Think of the breath as prior to everything else that you feel in the body. Just think of the breath going right through constricted or painful spots. Whatever's going on inside the body and inside the mind has to pass through the breath.

"Right here at the breath is where the body and the mind meet. Your most direct experience of the body is actually breath sensations, the feeling of energy that flows throughout the whole body. So if you want to understand what you’ve got inside yourself here, both inside the body and the mind, the breath is a good place to start. Be aware of it as it comes in, aware of it as it goes out. And be on friendly terms with it, allow it to come in and out in whatever way feels really good.

To find what way feels really good, you can experiment. Longer breathing, shorter breathing, faster, slower: There are lots of ways you can play with the breath, until you get a good idea of what the range of possibilities is right now, exactly how good can it feel breathing in, breathing out.

And again, think of the breath as prior to everything else that you feel in the body. In other words, there may be parts of the body that feel constricted or painful, but just think of the breath going right through them. It doesn’t have to be constricted by them. The breath doesn’t have to shrink away from those spots. Give it priority.

You find that as you get on better and better terms with the breath, you also get on better and better terms with the present moment, more sensitive to what’s going on — and in particular, more sensitive to what’s going on inside the body, what’s going on inside the mind, and how those events are connected, because they’re going to have to pass through the breath."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Starting from Within"

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