Stopping for a Mindful Pause

I am sharing this mindfulness exercise in the hope that you will find this beneficial, and may make a huge difference in your work and life.

What is a Mindful Pause?

We are so busy at work and in life. We go from task to task very busy doing – yes we should be called human doings instead of human beings.

The acronym STOP can stand for:

S – Stop and be still

T – Take Notice

O – Options

P – Proceed

Let’s see how we integrate this STOPing into our daily life as a transitional pause between activities. Give ourselves a minute of breathing space before we continue.

This is what you do:

In between activities STOP for a minute or two

• Put your phone into Airplane mode;
• Try to switch off any notifications, close your door, try to set yourself up for a couple of minutes of silence;
• Sit on a chair with your feet on the floor;
• Place your hands gently on your lap/knees;
• Look down and if you may close your eyes;
• Ask yourself: What is my internal landscape like right now? What thoughts are present? What do I feel? What sensations do I feel in my body;
• As you notice your internal weather right now simply observe without judging, analyzing or trying to change anything – be the observer;
• Take notice of your breathing perhaps you may want to put your hand on your belly and notice the in-breath and out-breath. Again we do all this without any effort, rather simply just breathing in breathing out, breathing in and out and simply observing;
• You may want to expand your awareness to the room and your entire body and breath in and out. Perhaps you may be aware of sounds or noise nearby. Whatever you notice is OK and simply be aware;
• As you come to the end of the short meditation you may want to thank yourself for stopping for these few minutes. Its a time to nurture yourself and care for yourself;
• Before you open your eyes you can ask yourself: what is the most important thing that I want to do now when I open my eyes;
• Open your eyes and smile if you may – you are ready to move into your next moment.

You may want to create yourself a reminder to do these pauses if you see that the day ends and you have not done this.

Here is a recording for you to use during your first few times you do this exercise.  Use the recording initially so that you remember the guidelines. When you become familiar with the guidelines my recommendation is to sit in silence for a couple of minutes without any sound (for example without the background water that you hear on the recording).