The breath isn’t just in and out. There’s the breath energy that flows up as you breathe in; there’s the breath energy that flows down as you breathe in. Try to balance things so it doesn't flow up too much or down too much.

"Find a spot in the body where you feel that you can easily settle down and stay here. It might be in the middle of the head, the middle of the chest, the abdomen, anywhere in the body where you feel that your attention can settle in settle in, settle down, and begin to fit together. All the scattered little parts of your mind come together and they click into place.

So you’re fully here with the breath. You can fully observe it, get more acquainted with it, in all its many aspects. After all, the breath isn’t just in and out. There’s the breath energy that flows up as you breathe in; there’s the breath energy that flows down as you breathe in. If it flows up too much, you tend to get a headache. If it flows down too much, you get drowsy. So try to balance things. There’s breath energy that comes in from the back, breath energy that comes in from the front. As you get more sensitive to it, you begin to realize there is breath energy that’s constantly waiting to come into the pores of your skin, so that you don’t have to pull it in. The more the different energies in the body get connected, the less you have to breathe. They nourish one another. They connect with one another, so that the body can get more and more still, and the mind can experience an even greater sensation of stillness."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Befriending the Breath"

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