interesting you asked because i was thinking about the same thing today. imo if you want to strengthen your overall awareness of what's going on in your body, with your thoughts and emotions you should be just the observer of your breath.

the reason is if some emotions or thoughts pop up out of nowhere during meditation your breathing will change. for example if you have fearful thoughts and emotions your breathing will shorten and you will make longer pauses whith your breathing. so after a while as a observer you will be aware of the connection between your breathing and your thoughts/emotions and therefore your overall awareness will strengthen. then you will able to let go and neutralize your thoughts/emotions during meditation.

if you want to stop your thoughts in a brute force way and feel resistance free/good in a short period of time you can breath like it is described in the "presence process" by michael brown. breath deeply in and out without pauses. so this way you kind of ignore your thoughts/emotions or give them very little attention. your awareness will strengthen also but more after the meditation session. the reason is you will be aware of the difference betweens beeing resistance free during meditation and suddenly having to handle all these uncomfortable emotions/thoughts after meditation.

When I was able to suspend all thought, I found that, I also suspended my breathing and was not aware of it.

In that complete stillness I was doing nothing, until my ability to remain breathless reached a threshold and my attention struggled to awaken the breathing process.

This is why I believe that focusing on one's breath during meditation was likely developed to alleviate this problem.

Altering the rhythm should not be attempted by the person asking such questions.

Breath modification alters your dimension, and if you are not prepared, you will go mad.

Let me put it in a different way; Madness is a form of premature dimensional alteration.

Breath in meditation you can try it you will see that you can regulate your heart with the breath. But you will find out that you breath with out taking notice of it. in every day life and when you sleep you do it naturally. So why put your awareness on breathing? on less you want to become a breathing expert. You could put your awareness on your concentration and focus with open eyes by fixing a point in front of you that is not there.(thine eye single) (It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there.)

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

Therefore I say that if one is unified, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided one will be filled with darkness.

For the womb of the body is inside the body like the other internal organs, but the womb of the soul is around the outside like the male genitalia which is external.

So when the womb of the soul, by the will of the father, turns itself inward, it is baptized and is immediately cleansed of the external pollution which was pressed upon it, just as garments, when dirty, are put into the water and turned about until their dirt is removed and they become clean. And so the cleansing of the soul is to regain the newness of her former nature and to turn herself back again. That is her baptism.

http://gnosis.org/naghamm/exe.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQrsvmDNG1c

Eckhart Tolle in Practicing The Power of NOW: "when you have reached a certain degree of presence, you don't need negativity anymore.."

How, then, when we feel ourselves being tossed into unconsciousness by “time,” do we consciously respond? We stop whatever we are doing and connect our breathing until present moment awareness is restored. The Presence Process, Edition 2, p.362

Consciously Connected Breathing by itself facilitates my shadow work and pain body arousal. it sharpens awareness, uplifts being and intensifies presence.

checkout http://www.inwardquest.com/questions/52713/very-interesting-video-interview-with-michael-brown-about-how-we-feel-about-our-family-mirrors-back-to-us-our-true-relationship-with-ourselves-and-god.

The Presence Process integrate blocked emotions. Once these blocked emotions – energies in motion – are liberated, the consequence is reflected automatically in shifts in our physical, mental, and emotional experience. The Presence Process, Edition 2 can be downloaded here. This goes well together with releasing techniques.

10 week process. It uses Consciously Connected Breathing 15min 2/day, emotional clearing, Activation of The Presence.

1 “THIS MOMENT IS VALID”, I AM HERE NOW, surrender vs. resistance. INTO THE BREATH, EXPERIENCING PRESENCE, The way out is through.

2 “I RECOGNIZE MY REFLECTIONS AND PROJECTIONS”, Behaving as a victim or victor means we either complain about our experiences with others or compete with them. the emotional undercurrent in our experience is discerned only by developing the eyes of the heart, which “see” with felt-perception. blame vs. self-empowerment

3 “I CHOOSE TO RESPOND”, rather than react unconsciously, we receive the intended message – the insight. from reactivity, toward responsibility.

“How does this triggering event impact me on the level of felt-perception?” hands buzzing, solar plexus tightening, heartbeat increasing, face flushing, or any number of other bodily indicators. Once we access this felt-resonance within (or around) our body, we have received the message

“When last did I experience this same felt-resonance?”

“When prior to this set up did I experience the same uncomfortable felt-resonance?”

The answers are all within us now. Trust them to surface when required.

4 “I FEEL UNCONDITIONALLY”, resistance to pain and discomfort, manifesting physically, mentally, or emotionally. We assume that pain and discomfort are indicators that something is wrong. War within ourselves cannot and has never enabled us to realize inner peace. We feel it to integrate it.

5 “I AM INNOCENT”, INTEGRATING OUR CHILDHOOD, Dormant within us is the trinity of father (guidance), mother (nurturing), and child (innocence, joy, and creativity). Setting our intent to re-establish a relationship with our child self by integrating our charged emotional states activates this trinity. It also allows us the opportunity to actively give ourselves the quality of unconditional attention we required as children but didn’t receive.

6 “I INTEGRATE CHARGED EMOTION”

highest application of our physical body is as a focal point for consciously anchoring the full capacity of Presence in the world.

highest application of the mental body is when it serves to navigate the focus of our attention, while the highest application of the emotional body is when it fuels the momentum of our intent.

When we are “living in time,” we seldom fulfill the structural potential of our body, realize the power of its navigational system, or utilize its fuel capacity.

INTO THE WATER - We activate weeks seven, eight, and nine by submerging ourselves in a bathtub of comfortably warm (not too hot) water for 15 minutes. If a bathtub isn’t available, we may enter a comfortably warm shower for 15 minutes.

While in the water, we aren’t to focus on consciously connecting our breathing. Instead, we place our attention on the felt-aspect of any experience that surfaces in our awareness as a consequence of being in the warm water.

As soon as we exit the water, we dry ourselves off, then attend to our regular 15-minute breathing practice. This water session is only necessary for the first breathing session of each of these three weeks. However, during these weeks it may be repeated as often as we choose.

7 “I FEEL SAFE NOW”, EMBRACING PHYSICAL PRESENCE

8 “I FORGIVE MYSELF”

9 “I LOVE MYSELF UNCONDITIONALLY”, INTEGRATING OUR UNCONSCIOUS DEFINITION OF LOVE

We therefore ask ourselves: “What is the felt-resonance associated with having what I want?” Then instead of chasing this thing, we give ourselves this felt-resonance by feeling it now. We feel this felt-resonance without condition.

No water sessions are required upon conclusion of week 9.

10 “I APPRECIATE WHAT I AM”, CONSCIOUSLY ENTERING THE UNIFIED FIELD, LIVING ON PURPOSE, APPRECIATING APPRECIATION