If the mind needs to be gladdened, you’re happy to breathe in a way that gives energy. If the mind needs to be steadied, you breathe in a way that’s more calming.

"When the Buddha talks about the factors for awakening, there are two processes or two exercises that he says are really helpful: one is to develop appropriate attention, the ability to ask the right questions; and the other is to practice breath meditation. And it’s not as if these were two things to be done separately. You do them together. You focus on the breath, applying the right questions to the breath and to your mind’s relationship to the breath.

We’re here looking at three things, basically: the breath, the feelings that come up with the breath, and then the mind state that watches and that is soothed by the breath. The mind is both on the receiving end and on the proactive end in its relationship to the breath. On the receiving end, it’s alert to the level of comfort coming from the breath and its effect on the mind. On the proactive end, it tries to figure out which kind of breathing is more comfortable, long or short — because that’s what appropriate attention does: It asks you which kinds of things are having a good effect and which kinds of things are having a bad effect.

Then you extend that questioning further: When the breath feels comfortable and gives rise to a sense of well-being, even a sense of rapture, what do you do with it? Well, you spread it around. You expand your awareness and try to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in and breathe out. You let the feeling of well-being and rapture spread to fill both the body and your awareness. Then you ask yourself, “What kind of impact is the breath having on the body? What kind of impact is the breath having on the mind?” If the mind needs to be gladdened, you’re happy to breathe in a way that gives energy. If the mind needs to be steadied, you breathe in a way that’s more calming."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Toward Release"

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