Meditation
Meditation is one of the main practices that only a certain amount of taoist accomplish in their daily life. The purpose of meditating for taoists is to find spirituality and to be enlightened. In order to completely understand the level of meditation, meditation requires to two complete levels. In the first level, one must deal with only ordinary stress, meaning some amount of stress is acceptable, as long as some of the other stress are released. During the second level of meditation, all the negative and destructive thoughts must disappear. In Taoism, it is mentioned that one’s inner demon or ghost must be released. Taoists believe that these two spiritual beings are the main sources of deep stress since the day they were born. For taoist, working for 8-12 hours a day is not considered as “deep stress”. Deep stress to them comes from childhood, relationships or possibly what happened in one’s past lives.
Breathing
Breathing is an important technique in Taoism that all followers of Taoists utilized from the beginning of Taoism until today. This method causes everything inside the body to move with the rhythm of one's breathing. Taoists' longevity breathing increases oxygen levels and decreases carbon dioxide. The increasing level of oxygen strengthens the metabolism, circulation and one's ability to heal quickly. However, the decreasing level of carbon dioxide allows more room for the oxygen, which prevents toxic waste product to build up in the blood, causing a person to yawn or increase stress in the body. Breathing is the most significant way of maintaining the ch'i and knowing how to control your breath will balance and manage it.
" Just as you breathe in and breathe out,
there is a time for being ahead
and a time for being behind;
a time for strain
and a time for ease;
a time to be up
and a time to be down;
a time to grow in strength
and a time to decay "
--Tao Te Ching, Lao Zi
In this quote from chapter 29 of Tao Te Ching, Lao Zi highlights the importance of breathing. The continuous repetition of "a time" shows that breathing can affect various things in one's life, and that it is crucial religious practice for the Taoists. The line stating "A time for being ahead" shows that breathing can affect someone to either have a prolonged life or to confront death at a young age. Lao Zi suggests that without breathing, one will not be able to "grow in strength" or to harmonize with nature by first easing oneself.
Diet
For Taoists, diet is crucial to live a extended, untroubled life and is taken very seriously. Classical Taoist teachings recommend abstaining alcohol, beans, and meat. Only a certain type of meat are allowed, such as white meat (chicken and fish) which is generally adequate to eat but should be limited to only once a week. Taoists believe that substantial amount of raw food creates internal weakness from cold energy inside the center of the stomach thus, to increase steamed or stir fried vegetables in their diets. Taoists also believe that eating grains such as brown rice, barley and wheat is a good source of energy and is acceptable any time of the day.