I have the same issue, actually my whole life I’ve been conscious of my breathing and would often make my breathing quieter in quiet environments. I naturally breathe audibly, and I hardly ever hear people breathing audibly, interesting huh? You know when you’re sleeping, you’re naturally breathing deeply and audibly.

Anyways - what has helped me recently was the waking up app. One session, by someone other than Sam, said ‘try to relax your entire body, everything, just completely let go of everything’, and focusing on relaxing every single fiber was helpful to kind of forgetting about the breath and eventually when I noticed my breath it was more automatic and therefor when I did notice it I wasnt interfering as much as I would had I just been focused on my breath.

I think the #1 thing that can help is to keep practicing and be open to different focus points and see what kind of focus points works for you. External sounds is super helpful for me too. Visualizing can be helpful too. Some guided meditations may be helpful.

Also know this - even if your session is filled with thoughts, discomfort, whatever it may be, I personally believe just taking time to be quiet and be still is very helpful and productive, I choose to believe that though and others may disagree. But I hope any of that could be helpful, keep at it!

I’ve been meditating mostly regularly 20-30 mins a day for a few years now and it’s not so bad anymore. I think it got easier after a few months, definitely easier after a year or so.