Breathe.

Move on Monday: How we move our bodies is crucial to moving into action and getting into the right mindset. As a musician, I know how crucial breathing is. This will be a short breathe breeze through an important topic.

Breathe.

In.

Now, out.

Again.

In…

…and… out.

Once more.

In…

… then…

… out.

Each act of being aware of your breathing can bring changes to your body and mind.

For example, during exercise and working out, good trainers will tell you to breathe.

As a musician and educator, each day and each lesson includes breathing awareness and development.

However, I want to keep this short, so here is an acronym with some notes.

B: Breathe. In, then out. In, then out. Once more – in, then out.
R: Respire. It’s another word to describe breathing. From this, we get: Inspire and Inhale. Expire and Exhale. Inspiration – and Expiration – are both necessary for Life. Think about that.
E: Exhale: Again, expiration – exhaling – is necessary for life.
A: Aware: As often as you can, be aware of your breath. Go through this checklist.
T: Time yourself. If you have a little longer, count your breaths. A simple start is 4 counts in, then 4 counts out. When you’re comfortable with this, either add a pause between then in and out or extend the length of your inhalation and exhalation.
H: Health. Breathing is an incredibly necessary part of health. Often – and rightly – we focus on nutrition and exercise. How often do we consider breathing? It used to be said we only used 10% of our brain – experts tell us that newborn babies know how to breathe naturally and normally, but once we grow into the stresses and strains of life, we start to learn bad habits of breathing.
E: Environment. Consider your environment – from the quality of the air you breathe, to where you sleep, and what forms of exercise you take – and how all of this connects to your breathing.

Lastly, consider this:

Respire:
late Middle English: from Old French /respirer/ or Latin /respirare/‘breathe out’, from /re-/‘again’ + /spirare/‘breathe’.

Inspire:
ORIGIN
Middle English /enspire/, from Old French /inspirer/, from Latin /inspirare/‘breathe or blow into’ from /in-/‘into’ + /spirare/‘breathe’. The word was originally used of a divine or supernatural being, in the sense ‘impart a truth or idea to someone’.

Expire:
late Middle English: from Old French /expirer/, from Latin /exspirare/‘breathe out’, from /ex-/‘out’ + /spirare/‘breathe’.

What else is happening this week on Hybrid Consonance?

Talk On Tuesday: I’ll continue discussing “Digital Minimalism: Choosing A Focused Life in A Noisy World.” As a musician, I can totally relate to the idea of a noisy world, so I’ll be drawing on insights from my work as a music educator, as well as drawing on insights from having lived in Australia, India, and now north-east Asia – in other words, having developed some level of cultural intelligence.

Work On Wednesday: High Potential and High Performance are phrases capturing the minds and the money of a growing number of people. I am working towards the terms “Holistic High Potential.” As I prepare to speak at the Just Learning Conference 2019 on February 16th, I’ll continue to share my thoughts on this important topic. See the post about Harnessing High Potential here, and High Potential: Mindset, Motion, and Mentoring here.

Think It Through Thursday: With all the buzz around Cal Newport’s book, “Digital Minimalism,” I thought it high time I actually read and absorbed his book on finding the right work working right: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trumps Passion In Finding the Work You Love.” You’ll finally get to read a summary right here, on Hybrid Consonance.

Full Cup Friday: Like today, I’ll share three tips, three wins and highlights, and a preview of the week to come on Hybrid Consonance.

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