One of the great things about the breath is you can really change it throughout your whole body

"This is one of the great things about the breath. Unlike a lot of the other functions or processes in the body, you really can change it. If you want it to be longer, just think “longer” and you can make it longer. Shorter, faster, slower, heavier, lighter, deeper, more shallow: You can play with the breath for a while to see what feels good right now.

Or you can simply pose the question in the mind each time you breathe in, “What kind of breathing would feel really good this time around?” and see how the body responds.

To gain a sense of whether it’s really comfortable or not, try to expand your awareness to fill the whole body. If you have trouble taking the whole body at once, you might go through the body first section-by-section. When you breathe in, watch it down around the belly for a while: How does that feel? When you breathe out how does it feel? Keep watching there for a while. If you notice that one way of breathing feels more comfortable than another there, go ahead and stick with that kind of breathing.

Then move up to the chest, into your head, down the back. Even in your arms and legs you can get a sense of how you feel the breathing energy in those parts of the body. In the beginning, though, you may not be able to sense much there. So focus on the areas where you do feel: Now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. Try to be broad and expansive in your awareness.

If you want to use a meditation word to help you stay with the breath, you can use buddho, which means “awake.” Bud- in, -dho out."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Sources of Lasting Happiness"

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