Pausing – for just a moment or much longer – to rest and take notice, is one of the most influential things we can do to bring about change in our lives.
This seemingly simple action takes us off the treadmill of automatic reactions, and supports us to align to our present and future needs. It’s much harder to do than we give ourselves credit for, as regardless of our individual circumstances and privileges, all our bodies and brains are being conditioned to keep going by societal norms and expectations.
The good news is, every pause can be impactful in signalling to ourselves that we have a choice over what we do and how we feel. This shift in perspective and experience can be really empowering.
If a little support with pausing feels helpful, then give this reflection exercise a go – it’s designed to:
- Support a brief pause
- Develop your understanding of your experience of pausing
- Consider some easy-going ways you’d like to integrate pausing into your week ahead
To start
- This reflection exercise shares a sequence of open questions, feel free to answer them in a way that works for you – respond to your needs as you go
- To start, take a moment to figure out how you’d like to approach this. Would you prefer to think, write or type your responses?
- Take a moment to consider what you’d like to get from this exercise – how can you approach this exercise to support this intention?
- What word would sum up how you feel today? How might this influence what comes up in this exercise?
Invite pausing in
- Take a moment, closing your eyes if you’d like, and bring to mind a past experience when you have really paused and rested
- As you consider this experience, what shifts do you notice in your body?
- What was important to you about this experience?
- How are you left feeling, reflecting on this time?
Your experience of pausing
- What words does pausing bring up for you?
- To you, what does pausing look like?
- When does a feeling of pausing come up in your week? Make a list of all the times – big or small
- What things or people support you to pause?
- What situations or times feel like the opposite of pausing to you?
- What about pausing do you feel most challenging?
Take stock
- What is standing out to you now?
- What does your body need in this moment?
Finding space for pausing
- Imagine, where in your body does pausing sit?
- If comfortable doing so, breathe into this space gently
- If this space had a voice, what would it say – perhaps say these word out loud
- What about these words feels important?
Looking ahead
- Would you like to increase, decrease or keep constant the amount of pausing you do?
- What ways to pause appeal to you most? What do these ways have in common?
- Thinking about the week ahead, what pausing would you like to integrate in your days?
- What would making this change easy look like?
To close
- What have you found most useful about this exercise?
- What’s been more challenging to reflect upon?
- What do you feel like doing now?
I hope you’ve found this invitation to pause helpful – I always welcome hearing your experiences and feedback, feel free to get in touch if there’s anything you’d like to share.
If you’d like to receive emails from me including more exercises like this along with inspiration to support you through the highs and lows of bringing about new and challenging things, then sign up for my newsletter in the footer below.
