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The Buddha’s pointing your attention to how the way you breathe is going to have an impact on your mood. So it’s wise to get sensitive to this aspect of your experience, to get more and more sensitive to how you really are shaping things.

"So follow the Buddha’s instructions. Try to get sensitive to how the way you breathe has an impact on the body, and use the breath in a way that feels soothing, gives rise to feelings of pleasure, gives rise to feelings of refreshment. When the body’s been energized, then you can allow it to grow calm. At the same time, look at the perceptions you’re holding in mind right now. What kind of perception do you have of the breath? If you think of it simply as air coming in and out through the nostrils, it’s going to be hard to use the breath to help spread those feelings of ease and well-being around the body. But if you think of the breath as a flow of energy, it’ll be easier. After all, the muscles have to move, the body has to move so that the air can come in and out of the lungs — well, what is that movement? It’s breath energy. Where does it come from? Where does it originate in the body? And as you feel that movement spreading through the body, does it feel good or does it feel...
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The breath is the standard object of meditation, because the breath is the function in the body that you can work with most directly to create a sense of ease and well-being through the way you breathe, through the way you think of the breath.

"We have to find an object of meditation that’s pleasing to the mind — something we feel comfortable with, something we find interesting. The breath is the standard one, because the breath is the function in the body that you can work with most directly to create a sense of ease and well-being through the way you breathe, through the way you think of the breath. That way, you can have a sense of well-being that goes down through the legs, goes down through the arms, goes down through the torso, goes around your head — enveloping the body, permeating through the body." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Healthy Ego"
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Be sensitive. The more sensitive you are to how your breathing feels throughout the body, the more you’ll know intuitively what kind of breathing will feel good. Figure out what kind of breathing would feel better right now.

"And the next question is, “What would be a more pleasant breath?” Be sensitive. The more sensitive you are to how your breathing feels throughout the body, the more you’ll know intuitively what kind of breathing will feel good. So again, we’re not just going through the motions. We’re trying to watch each time we breathe to see if we can catch something in the breathing that we didn’t notice before — particularly in the direction of figuring out what kind of breathing would feel better right now, “better” being defined by what the body needs, what the mind needs at that particular moment. This requires that you be very attentive to what you’re doing." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Four Bases of Success"
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You can experiment: longer breathing, shorter breathing, deeper breathing, more shallow breathing, heavier or lighter. As you experiment, you begin to see that your actions, your decisions, your choices really do make a difference.

"When we work with the breath, it may seem like a detour but it’s not. When you’re with the breath, you’re in the present moment. As you work with the breath to make it comfortable, to make it energizing, whatever the body needs right now, you’re making it easier and easier for the mind stay in the present moment. Why is the present moment so important? Because this is where you’re making all the decisions in your life, the things you’re going to say, you’re going to do, you’re going to think. It’s important you try to do these things skillfully. Now, you can get yourself worked up and tied up in knots about making mistakes, so to prevent that, that’s another reason why we work with the breath: so that you’re coming from a state of ease and well-being. The more ease and well-being you can feel in this way, the easier it is to make the right choices, the easier it is to admit your mistakes when you see them, so that you can respond to the mistakes in the right way — “right way” her...
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The breath is now coming in; the breath is now going out. You can’t watch your future breaths; you can’t watch your past breaths. You’ve just got the present breath. And it’s impersonal.

"Start with the breath in and of itself. That’s pretty neutral. And ask yourself, “What’s going on in the process of breathing?” You breathe in until breathing in starts getting uncomfortable. Then you breathe out until breathing out starts getting uncomfortable. Then you start breathing back in again. You’re bouncing back and forth between the discomfort of too much in and too much out. Yet you need to breathe. If you tried to stop breathing by holding your breath, that would be painful too. You’ve got to breathe, yet it’s breathing between one extreme of breathing out too long, and the other extreme of breathing in too long. The breath is an impersonal process, something you can watch in and of itself, and it teaches you a lesson about suffering in and of itself. Fortunately for us there are not too many elaborate theories about the deeper meaning of breath. Just the fact: The breath is now coming in; the breath is now going out. You can’t watch your future breaths; you can’t w...
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Remind yourself that if you’re really busy, you’re not too busy to meditate. You’re too busy *not* to meditate. You owe it to yourself and to those around you to keep your batteries well charged.

"If your time really is at a premium, remember that you don’t have to sit with your eyes closed when training the mind. As many teachers have said, if you have time to breathe, you have time to meditate even while engaged in other activities. Also, you might find it helpful to remind yourself that if you’re really busy, you’re not too busy to meditate. You’re too busy not  to meditate. You owe it to yourself and to those around you to keep your batteries well charged." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation"
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You’re working with two kinds of pleasure. One is the physical pleasure of being with the breath. Then there’s the mental pleasure of working with the breath energies in the body and seeing that you can make changes in how the body feels from within.

"You’re working with two kinds of pleasure. One is the physical pleasure of being with the breath — which the Buddha doesn’t count as a sensual pleasure. It’s called the pleasure of form: the way you feel the body from within. That’s different from the pleasures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. The Buddha places it on a higher level because it doesn’t really have to depend on things outside. And, as he says, it’s a blameless pleasure, in the sense that you don’t have to harm anybody to gain it. At the same time, it doesn’t intoxicate the mind; it doesn’t befuddle or cloud the mind. It actually makes the mind a lot clearer. So that’s the physical pleasure of the breath. Then there’s the mental pleasure of working with the breath energies in the body and seeing that you can make changes in how the body feels from within. It’s a way of helping the body along. If the breath energy flows well it’s going to be conducive to your health. It feels good knowing tha...
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