The School of Practical Philosophy teaches an exercise called ‘The Pause’. This simple technique is designed to bring you into the present moment in as little as 30 seconds, although 5 – 15 minutes is ideal. The premise being that we don't all have the inclination or hours in our day to meditate or to spend time in a sanctuary, but we can find a moment to pause and connect.
In our daily rush, we have become more and more disconnected from the present moment as we perform our tasks at enormous speed and pressure, often not even remembering the details, like how many robots you drove through on your way to work or if you remembered to lock the door on your way out...
“We spend so much of our time in our heads thinking about the past or the future, we are frequently not present.”
Energetically speaking, this is the same as taking a picture of a moving subject and landing up with a blurred image! Is it any wonder that we land up feeling exhausted, blurry and fuzzed at the end of a busy day or week?
For the time it takes to do ‘The Pause’ you sit still and allow yourself to come into focus like you do for a photograph. Once done,everything speeds up again and you are off! But now, you are more collected than before and your energy has had an opportunity to connect, ground and centre.
“The Pause technique teaches us to literally pause in the moment and bring your attention to each of your physical senses”
The Pause, in 7 simple steps
1
Choose a time between activities, where a natural break occurs, for example between meetings and lunch or fetching the kids from school.
2
Stop what you are doing and take a few deep breaths. Visualise a line running through the top of your head, down your spine and into the earth below. As you breathe, imagine you are gathering yourself towards this line.
3
Start with your sense of sight and look at the light, shapes, colours and textures surrounding you as though you have never seen them before. Really drink in the visual experience.
4
Next tune your hearing to the sounds around you. Extend your hearing to the furthest sound you can hear and then listen for the closest. Again as if you are hearing for the first time. Don't presume to know what you are going to hear, just listen.
5
Now move to your sense of touch and feel your body, your clothes against your skin, the temperature in the room, the sensation of whatever your body is resting on and so forth. Just observing and feeling, no running mental commentary.
6
Finally bring your focus to your sense of smell and taste, allowing yourself to smell aromas around you, like perhaps the steaming cup of coffee on your desk. Now notice any tastes, for example the lingering minty freshness of toothpaste in your mouth, from brushing your teeth earlier.
7
Once done, observe and note the difference between how you felt when you started and how you feel after the exercise.
As you become familiar with this practice, your ability to tap into the present becomes exceptionally quick and rewarding, leaving you feeling connected, refreshed and ready for the next part of your day, far less blurry and exhausted than before!
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