Permission to Pause

“Sometimes you need to press pause

to let everything sink in.”

~Sebastian Vettel

PAUSE: A temporary stop. Taking a break to reset, to reconnect. To quiet the DO-ing for a time.

"A pause is an opening,

it acts as a portal to other options and choices."

~Robert Poynton

Establishing a rhythm of work/stress then pause/rest/reset is vital to our wellbeing. This habit helps us to unlock the ill effects of stress by completing the stress cycle, essentially giving it a beginning, middle and end. Often we get locked in the beginning and maybe even the middle and don’t come to the end, the reset. A while back I stumbled on this amazing INTERVIEW about Burnout and the Stress Cycle and more with Emily and Amelia Nagoski and Brené Brown. It really opened my eyes to stress and burnout!

This in turn helped me to recognize how our Kaiut practice with its integrated pauses within each of the sequences, the invitation to be developing the habit of being present in the moment without anticipation of what comes next. These planned pauses allow the brain time to synthesize the experience and to integrate the information that we expose in the practice into the system. This in turn has a systemic effect on the total being.

Tony Schwartz from The Energy Project says that "human beings perform best and are most productive when they alternate between periods of intense focus and intermittent renewal."

These pauses help us to develop the habit of letting go and completing the stress cycle.

Remember that the stress itself is not harmful. It is the holding on to the stress that is the problem, the stuckness!

“Self-care means giving yourself permission to pause.”

~Cecilia Tran

This skill that we practice and develop on the yoga mat then can be integrated into how we live our lives and how we deal with the stress cycle in our day to day experiences.

"It's not only moving that creates new starting points.

Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective,

an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route

to start to see new options and new possibilities."

~ Kristin Armstrong