Hello,
My name is Catherine Cook-Katon.
The title of this meditation is Pausing on Purpose.
Before I start,
Be sure you are seated in a comfortable position and feel well grounded.
Perhaps you would like to press your feet into the floor below you.
If you'd like,
Bring your awareness to your sitting bones and press them into your chair or your cushion.
And then engage your core and extend through your belly,
Through your chest,
And through the crown of your head.
Your chin is neutral.
Using here,
Soften your shoulders,
Soften your jaw,
And maybe soften your eyes.
Gently turn your awareness toward your breath.
Turning your awareness in this gentle and heartful way toward your breath.
Simply noticing your breath as you breathe in and breathe out.
There's no need to change your breath.
You just simply notice your breath,
Where you feel it,
Its inhalation,
Its exhalation,
Your attention fully focused only on your breath.
You might notice that your mind is working,
Maybe racing.
It's okay.
See if you can allow your mind to gently settle.
See if the thoughts can fade into the background.
I promise you can always come back to them later.
For now,
Allow your awareness to be with your breath.
Gently begin to deepen and lengthen your breaths just a bit,
Maintaining your grounded seat,
Your feet pressing into the earth,
And the beautiful extension of your spine.
Perhaps you can spend some time noticing your entire body,
Feeling your entire body as you rest here,
Just breathing.
You might add a noticing,
A noticing of your breath.
Breathing in,
I know I am breathing in.
And breathing out,
I know I am breathing out.
Breathing in,
I know I am breathing in.
And breathing out,
I know I am breathing out.
Let's breathe here.
Understanding what's present in this moment and letting go of a need for it to be any certain way.
Viktor Frankl was believed to have said,
Between stimulus and response,
There is a space.
In that space lies your power to choose your response.
And in that response lies your growth and your freedom.
This is one of my favorite quotes.
It even is on my email.
And I say it often when I teach yoga.
Dr.
Frankl was referring to the power of the pause,
The power that is available to each one of us,
You and me,
When we take a moment,
Especially when we have been triggered or feel upset,
And pause.
In this space,
In this space,
You can ground,
Press your feet into the earth,
Find your sitting bones,
Connect them to the chair or cushion,
And take calming breaths.
This process allows your emotional and reactive systems to calm and your thoughtful,
Reflective systems to engage.
This pause allows you space,
Space to recall your values,
Your intentions,
And your self-determined version of you.
In this way,
You can integrate your passions,
Your thoughtful self,
And your values,
And choose on purpose your next breath,
Your next word,
And maybe,
Maybe an action.
You might even choose to wait.
The powerful thing here is that you are choosing and not reacting.
With this pause,
You can move forward.
You can move forward on purpose.
Align with your sense of purpose,
Meaning,
And what is aligned with a life that you truly want to be present in.
So let's practice.
First,
Bring your attention back to your breath,
Your breath in and your breath out.
Sense your hands,
Your feet,
Your whole body,
And rest here.
Pause mindfully,
Following a few breaths,
Allowing the breath to come in naturally,
And exhaling all the way down to your feet and your sitting bones that are connected to the earth below you.
Inhaling naturally,
And as you exhale,
All the way down to your feet and your sitting bones and your groundedness.
Inhaling naturally,
And exhaling all the way down to your feet and your sitting bones and your sense of groundedness.
In order to practice pausing on purpose,
Bring a scenario to mind,
Something that you might feel a bit triggered or stressed about.
Choose something small at first.
It's hard to practice with the big things.
So pick something manageable,
But that gets under your skin or definitely gets you into a reactive mode.
And then once you have your scenario in mind,
Notice who's there.
Notice the surroundings,
And then turn inward.
Orient toward your internal feelings,
Toward your emotions.
Get a good sense of this landscape.
Now press your feet into the earth and your sitting bones into your chair and take three mindful breaths,
Allowing the inhale to happen naturally and exhaling all the way to your feet,
All the way to your sitting bones.
Inhaling naturally,
And exhaling all the way down to your feet and into your sitting bones.
Inhaling naturally,
And exhaling right down to your groundedness.
As you pause here,
Having grounded,
Taking breath,
What do you notice?
Maybe you notice that your mind has calmed or slowed.
Maybe your muscles feel less tense.
Perhaps you notice something about the situation that you didn't see before,
Or maybe a response that you could take that wasn't there before.
Maybe you've become more clear about the fact that you just don't know what's best,
That you're not sure what is the right thing to do.
It's important to know that not knowing is a valid state of being.
Maybe you've noticed that there's no urgent need to react or even act.
Maybe you've noticed how truly important this is to you and that,
Gosh,
It's worth getting really intentional about.
Allow yourself to be here in the recognition of the insight that's available to you in this pause,
How from here you could be on purpose.
Bring your awareness back to your breath,
Following your breath in and following your breath out,
And settling into the scenario that is inclusive now of the grounding and calming breaths,
This pausing on purpose.
You might ask yourself,
What is present for me right now?
If you'd like,
You could let go of controlling the breath.
Just let it happen naturally and simply be here in your space with your grounded feet,
Grounded sit bones,
And supported spine,
Just breathing and being with whatever is present right here.
Maybe even invite in or allow yourself to feel a sense of well-being,
Calm,
Personal agency,
A quiet self-determination,
And maybe a noticing of some new wisdom,
Some new insight.
Take a few breaths here and allow this meditation to settle.
Gradually begin to deepen and lengthen your breaths a bit,
Staying grounded,
Extending your spine,
Maybe adding a noticing,
Breathing in,
I know I am breathing in,
Breathing out,
I know I am breathing out.
You might want to take a few moments breathing here,
Considering what this meditation means to you and for you.
You might want to tag this practice and work over a scenario that keeps tripping you up or practice before an experience that you know puts you at risk for feeling triggered and reacting.
Consider that.
You may even want to journal about this meditation and what you might have noticed or considered.
Thank yourself for taking a few moments to listen,
To wonder,
And to pause.
And I thank you so much for listening.
