Hello,
My name is Maggie Stevens and this is an essay entitled,
Taking a Pause.
On some days,
I wish the words that came out of my mouth didn't.
My reactions of being clever,
Annoyed,
Angry,
Or hurtful were too quick and my brain's editor didn't have a chance to read the copy.
My mother's and grandmother's advice to count to ten is as valid today as it was when I was a child.
Our nervous systems were set up for stimulus and response and often operate automatically.
Sneeze,
God bless you.
Research shows that our brains are on autopilot nearly half of the time.
46.
9% of it.
There are some benefits to this program.
We don't have to remember every step in making coffee,
Tying our shoes,
Or driving to the store.
Of course,
There's a shadow side to this brain function.
We finish the second donut before we have even realized that we've eaten the first.
We feel hurt and we strike back.
Stimulus,
Response.
This is where the pause comes in.
As the famed Austrian psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said,
Between the stimulus and response there is a space and in that space is your power and your freedom.
Do we even consider that there could be a space?
When someone says hurtful words,
What if we took a pause,
Took a breath,
And then chose how to respond?
In that act,
We would find our power.
Sometimes we feel lonely or bored.
What if we sat and listened to our feelings and really felt them rather than trying to distract ourselves by eating,
Smoking,
Shopping,
Or binge watching on Netflix?
In those moments,
We would find our freedom.
Subconscious,
Automatic reactions are fine for routine tasks,
But interactions with people,
Our environment,
And ourselves deserve more.
We can breathe,
Center ourselves,
And really listen to the concerns of family members or friends.
We could slow down enough to really taste our morning coffee or tea or evening meals.
We could breathe and acknowledge that right now we hurt and offer ourselves a moment of compassion.
Each of us is given a finite number of moments to live.
If we pause,
We can have the space to be alive in them.
I hope you enjoyed this talk.
You can find more of my writings at www.
Metamindfulness.
Com.
