Did you know a given thought can be generated and acted on in less than 150 ms.

I believe in the power of a PAUSE. Building the habit of a pause leads to co-creation. Leads to empathy. Curiosity. Intentional Impact.

There are numerous studies on the value of mindfulness, which is essentially your ability to PAUSE and notice what is going on without judgement. Practicing mindfulness, in whatever form works for you, helps you increase that muscle strength to be in present and in choice.

I can remember once being on a beautiful island that oozed with rest, relaxation and people focused on simply “being”. As one trip came to an end, I recall an individual saying with a bit of sorrow “We go back to the real world tomorrow”. And another quickly replied “No this is the real world. Where we go tomorrow is the experiment”.

It was an interesting thing to ponder that each day as we go about our jobs, taking care of our families, relationships, etc – that this is the experiment for us to continually learn and refine. That those places and moments where we feel truly relaxed and comfortable and natural – that those are the authentic moments. And everything else is a version of us trying to be authentic but in a different set of conditions. Challenges. Tests.

By practicing mindfulness we are practicing increasing our meta-cognition muscle. Which is essentially that ability for our brain to pause, look around, assess the situation and with greater awareness of what is present take action. Action that is more creative vs. re-active. Action that is more authentic to who we would more naturally be if we were on a far away island with a beautiful sunset just off the distance of the blue horizon.

The below collection of videos are short snippets of different ways we can PAUSE. Each come from the book PAUSE… which can be purchased here <>. The authors created 52 different ways for us to embrace a PAUSE and as such practice mindfulness.

VIDEO LINKS

Pause Introduction – https://youtu.be/O3zDMWCp1c0

Pause Tip Video Week 1 – https://youtu.be/zZtc1_iwuNA

Pause Tip Video Week 2 – https://youtu.be/AAPw5vk9Imc

Pause Tip Video Week 3 – https://youtu.be/t_ISXb-EhOQ

Pause Tip Video Week 4 – https://youtu.be/4ehvptljDV0

Pause Tip Video Week 5 – https://youtu.be/xBLIdZWEwvI

Pause Tip Video Week 6 – https://youtu.be/lGPS1DKJdsg

If you enjoy these videos and would like to dive deeper into the technique of meditation, a more specific form of mindfulness practice, then my favourite tools and leaders in this area are :

Pema Chodron – Check out her Audible Collection call The Pema Chodron Audio Collection or find her on youtube

Insight Timer – Smart Phone App