Do you feel like your life is rushing by? Like there is no space to breathe, to play, to create, to love? It's just task, errand, work, TV, sleep...Facebook videos...What do we do with our time? Do we even know?
I love my work... I get to explore and play with these questions everyday. How can we make cleaning our homes not only healthy and efficient but enjoyable and nourishing? How can we love our lives and have room to play in any weather and any season?
Pausing...do you pause? Or rush from task to task, from action to action to rest and then up and going again. Do we let our breath complete it's cycle, our food space to digest, our minds space to wonder and ponder? Do we think of our lives as circles repeating or a race to run?
As the new year rolls around, I'm fascinated by our habits. I live in the world of habits. Most of my coaching is around not goals but daily habits. Cleaning, breathing, un-cluttering, health, happiness, creating space to ....????
These are lifestyle habits more than goal driven actions. A lifestyle action focuses more on the practice of doing... to get the outcome you wish. A goal driven action focuses on the end result. I believe in enjoying the journey...and arriving where we wish to go.
Pausing gives our daily music form. We relax our bodies, untangle our minds and let our natural beauty have space to be. Think of time as a circle instead of a destination. Our destinations are all the same...we will all pass away. This is life. If we focus on the circles within our life's journey, we give ourselves space to play, to nourish and improve our life skills.
Where are the circles? And what do they have to do with Pausing?
Circles...each minute is 60 seconds, an hour 60 minutes, a day 24 hours, a week, 7 days a month 30 days, a season 3 months, a year 12 months...After each segment- we circle back to the beginning. We are back to January. Circles give us rhythm. They give us natural measurements. They move with the seasons and are ever shifting with the seasons.
Pausing...is learning to pause within the circles. To pause between projects, at the beginning of each new day...at the end. Pausing before we eat to be thankful and present. Pausing before we begin to visualize how we want this segment to go...how we want to feel. Pausing at the end of a cycle a circle to ask...how did this go? What could we have done differently, what did we love?
The truth is each second is a gift. No matter what we are doing, it is our lives. Our lives are impermanent, imperfect and uniquely our own..we share this with others. Learning to pause between the circles... to be present and to relax.
When we are in a relaxed and receptive state we are more intuitive. When we are happy we are healthier, our ability to problem solve higher, our natural ease of connection is improved.
When we learn to pause, we let our bodies relax... We hop off the treadmill and go wash dishes. And then we have a conversation. We put down our cell phones, turn off the marathon tv series. We put down our fork and smile. We create space to create.
When we pause, we give our lives space. By thinking in terms of circles. We can practice being and living instead of racing. This is not a practice of wondering around. we still have a vision of our future and how we want to feel. The practice of pausing and feeling makes the path more enjoyable. And when we get to our destination we are not out of breath, exhausted and depleted by life... but nourished each step along the way.
We live in abundance. Sometimes we need to pause from abundance to breathe. To create nourishment instead of gathering more.
Do this...
Practice pausing. 3 times a day for 3 minutes each pause. Become still. listen, breath, smile, relax your shoulders, breathe deeper and slower. Soften your eyes, relax your neck, soften your belly and stand tall. gently put your shoulder blades down from your ears and into your back pockets. Listen... Listen what do you hear? How does your body feel?
Finish with saying a little blessing or kindness to someone or something.
See your world as you wish it to be.
And this... create a home for your pause... first thing in the morning, before sleep, before you eat... when you pee, between projects... find a home for your pause.
And then do this... Let me know how it goes. Do this for a week. or a day.. how did it feel. Try it again tomorrow...
Happy Pausing,
Denise Frakes- life and home coach
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