What is Your Motivator?

Your day begins with an alarm and is propelled forward by the dictates of who you live with, where you work, the people you are appointed to meet. The landscape of each day moves you as you follow along obediently to meet your obligations. Amidst it all there is a need for you to stop, to take a break, to breathe. The question is there as to whether you are allowing those moments for yourself.

Where are you when life consumes so much of your day that you have lost site of your own sovereignty?

Where are you when you give your power away? Just keep saying yes, yes, yes.

Where are you when you find yourself at the end of the to do list, the end of the scheduled commitments, when no more is being asked of you? Have you dropped on the couch to mindlessly watch some TV or fallen into bed and passed out with your phone glowing in your hand?

How do you reclaim this precious life for yourself even if you are in the midst of raising a family, or running a business, or have a really full plate of commitments?

Little pauses.

I invite you to try taking little pauses. They are peppered all over your day, but you are missing them. You have gotten so used to doing that not doing seems inaccessible.

Let’s find some in all the ordinary places of your day:

 In your morning shower take a pause and focus on breath as the hot water rushes over you. Breathe slow, mindful breaths and just be in the shower.  

Drinking your morning beverage stop and sit, look out the window and just observe what you see.

Stopping in traffic or at a light, look up to the sky, breathe mindful breaths and let your mind relax.

On a bathroom break at work, run outside and turn your face to the sky, open your arms wide and take big expansive breaths.

When you first get home, sit down, and allow for some quiet. If you have kids, invite them to join you for a quiet pause all cuddled up together. Ask them to breathe 10 super slow breaths with you.

These Little Pauses are truly not about time, they are about self-care and living a more mindful, slower paced life. You are recalibrating your brain and your Self to not perpetually push yourself to the next thing and the next thing. It is an exhausting lifestyle, and it is not the best model to show our children.

I remember my mom reading the Wall Street Journal while sipping her watered-down instant coffee, and my dad doing crossword puzzles while listening to classical music. It never occurred to me that they were lazy or useless people, they showed me hard work and they showed me how they enjoyed their own interests. Admittedly, I grew up in a generation where parents did not interact much with their children and there is plenty to unpack there. I think we have swung too far in the other direction, though. Children crave independence, time to explore their toys, or their yard, or their own inner world without their parents playing along. Give them their time and take yours too.

Little pauses can turn into something breathtaking!