Imagine if you had 5 minutes to pause a situation and think and feel? You didn’t react right away because you could take a breath, stop and play through the different scenarios in your mind and heart. Then once you’ve absorbed the energy that felt the best, you pressed play and continued on.
Life is constantly testing us. Just when we feel we have our footing, something will come up and throw us off balance. Just when we get our workout routine rolling, an injury comes up. Just when we have a meditation practice in the morning, work shifts and changes taking away from our time to contemplate. Just when we are in a good place and connected to a loved one, disappointment creeps in. Just when we find our voice, we doubt our place.
Imagine if we could pause our life at times. Just to look at it from all angles and choose the next step that would benefit us and the people around us. How do we know when to press pause?
The past few weeks, I’ve been very interested in cycles and habits because perhaps if I understand my habits within my cycles, I can change the way I react in them. Perhaps I'll know when to press pause.
What are cycles? Think of something that is going in your life that seems to come up often. Maybe it’s an emotional state, a conversation, a hope or expectation, a theme or fear. We all have themes in our life. Collective to include the world around us and individual that take place in our own mind and heart. The hardest part about being in a cycle is not getting consumed by it. Keeping oneself expansive so we don’t get run over by the same energy, over and over again.
What are habits? The things we like to do in a certain way. The foods we like to eat. The movements and music we like to listen to. The way we process and hide. The way we express ourselves. We all have habits. Some habits aid us in our progress of growth. Other habits drown us and keep us small. We create habits in our life and they are also passed down from our family and society.
Cycles are full of energy. Habits are full of past experience. What if we could change our reactions in our cycles by shifting our habits?
Do you have a go to reaction? It would depend on the situation but what do you lean towards? Mine is anger. I get mad pretty fast, even after a decade of practicing yoga and meditation. I’ve definitely grown and don’t react as much but I am practicing not reacting so QUICKLY. What if we learn how to handle ourselves differently instead of going to what is familiar?
What if we press pause? Ask ourselves is our reaction coming from the past? Is my reaction going to help me? Hurt me? Help others? Hurt others? Is the reaction going to take up a lot of energy? What if we actually keep ourselves in one place because we aren’t getting the lesson and just respond from what is familiar, a habit?
Practicing awareness in the present moment brings light into our habits. We’ll be more honest with ourself where the emotion is coming from. We’ll be more interested if the emotion is going help or hurt us. We’ll be able to PAUSE and take a breath. Ask yourself how do I, in this moment of my life, want and need to react?
Be aware of your habits and make it a practice. Be aware of your cycles and decide what energy you'll allow in.
Let's make a habit at pressing pause as many times as we'd like.
