Taking a Pause

I recently had major surgery, and I thought during my recovery I would have time to finish my book, as well as think about my next one. My plan was to sit in bed and work while I healed. However, I had a watershed pivotal moment. I decided to do nothing.

Stopping was attractive and scary.

I had stopped when I walked El Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, which at first was a goal to be achieved rather than an experience to be enjoyed. As the days passed I got into the rhythm and allowed myself just to be.

Here’s what I have learned: if you don’t stop to think, life will force you to stop and think. The irony is, if you make slowing down the goal it sets you up to fail. There is more to life than getting things done.

Time isn’t a commodity at all and it isn’t scarce: 45 minutes spent with someone you deeply love is not the same as 45 minutes in my killer spin class.

I want to invite you to let go of the idea that time is linear and think of it the same way we experience it, like elastic, variable, and layered. I am not interested in how you can cram more into your life but in how you get more out of it.

A pause is an opening. And it acts as a portal to other options and choices.

How do you pause?

1. You start with breath, which connects the mind and the body.
2. Go outside and plant your feet in the grass. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds.
3. Take a slow walk. Be silent. Don’t think, just look and take in all the beauty that surrounds you.
4. A weekly pause was built into religious traditions – a day of rest. Determine if taking a day of rest is right for you.
5. Go somewhere. There is power in the place. I go to Sedona, and my son goes to Burning Man for example.
6. Use your birthday as a pause. Take a day and do nothing.

This isn’t complicated but it is absorbing. A pause is an opening, which allows, enables, permits, and invites all sorts of possibilities. A pause does not demand, command, or control. It allows something to happen which would otherwise not occur, and you never quite know what that will be.

Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Feng Shui.