S.T.O.P. - Pause And Reset During A Busy Day

Walk through the short S.T.O.P practice with me as a way to insert a pause into your busy day.

No matter what you're doing, follow the four steps with me and see how this can shift your energy.

S is for Stop
T is for Take a breath
O is for Observe
P is for Proceed mindfully

Even if you're so distracted or stressed that you can only listen to my voice, know that this will be enough to get something shifted for you.

Transcript

Welcome to this reset practice called Stop.

Stop is a way of placing a pause,

A break in your day,

Particularly if whatever you were doing before you hit play is causing you a little bit of trouble.

If you're feeling a bit stressed,

Under pressure,

And the S from the word means to stop what you're doing.

And you've already done that by pressing play,

But I'd also like you to stop moving,

To stop any task you're doing,

To put your phone down,

Which allows us to take a mindful breath.

Place a hand somewhere on the torso and feel how the body beneath it shifts as you breathe.

Feel that rise and fall,

Give it your full attention.

By giving it our full attention we help regulate our nervous system,

Which will give us enough wherewithal to observe what's going on around us.

So looking around at our surroundings and then turning inwards to observe ourselves.

What is the message your body is physically trying to send you at this moment?

What is the main topic in your mind?

And interwoven with both the mind and the body will be your emotions.

Not necessarily a single one,

Sometimes a blend of them,

But there's usually a tone to our thinking and a tone connected to how we're feeling physically.

And once we've completed our observation we have a chance to proceed mindfully,

The P.

And because we've worked our way through the other letters we have made some kind of shift from our starting point to this moment when the audio will finish and you get to continue on with your day.

So just noticing how you feel overall,

Envisaging whatever task or activity you need to do next,

Taking one last deep breath with me in and out and carrying on with your day.