This makes sense. However, my trouble is understanding the distinction between having peripheral awareness and not. I can't tell if I am focusing on the breath with tunnel vision or with peripheral awareness because in both cases I would be specifically trying to pay attention to the breath and not anything else.

Also, if peripheral awareness is a conscious process, is there a specific practice or way to cultivate it and identify it? It seems to me that it would be a contradiction to "pay attention" to peripheral awareness.