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Use perception of every part of the body being connected for a sense of refreshment, fullness and satisfaction

"You’ll notice that there are subtle sensations in the body as you breathe in, as you breathe out, that correspond to the grosser sensations of the movement of the rib cage, the movement of the diaphragm. Allow those subtle sensations to blend together in a way that feels harmonious. Think of every part of the body being connected, all the energy channels in the body being connected, so that the breath energy spreads through them instantly and automatically, independently of the in-and-out breath, without your having to do anything to breathe it in or out. Here you’re using one of the aggregates, the aggregate of perception, to help calm the breath down. And you notice that it does also induce a sense of piti, which is usually translated as “rapture,” although in some cases it’s not quite as strong as what we would ordinarily call “rapture.” It’s more a sense of refreshment. The body feels full, satisfied." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "On the Path of the Breath&qu

Bathed in the breath in all your activities you've got the armor of a healthy body and mind protecting you on all sides

"If you give the breath an hour to do its healing work, totally opening up the body to allow the breath to bathe every nerve out to every pore, you know that you’ll come out at the end of the hour with a body and mind in much better shape. The body will be soothed; the mind, bright and alert. And you don’t need to stop being bathed in the breath when the hour is up. You can keep it going in all your activities. That way, even though you may not be armed with a whole set of plans for facing the future, at least you’re in a position where you don’t need that kind of armor. You’ve got the armor of a healthy body and mind. You’ve got an invisible armor: the force-field of this all-encompassing breath, continually streaming out from your center to every pore, protecting you on all sides. That’s something you feel in every cell of your body, something you know for sure, for you can sense it all around you, right here, right now. And you know that whatever the future brings

Breath doesn't have to exert pressure on anything, if there's pressure in any part of the body remind yourself that it's blood pressure.

"If there’s pressure in any part of the body, remind yourself that it’s blood pressure. Breath doesn’t have to exert pressure on anything. It goes right through atoms. So if there seems to be a wall of pressure that you can’t push the breath through, remind yourself that you’ve made the mistake of pushing something else beside the breath. You’re trying to push the blood there. Just hold the thought in mind, “Breath can flow there, it doesn’t push anything.” The simple thought of allowing can relieve a lot of the pressure. So do your best to get acquainted with the breath energy issues in the body, what it means for the breath to flow well, and be ingenious at finding new ways of solving new problems as they come up. That way, this area of the body, this area of the mind that tends to get closed off, you can start to reclaim and you can use that dimension of your awareness to your own advantage — your own skillful advantage. This is one of those meditative skills that’

When your actions come from a sense of strength, you don’t lash out. You don’t react in fearful ways. You know you’ve got your home here, and nobody can take it from you.

"Ajaan Lee often taught that the breath is your best home base; the other topics are like tools you bring in when you need to work on specific issues. But you always need the breath as your default mode, as the home to which you return. And having a safe place like this, a sense of being strong and having this as your territory: That makes you safe to other people as well, because when your actions come from a sense of strength, you don’t lash out. You don’t react in fearful ways. You know you’ve got your home here, and nobody can take it from you." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "At Home with the Breath"

What can you do to change unsatisfying sensations in your body right now?

"If you don’t find the breath refreshing, ask yourself, “What is getting in the way? What needs to be refreshed in the body right now? What’s not getting the refreshment it wants? Can you think of the breath helping with that spot? If you’re feeling dissatisfied with the sensations in your body right now, what can you do to change them?” But first you’ve got to analyze: Where’s the problem? What’s the dissatisfaction coming from? What’s feeling starved of breath energy? Make a survey, go around the body, go to the spots that you don’t normally focus on and allow them to open up. It’s good to perceive the breath and breath meditation not so much as a chore, but as an opportunity." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Full Attention"

When you focus on the breath, you're fully inhabiting your body

Fully in the Present by Thanissaro Bhikkhu , short morning talk April 30, 2013 When you focus on the breath, you’re fully inhabiting your body. All too often we leave large sections of our body uninhabited. We’re not paying attention to them. They’re there in the background, of course. When you’re not fully inhabiting the present moment, where are you going? Are you going off someplace else? One way of ensuring that you’re going to stay here is to be fully here with the body. It’s also your protection. You may have noticed when you walk into a crowd of people in a room, you can pick up their energies very quickly. If parts of your body are uninhabited, those energies can get lodged in your own body. You may not notice it at the time, but after a while you begin to realize that you’ve picked up nervous energy or angry energy or whatever the energy is. So this is part of your protection: learning how to fully inhabit your body so that wherever you go, you’re going with your

You can breathe in a way that feels really, really good, a way that feels nourishing for the body, soothing for the mind, energizing when you’re feeling tired, grounding when you’re feeling scattered.

"You can breathe in any kind of way, so how about breathing in a way that feels really, really good? — a way that feels nourishing for the body, soothing for the mind, energizing when you’re feeling tired, grounding when you’re feeling scattered. There’s lots to explore right here. So make that your intention. You want to explore what the breath can do for you here in the present moment." ~ ThanissaroBhikkhu "Your Intentions Come First" (Meditations8)