Is there a proper way of breathing?

What could be more natural than breathing? I was reading a book about meditation that said that the time to inhale and exhale should be about the same. I found that I was taking less time to inhale.

The book said that the proper way of inhaling was to breathe from the diaphragm and that if you are sitting, you should feel your ribs moving. When I followed these instructions the inhalation time was now about the same as the exhalation time. Here is an article that discusses this. Here is another article that claims that the technique should be used for regular breathing Is this right and, if it is, would it be possible to change the way one breathes?