March 7, 2021, 5 a.m.

Presence: Three calming breaths, reflection, and a question

Presence

Hello!

This is the first issue of the newsletter with the updated format and name. Thanks for sticking with me so far.

Mindfulness

I plan to draw and/or animate some of the mindfulness, and anxiety reducing techniques I’ve been learning. Here’s the first one, entitled Three calming breaths. It’s the foundation of meditation, but don’t let that give you pause. Deep focused breathing, weather you call it meditation or not, helps get oxygen into your blood and can change your emotional state. I do these short breathing exercises before or after stressful meetings, or really anytime I can safely close my eyes and spend 30 seconds paying attention to my breathing.

If the movie doesn’t work for you right here, in your email, click the image below to view the video.

Reflection

I’ve been thinking a lot about reflection. Thinking about the how and the why behind the what. I came across this quote from Steve Jobs by way of Austin Kleon’s wonderful book Steal Like an Artist

A question for you

Here’s a thought for you to ponder. I think of this one a lot myself.

Imagine you have everything you (and your grandchildrens grandchildren) will ever need, want, or desire. You have everything.

You don’t need to do anything at all. What would you hate not doing?

What else I’ve been up to

I updated my website to include a small gallery, check it out if you’d like.

I’ve been learning a lot about sketchnoting and many other topics by working with Chris Wilson on a side project. Many thanks, Chris.

If you’re cooking up your own side project(s) and want some support and “graceful accountability” let me know. I’m happy to share what we’re putting together.

In addition to the various snark, doodles, and pictures I wrote this on my blog recently. I made a sketchnote today and you can too. It’s a how-to on the way I’ve been approaching making these sketchnotes aka visual notes.

Thank you

Hey you got to the bottom! Thanks for reading. See you next time.

You just read issue #11 of Presence. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.

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