This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith warned against using techniques for prayer that set aside the person of Jesus. Quoting St. Teresa of Avila he said that this type of meditation is "always of form of betrayal." Strong words. Meditating on ones breath is a barren gesture and would be a perversion of the beautiful prayer of the Rosary, which is fruitful meditation of the life of Jesus Christ.

Have to agree w/Pat & Pope Bennie: if you're going to bother to do the rosary, the focus should be the meditation subject itself, not your breathing. Otherwise you might just as well recite any old thing. Still, if whatever works ....

Yoga is not anything close to praying the rosary.

The Rosary is where the East meets the West.
We are treated to an Eastern form of meditation
yet with the Western structure to hold us secure.
We have the best of both worlds.
We let the birth, life, death, and ressurection of Jesus fill our minds and hearts to refresh and
renew us. As we pray the Hail Mary's she leads us to Jesus. We watch each mystery unfold in our imaginations. We, of course, breath as we pray but do not concentrate on breathing per se. That would almost defeat the purpose of this peace prayer. Our breath is slow and regulated almost like a chant. This prayer can be chanted too. It is most beautiful when chanted even in the most simple Gregorian style.
The Holy Spirit is present to console and direct us.
Emptying your mind during a yoga session could open you up to evil influences entering in because that excersise leaves a void that could be filled with anything. With the Rosary we are assured of Holy influences and growth in the spiritual life without worry, and with great trust and confidence in the Mother of God to help us find God and live His commandments. We feel refreshed and overshadowed by Goodness.

These are some great comments. One nitpick with Joachim: I wouldn't call the Rosary a particularly Eastern meditation. There's an incredible world of Western meditation that's largely been forgotten, which is why Westerners often turn east for their spirituality. Joachim's right on the money about Gregorian chant and meditation.

I don't have a problem with breathing...I do it all the time! But breathing is not prayer. Prayer shouldn't be turned into a technique or a method. When it is, it becomes a control issue, and then we start to think we're in charge. Will God only come to us when we're relaxed and in touch with our "center?" I think He's bigger than that. We have to wait on Him, not vice-versa.

those of "the eastern church" (Orthodox Catholics) have long been aware of the practice of "prayer without ceasing" . . . and the living out of "The Jesus Prayer" - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner" (with a classic writing concerning this prayer in The Philokalia collections and more popularly in The Way Of The Pilgrim" . . . and the "breathing" or one's "breath" becomes incorporated into the very act of praying, so that our perpeptual breathing becomes itself a prayer. and to become aware of this as a prayer is a good thing.

however, if one becomes too involved with or preoccupied with "the technique", one can lose sight of just what it is we are doing and being conscious of . . . and the frustrations and exhaustions can in fact impede real prayer and even make us abandon prayer . . . so "all things in moderation" (except for prayer itself which is ceaseless).

the traditional rosary, and the traditional "Jesus Prayer" are in and of themselves ever deepening wells of meditation and prayer . . . and if "our breath" makes us aware that it was God Who first "breathed a soul into Adam" and that all of our breath flows from God and His "first breath" and continues that now in time, then it can be our prayer.

Thanks, Baronius, for the addition of Western meditation to the arena. With the reports of New Age and Satanism emitting from the convents we need some better information or resouces to rediscover this lost world of finding and living the Way the Truth and the Life. Jesus.
I also appreciate the remark from Bob who has hit on another strong point so commonly overlooked- that in humility and confidence we wait on God, not vice-versa.
Rule of thumb:
Watch to see how people act after meditation. Even if they have to deal with someone whom they believe has offended them.
This will tell you if they are acting in humility, forgiveness and peacefulness or if the spirit of pride has overtaken them.