29/12/2025
The Nose Knows
Why do we focus on breathing through the nose during Tai Chi, Qigong, and Meditation practice?
One of the aspects I most enjoy about teaching Tai Chi, Qigong, and Meditation is that my students frequently ask questions that prompt me to think deeply in order to provide a coherent, informative, and useful answer.
Often, these questions are about basic concepts that I take for givens, which makes them surprisingly difficult to answer because I think of them as fundamentals that, once I’ve accepted them, don’t receive much more consideration or contemplation.
For example, one student recently asked why it is that we focus on breathing through the nose when we are practicing Tai Chi, Qigong, or any kind of meditative practice such as Zhang Zhuan (Standing Post Practice)?
Despite this being such a basic principle, I wasn’t entirely happy with my explanation so I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a more complete response.
The benefits of nasal breathing can be grouped into two categories, one based on Conventional Medicine (CM) and another on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
CM research has shown that nasal breathing has a plethora of benefits, too many to list here so I’ll just highlight a few:
Nasal breathing moistens the nasal passages, helping the mucus lining and cilia to capture and filter out inhaled particles.
Nasal breathing humidifies and pressurizes the air you breathe, which improves the lungs’ ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Nasal breathing brings nitric oxide into your body. The nose and sinuses produce nitric oxide gas, which has antibacterial, antiviral, and anticoagulant properties. Nitric oxide also dilates your blood vessels, which can help lower blood pressure.
With TCM, nasal breathing is a necessary requirement of maintaining the tongue-palate connection, i.e. keeping the tongue in contact with the roof of your mouth when practicing Tai Chi, Qigong, Meditation, etc. Essentially, it’s difficult – though not impossible – to breathe through your mouth while keeping your tongue in contact with your palate.
Of course, this leads to the question of why is the tongue-palate connection important?
An key concept in TCM is the Microcosmic Orbit, sometimes called the “small circulation.” This is an energy pathway that runs up the spine, over the top of the head, and down the front of the body.
Circulating Qi along this path is seen as essential for physical and spiritual wellbeing.
The oral cavity is a kind of gap in this energy pathway, so touching the tongue to the palate “closes the circuit, “ so to speak between the upper and lower body, facilitating the upward flow of Qi from the Lower Dantian (located in the lower abdomen), and the downward flow of Qi from the Upper Dantian (located in the head).
Deep, diaphragmatic breathing is also an essential component of guiding this circulation, which is why I encourage this kind of breathing during my classes. However, that’s a bit outside the scope of this article, so I’ll save that topic for a later date.
Some people are skeptical of CM, so I wanted to provide a TCM perspective on the benefits of nasal breathing. At the same time, others are skeptical of TCM, so I wanted to be sure to provide an explanation based on more familiar, standardized research.
Regardless of which you trust, there are undeniable benefits to nasal breathing.
Lastly, I want to mention an additional advantage of nasal breathing that I greatly appreciate while teaching: if everyone is focused on breathing through their noses and maintaining the tongue-palate connection, that means no one is talking and disrupting the class with idle chitchat.
Disclaimer: The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. I am not a doctor or healthcare professional. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new health practice, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions or concerns.
