If reincarnation is real, I want to come back as someone’s beloved pet cat. I’m envious of how many hours a day our cat Taffy gets to sleep. Not only that, she doesn’t have to spend any time preparing her food or washing dishes when she’s done eating. She doesn’t have work to do or bills to pay. I want a life like that!
This morning I woke up exhausted. I hadn't gotten enough sleep, but my anxious mind was telling me to get out of bed. I had things to do. So I got up and ate breakfast, hoping that would give me the energy I needed to accomplish today’s tasks. It didn't.
Normally, I push myself to do what I think I must regardless of how I feel. Today, I tried a different approach. I went back to bed.
When I got up a couple of hours later, I was relaxed and much more capable of tackling my “to-do” list. I had paused long enough to recharge and function better than I would have otherwise.
I thought about how my laptop sometimes freezes, and I get a message like “this page is not responding.” Occasionally, I have to do a forced shutdown and restart it because none of the usual methods work.
There are also times it works so slowly that it can’t keep up with my keystrokes. I have to pause and wait until what I’ve already typed appears on the screen before I can type more words.
Humans are like computers in that respect. We need time to process information. Our lives require updates when old methods don't work anymore or new data becomes available. Sometimes our systems get overwhelmed and have to pause or shut down completely before we can function properly.
It’s not as easy for us to pause or restart as it is for computers. There are all kinds of pressures, both internal and external, to ignore the signs that we need to, pretend nothing is wrong, and keep going.
A serious illness, injury, or even a worldwide pandemic may be what it takes to make us realize how badly we need to pause or restart.
I’m glad that I was able to take the pause I needed today. I hope you’re able to do the same whenever you need one.
Some questions to ask yourself:
How do my mind, body, and spirit let me know I need to pause or restart?
When I get those signals, how do I respond?
What kind of pause or restart do I need (sleep, nature walk, vacation, new job, etc)?
How can I make that pause or restart happen?
I’d love for you to share your answers in the comments. I’m especially interested in the kinds of pauses you find most helpful and what you do to ensure you take them.
The Power of a Pause
I've scheduled a retreat for tomorrow. Over the years I've been better at allowing myself a pause. Sometimes better than others. Being kind to ourselves is important especially if I am going to love my neighbor as myself! Glad you took a pause
I try to take a pause every morning, by usually a meditation routine, which allows me to slow my breathing down if I am feeling anxious. And the meditation routine is very calming. I did notice later in the day because I have started a painting, my anxiety comes up. It seems to be a performance anxiety. Once I start painting I am fine. So when the performance anxiety came up this time I told myself, "Laura, this happens every time when you start painting, just know you calm yourself down when you are mixing colors, and you will work through it. Even if you don't like how a shape or color is looking you can change it." Then I calm down and just start painting.