Hello,
I'm Alice and today's micro meditation is called Permission to Pause.
It's designed to help you take a gentle break from doing,
Thinking or managing and instead reconnect with being.
Take a moment to settle wherever you are.
Let your shoulders drop,
Unclench your jaw,
Relax your tongue and if it feels right close your eyes or soften your gaze.
Feel the weight of your body supported by the surface beneath you.
Let yourself arrive in this moment.
Now bring your attention to your breath and in your own time and in your own way I invite you to take a gentle and slow deep inhale and a soft steady exhale and again inhale and exhale and one last time if it feels right for you a deep inhale and an exhale however feels right for you.
Now just breathe in your own way and at your own pace,
Gently focusing your attention only to the breath.
If it helps you can count one to inhale and two to exhale,
One to inhale and two to exhale.
Let each breath remind you that you're safe to take this pause today.
You don't have to earn this moment,
It's already yours.
Now when you are ready gently let go of focusing on the breath.
Today I'd like to talk about pausing,
Most of us are so used to being busy that pausing can feel uncomfortable,
Even wrong.
We tell ourselves we'll rest when everything's done but of course everything is never done.
The truth is your body and mind were never designed to be on all the time.
Pausing isn't weakness,
It's wisdom.
When you pause your nervous system shifts out of survival mode.
Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol slow down and your body begins to repair,
Digest and rebalance all on its own.
So as you sit here now notice how it feels to stop just for a moment,
To give yourself permission to do nothing,
To breathe,
To exist without rushing to the next thing.
You don't have to fix anything in this pause,
You just have to be here,
That's enough.
Now when you are ready bring small movements to your fingers and toes,
Awakening the body slowly and gently.
Feel the softness that comes when you stop pushing,
Even for a few moments.
Carry that softness into the rest of your day knowing that each pause is a nervous system reset.
I hope you enjoyed today's micro meditation and I hope you are able to carry this small calm with you wherever you go next.
This is a space you can return to whenever you need.
