why “a place to pause”?

a place to pause was born in the quiet moments I sat on the cool morning sand and looked out across the lake before me - seeing the ripples in the waves, feeling the breeze on my face, noticing where the sky met the water - the mornings where I sat alone tending to my meditation practice. Here, I found an embodying sense of calm as I sat with something much bigger than myself, the natural world, coupled with this opportunity to attend inward – the opportunity to pause.

these moments were nourishing, wholesome, and shifted the entirety of my day.

what a gift it was to have the time and space dedicated to my practice, and to emerge from it feeling reenergized, whole, and centered. I became more myself in these moments, and wondered how life might look and feel different if we all found these moments.

we all need and deserve a space to physically, emotionally, and energetically reset. we all need and deserve to find where that place is, who that place is with, and to notice how different it feels once we have accessed these places and these parts of ourselves. and yet we don’t all have access to a serene lakeside; we don’t all have a forest trail in our backyard, or membership to a wellness studio – and we don’t need to. because this calm lives within us.

these quiet mornings helped me return to the things we always have - our breath and our mindfulness.
we can choose to slow down and have stillness in the moment. we can take time and space to sit with our thoughts, emotions, and sensations. we can reflect on our interactions and explore what is beneath the surface of our reactions, urges, and tensions. and we can consciously and intentionally decide to align with our values, and return to our core self. all of this lives within us, but sometimes we need some help finding it, sometimes we need help uncovering our layers, picking through the pieces of heartbreak, misguidance, failure, doubt, fear, confusion, change, you name it.

my morning practice did not arise out of thin air. it took dedication, intention, and guidance. yes- I accessed help; I looked outside myself to enrich and deepen my relationship with myself. I chose to find something that spoke to me, helped me align with the person I wanted to be, and let me show up differently for the remainder of my day. I found my moments to pause and simply be, and I want to help you do the same.

we have countless opportunities to come back to ourselves and be mindful. it doesn’t have to be a meditation practice on the cool sand of a September morning. it can be in the everyday moments that pass without us realizing. being mindful in these moments might be simpler than you imagine. it might be feeling the texture of an object that sits on your desk; feeling the grass beneath your bare feet; listening to the sounds of the world around you waking up; feeling the warmth of the coffee cup in your hands; listening to your coworker’s laughter; attuning to your child’s heartbeat as they snuggle in your arms; noticing how your body responds to a song; feeling the temperature of your partner’s hand in yours; noticing how your parent’s face lights up when they talk about something they love; noticing the change in your pet’s breathing as they fall asleep. there is opportunity all around us to be with the moments of our lives. no matter how small, or seemingly insignificant these moments might feel, they amount to the hours, days, weeks, years of our life.
I urge you to be with your life, to connect with yourself, to feel what is happening, and to notice how different you feel once you have attended inward, and connected mindfully with these moments.

if this seems too difficult to do on your own – you aren’t alone. many people fear sitting with themselves, have been taught to stay busy, to feel guilty taking care of themselves, or don’t know how to shut off the busyness of their minds. if this is you -  there is an abundance of therapists, coaches, mental health workers, and healers who want to support you, who want to help you alleviate the tension, the unease, the heaviness, to feel lighter, more yourself, and more connected to your life. I wonder, how might life look and feel different if we all find these moments, if we all become more ourselves, more connected to our lives?

we all need and deserve to find places to pause and be with the moments of our lives. it’s your turn to find yours.