Hi Jona,
Try slowing down your breathing too. If you really slow it down, the change from inhale to exhale is less observed.
There can also be that similar pause you speak of, at the end of the inhale("holding the upper breath"), where inhale changes to exhale. Both very expansive sensations if slowed down. This can also be felt in the expression of the movements in the active exercises.
I find the end of the exhale, when breathing is slowed down, a time of deeper release and deeper relaxing. The upper breath, a time of peak "taking in of breath/energy". Think of the ends of the breath,or breathing as round(or circular), in the sense of one changing to the other, as opposed to up to a point, stopping and coming back down in a linear fashion. Again, the moving of yin and yang can physically express that.
In meditation, focusing on a part of the breathing cycle is a possibility, as you are doing. Holding that focus is easier if you slow down. You may slip into emptiness on that pause, which is actually not a pause(or holding) but movement from yin to yang or vice versa, and stay in that sensation, as you begin to inhale. If the breathing is very slow and soft, you may stay in that emptiness, expansiveness, longer, and not notice the change to inhale. If not completely, you will notice an effect of the emptiness you experience , a bit longer. This process promotes stillness. The slowing down and relaxing on deeper levels.
love,
gallen
