How do I teach someone deep-breathing?

I learned exactly how you described it in your details @serenityNOW. I was told to then sit up and imagine my diaphragm was a balloon.

The other thing to stress to him is to spend time thinking about counting to 4 on the in breath, then 4 on the out….and slowly increasing the count each time he practices. Then, to work on a 4 count in and 6 count out, and increasing that.

I’m not sure if this works for deep breathing, but for sounding off (in other words yelling, I learned this from a military like organization): When you’re going pee, you know that feeling when you make the stream go faster? It’s those same muscles that can help you find/use your diaphragm.

Try having him inhale while pushing his belly out as much as possible, then exhale while keeping his belly out and taut. When he next inhales—still keeping his belly out—he will need to drop his diaphragm to get a good breath. You can test him by poking him lightly in the solar plexus as he exhales. If he’s doing it correctly, there should be no interruptions in the escaping air flow. Moreover, the incoming poke will subconsciously prompt him to tauten his belly (thus promoting proper form).

Have him put one hand on his chest, and one hand on his stomach. Only the hand on his stomach should be moving outwards noticeably while he is inhaling.

Just have him breath in slowly (through his nose) for as long as he can till he feels he can’t take in any more air and then expel the air slowly through his nose.

Awesome! Thanks, folks. I’ll try these next time I see him.

have him imagine as he is breathing in slowly that he is filling his belly first with air, and then slowly breathing out until his belly is empty.