Pause
As days go by, small incidents and big incidents are teaching me that pausing is the secret to peacefulness and a feeling of completeness.
More and more I see how important it is to learn and cultivate the art of pausing. Further, it is imperative that we practice it so that it becomes a part of us - becomes a part of who we are and what we are all about.
Never mind good thing or bad thing, happy thing or sad thing, bugging thing or ordinary thing......PAUSE.....before you say something/show your feelings/respond/react. JUST PAUSE.
The obvious fall-out of pausing is that we won't say things we might, or are likely to, regret. The not-so-obvious result of pausing is that we can savor the good/happy/fun things before giving our opinion or trying to add to the situation. So often we lose the essence of something because we are so desperately trying to put our mark on the event. If it is something we don't like, pausing will help us 'get' what we are missing - maybe we need to tweak our thinking, maybe we need to step back and take a re-look, maybe we just need to let go...or maybe we are totally losing the point by our instant reaction...We've already splashed black paint on the situation that we think-perceive as being not good for us, without stopping to think of the layers beneath the obvious one.
Pausing to let a happy-good thing soak in also changes our outlook. We can bask in that warm, comfy feeling that slowly suffuses through the whole body, stills the racket in the mind and lifts our spirits. How wonderful to just relish the cozy comfort of just quietly being.
We don't HAVE to say something or do something or respond to everything that happens, and then plunge into damage control for ourselves or for others....I do believe that the words 'Don't take it personally' is just as valid for ourselves as it is for others. If we pause, we are likely to sift out what we don't want to accept, and so not take everything that comes our way personally. Protecting ourselves from hurt is important for our well-being.
And, if we pause before saying something to anyone, then we don't have to tell that person what we said wasn't to be taken personally, when we see that our words have hurt the other person or taken away from his/her feeling of self-worth or self-esteem.
Cowardice will want you to retreat
Precipitancy will urge action
Presumption will argue miracles happen
Just PAUSE