Talk to yourself about the breath as to what the body needs right now. You want to take any sense of ease or fullness or refreshment and let it fill the whole body. Then you’ve got that feeling of well-being saturating the body.

"What kind of job are you doing as you put your experience together? You want to do a good job. Talk to yourself about the breath. Ask yourself: What kind of breathing would be comfortable? What kind of breathing would not be comfortable? How can you breathe in ways that feel satisfying? And what would be satisfying right now? What does the body need right now? When the breath feels satisfying, how do you keep it satisfying? How do you spread it around?

As the Buddha says in his instructions for getting the mind into deeper concentration, you want to take any sense of ease or fullness or refreshment and let it fill the whole body. Let the whole body get saturated with it. How do you do that? Ajaan Lee gives some pointers. He says to think of the breath energy flowing through the blood vessels, flowing through the nerves, out to the pores of the skin, so that as you breathe in, you’re suffused by breath. It’s a good perception to hold in mind. That would be a mental fabrication. Then you’ve got that feeling of well-being saturating the body. That, too, is mental fabrication."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Brahmaviharas Are Not a Complete Practice" (Meditations10)

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