PAUSE

Pause-Notice-Choose:

• PAUSE and take a breath
• NOTICE what is TRUE for you in this moment?
• CHOOSE an action that will empower you 

I invite you as you are reading this to take a pause. As you drop into your center with a simple breath, what do you notice?

What do you sense?

What do you hear?

What do you feel as your breath moves in and out?

Take a simple timeout in your day to have a reset, a reboot and a refocus.

The key to mindful awareness is to simply be in the present moment, the here and now. Mindful awareness is not a meditation practice but a life skill that you can carry with you everywhere in daily life. It’s an attitude to embody for deep listening and enables you to hold an attitude of non-judgement for yourself as well as for another.

The POWER of the PAUSE is another way to hold that attitude of curiosity and neutrality so you can hold space for another during open communication to deeply listen. Listening so you can truly support another without disappearing from the conversation while you formulate your response. This holding a neutral, nonjudgmental space for another is called open heart-to-heart communication.

When you can hold space for another with the attitude of mindful awareness, you are able to NOTICE what you are experiencing in the moment. Are you triggered by another? Are you feeling like you want to fix or problem solve for another? Are you holding back from speaking the unspeakable truth, Brene’ Brown said “clarity is kindness.” Sometimes the honest truth would really serve another more in the long run than deflecting the topic in the moment. For example, saying yes to something when you really would prefer to say no, or setting a boundary for a request that feels like manipulation.

How tempting it is to fill the empty space of the pause with more words when the pause can feel so awkward. It takes both practice and patience, like exercising a new muscle, to remember to pause internally as well as verbally.  Deeper spaces of receptivity and intuition are more accessible in the stillness of the moment. Images may come, nuggets of gold appear, and illuminations take root.

When you create this inner space of intuition and introspection, you are better equipped to CHOOSE an action that will empower you over one that will sabotage you. In that pause you can choose your words to respond with empowerment and not reactivity. You are able to choose an action that will rebalance you mentally or emotionally rather than going for food and drink to self sooth.

We are living very full lives and the incoming energies that are competing for our focus are seducing us to multitask so we can feel productive. The temptation to succumb to overwhelm will overload our nervous system and increase our perceptions of stress.

• In those moments when your life feels like a runaway train, simply take a breath, and PAUSE-NOTICE-CHOOSE.
• Anytime you desire to engage in mindful communication with another, simply take a breath and PAUSE-NOTICE-CHOOSE. 
• When you are tempted to self-sooth with a pattern or behavior that will sabotage your best self, simply take a breath, and PAUSE-NOTICE-CHOOSE.