As you head into the weekend, this is an invitation to let go, be in the moment and pause as you transition.
Jean greets viewers, sets the outdoor scene with Major, explains the Friday Exhale concept, and introduces the phrase “better, better than best” as the topic she'll explore.
Jean leads listeners through a simple, three-part breath sequence to release tension and encourage immediate physical presence, noting sensations of relaxation and inviting further body-focused breath work.
Jean invites reflection on moments from the week where you felt called to be better or the best, asks where that pressure comes from, and shares an anecdote about a client who reacted negatively to the word “best,” suggesting alternate language like evolution.
As a spin instructor, Jean discusses imposter syndrome, healthy pushing versus ego-driven competition, and the risk of pushing others to fill personal voids, reminding viewers to focus on controlling their own effort instead of comparisons.
Jean proposes opting for “none of the above” — not better, not best — and instead meeting whatever you or others need in the moment, reflecting on social media comparisons and the importance of language and curiosity about how words land.
She asks viewers how the words better/best feel to them, encourages defining and sharing what inspires them, affirms choosing the present moment for today, offers a closing breath and gratitude practice, and signs off.
Hello everybody. Happy Friday. Jean here out here on the streets with Major. Doing a little dance, a little walk. Enjoying the beautiful sunshine on this fall day. Also going to try to get to a place that might be a little less windy and a little less noisy. So, Friday afternoons. We call this Friday Exhale for a very specific reason. It's a time for us to transition from our week to the weekend. Some of us might work on the weekends, so maybe it doesn't feel like it's a big transition. But it is a moment in time that we've, probably most of us have grown up with, where when Friday happens, we feel like it's a time of transition, a time to let go.
Major has his own ideas of what's going to happen next. So we're just going to hang out here for a second. So today I call this one better, better than best or none of the above. And I'm hoping that when you dial in you can hear me. And first, before we get started, I want to explain what better, better than a best really means in this context. I also don't like having my sunglasses on because I feel like I can't see you rhetorically, can't see you. So Friday exhale. Let's do that. Let's start with the breath and just see what shifts.
See what our body is carrying. See what shifts. I'm a certified breath worker. I facilitate different types of breath and at this moment we're just going to do a simple breath and just allow ourselves to get present. So take a big inhale with me. A little pause. And a long exhale. Simply just let go. Right away my body starts to feel lighter. So let's do one more. I like to do all good things in three. So inhale, pause, exhale. On this one, I feel my shoulders release a little bit more. Did you see it?
I could feel it. And we'll have one more. Inhale. Pause. Exhale. Presence. Doesn't it feel good to just let go? In my body, I can simply feel my heart relax a little bit more. I can feel my shoulders, the tension, relax a little more. If we were to keep breathing, I would invite us to focus on different areas in our body and see what we let go when we breathe. So now that we've exhaled, I want us to think back on our week. My invitation is to just look back a little. Where were the moments during your week that you felt like you needed to be more?
Be better than. What was that invitation? What was that calling? Was it somebody inviting you? Was it someone telling you? Was it you telling yourself that that's what you needed to be better, to be more, to be better than, to be the best? I've been grappling with this conversation a lot lately of really what that means, what that consideration really is. What we're asking ourselves when we ask ourselves to be our best, when we ask ourselves to be better. Major's finding a better salad right now than what we had before.
Come on, Major. And so my invitation is we think about that better, better than best. Where does that come from? Does it come from a teacher, a coach, a parent, ourselves? in our own striving to be more. I literally have had this conversation just this afternoon with someone and when we used that language, they had a visceral reaction. It was one of my clients had come in and we were having a conversation and I said, Well, what does it feel like when you're simply just at your best? And they cringed and they were like, I hate that word.
And I was like, Why? And they said, it takes me back to a time where there's so much judgment around being more. And I was like, well, what if we change the language to evolved or evolution? So we're evolving as we move through our days. And they relaxed a lot more because that particular word felt like expansion, felt like they were enough. And I sat with that for a long time because oftentimes when I teach my swing classes, I'll be like, be your best in this moment. But what I hadn't considered is where that might take somebody when I use that language.
Now, we might not always get all the language right, and I may not know what words might send someone into a spiral or a tailspin or a negative reaction even when I have positive intent. But it does remind me to pause, to reconsider. Where does that come from? What does it really mean? For me, when I think about being my best in this moment, my best in this moment could be tired. My best in this moment could be taking my dog for a walk, and maybe it's shorter than before, but I even am reconsidering what that means for me.
So better, better than best. I hear that a lot in one of the worlds I live. I am a spin instructor. I co-own an indoor cycling studio, as I've mentioned several times before. And there's so much imposter syndrome in fitness. You wouldn't know it, maybe. You go out on Instagram or you go to your gym and you see all different people. Hi Jules, nice to see you on here. I hope you had a safe trip home. But there's so much imposter syndrome in the fitness space, so much ego. And the ones that really get me are the ones when they say, our space has zero ego.
If you have to tell me that, then there's ego there. And ego isn't always a bad thing. Ego in a normal state is moving forward, believing in ourselves. Ego in overdrive. is where we are filling a void. It's where better than, best than, everything's a competition, have to be more. But if I scale that back and I simply sit with it and I recognize that yeah, as a fitness instructor, someone that teaches spin classes or coaches people to run or do sports, There's always that element of pushing ourselves to be a little bit more.
And that's healthy, healthy growth. But it becomes unhealthy when I'm pushing someone so hard to fill my own void that I forget what their possibility is. I forget what best might mean to them. It's not about me. In this moment, all I can do is control myself. In this moment, all I can do is show up as myself, whatever version of myself can present itself. You know, I've looked back and used that language, I'm better today than I was yesterday. Well, what did that really mean? Yesterday was just a different day.
So what if I chose none of the above? Not better, not best, not better than. What if I just chose right now? What if I chose as a fitness instructor, simply believe that what I have to offer today is whatever people need in this moment? What if I chose to look out on Instagram and social medias and other studios and simply recognize that all of us are simply trying to help inspire people to believe more in themselves, to move their bodies, to be present, to grow in a way that feels healthy and inspiring to them, to feel motivated to show up for another day or feel seen for the fact that they walk through that door today.
What if instead of my studio being better than somebody else's studio, what if I recognize that what I need right now is what this studio offers and maybe tomorrow A different studio could offer me something different that I need in that moment. There's so much out there for us. There's so much in our jobs and our days where we look at our peers and we think, gosh, they're really great at X. Why can't I be that? Because you're great at something else and they're looking at you saying probably the same thing.
So on today's Friday Exhale, I'm really just sitting with a lot of what it simply means to be me in this moment. What it means to inspire people to be them in this moment. To maybe reconsider the language of enough. Does it have to be enough? Can it be simply exactly as it is? Do I always need to be moving towards something or can I simply be moving? And that's exactly right for right now. So language matters. To some people, using the word, What is your best? or using the phrase, What is your best in this moment?
Give that effort right now, that can be inspiring. If I invite someone to be 100% of this moment, that can be perfect too. We all take language differently. We all have a different history with language. And it's really important as we move through our days and through our weeks, maybe being a little more curious. When you hear the word best and if my intention is What's your best right now? If that sets you in a spiral, how might we have a conversation about what that means? What that looks like?
Where did that take me? I say that I'm not a competitive person, but yet I find myself doing competitive things. Competition for me is different. It's me showing up, doing what I can do on that day. training my body to do the most that it can do. Maybe I run faster than someone. Maybe I bike faster than someone. Maybe I bike slower than all kinds of people or run slower than all kinds of people. That can be inspiring and motivating. That can be derailing on any given day. Do I have the right answers?
No. Do I have more questions? Maybe. But as you sit here on this Friday exhale and you simply breathe, my invitation stays the same. What does it feel like to you when you use the word better? What does it mean to you when it's better than or best? How does that feel? How does that sit? When someone tells me that this restaurant is so much better than the other restaurant, when I just said that I loved some restaurant, why do we feel the need to constantly have something more? What if we were just really happy with what we have right now?
Those are my Friday thoughts. Those are my Friday exhales. So my invitation to you is define for you what that means and what you need to feel inspired and motivated and share that. Share it with one person. So for me today, I'm going to say none of the above. For me today on this Friday exhale, I'm simply just going to enjoy the beauty of this moment. It's not better than the one five minutes ago. It's not the best moment of the day. It's simply the moment that I'm in that I'm going to enjoy and appreciate.
So I hope you all have a beautiful moment right now. A simple breath that relaxes your body and an invitation to explore how words matter how they inspire you, how they spiral you. But as you move, you give yourself gratitude for moving. And celebrate that. Happy Friday, y'all. Major is on guard.
