Breathing like a baby

When I went for a bicycle ride into Otaniemi I saw this man practising kung-fu. I stopped with my bicycle and just stared at him completely mesmerised. I said hi, but he was so concentrated in what he was doing so he didn't answer me. After a while he paused and said hi. I asked him if he'd mind me taking a couple of shots while he was practising; he didn't. His name is Jie and he is chinese.

Then he asked me if I'd like to try an easy position. He showed me how to stand and keep my hands. Then he said: "And then you breathe like a baby". I said that I don't know how a baby breathes.

Jie told me: "When babies breathe they breathe with their lower abdomen, below the navel. When we grow we start breathing above the navel. As we keep growing and getting older the breathing moves upwards; to the lungs and to the throat". What he didn't say was that finally we breath just with the nose - and then we die.

Jie took my hand and put it on his stomach: "Feel this", he said. He started to breathe and yes, I really felt how his breath came below the navel. Jie said that when you learn how to breathe like a baby, you'll always be young and never need to take any medicine!

I tried to breathe like Jie told, but noticed that it was too hard, I just could not do it. So this I would like to learn: to breathe like a baby.