Pause for a moment

Sometimes you have to step back and pause.

It is the building of that into your schedule which I would like to talk about here.

For the last few months, I have been mostly absent from the ‘in the thick of it’ place. It has not been like I was sitting on my fat lazy arse eating biscuits and drinking tea, I had been ticking over, but a step back had to be taken. And in my case I pushed the edges and was forced to ease off.

I love a sports analogy and having played a team sport and also supported a high-end athlete, I know the enormous value of a rest and a break. Don’t do it and energy reduces, performance reduces, and injury is more likely.

So, a pause I have had. In fairness the intensity of what I was doing was high, so I’ll not beat myself up at all.

There were serious personal issues that had to be dealt with, planning that needed to be done, finances put in place, professional steps to be taken, and, what I thought would be a break but was still tough mentally, trekking adventures to be embarked upon.

I had been tired and easily drained, easily getting out of breath, for a few weeks but nothing really to nail it down to. My son in law suggested it might be ‘long covid’ as the symptoms matched someone he knew with it. Except that I had not knowingly had covid. Then the trekking, which was in unexpected heat and at (expected) altitude, ended up with a fortnights blast (literally) of, let’s just call them the ‘trots’ needing antibiotics. Followed a week or so later with ‘yer actual’ Covid (my first time – that I know of) and had to delay a further trek. Brain fog littered the whole period.

But the point here is not a pity party, but to show that the indicators were there to pause, but I didn’t. Quite the opposite, I kept pushing and developing. My head space was full. I had reduced considerably my previous pause points of having a Reiki session, doing yoga, writing (not a pause point for everyone, but it is for me), a cuppa with my mate, and meditation moments had all but gone.

And so, it was forced upon me to pause, reset to what works for me.

We have all, as a world community, gone through some heavy times this last two years or so, some have had significant personal issues, others less so, and yet for some there have been positive tuning points. Sadly a few are no longer with us on earth.

I am sure for lots of people the urge to get ‘back to normal’ was intense and not realising that everyone has been affected by the lockdown, we have tried to get into top gear and get sprinting again straight away.

I had the privilege recently to be asked to read over some literature that a friend was developing. I hadn’t realised then that this was not only to become a well-timed pause point for me, but the content was beautifully written and spoke to me directly. It was another nudge to take notice. Another nudge to get back onto my track.

And so, I would urge all of us to take note of ourselves and the nudges that come our way. My coach James often asks me ‘does it feel light, or does it feel heavy’? The point being that lightness is an indicator of a positive direction, heaviness the opposite. But the question also makes me stop to breathe for a few seconds, review how I feel, whether it is uplifting or not. Whether it is damaging or not.

Tune into yourself by taking those moments during the day when you can, just for a few seconds, look up to the sky, sink into the vastness of space, and create a gap within the bucket load of thoughts and diversions, that allows you to keep in touch with the real you and not the you that everyone else expects.

Plan it or wing it, but take a gap moment. Pause.