Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Refreshing Breathing

"One of [Ajaan Fuang's] students was commenting one time on how he was on a bus ride. He’d had trouble getting to stay with the breath up to that point, but for some reason that day everything seemed to click. As he later told Ajaan Fuang, the breath became delicious. So from that point on every time Ajaan Fuang taught him meditation, he would say, “Okay, get so your breath is delicious again.” What would your delicious breath be like? What would taste really good, what would sound really good, what would smell really good, in terms of the breathing? Try to expand your repertoire of new ways of thinking about the breath. Some of the experiments may not work, but you never know until you try. So as you’re meditating, if you find yourself getting stuck in old ruts — dealing with the breath in the same old ways and getting the same old results — remind yourself that you can change. You can improve your relationship with the breath by allowing yourself to imagine it...

"Learn to open your mind to other ways of conceiving and perceiving the breath. Ajaan Lee talks about the breath coming in and out of the back of the skull, in and out the middle of the chest, lots of different spots in the body. Allow yourself to conceive the breath in that way and see what happens to your experience of breathing as you do that. Then you find that it expands your sense of the energy in the body and your repertoire of what you can do with the energy — because you find, when there are aches and pains in the body, that conceiving of the breath in a particular way will help. Sometimes you can think of the breath coming in and out of the body right there at the ache and the pain, so that you don’t have to create extra tensions trying to pull it in or push it out. It’s right there readily available, anywhere you want it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Power to Transcend Suffering"

"Learn to open your mind to other ways of conceiving and perceiving the breath. Ajaan Lee talks about the breath coming in and out of the back of the skull, in and out the middle of the chest, lots of different spots in the body. Allow yourself to conceive the breath in that way and see what happens to your experience of breathing as you do that. Then you find that it expands your sense of the energy in the body and your repertoire of what you can do with the energy — because you find, when there are aches and pains in the body, that conceiving of the breath in a particular way will help. Sometimes you can think of the breath coming in and out of the body right there at the ache and the pain, so that you don’t have to create extra tensions trying to pull it in or push it out. It’s right there readily available, anywhere you want it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Power to Transcend Suffering"

"One of [Ajaan Fuang's] students was commenting one time on how he was on a bus ride. He’d had trouble getting to stay with the breath up to that point, but for some reason that day everything seemed to click. As he later told Ajaan Fuang, the breath became delicious. So from that point on every time Ajaan Fuang taught him meditation, he would say, “Okay, get so your breath is delicious again.” What would your delicious breath be like? What would taste really good, what would sound really good, what would smell really good, in terms of the breathing? Try to expand your repertoire of new ways of thinking about the breath. Some of the experiments may not work, but you never know until you try. So as you’re meditating, if you find yourself getting stuck in old ruts — dealing with the breath in the same old ways and getting the same old results — remind yourself that you can change. You can improve your relationship with the breath by allowing yourself to imagine it." ~ Tha...