息

Bottom heart radical — four strokes picturing the heart organ. Combined with the nose above, the picture is breath traveling from nose to heart: the original meaning was 'to breathe,' which extended to 'rest, pause' (catching your breath) and 'news, message' (what you breathe out as speech). Family: 思, 感, 念.

Top 自 was originally a pictograph of a nose seen head-on — the part of yourself you point to when you say 'me' in Chinese. Here it keeps the literal 'nose' meaning: 息 depicts breath coming out of the nose and reaching the heart. Same nose-origin in 鼻 (with the extra cosmetic 田+廾 below).