Breathing

There were times where I've focused on my breathing and felt worse. Maybe you should try engaging in a productive or interesting activity.

Reading this, and also noticing the TV on, my dog walking around - which was annoying me, somehow this is helping me in the moment.

If you are hyper focused on bodily sensations, you might want to read and article entitled Treating Sensorimotor OCD (aka Somatic OCD) by Dr Michael j. Greenberg

Does doing something like reading help?

I don't know if your therapist would take the same approach as Dr Greenberg. Dr Greenberg basically says that awareness of the sensation is not the problem. The problem is purposely directing attention towards it or trying to analyze the problem. But he also says you should not try to push the awareness of the sensation out of your mind.