Why Pause Under Pressure?
A thunderstorm breaks
Amidst the pressures of daily life - that email, phone call or conversation that triggers you - it’s easy to be thrown “off-center”.
What happens then? Most likely you default back to your habitual patterns, your conditioning or any other name you want to call it. These have been cultivated over time to keep you safe. They become automatic reactions and when you react automatically - rather than respond intentionally - you limit your choices. How? Because you only see one way to act (eg. shout or leave the room). You allow no space between the trigger and the action. Viktor E. Frankl put it in the best possible way: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This is a life-long practice. For me too. Being calm and grounded the whole time was never the point. Becoming more self-aware and learning to sense and feel below the head was.
So, if you want to cultivate greater capacity to be present, open and deeply connect with yourself, the people and the world around you, this is your invitation.
Listen to the audio with my voice and follow along. Start paying attention with deep curiosity. This is a fundamental practice I learned with Strozzi Institute, one that I keep coming back to and I am grateful to pass it on.
May you offer yourself, each other, the communities you belong in, your undivided attention. If you want to share anything that emerged and continue exploring together, I am here.
