Why it’s good for our hearts and minds to press ‘pause’ with intention.

A young girl sitting in a field of daisies facing away from the camera into the sun that is casting a bright ray of light across the meadow from behind some trees.

How often do you give yourself permission to press pause on the busyness and autopilot of life?

Those times when it’s feeling overwhelming, confusing, and too much. Or when you’re feeling like you’re drifting off course, or are already stranded somewhere you don’t necessarily want to be.

And how often do you ignore those little niggles telling you to ‘step away’ from the madness, even just for a moment, and instead you keep on going, pushing through, rinse and repeat?

There’s something you should know.

There’s a real power in an intentional pause.

Pressing Pause

When we watch a film, or something on TV, and we decide we need to grab a cup of tea, pick up that call, deal with the spilt smoothie, dry off a soggy moggy - we can simply press pause.

Pressing pause allows us to stop what we’re doing and focus on something else until we’re ready to get back to our viewing.

If we’re reading a book, we can put a book-mark in: press pause on our reading, and come back to it when we’re ready.

If we’re out on a hike and we get tired, we can find somewhere to sit and rest, have a cuppa and a snack to refuel our energy stocks and allow our muscles to recharge.

But in life it often feels much harder.

I know I have lived a huge chunk of my life getting carried along with the rushing and constant stream of things that don’t let you press pause. 

I juggled work priorities with home, kids, partners, friends, hobbies, exercise,  home-working with other people in the house also homeworking, with school runs (or home-schooling), housework, shopping, vaccinations, walking the dog, feeding the cat/rabbit/fish, mopping a feverish brow…and found myself busy, busy, busy, with never any time to stop and full of worry about all the things I hadn’t done and still had to to that were on my ever-so-long to-do-lists and a tonne of ‘stuff’ - with little to no ‘time’ for myself.

No time or space to think about and connect with my needs and wants.  

So I just kept going.  Getting more and more overloaded and exhausted, and further and further away from knowing who ‘I’ was.

I told myself that ‘at some point’ I’d find the time.

The Problem with NOT pausing

Yet instead I found myself with an ever growing longing to press pause so I could just take a breath and recharge, untangle my busy brain, recharge my energy, calm my overwhelmed emotions, and remind myself that I still existed as a unique entity in this world.

But I didn’t – because I was stuck on the merry-go-round of busy-ness, and couldn’t seem to slow it down for long enough to get off, even for a moment – because I was waiting.

Waiting for the ‘right’ time.

Waiting to be given permission.

Waiting for someone else to tell me that it’s time I got off for a while.

Waiting for someone else to slow it down, and say “ here you go, here’s your time”.

The problem is - this doesn’t ever happen (unless you completely burnt out – then someone might insist that you get off for a quick breather, just until you’ve recovered enough to get back on and start doing all the things they need you to do again...).

The Power in the Pause

What I have learned is that I can be in charge of when I get off my merry-go-round.

Yes, of course, there are lots of things that I can’t literally press pause on – unlike the TV or a book, other people still go about their business whether I am with them doing it or not. 

And I get to decide that if I need to press pause and take a breath, I can. 

I give myself permission.

I get to decide that my need to take a breath is as important as all the other things. 

I can make sure that I put time in my schedule for pausing.  There are some things that can wait or even be ditched completely to allow me to press pause (e.g. in my house, ironing is for special occasions only).

So, whether that’s 5 minutes at the start of every day, to breath, to connect to my heart and allow my mind time to settle.

Or an hour or two every week or month for a take-stock and evaluate.

Or daily time spent in nature, on my own, to reflect and recharge.

Or a dedicated time now and then spent away from the day-to-day to really deeply contemplate and reconnect with my heart and soul.

I give myself permission to press pause. 

I decide to schedule ‘pauses’ into my week.

I choose to prioritise ‘pauses’ as part of my self-care so I have the headspace and energy to bring my best to my life and the people in it.

Kids and animals do it naturally when they need to. To just sit and be. To rest. To recharge. To walk away for a while.

And you can too.

So, what will you do to bring more pause for breath into your life?

Will you decide to slow down the merry-go-round and get off from time to time, so you can take a breath and reconnect with you?

If you love the sound of a pressing pause, but need a little nudge, you could start by signing-up for my newsletter and give yourself permission to grab a cuppa, find somewhere cosy and dive into the regular snippets, musings and nature inspired coaching tips, insights and inspiration delivered to your inbox, to help you start re-imagining midlife so you can reconnect with and redefine what your best life looks like, and start living it!