The Essential Rhythm to Power Your Days

You may not realize this, but breathing is more than just inhales and exhales.

If you slow it down and pay attention, you’ll notice that it has a 4-part rhythm, with a pause at the top of every inhale and the bottom of every exhale.

Inhale. Pause at the fullness. Exhale. Pause at the empty.

The Primordial Rhythm of Life

This rhythm is the primordial rhythm of life itself. It’s mirrored in the cycles of the seasons, the cycles of the day, the lunar cycle, and the menstrual cycle.

Seasons: Inhale for rising of spring. Pause at the fullness of summer. Exhale for the descent of autumn (“fall”). Pause in the emptiness of winter.

The Day: Inhale for the rising of the sun at dawn. Pause at “high noon” — when the sun reaches its peak for the day. Exhale for the descent of the sun in the afternoon. Pause at the dark of “midnight,” when the Sun is at it’s nadir.

Lunar Cycle: Inhale with the crescent moon. Pause at the full moon. Exhale as the moon wanes. Pause at the emptiness of the new moon.

Menstrual Cycle: Inhale for the follicular phase, when estrogen builds. Pause at ovulation, the moment of peak fertility. Exhale for the luteal phase, when hormones decline. Pause for the release and emptiness of the uterus.

Many physiological functions are tied to the circadian rhythm; they require proper calibration of our inner clocks to function properly.

This rhythm is essential to a well-functioning life.

Applying This Rhythm to Your Practical Activities

We can use this pattern to plan more effective days, workouts, class structures, and course curriculums.

In a workout: Inhale for the warm up. Build to the height of effort. Exhale for a cool down. Pause at the end to recalibrate.

In a class or course curriculum: Inhale for the introduction materials. Build to the most crucial lesson. Exhale for the harvesting of knowledge. Pause to integrate.

This rhythm applies on both micro and macro levels. A multi-week course will follow this pattern over the duration of the course as well as within each weekly session. A good workout will follow this rhythm both to the entire duration of the workout as well as within each segment of the workout.

An effective day is the same as an effective multi-circuit workout, where each activity and the entire sequence of events follows this rhythm.

Initiate, build, pause, taper, pause.

The pause keeps us on track. It helps us calibrate and regulate.

The Consequence of Losing the Pause

The problem is that we often lose the pause. We over-schedule our days, leaving no space for transition and recalibration. We work too much without breaks. We prize activity over rest. We don’t create space to integrate an experience or a lesson before we move on to the next thing. In the rush to get from one thing to the next, or one place to the next, we don’t pause to absorb what we just did.

This approach has consequences.

When we don’t pause, we lose the essential rhythm of life.

Read: Why It’s So Hard to Pause

When we lose the pause in breathing, we veer into potential hyperventilation. There are sometimes valid reasons to breathe in this way — it can be intentionally activating and stimulating. But if we do this unconsciously or for an extended period of time, we lose connection with the regulating phases that stabilize us.

The same is true in structuring a day. When we cram as much as possible into our schedules, with back-to-back meetings and no space between events, we leave no time for reflection, recalibration, or regulation. It’s a recipe for burnout and dysregulation.

Read: 5 Elements of Effective Time Blocking

Libra Season’s Lesson: Remember the Pause

One of the crucial lessons of Libra season is to remember the pause.

After the frenetic activity of Virgo season’s harvest and hard work, Libra Libra season starts with the equinox — a moment of stillness that reminds us to pause.

The scales remind us to bring things back into balance. To recalibrate in order to reset our rhythm. Not just at the end of the day when the work is done, but during the course of the day.

Every piece of music incorporates rests — mini pauses. The rests are essential to creating harmony and melody. They allow the music to flow. So too, in our days.