The Awareness Of Breathing

The key with awareness of breathing is knowing that the breath is the one bodily function that can be A. left to the unconscious mind to be controlled (you continue breathing even when you are sound asleep), or B. consciously and deliberately controlled.

Finding the bridge between these two is the key: it is the awareness of breathing.

Someone said that to consciously control your breathing is to overstrain it.

In meditation on breathing, you are supposed to try to let your breath do its own thing, while directing your conscious attention toward the (subconscious) act of breathing.