“My teacher told me that it’s incorrect to breathe through the mouth,” she said. “He said that in qigong and tai chi the breathing should be in and out through the nose.”
This question comes up all the time in my Facebook group.
Sometimes, it’s more of a challenge than a question, as if to say: “Why are you doing it wrong, Anthony?!?”
I’m not doing it wrong.
This video explains why. It’s a replay of a live broadcast that I did on Facebook. You can watch it below, or you can click the little “f” button below and watch it on Facebook. (Note: if you want to read the comments, you’ll have to watch it on Facebook.)
If you have any questions, feel free to post them below this blog post.
No sound? Click the play button, then click the volume
button in the lower right corner.
I’m Anthony Korahais, and I used qigong to heal from clinical depression, low back pain, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. I’ve already taught thousands of people from all over the world how to use qigong for their own stubborn health challenges. As the director of Flowing Zen, I'm fully committed to helping people with these arts. In addition to my blog, I also teach online courses and offer in-person retreats and workshops.
I can’t stream in my location. But if you, Sifu Anthony, prescribe breathing in a specific way, that is more than good enough for me. Any debate on this sounds kind of like a religious war. your team-my team, as opposed to the fact that people are deriving great benefit from what you are sharing with us.
5 stars. Excellent blog. Really like your open mindedness and lack of dogmatism. Also the statement that “You can have your own opinion, but you can’t have your own facts!” Keep ranting. Again, superb post! Really glad I stumbled across this one.
First, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire “rant” although I did not consider you to be ranting at all quite the contrary. You provided information on breathing in a clear way with side related stories to explain and clarify. Thank you. One follow up question regarding your remark about order of importance…Zen, breathing, movement. So would you say the order of importance is 60, 30, 10? Or, would breathing be 60%, Zen mindfulness 30%, and Movement 10%?
I remember learning this some time ago but now would appreciate validation / correction. Thank you.
Hi Gina. Thanks for the kind words.
I think you’re referring to this article: https://flowingzen.com/9544/the-number-1-mistake/
Very interesting topic, thank you for sharing! You mention “6 healing sounds is not something I happen to teach because we have other things similar to it”. Could you elaborate a bit on what is it that you teach that offers similar effect to the healing sounds? I joined the FlowingZen pack in the covid course and have been learning about qigong from your blog and other sources – I tried the healing sounds a few times but I haven’t been drawn to it, maybe because it doesn’t come naturally to me and I didn’t feel much (as opposed to when I do qigond and feel the energy). So I’m curious to know what you do as “replacement” 🙂
Hi Anna. Some examples are the “shhh” sound in Shooting Arrows, the “haiitt!” sound in Punching with Wide Eyes, or the sizzling sound in Nourishing Kidneys. There are more too.