not something to be taken lightly with, unless you are very, very sure of what you are doing. I dont arrange any specific practice for this case because I would not know exactly what are the practices that you do, or which methods you are using. On top of that, I did mention in Basic Tai Chi Breathing that I am not very sure of Qigong practices as I do not have personal experience in those techniques. Im been frank with you on this. All I know is that there are many different types of Qigong, and a number of Yoga practices. In fact, just this afternoon, I received an e-mail from a friend who teaches Yoga for many years. She shared a lot of information on Yoga with me. I will be reading through all those information and may try to put some of the practices myself. Thus, for now, I really need to reserve my comment on it. However, theres one thing I know that most of these practices use abdominal breathing, and to some extend, use full and empty retention methods. They dont call it full or empty retention, but with some other names. If this is the case, I sincerely believe that my Tai Chi Breathing, with retention methods can help you, or at the very least, is similar to what you are doing. You can incorporate what I have shared with you into your techniques.
Tai Chi Breathing and Prayers

Again, this is also an area which I will not arrange any specific practices, but to discuss in general how Tai Chi Breathing can enhance your prayers. Different religion has different faith and methods of prayers. Knowing that religion is something very personal, and at times, can be very sensitive, please forgive me first if I have mentioned anything wrongly, or if I have hurt your feelings regarding your belief. It is not my intention to discuss about religions here. My main concern is to share with you what possibilities you can look into using Tai Chi Breathing as part of your religious practices so that you can gain more benefits from
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com your faith. So, Im taking about possibilities here, not about religious practices. And as it is a possibility, it is not a necessity. You can choose to use it or not. It is your call! All I ask of you is to keep an open mind and go through what I have to share with you. If at the end of this topic, you feel that Im wrong please forgive me, and forget about what I have discussed here. Or if you feel that what I have shared is not possible for your practices, then sorry about your trouble reading this. Just put what you have read away. Or if you feel that you would not want me to discuss this at all, then you can skip whatever I will share after this point, is that alright with you? Can I start? Alright, I will share with you from my personal experiences, and what my healing masters have taught me. It is mainly to explore the possibilities. Thats all. When I pray, usually I will need to calm myself down. In whatever religions, to calm down first before any prayer is a desirable condition, am I right? Thus, am I right to say that if you do some Tai Chi Breathing, the 5 steps, or with retention techniques just before engaging in the prayers would be helpful as it can help you to calm down and relax better? Stand, sit, knee in whatever praying postures that you need to be in and close your eyes. Focus on your nose and do the 5 steps Tai Chi Breathing for around 3-5 times to calm down just before you begin. Some practices require good focus and concentration. Remember Exercise 2-7? This exercise can help you increase your focus and concentration. And by having good focus, you will have less distracting thoughts. With less distracting thoughts, your prayers will be more sincere and more powerful. This is another way which can help you to increase the effectiveness of your prayers. If there are incantations or chanting, it may not be convenient to connect your tongue to the upper palate. However, deep abdominal breathing through the nose, with 1 or 2 counts of full and empty retention will be still good to keep your mind calm and focus. Or just before each verse or chanting lines, close your mouth and connect the tongue to the upper palate and inhale. As you exhale, begin your verses or chanting lines again. If your only need to say your prayers, not to chant them, then you can say it quietly as you exhale. In any case that you may need to communicate with the Higher Being*, you can use the visualization techniques. In my belief, and healing practices, we will invoke the blessings of the Higher Beings to enhance our prayers or healing. When we invoke for the blessings, we will visualize the Higher Being in front of us, and energy or blessings comes directly from Him. For some religion I knew of, does not allow its follower to have picture or image of the Higher Being. In this case, you may want to visualize bright, brilliant white lights coming from heaven as the blessing from the Higher Being.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com * Because of the varying faith, I use the word Higher Being as the substituting word for The Creator, God(s), Brahma, Buddha, Boddhisattvas etc, in both singular and plural forms, with no intention to change the meaning, or to mis-call, or to mis-represent or represent, or to omit any faiths and religions, and/or to represent monotheistic ideas of a singular God. And if you are praying for other person or people, or for a better world, visualize him or her, or them, or all the people in this world in your prayers and then visualize the blessings or energy comes from the Higher Being and reach them. Visualize them smiling with joy, with happiness, with love, with kindness, with hope or whatever positive values or benefits you want them to receive. The clearer you visualize them, the stronger your prayers will benefit them. I will cover these in Improving Relationships and Promoting Peace and Harmony in the last two headings. These are some examples, or possibilities that you can explore in increasing the effectiveness of your prayers. Of course, you may have your belief, and you may not want to use what I have suggested. Its your decision. With this, I have come to the end of Tai Chi Breathing and Prayers.
Other Daily Practices

I have come to the ending of how to put Tai Chi Breathing into your daily life. Those scenarios or situations that I have discussed in length with you in the previous headings are my personal experiences. That is why I mentioned earlier on that the list that I have included here is not a comprehensive list. There may be other situations that you have gone through that I may not have gone through before. All I can say is use your common sense and creativity in putting Tai Chi Breathing into your daily life. And if you DO have special cases that I have not mentioned here, please e-mail me and share your experience with me. I would love to hear from you, so that I can also learn from you! No, Im not trying to be humble it is just me, and I believe in 3Ls - Life Long Learning! The Chinese have a saying: Live till old age, learn till old age ( )! Thats what I believe in and my learning process will never ever stop until Im cremated! So, do share whatever experiences, or experiments that you have gone through. Till then, lets go into the next part to see how you can use Tai Chi Breathing techniques to for specific purposes.
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Part 5: Tai Chi Breathing for Specific Conditions
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Part 5: Tai Chi Breathing for Specific Conditions

Specific Conditions
Unlike in Part 4, the practices arranged here is for specific and unique purposes. In the previous part, you learn how to do Tai Chi Breathing in various situations of your life. They are not for specific conditions or for specific purpose, though in some situations, there are reasons or purposes for doing so, example energy absorption to prepare for sports etc. Its main purpose is to let you seize whatever opportunity you have to boost your health and to increase your energy level. In this part however, you will learn how to apply Tai Chi Breathing for specific reason or purpose for example to deal with insomnia etc. Now for these practices, you may not be able to do so in, or to incorporate them into, your daily life. Most likely you will need to have the time and space to do so. And doing the practices in Part 3 and Part 4 is more for general health and mental energy. The practices in this part will focus on specific health issues that you may have. Those are the main differences between these two parts. So for this part, I have organized the practices according to the specific purpose, and I would suggest that you go directly to whichever topic that you are looking for, read through and practice them accordingly. However, for some topic that is overlapping with the previous parts, I will discuss them here in general only. Otherwise, you may get a repeated and similar practice that you have already learned in the previous parts. This will not be effective. So, I will only discuss here, and ask you to refer back to the specific practice that you have already learned, to use for that particular purpose. This purposes, again, is not a comprehensive one. I put in what I have personally experienced, and also the experiences that my friends and students went through. This way, what Im going to discuss here are proven and are practical steps which you can use for the specific purpose or condition. I would not want to include any theoretical concepts which I have yet personally tested before, or those that I have not personally experienced. Thus, if the specific purpose that you are looking for is not included, please let me know. I will then explore the possibilities and share them with you. Or I may even find some one with the similar condition as yours and experiment them, before I forward the results to you. Similar to the previous practices, I will also put whatever practices from this part into the Summary Guide so that you can also print them out as an aid to your practices. However, if those practices have already been mentioned in the previous part, you will need to refer to the summary of that particular practice for your training aids. Nonetheless, I will clearly specify which is which so as not to confuse you.
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Reducing Stress and Tension

To my personal opinion stress has become part and parcel of our life. You cannot escape stress. I cannot escape stress. He or she cannot escape stress. Everyone cannot escape stress! This is the trend of the modern society. With constant flux of changes, and dynamic environment, we will not be able to expect what is coming and what is going. With demands from various aspects of our lives work, business, family, society, friends, finance, obligations etc, we are constantly juggling between these in our tight 24 hours a days schedule. Overloading has become a norm. And worst still with globalization trend, and open competitions, the demand on you and I, is not only a lot, but with higher and higher expectations. Im not sure if you have gone through this, but I certainly had. And I dont like that kind of situations. That is why I look for, constantly looking for, ways and means to reduce stress, stay healthier, physically, mentally and spiritually. And because of what I have benefited, it then becomes my responsibility to share it with you, and with others. In one of my articles in my Tai Chi Health E-zine, I have shared how Tai Chi Chuan can help to reduce stress. I extracted part of it to share with you:
First of all, Tai Chi Chuan involves the breathing techniques based on the Chinese medical system which emphasize on the healthy breathing patterns. Each breath must be slow, long and has tiny flows. This, in effect, makes your body calmer, more relaxed and peaceful. Ever try to do long and deep breathing when you are tensioned? The effect? Yes, you felt better, isnt it? Try doing this constantly and regularly the effect is even better Tai Chi Chuan: The De-stressor for Modern Life Published in Tai Chi Health E-zine Issue No. 1 By C. Guan Soo
Extract 1: Tai Chi Chuan: The De-stressor for Modern Life
Breathing techniques are just one of the aspects of Tai Chi Chuan that helps to reduce stress. There are three more aspects to look into. I have personally used only Tai Chi Breathing, without practicing Tai Chi Chuan for a few months, to help me manage my stress and tension that I got from my works and businesses. The point Im trying to make here is with only correct breathing techniques
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com only, you can reduce stress. And of course, if you do Tai Chi Chuan or any other forms of sports or exercises, it is certainly better for you! There were even certain instances that I had heated arguments and debates with my bosses, or even my staff and I could feel my heart pouncing up and down fiercely and quickly. I had to move away, found a place to sit down, and just did Tai Chi Breathing. It helped to calm myself down, eliminated whatever tension or pressure I was facing, and gave me strength to carry on with the chores. Now, if you are looking for a permanent fix on your stress you will need extra efforts. In fact, whatever practices that you have gone through so far help in that sense. For this topic, Im sharing with you how to get a quick fix when you are facing that situation, particularly when you need to overcoming it immediately to continue with whatever tasks or challenges that you may need to face. Thus, I have designed another practice here, which I personally used to reduce stress and tension at work, that you can follow and use it to get the quick fix whenever the situation arises. Of course, you may need to initially practice for a few times in order to get familiar with it. This techniques uses Tai Chi Breathing, with Full and Empty retention only. Thus, it is suitable for all categories of people. The only visualization technique this practice is using is to feel that your heart beat is slowing down. This visualization technique does not involve seeing your heart in your mind. You feel it and then will it with your focus for it to physically slow down. This is a very powerful tool! This is something like mind-over-matter stuff! Some called this bio-feedback, but frankly, Im not sure if this is the same thing. I have used this visualization technique for more than 12 years, and it works every time! So, put in the effort, and use your focus and will, you would be able to control your biological responses, especially your heart beat, to reduce your stress and tension.
Practice 12: Quick Practice for Managing Stress

1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable sitting posture. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times. If you find it difficult to slow down yet because of the stress or tension that you are having, just breathe with your normal speed, or go as slow as you can at the moment. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 105
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Exhale after the 1 count. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. 6. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 7. Inhale after the 1 count. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. 8. Repeat No. 5 to 7. Continue breathing for 10 times, holding your breath for 1 count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. In the same time, slow down your breathing speed. Try to increase your inhaling and exhaling counts in order to slow down your breathing speed. 9. Observe your heart beat. Whenever you are pressured, stressed or feel tension your heart beat will increase. Thus, now you are going to use visualization techniques to slow down your heart beat. What you need to do now is just to follow your heart beat. Feel its beat. Feel its beating rhythm. Feel its beating intensity and strength. Just follow it first. 10. Inhale. Breathe in slowly. 11. Hold your breath for 2 counts. Hold your breath and mentally count 2 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Exhale after the 2 counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. 12. Hold your breath for 2 counts. Hold your breath and mentally count 2 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 13. Inhale after the 2 counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 14. Repeat No. 10 to 13. Continue breathing for 15 times, holding your breath for 2 counts after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. In the same time, visualize your heart beat slows down. Visualize??? I personally feel that this may be difficult for you. Now, the visualization here does not involve you seeing your heart in your mind but more of feeling your heart beat. In No. 9, you were observing the heart beat. Now, feel that the intensity is reducing. Feel that the beating strength is reducing. Your heart should be beating softly. Now, feel that the beating slows down. It may not have physically slow down immediately, but if you exert your will and focus long enough, believe me, it will eventually slow down. 15. Inhale. Breathe in slowly. 16. Hold your breath for 3 counts. Hold your breath and mentally count 3 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Exhale after the 3 counts. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. 17. Hold your breath for 3 counts. Hold your breath and mentally count 3 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 18. Inhale after the 3 counts. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. 19. Repeat No. 15 to 18. Continue breathing for 10 times, holding your breath for 3 counts after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. Maintain your heart beat. Continue your visualization on feeling your heart beat going slow and steady, and relaxed. Your breathing speed should be at its slowest by now. 20. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without full and empty retention. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 21. You can get up now.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com You should feel relaxed, with your heart beat normalized after this practice. Your stress and tension should be eliminated, and if you feel pressured, it should have been reduced too. Theres no particular requirement before and after this practice. You can use it anytime and anywhere.
Reducing Insomnia
For the case of improving your sleep patterns, I suggest that you read under the heading Tai Chi Breathing and Sleep in Part 4, and do the Practice 9. Although it is used for practicing just before sleep, it somehow has the effect on treating sleeping disorders. However, please take note that it is only using the basic techniques. Using advance techniques just before sleep may even cause you to be sleepless. And moreover, I can say here is that Tai Chi Breathing can help to reduce insomnia, but not as a complete treatment. The reason is: Sleeping disorders depends on many other factors like your regular sleeping pattern, your meals, physical exercises, stimulants like nicotine or caffeine, your sleeping environment, lifestyle and a lot more. Therefore, you may need to make a few changes in your lifestyle in order to improve your overall sleeping pattern, in conjunction with Tai Chi Breathing. However, if the symptom persists, it is best that you consult medical advice. Another suggestion to help reducing insomnia try out the relaxation techniques in the next heading.
Relaxation
Generally, Tai Chi Breathing can help you to relax and calm down. Even the technique I shared for reducing stress and tension can be useful. However, if you are looking for a specific practice for relaxing purpose, I have just the one technique which can help you relax better. The breathing patterns are basically the same, but you now using visualization to relax the different parts of your body. Visualization in this case again does not involve you seeing your body relax in your mind. It is depending on you feeling relaxed. This is quite the same as the mind-over-matter techniques used in reducing the rate of your heart beat in previous practice.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Relaxation can mean anything to make your self relaxed, calm down, feeling peaceful or in harmony etc. However, in this topic, the practice is specifically for relaxing your physical body, and in the same time to calm your mind down. Take note, when you visualize your body being relaxed, please do not exert too much will or focus, as it will tense you up instead. And if you are doing this to relax yourself before sleep, then, do it naturally without overly focus or exerting too much will. And you will also need to feel your mind being relaxed, by letting go your focus at the end of the practice. You can also use this relaxation technique just before practicing Tai Chi Chuan, as the art requires you to be relaxed and loose () in order to gain the benefits. And this technique is also suitable for all the categories.
Practice 13: Relaxation

1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable sitting, standing or lying down posture. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times until your slowest breathing speed. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your inhaling process or count. Exhale after the 1 count. Start exhaling again when you have made that count. 6. Hold your breath for 1 count. Hold your breath and mentally count 1 after you have completed your exhaling process or count. 7. Inhale after the 1 count. Start inhaling again when you have made that count. 8. Repeat No. 5 to 7. Continue breathing for 10 times, holding your breath for 1 count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 9. Visualize your head being relaxed. Feel that your head is relaxed and loose, starting with the top of your head, to your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your ears, your cheeks, jaw and then to your neck at the back and in the front. Feel that your nose is relaxed and loose and you are breathing easily and relaxed. 10. Visualize your shoulder and hand being relaxed. Feel that your neck is relaxed and loose. You feel that your hands are hanging loosely on your shoulder. Feel that you arms, elbow, forearms, hands, and fingers are relaxed and loose. 11. Visualize your body and torso being relaxed. Feel that you chest and stomach are relaxed and loose. Feel that your back, your spine, your waist and torso are relaxed and loose. You are breathing easily and loosely. 12. Visualize your legs being relaxed. Feel that your hips, your knees, your legs, ankles and feet are relaxed and loose. 13. Visualize your whole body being relaxed and loose. Feel that every muscles and sinews of your body are being relaxed and loose. Feel that your veins are being relaxed and loose. Feel your whole body being relaxed and loose. 14. Visualize your mind (or brain) being relaxed and loose. If you have exerted too much will or focus on relaxing, then now you have to let go your focus. Feel that you mind (or brain) is now relaxed and loose. You have no thoughts and concerns in your mind now. 15. Continue your breathing for 20 times. Stop the visualization, and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. Let go of your visualization and let the body and mind relaxed on its own. 16. Open your eyes slowly. Do not move your body or get up yet and continue your breathing for another 5 more times, without full and empty retention. Let your breathing speed normalized. Remember, you still need to do abdominal breathing! 17. You can get up now.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Although you can choose whichever postures you like to do relaxation, the best postures that I use is sitting and lying down. In fact, lying down would be very good to let you relax and then go to sleep. This allows your body to relax and then settle itself into the sleeping mood, without the need to move around anymore. If you feel tired after the relaxation practice, this means that your body is actually in need of rest. You may have a lot of energy during the day and you can still carry on, this is only temporary. Your body still needs its rest that it deserves. Relaxation helps to discharge this excessive energy and allows your body to get its rest. Sometimes, you really need to stop and rest, in order for you to continue the journey longer, as in Chinese adage: Rest is to let you travel longer distance ( ).
Healing on Specific Areas

In Recharge and Healing, you have learned how to do healing on your body generally. And in Tai Chi Breathing and Sports, you have learned how to absorb energy and recharge only a certain parts of your body to better prepare yourself for action. The technique is the same here. Instead of doing healing for you whole body, you only need to cleanse and recharge the specific areas of your body to achieve these. This is effective if you are short of time and need to do healing for the specific part, or to focus mainly in healing that area. Care should be exercise if you are doing healing on the heart and chest areas. Our heart is one of the softest organs and too much healing energy is not good for it. Same thing goes to the kidney and kidney areas. When doing healing for these areas, you should not be exerting to much will and focus, and only do it for a short while. You cannot achieve healing quickly by doing longer time at one go. You need to do it for a short duration regularly for a period of time in order to see positive results. Please bear this in mind. As a general rule, keep your healing on specific areas short and sweet! Also, there will be some caution sections in this topic. Please read them if it is related to your condition.

If you are a regular smoker, please do not use this to heal your chest, lungs, throat, and nasal areas. Other than those, it is perfectly alright.
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Please do not use this to heal your chest, heart, blood vessels, or any organs related to the cardio-pulmonary systems.

Please do not use this to heal the lower part of your body chest and below. It is alright if you want to heal your legs - hips and below.
Practice 14: Healing on Specific Area(s)

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. You may choose to sit in cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Imagine a ball about 1 inch in diameter, around half feet above your head. The ball is white in color, emitting soft, brilliant white light. It gives you a sense of joy and love. Smile at that brilliant white ball. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the brilliant white ball. Smile at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 6. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. The glow, the ray of the brilliant white ball is getting stronger and brighter. Keep you focus at it. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Imagine yourself smiling joyfully at it. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 7. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. As the glow and the ray is getting brighter, imagine now, white energy in liquid form comes from the brilliant white ball, arriving at your Baihui acu-point. The liquid white energy is entering your body through Baihui. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 8. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head. As the energy is entering through your Baihui acu-point, visualize that you head is now filled with this white liquid energy. Direct the energy to the specific area you want to heal. Visualize the body part that you want to heal to be filled with brilliant liquid white light. Cleanse and heal that part of your body. Visualize that part to be getting brighter and brighter. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally the part (specify the name would be better) is recharged and healed. They are all strong and healthy. 9. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. Stop the visualization, and focus now on your breathing for 15 times. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. State in your mind, that you are now releasing excessive energy from your body through Yongquan acu-point. 11. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 12. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 13. Normalize your breathing. 14. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. 15. Massage the part that you have just healed. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm and slowly massage the body part you have just healed.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 16. Do some light exercises. This is to discharge excessive energy that you have gotten during the visualization practices. a. Stretch your head and neck. b. Stretch your finger, hands, legs and toes. c. Stand on your feet, knee slightly bent. Bounce up and down for 20 times.
During the practice, you may feel warm at that part of your body as you visualize the brilliant liquid white light going there. It is normal. Let it be and it will slowly and surely heal. Do this practice for just ONCE a day only. Drink a lot of plain water before and after the practice. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Cut down on eating red meats if you feel your body is over heated. You should also be doing your exercises or sports activities regularly to normalize the energy, and allow your body to absorb these fresh, healing energies better.
Increasing Mental Energy Immediately

For this purpose, you can actually do Practice 5: Energy Absorption Practice in Part 3 of this book. In case you want a shorter version, try Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports in Part 4. Both have the same effect in increasing your mental energy on the spot. In fact, other short practices for certain situation or purposes can some how increase your mental energy immediately but the increase may not be very big. So, if you need large volume of mental energy immediately, try those two practices. Practice 5 will be the more powerful one. *Note: Please read the caution part after the next heading.
Increasing Physical Energy Immediately

Similarly, you can do Practice 5: Energy Absorption Practice in Part 3 or Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports in Part 4 of this book. Both will give you immediate energy in large volume immediately.
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***Caution for increasing mental and physical energy immediately

Please make sure that you will be engaged in great physical exercises or activities after you have absorbed the energy. If not, please do a lot of massaging, stretching exercises and the bouncing exercises to discharge excessive energy before carry on with your tasks. For caution for different category of people, please refer to the caution part of Practice 5 or Practice 7, or whichever practice that you prefer to use.
Increasing Joy and Happiness

Do you want to be joyful? Do you want to be happy? Sorry, just a trick question! I mean, who wouldnt want to be joyful and happy??? And the thing is about the reality is I believe, not many people are actually happy with their lives! Honestly, sometimes Im guilty of not been happy with my life too! Before I go into the practice of increasing joy and happiness, just allow me to share a little about joy and happiness, is that alright? The question people ask how can you be happy? Is it because of your family? Is it because of your house? Is it because of your car, or cars? Is it because of your work? Is it because of your money? Is it because of your friends? And I believe the list can go on endlessly! The point here is all this does not necessarily brings joy and happiness to you. You may disagree, but it is alright. I mean, if all this are the sources of happiness, then what happen is they are taken away from you? You will be unhappy, isnt? Then this is only a temporary happiness that you are getting. Secondly, does that mean that the more you have, the happier you should be? Why are there people who has a lot but not happy, and why are there people who has very little but they are a happy lot! That means to say their sources of happiness does not come from external things. This leads to the next conclusion there is more certain way of staying joyful and happy. And this is exactly what this practice is all about. I have come across many quotes, ideas, concepts, teachings, principles, stories, peoples experiences etc and etc, and I have come to a conclusion about happiness. You may disagree with my conclusion, but what I asked of you is to ponder, reflect, test and verify for yourself if this conclusion is true or not before giving me your conclusion. Happiness is a state of your mind! (Not my idea) Happiness is a state of your mind! 115
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com I repeated: Happiness is a state of your mind! And again, this is not my idea! You may have the least, but if your mind is kept to a high level of positivism and happiness, you are the happiest person! You may have a lot, but if your mind is bombarded with a lot of negativism and grudges, you are the unhappiest person! You may lost your possession or your loved ones, but if your mind is kept to a high level of positivism and let go of the losses, you can be even happy with the lost. You may gain a lot of possession or loves, but if your mind is kept to a high level of negativism and you clinched dearly to your possession, you can be worrying and fearing of losing them. Can you be happy when you are worrying and having fear? Now, to stay happy, it requires more than just knowing these. I will not go in length to discuss about the subject in this book. What I can offer you now is a practice where you can do to increase the level of joy and happiness, even for a short moment, and slowly in long run, that you can switch on that happiness mode by just switching on your mind with this practice. Hopefully, you will be able to switch on your happy mind whenever you want to, to make yourself and those around you happy and smiling joyfully! And if you like to share this with your family or friends, go ahead and teach them. It is my purpose to share this with everyone, and if you can do it for me please do so! I want to be happy. I want you to be happy. I want people around you and me to be happy. And in fact, I want everyone in this world to be happy! So, lets go on now to find out how to increase your happiness now! This technique is cool for everyone. No caution or warning! This technique involves your memory. At some point of time, Im sure, that you will have some happy moment. They are still clearly in your memory. Dont tell me that Guan, I never ever had any happy moment in my life before! This cannot be true! Everyone did have some happy moment, however little it can be, in their life before. The problem is with people who keep facing negative situations in their lives that they forgot, intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously, that they had had happy moments before! If you are that type who cannot remember any happy moment, please, take some quiet time and do reflection, starting from your childhood until now, to recall back those happy memories. Im sure you will recall some! Until you do that, I suggest that you do not continue from here.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com You see, memory is a very powerful tool. You dont only see the situation that caused you to be very, very happy. You can almost feel it too now. And with that feeling, you are going to use it to increase your current level of joy and happiness. Also, this is another way to help you recall the happy moment that you have gone through despite of whatever troubles and problems you may be facing now. This also helps you to recognize that life is not that bad it is a mixture of yin () and yang ()*, or mixture of bad and good! * The concept of yin and yang is the core principles in Tai Chi Chuan, based on I-Ching or the Book of Change. You can use these principles too to have a happier life! So, armed with some of your happy memories, lets begin.
Practice 15: Increasing Happiness and Joy

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. You may choose to sit in cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 10 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your body. Smile to your heart and affirm. Say to your heart I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole body! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. Keep smiling.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 6. Recall another happiest moment in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling more joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your mind and soul. Smile to your mind and affirm. Say to your mind I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole mind and soul! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 7. Visualize the brilliant white ball on your head, emitting white joyful energy in liquid form to your whole body. Visualize the brilliant white ball on your head. It is emitting white joyful energy to you. Your whole body is blessed with this joyful energy. Your whole mind and soul is blessed with this joyful energy. Keep smiling. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally: I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! My body, my mind and my soul are filled with GREAT joy and happiness! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 8. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 9. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. Imagine that the brilliant white ball slowly disappear from the above your head. 10. Normalize your breathing. 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. 12. Massage your body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm and slowly massage your whole body.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 13. Do some light exercises. This is to discharge excessive energy that you have gotten during the visualization practices. a. Stretch your head and neck. b. Stretch your finger, hands, legs and toes. c. Stand on your feet, knee slightly bent. Bounce up and down for 20 times.
Improving Relationships
If you have noticed that many of the techniques described in this book dont sound very Tai Chi. And you will probably wonder what is Tai Chi got to do with improving relationship? Well, I did mention in one of my report that Tai Chi Chuan involves principles taught in I-Ching, or the book of change. And I would like to include the extract of that section of my report here as sharing:
Tai Chi Chuan uses the softness to overcome the hardness ( ); uses the quietness to control the dynamics (); and control others by delayed action (). In all the above answers, I kept saying Tai Chi Chuan is soft. Dont get me wrong! Softness () here does not means no energy, or without structure. The energy comes from the will and Qi. Softness here also means you dont go head-to-head with the coming force. Instead, eliminate the coming force ( ) by using circular motions. Take for example, if someone try to push you, Twist your torso and waist in circular motion with you feet firmly planted on the ground. That person is not going to be able to uproot you because the circular motion eliminates the coming forces. If you stand firmly on your feet and try to oppose the push head-on, and if your opponent is much stronger than youthats it! You are done! Getting any hint on this yet?
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Well, if you apply this principle in handling whatever stress, conflicts, disharmony, and sour relationship with others dont go against it headon. Instead, use a softer and rounder () approach. They are human, and human by nature is better influenced through the softness on their hearts. In olden China, roundedness () is a way of maintaining harmony between people. How should I define roundedness here well, its sort of like win-win or win-win-win approach when handling human relationship. Secondly, quietness can overcome dynamics. If things around you move too quickly (thats how life are nowadays, isnt it?), then it may blur our vision or objectives in this constant and hectic movements. This is one reason why people got anxious or stress out, or even lost in their daily chores. Take time to slow down, and get a quiet moment to reflect on things that are moving around you. Are you moving towards our life goals? Are you happy with all these changes and movements? And most importantly are you enjoying all of them? This way, you will be constantly clear of yourself and your life goal. You will be on top of them, instead of been over-whelmed by them. You may even use the golden silence (quietness) to reduce the impact of a on-coming conflict (dynamics). In fact, the golden silence is another soft approach to overcome hardness. Lastly, control others by delayed action. Again, dont get me wrong delayed action does not mean very slow or no action. Take for example, if someone comes to you and demand an explanation on your action, dont explain or justify straight away! Hold back your answer (delayed action). Ask questions (circular motion) or calm them down first (quietness), before clarifying what does he or she needs to know, and why. Once you are able to pinpoint the source of problem or the source of his or her dissatisfaction, it will be easier to deal with by phrasing your answer to suit the situation (action now, but maintain control on the situation). This is very much like Bruce Lees Jeet Kune Do I have no styles. My styles will be your styles. My actions will be your actions. This means that I will move accordingly in response to your moves so that I will have an upper hand. So again, remember Tai Chi Chuan fundamental principles:
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Uses the softness to overcome the hardness Uses the quietness to control the dynamics Control others by delayed action So, with the practice of Tai Chi Chuan to calm your mind, relax yourself, increase your mental alertness, plus better cardiovascular fitness (less heart related problems), and with harmonious principles to lead a happier life, I see no reason why, as a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner, can have stress and anxiety! 10+2 Questions About Tai Chi Chuan Answered! Written by: C. Guan Soo
Extract 2: 10+2 Questions About Tai Chi Chuan Answered!
Thus, it is part and parcel of my effort to promote a more harmonious life among people along with my effort to promote Tai Chi Chuan as a vehicle to greater health. In the early part of this book, I have shared with you my vision about a better world and better interpersonal relationship among fellow human beings. And now, I would like to share with you how to do it, and how you can help me. Now, back to Improving Relationship. Sore and strained relationship between you and your loved ones, you and your co-workers, you and your friends, can actually cause tremendous stress and unbalance lifestyle for you, as well as those around you. It makes you unhappy, it makes others unhappy too. A lot of negative emotions, and a lot negative energy will be radiated and circulated. This causes imbalance in the yin and the yang. And it makes me sad to see people in this way. Moreover, this is very unhealthy in physical, mental and emotional sense. Our relationship with people around us does have an impact on our physical well-being. On top of that, strained relationship means damaged relationship. And for real healing to take place, damaged or unhealthy relationship must also be healed. Therefore, it is in my effort to promote health with Tai Chi Chuan, that I promote healthy relationship between people. And I hope that you do not complain that these are not very Tai Chi! So, again, for this technique it is very similar to the visualization used in Increasing Joy and Happiness, and instead of visualizing yourself you would be visualizing the people that you want to mend the relationship with. Now, this is not a BS stuff because I have proven results which I can share with you, if you like to. I have personally healed many relationships with people whom I initially had conflict or misunderstanding with, using this and the next technique. And I have taught this to many, many children who have relationship problems with their parent, teachers or peers.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Try out yourself to find out. But results can be observed in varying time frame. Some healed very fast. Some takes a while. Some need much longer time. Some Im still working on it! You will however need to master the techniques in Increasing Joy and Happiness first before coming to this one. This is because this technique will progress from the previous one. And you cannot bless people, visualize people being well and happy, unless you bless yourself first, and make (visualize) yourself well and happy. Thats the natural law you cannot give something which you dont have to people! To mend your relationship with that someone, you will need to bless him or her, or them with joy and happiness, and wish them well in whatever that they do. Keep on doing it, and slowly but surely, you will be surprised by the result! So, this is it the technique to heal your relationship with others. And of course, everyone can practice this!
Practice 16: Improving Relationships

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. You may choose to sit in cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 5 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your body. Smile to your heart and affirm. Say to your heart I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole body!
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. Keep smiling. 6. Recall another happiest moment in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling more joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your mind and soul. Smile to your mind and affirm. Say to your mind I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole mind and soul! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 7. Visualize the person or persons with whom you want to improve your relationship with standing right in front of you. Visualize the person(s) in front of you, seeing him or her, or them clearly in your mind. The more detail you visualize, the more effective the practice will be. Remind yourself the name and the place where the person(s) is/are staying is a good way to increase the effectiveness too. Smile at that person(s) with all the joy and happiness that you have within you. Smile at the person(s) with all the good feeling that you have now. Wish that person with affirmation and feelings. Say in your mind May you be free from pain and suffering. May you be free from unhappiness and sadness. I wish you with joy and happiness. May you be well and happy. May your life filled with great JOY and HAPPINESS. May you be blessed with abundance, prosperity, good health, with love and kindness, and with hope and strength. May the Energy of Tai Chi be with you! Note: When you are doing the affirmation please do it with the feeling. For example when you say blessed with abundance, prosperity, good healthetc say it with feelings, and visualize that he or she or them actually be blessed with abundance, prosperity, good health etc, etc. And when you wish them with joy and happiness, visualize them smiling joyfully back at you irregardless how ugly* they may be.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 8. Visualize the brilliant white liquid energy going into that person(s) from his/her/their head (Baihui) and into his/her/their whole body. Visualize the same white liquid energy you use for healing going into the person(s) body from the head, and then slowly, his/her/their body is covered with this brilliant white liquid energy. You are doing this with great joy and happiness. Keep smiling. 9. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 10. Normalize your breathing. 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. 12. Cut the Link. While you are wishing the person(s) with joy and happiness, between you, an invisible link has been established. Some called this etheric link. You need to cut the link that has been established, otherwise your energy will still be continuingly going into that person(s), and eventually you will be drained.
Picture 26: Cutting the Link
To cut the link, form a scissors with your index finger and middle finger (any hand will do), and cut in front of your chest. (See Picture 26). While doing so, mentally say Cut the energy link with that person(s). Need not worry, you are not cutting any physical link with that person only the energy link that has been established during your well wishing practice. 13. Massage your body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm and slowly massage your whole body.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com * Sorry to quote ugly but it is human nature that we will shunned at the person or persons whom we dislike, and mere sight of them will cause great discomfort in you, and it is even more difficult to visualize them smiling back at you! Ugliness is very subjective in this sense they may appear ugly to you because you dislike them, but they may appear beautiful to those who like them. And part of improving relationship is about forgiving and forgetting and if you are putting effort to visualize that person for mending your relationship, you are really making a very good effort here! And I must salute you for this! Just a sharing of experience on how this can be a powerful relationship building technique. I joined in a company as the Corporate Account Executive handling new and existing account for telecommunication services. One particular account was passed to me. This account was handled by the previous Corporate Account Executive and Branch Manager, both of whom had left before I and my new Branch Manager joined in. The account was passed on to me because of some previous unresolved issues and problems. My manager had spoken to the client, and asked me to call him urgently. I called the person in charge, Mr. C and had a very nice screwing from him too. My manager had the screwing earlier before she passed the account to me to handle. He was very fierce and unfriendly! I told him that I will be going over to meet him immediately. At first he refused to see anyone from our company, but somehow I managed to persuade him. He was still angry before hanging up the telephone. Then I discussed with my manager and tried to contact the HQ for records of previous issues. We worked out some solutions, but my manager was very worried and asked whether she should come along with me. I confidently told her no problem. The drive from my office to Mr. Cs factory is around 45 minutes long. Along the way, I visualized him in front of me (though I dont recommend you doing this while driving!), and I didnt know how he looked like. I just visualize using his name, and keep wishing him well and happiness. Not as elaborated as the practice above, just keep wishing him to be free from pain and suffering and so on and so forth Guess what? When I reached there and met him for the first time, he was not even frowning, and he smiled shortly after our greetings and exchange of name cards! Totally different from how he sound on the telephone 1 hour before that! We discussed at length, met a few more times, and agreed upon a win-win solutions for both parties within one week. Later when I passed on the account to my colleague, she told me that Mr. C kept asking her about me whether I have left the company or what, and why that I no longer take care of his account! We were friends after that Alright, enough of my story which is one of the many examples how I can build, mend, heal, or enhance relationship with this technique, and I certainly hope that you can use it and have the same result and have a happier and fulfilling relationship with those around you! May the Energy of Tai Chi be with you and those around you!
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Promoting Peace and Harmony

Well, promoting peace and harmony is one way of improving your relationship with people, and at larger scale, with all your fellow human beings. For some people, this includes relationships with the animals, nature, environment, seen and unseen, with the Higher Beings, or even the lower beings, with the universe and other worlds, and whatever that has relationship with them! In whatever definition that you use to get the meaning of relationship, I believe that it is good that you can foster peace and harmony, and wish whoever well at a larger scale. This in turn, will create a more peaceful and harmonious life in you and that all has effects on your physical and mental health. It will also have effects on your Tai Chi Chuan practices and the understanding of its underlying principles. Having said that, now lets look into how you can promote peace and harmony unto the people in larger scale and unto the world. If you are looking into creating a more conducive relationship with a specific group of people, use the Improving Relationships practice. For this practice, we are not looking into only a specific group of people. Instead, we will visualize the earth, and the blessings are done unto the earth. The affirmations will be different as well. Perhaps you may ask me you have mastered the previous technique and can work on improving your relationship with people easily. Why is this necessary? Why to the earth and to those people that you do not know? Do you still meet new people every now and then? Im sure you do. How do these people react to you when you first meet them? Some good, some neutral, and some negative, arent they? Now, if you can get good reaction and response to you by the people you have just met most of the time, if not all of the time, would you like to have it? Along the way, we will never know who we are going to meet. They may become your friends. They may become your customers. They may become the single most important person in your life. Would you want to make sure that you leave a lasting good impression on them? Im sure you would, wouldnt you? Now, I can say this because I know I can always leave a very good impression on people that I have come into contact with. Not that Im a good impressionist. In fact, quite the opposite - I dont really have very good PR skills nor like to impress people. It is just me, and the energy that I radiate when I come into contact with people. All this I attribute to the practice which Im going to share with you shortly.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Another point is whatever other people do, some may appear not to have any direct relationship with you, for example, someone named A in B country do something, and it do not have any impact or effects on you because youre in C country. Though there is not direct causal relationship think about it again, it will somehow has an effect on other people around A in B country, and that effect will be passed on from Z to Y to X to W and so on and so forth, and finally, may affect your country, C, or even you. So, if you can wish everyone happy, whatever every other person do, will have more positive effect on the people around them, and to the earth. This will then have a more positive effect on you yourself! In addition, you are actually doing the world a great service by promoting peace and harmony, and as the saying goes: what goes around comes around. If you have been promoting peace and harmony, with love and kindness to the world, you will be blessed in return, with the good things in life. Give, in order to get. Again, you may say this is BS, but why not keep an open mind and try it for yourself before making any judgments. This practice is perfectly alright for everyone. No cautions. And now, lets go and make this world a better place for everyone!
Practice 17: Promoting Peace and Harmony

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. You may choose to sit in cross legged in either Single or Double Lotus position. Keep your head and body straight and relaxed. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 5 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. Continue breathing, and keep your mind relaxed and focus. 5. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your body.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com Smile to your heart and affirm. Say to your heart I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole body! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. Keep smiling. 6. Recall another happiest moment in your life. Clearly visualize and see yourself in that situation in your mind. Clearly visualize the people, the environment, the time and the weather of that happy moment. Cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Clearly feel the joy, the happiness, the excitement that you were experiencing at that time. Feel that happiness now. You are smiling more joyfully. You can feel the happiness spreading to every inch of your mind and soul. Smile to your mind and affirm. Say to your mind I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! The HAPPINESS is now spreading to my whole mind and soul! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 7. Visualize the earth, about 12 inches in diameter right in front of you. Visualize the earth in front of you, seeing it clearly in your mind. The more detail you visualize, the more effective the practice will be. Smile at the earth with all the joy and happiness that you have within you. Smile at the earth with all the good feeling that you have now. Wish the earth with affirmation and feelings. Say in your mind May the entire earth be blessed with loving kindness. May the entire earth be blessed with great joy and happiness. May the entire earth be blessed with understanding, harmony and peace. May the entire earth be blessed with goodwill and the will to good. May every person, and every being on earth be blessed with love and kindness, with warmth, caring and tenderness. May every person, and every being on earth be blessed with healing, with hope, with inner beauty and bliss. Note: When you are doing the affirmation please do it with the feeling. For example when you say blessed with love and kindness, with warmth, caring and tenderness say it with feelings, and visualize that the earth is actually blessed with love, kindness, with warm, caring and tenderness etc, etc. And when you wish every person with joy and happiness, visualize (imagine all of them standing in an open field) them smiling joyfully and lovingly back at you.
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com 8. Visualize the brilliant white liquid energy going into the earth and bless the whole earth. Visualize the same white liquid energy you use for healing going into the earth, and then slowly, cover the entire earth with this brilliant white liquid energy. You are doing this with great joy and happiness. Keep smiling. 9. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 10. Normalize your breathing. 11. Move your body slowly. First move your fingers and toes; then your hands and heels; then moves your elbow and knee slightly; and then move your waist, shoulders, and chest slightly. 12. Cut the Link. While you are wishing the earth and every person with joy and happiness, between you, invisible links have been established. You need to cut the link, otherwise your energy will still be continuingly going into the earth and eventually you will be drained.
Picture 27: Cutting the Link
To cut the link, form a scissors with your index finger and middle finger (any hand will do), and cut in front of your chest. (See Picture 27). While doing so, mentally say Cut the link with the earth. Need not worry, you are not cutting any physical link with that person only the energy link that has been established during your well wishing practice. 13. Massage your body. Brush your palms slowly to make it warm and slowly massage your whole body.
Basically, you are using the same method as you did in Improving Relationships. Only different here is you are imagine more people, and at a larger scale, and the earth. And if you like to you can also visualize the universe, and any beings in the universe for 129
Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com blessings. It is perfectly alright. Guess the only problem is how to visualize them, you know, like what do they look like? Having shared this technique with you, it is my sincere wish that you can also join me in promoting better health for our lovely earth, and better health for everyone, whether physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. And let us also promote healthy interpersonal relationship among fellow human beings to make this world a better place for you and for me. And may the Energy of Tai Chi bless every single person and every single being on earth, and in the vast unlimited universe!
Note on Increasing Happiness, Improving Relationship and Promoting Peace and Harmony
If you have noticed, these three techniques use your happy memories to start off. You dont have to recall many different happy memories for each of these practices. Just two will do. In fact, I use only two of my happiest moments to start out the practices. Using the same two moments can actually elevate you happy feeling better, and repeated visualization can make it even clearly and more effective.
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Part 6: Conclusion
131
Part 6: Conclusion
Conclusion
I have now come to the end of this book, but this is not the end of my work and effort yet. I love to write. I love to share. And I love most to make more and more people healthier, with their bodies, their minds, their feelings, their spirituality, their relationship with each others, their relationship with the world, and that they will be free from pain and suffering, and be blessed with great joy and happiness! And for that, I will continue with my works, which will now focus on physical health with Tai Chi Chuan. My plan is to continue writing after Tai Chi Chuan, to share my experiences and researches on the principles of I-Ching, the Book of Change, and then moving into how to use Buddhist teachings to understand our daily lives, and to work on improving them. This will form the bulk of my coming works. I am using these practices and principles myself. I have shared with my friends these practices too. And I will continue to share with whoever interested in the teachings. I have wrote a few mini books, a lot of articles, published in offline mediums, translating talks, conducting talks and seminars, and classes, and I will continue to share these practices and principles in times to come. Tai Chi Breathing, both the basic and advance techniques, is one of those practices and principles I have mentioned. And frankly, this is the first time ever that I make my work available online. It is quite a challenge here, but the reach is even further. And you, I believe, are unlikely from the same country as I am. You may even be very far away! But, thats the beauty of the online facilities, and the reason why I said the reach is even further is that I can reach people from the other side of the globe with ease and convenience! These two e-books are so far my best works, compared to some mini-books that I have published offline. However, in order for me to continue with my work and improve, I would really appreciate if you can provide me with feedback on either Basic Tai Chi Breathing, or Advance Tai Chi Breathing, or even both. I say feedback, not testimonial. Feedback means it can be either positive or negative. Please be frank with me. If you feel that there are rooms for improvement, please let me know. I will work on improving it. And if you feel that it is good, then I may take it as a testimonial from you and with your permission, I may publish it for promotional purposes. Please go to the last page for Contact Information and click on the link for the online feedback form. Fill up the form and click "My Feedback or Comment. Thats all. Alternatively, you can send me a personal e-mail at guan@taichibreathing.com. Even if you dont have anything to say, never mind. I look forward for making friends across the
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life By: C. Guan Soo Email: guan@taichibreathing.com Website: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com globe. Internet is just beautiful because it can bring distance closer than you can ever imagine. And in the last two months, as I am in the process of making my books available online, I have been communicating with many people from various countries, United States, Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Hungary, Romania and so much more. I love it very much. And I look forward for your e-mails! Also, in the last page, you will get a few links to my other online works. I suggest that you come and visit me at: http://www.TaichiExerciseForHealth.com. I put a lot of information, researches, historical facts, stories about Tai Chi Chuan and I-Ching on that site. I will be expanding to make covering even a wider subject. Come and see more of my humble works there. Till then, I wish you success, prosperity, great joy and great happiness, good health and good blessing from your Higher Being! Thank you, and may the Energy of Tai Chi always be with you!
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Part 7: Summary Guide
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Part 7: Summary Guide

Summary of Practices
The following pages are the summary guide for all the practices that have been described earlier. Each of the practices is fitted into 1 A4-size page. You can scroll through each individual guide and print out the page that you need to refer to when practicing. Since it is a summary guide, please do not expect too many information on it. It serves as reminder with keywords of each step to remind you which and which steps next. You will still have to read through the description in order to understand what each of these keywords and steps mean. If you can do away with this summary guide it would be even better. This means you have internalized as part of you and you can practice off hand without referring to anything! Use these guides to help you starting off with the practices. As you get more familiar, I suggest you take down these guides.
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Exercise 2-5: Basic Full and Empty Retention

1. Suitable Posture. Find a suitable and comfortable posture. Theres no fix rules or restriction. However, I would suggest you use a sitting posture to do this exercise. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for at least 5 times. 4. Inhale slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Maintain Slow Exhaling Speed. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Maintain Slow Inhaling Speed. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 10 times. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. 10. Normalize your breathing and stop now. Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3 counts
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Exercise 2-7: Concentration Practice

1. Set alarm to ring in 5, 10 or 15 minutes. 2. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 5 times. 5. Focus on your nose. Bring back your mind. At any instances that your mind wanders away, relax. Bring it back to focus on your nose again. Some instances, you may not be aware that your mind has wandered away, keep cool. Once you are aware of it, bring it back to focus on your nose again. Ignore your thoughts. At any instances that thoughts arises in your mind, ignore them, and bring your mind to focus on your nose, nonetheless. Keep cool. Whatever tricks your mind is playing on you, keep cool. Maintain a stable emotion and feeling, and bring the mind back to focus on your nose. Bring back your mind. Stressing this again, whatever it is, or happen, just bring your mind back to focus on the nose! 6. Times up. Once your alarm rings, you can stop the practice. 7. Normalize your breathing, and you can stop now.
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Exercise 2-8: Basic Visualization Exercise Brilliant White Ball

1. Set alarm to ring in 5 minutes. 2. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times in your slowest breathing speed. 5. Keep your mind focus. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing 6. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. 7. Times up. 8. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 9. Normalize your breathing, and you can stop now.
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Practice 1: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Normal Adult
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times until you reach your slowest breathing speed. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Slow Exhaling Speed. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Slow Inhaling Speed. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 30 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. 10. Open your eyes slowly and normalize your breathing with 5 more times. 11. Move your body slowly. 12. Maintain the Qi. 13. You can get up or move your body now. Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3 counts
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Practice 2: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Senior Citizen, High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times until you reach your slowest breathing speed. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Slow Exhaling Speed. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Slow Inhaling Speed. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 20 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. 10. Open your eyes slowly and normalize your breathing with 5 more times. 11. Move your body slowly. 12. Maintain the Qi. 13. You can get up or move your body now. Substitue x with 1, 2 or 3 counts
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Practice 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practice for Pregnant Women
1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable posture. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times until you reach your slowest breathing speed. 4. Inhale. To start off, breathe in slowly. 5. Hold your breath for x counts. 6. Exhale after the x counts. Slow Exhaling Speed. 7. Hold your breath for x counts. 8. Inhale after the x counts. Slow Inhaling Speed. 9. Repeat No. 5 to 8. Continue breathing for 15-20 times, holding your breath for your chosen count after each inhaling and exhaling. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing. 10. Open your eyes slowly. 11. Move your body slowly. 12. You can get up or move your body now. Substitute x with 1, 2 or 3 counts
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Practice 4: Visualization Practice

1. Set alarm to ring in 10 minutes. 2. Find a suitable posture and relax. 3. Close your eyes lightly. 4. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing 10 times until your slowest speed. 5. Keep your mind focus. 6. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 7. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 8. Visualize that the brilliant white ball is growing in size. Maintain your focus on the brilliant white ball and continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 9. Times up. 10. Visualize the brilliant white ball getting smaller slowly. 11. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 12. Normalize your breathing. 13. Move your body slowly. 14. Massage your face and body. 15. Maintain the Qi. 16. Do some light exercises.
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Practice 5: Energy Absorption Practice

1. Find a suitable posture and relax, and close your eyes lightly. 2. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing 10 times until your slowest speed. 3. Keep your mind focus. 4. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 5. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 6. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 7. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head, your body, your hands and your legs, one at a time. 8. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. 9. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. 11. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 12. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 13. Normalize your breathing. 14. Move your body slowly. 15. Massage your face and body. 16. Maintain the Qi. 17. Do some light exercises.
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Practice 6: Recharge and Healing Practice

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax, and close your eyes lightly. 2. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing 10 times until your slowest speed. 3. Keep your mind focus. 4. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 5. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 6. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui and continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 7. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head and cleanse and heal various parts of your head. Affirm yourself. 8. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your body and cleanse and heal various parts of your head. Affirm yourself. 9. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your hands. Affirm yourself. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your legs. Affirm yourself. 11. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. Affirm yourself. 12. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. 13. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. 14. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 15. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 16. Normalize your breathing, and move your body slowly. 17. Massage your face and body, and maintain the Qi 18. Do some light exercises.
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Practice 7: Energy Absorption for Sports

1. Sit in a suitable posture and relax. 2. Close your eyes lightly. Optional. 3. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. for 3 times in your slowest speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. 6. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui. 7. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head, body, hands and legs. 8. Visualize your whole body getting brighter. 9. Visualize energy comes out from your fingers and Yongquan acupoints. Maintain Tai Chi Breathing thorough No. 4 to 9. 10. Do Tai Chi Breathing for 5-10 times. 11. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 12. Normalize your breathing. 13. Do a quick massage on your face and body. 14. You are ready for action!
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Practice 8: Short Visualization for Work

1. Sit in a suitable posture and relax. 2. Close your eyes lightly. Optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do for 3 times in your slowest breathing speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 6. Visualize that the brilliant white ball is growing in size. Maintain your focus on the brilliant white ball. Continue your Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 7. Visualize the brilliant white ball becomes smaller and then vanishes slowly. 8. Normalize your breathing. 9. Do a quick massage on your face and body. 10. Do some stretching exercises and walk around.
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Practice 9: Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping

1. Lying Down Posture. Comfortable and naturally. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the Basic Tai Chi Breathing slowly, until you doze off. 4. Full and Empty Retention for 1 count only. 5. When you wake up. Do Tai Chi Breathing, with full and empty retention, on your back, flat on the bed for about 10-15 times. Please use the posture suggested in The Fundamental Four.
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Practice 10: Energy Absorption for Tai Chi Chuan

1. Do warm up exercises, if any. 2. Stand in your Tai Chi Chuan starting posture and relax, and close your eyes lightly. 3. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 3 times until your slowest speed. 4. Keep your mind focus, and visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 5. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 6. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui, and continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 7. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head, body, hands and legs. 8. Visualize your whole body getting brighter, and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 9. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet. 10. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly and normalize your breathing. 11. Tai Chi Chuan Practice, ending it in your Tai Chi Chuan end posture. 12. Maintain the Qi. 13. Massage your body, and then maintain the Qi again. 14. Do cool down exercises, if any.
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Practice 11: Basic Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation

1. Sitting Posture. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. 4. Maintain the slow and constant breathing rhythm for 30 times*. 5. Open your eyes slowly. 6. Move your body slowly. 7. Maintain the Qi. 8. You can get up now. * You can do as much as you want according to your preferred meditation timing.
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Practice 12: Quick Practice for Managing Stress

1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable sitting posture. Close your eyes lightly if you like to. 2. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times. 3. Inhale and exhale, holding for 1 count after each inhaling and exhaling for 10 times. In the same time, slow down your breathing speed. 4. Observe and feel your heart beat. 5. Inhale and exhale, holding for 2 counts after each inhaling and exhaling for 15 times. In the same time, visualize (feel mentally) your heart beat slows down. 6. Inhale and exhale, holding for 3 counts after each inhaling and exhaling for 10 times. Maintain your heart beat. 7. Open your eyes slowly and normalize your breathing. 8. You can get up now.
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Practice 13: Relaxation

1. Keep your head and body straight and relax in a suitable sitting, standing or lying down posture. 2. Close your eyes lightly optional. 3. Do the 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing. Do it for 10 times until your slowest breathing speed. 4. Inhale and exhale with full and empty retention of 1 count. 5. Continue breathing for 10 times, holding your breath for 1 count after each inhaling and exhaling. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of breathing you have made. 6. Visualize your head being relaxed. Feel that your nose is relaxed and loose 7. Visualize your shoulder and hand being relaxed. 8. Visualize your body and torso being relaxed. 9. Visualize your legs being relaxed. 10. Visualize your whole body being relaxed and loose. 11. Visualize your mind (or brain) being relaxed and loose. 12. Continue your breathing for 20 times and let go the visualization. 13. Open your eyes slowly normalize your breathing. 14. You can get up now.
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Practice 14: Healing on Specific Area(s)

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax. 2. Close your eyes lightly. 3. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times in your slowest speed. 4. Keep your mind focus. 5. Visualize a brilliant white ball over your head. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 6. Visualize that the ball is getting more and more brilliant. Keep your mind on the brilliant white ball and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 7. Visualize, from the brilliant white ball, white energy in liquid form entering your body through Baihui and continue your Tai Chi Breathing. 8. Visualize the white liquid energy entering your head. Direct the energy to the specific area you want to heal and do affirmation. 9. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 15 times. 10. Visualize the white liquid energy is discharged through Yongquan at the bottom of both your feet and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 11. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 12. Normalize your breathing. 13. Move your body slowly. 14. Massage the part that you have just healed. 15. Do some light exercises.
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Practice 15: Increasing Happiness and Joy

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax and close your eyes lightly. 2. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times in your slowest speed. 3. Keep your mind focus. 4. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life and cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Spread the feeling to your whole body. Smile to your heart and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. Keep smiling. 5. Recall another happiest moment in your life and cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Spread the feeling to your whole mind. Smile to your mind and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 6. Visualize the brilliant white ball on your head, emitting white joyful energy in liquid form to your whole body. Keep smiling. Affirmation: Tell your self mentally: I am HAPPY! I am full with JOY and HAPPINESS! My body, my mind and my soul are filled with GREAT joy and happiness! Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 20 times. 7. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 8. Visualize the brilliant white ball vanishes slowly. 9. Normalize your breathing. 10. Move your body slowly. 11. Massage your body. 12. Do some light exercises.
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Practice 16: Improving Relationships

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax and close your eyes lightly. 2. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times in your slowest speed. 3. Keep your mind focus. 4. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life and cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Smile to your heart and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 5. Recall another happiest moment in your life and cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Smile to your mind and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 6. Visualize as clearly as possible, the person or persons with whom you want to improve your relationship with standing right in front of you. Smile at that person(s) with all the joy and happiness that you have within you. Wish that person with affirmation and feelings with May you be free from pain and suffering. May you be free from unhappiness and sadness. I wish you with joy and happiness. May you be well and happy. May your life filled with great JOY and HAPPINESS. May you be blessed with abundance, prosperity, good health, with love and kindness, and with hope and strength. May the Energy of Tai Chi be with you! 7. Visualize the brilliant white liquid energy going into that person(s) from his/her/their head (Baihui) and into his/her/their whole body. Keep smiling. 8. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 9. Normalize your breathing and move your body slowly. 10. Cut the Link. 11. Massage your body.
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Practice 17: Promoting Peace and Harmony

1. Find a suitable sitting posture and relax and close your eyes lightly. 2. Do 5 Steps Basic Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times in your slowest speed. 3. Keep your mind focus. 4. Recall one of your happiest moments in your life and cherish the happy feeling of that memory. Smile to your heart and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 5. Recall another happiest moment in your life and cherish the happy feeling of your 2nd memory. Smile to your mind and affirm. Continue Tai Chi Breathing for 10 times. 6. Visualize the earth, about 12 inches in diameter right in front of you. Smile at the earth with all the joy and happiness that you have within you. Wish the earth with affirmation and feelings. Say in your mind May the entire earth be blessed with loving kindness. May the entire earth be blessed with great joy and happiness. May the entire earth be blessed with understanding, harmony and peace. May the entire earth be blessed with goodwill and the will to good. May every person, and every being on earth be blessed with love and kindness, with warmth, caring and tenderness. May every person, and every being on earth be blessed with healing, with hope, with inner beauty and bliss. 7. Visualize the brilliant white liquid energy going into the earth and bless the whole earth. Keep smiling. 8. Stop visualization and continue Tai Chi Breathing for 5 times. 9. Normalize your breathing and move your body slowly. 10. Cut the Link. 11. Massage your body.
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Contact Information
I have websites as follows: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com http://www.TaichiForYourHealth.com http://www.TaichiExerciseForHealth.com You must have gotten this e-book from one of the above sites. To contact me, you can email to: guan@taichibreathing.com For those with Bonus Online Consultation, please refer to your Tai Chi Breathing Membership Card for the high-priority contact details. For giving me your comments and feedback, you are welcome to click at this link: http://www.TaichiBreathing.com/feedback.htm fill up the online form and click My Feedback or Comment button. I would really appreciate your precious time for doing so. My other online publications and blog are as follows: http://www.TaichiForYourHealth.com/article1.htm http://www.TaichiForYourHealth.com/article2.htm http://www.TaichiForYourHealth.com/article3.htm http://www.TaichiBreathing.com/article4.htm http://www.TaichiBreathing.com/article5.htm http://www.cguansoo.blogspots.com And finally, May the Energy of Tai Chi blesses your day with great joy and happiness, and with great health and prosperity! Yours truly,
C. Guan Soo
156
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Advance Tai Chi Breathing: Tai Chi in Your Daily Life

How to Use Tai Chi Breathing in Your Daily Life

Written By: C. Guan Soo

Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing .......................... 14

Empty Retention ......................................................................................................... 22

Full and Empty Retention Combined ......................................................................... 26

Introducing Visualization Techniques ...................................................................29 Importance of Focus and Concentration ................................................................30

Importance of Quiet or Calm Environment ...........................................................36 Basic Visualization Exercise..................................................................................37

Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices .................. 41

Visualization Practice ............................................................................................52

Energy Absorption .................................................................................................63

Recharging and Healing.........................................................................................69

Part 4: Tai Chi Breathing in Daily Life ............................................... 75

Tai Chi Breathing in Work ....................................................................................84

Tai Chi Breathing and Sleeping.............................................................................87

Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation .........................................................................95

Advance Tai Chi Breathing and Meditation............................................................... 98

Part 5: Tai Chi Breathing for Specific Conditions ........................... 102

Reducing Insomnia ..............................................................................................108 Relaxation ............................................................................................................108

Healing on Specific Areas ...................................................................................111

Increasing Mental Energy Immediately...............................................................114 Increasing Physical Energy Immediately.............................................................114

Increasing Joy and Happiness..............................................................................115

Promoting Peace and Harmony ...........................................................................126

Part 6: Conclusion ............................................................................... 130

Part 7: Summary Guide ...................................................................... 134

Contact Information ............................................................................ 156

Part 1: Introduction to the Book

Part 1: Introduction to the Book

Importance of Basic Tai Chi Breathing

Who can Use This Book

How to Use This Book

Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing

Part 2: Introduction to Advance Tai Chi Breathing

Bathing After the Practices

Various Breathing Rhythms

Ineffective Retention Space

Diagram 1: Ineffective Retention Space

Exercise 2-1: Basic Full Retention

***Caution - Senior Citizen

Exercise 2-2: Longer Full Retention

Exercise 2-3: Basic Empty Retention

***Caution - Senior Citizen

Exercise 2-4: Longer Empty Retention

Full and Empty Retention Combined

***Caution - Senior Citizen

Exercise 2-5: Basic Full and Empty Retention

Introducing Visualization Techniques

Importance of Focus and Concentration

Exercise 2-6: Concentration Test

Exercise 2-7: Concentration Practice

Importance of Quiet or Calm Environment

Basic Visualization Exercise

***Caution Pregnant Women

***Caution - Senior Citizen

***Caution High Blood Pressure and Heart Related Conditions

The Visualization Exercise

Exercise 2-8: Basic Visualization Exercise Brilliant White Ball

Picture 1: Brilliant White Ball Over Your Head

Diagram 2: Baihui Acu-point (Crown Chakra)

Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices

Part 3: Advance Tai Chi Breathing The Full Practices

Advance Tai Chi Breathing Full Practices