Sacred Pause

It is (in a way) unfortunate that I am now writing about this practice following a day filled with ongoing stress. From 7am-7pm, I was at the mercy of my work responsibilities. I had little to no time to myself as I worked to finally house the last client of my caseload out of the shelter system. There was no time for me aside for the few moments I would escape in order to use the bathroom. I could have really used a gift today.

I stumbled upon this short-video by Tara Brach while searching for anything dealing with slowing down one's day in order to find presence. There were many other videos that were tied to this idea, but the mentioning of Tara's name throughout our class periods drew to me experiencing her style of influence in the art of mindfulness. I was not disappointed.

One of the first things that I drew from the video was her relation to the idea of busy as "hard killing." Wow! It's very true. I paused the video after that statement, and took several moments to grasp the severity of those words. Our busyness is, in a sense, a form of killing the self. Suicidal, no less. This really does make a lot of sense at how there are so many stress-related illnesses that have jumped to the forefront of medical attention as the past-3o years have progressed, and how it appears that the average American now has increased work/demands placed upon them while having a decrease in chosen recreation/recovery activities. It's not that we necessarily desire to be busy, but that we have come to accept it as a fact of life.

Tara's leading of the "Sacred Pause" was refreshing this evening as I begin to decompress from the frantic pace I took from sunrise to sunset. As I let go of the day through the cycle of breathing deeply, I could sense my physical heart actually returning to its designated cavity instead of feeling as if it protruded through my chest every beat. It is nice to be home, and it is nice to begin to return to the self, and be present of where I was and how I felt. Although my body aches, I can feel myself actually becoming aware of having feeling. I can honestly state that I wasn't very mindful to both my physical and mental states during the day, leading to more damage than I otherwise would prefer. But this day is over, and I must "let go" with the breath that is expelled through my lungs. My shoulders feel relaxed, and in a few short moments, I will cover myself with two blankets: that of a gentle acceptance of this day, and that of the feather variety. With this new experience and exposure to the concept of the sacred pause, I am now equipped with a practice of warding-off the assassin of suffering that comes in the form of busyness. A pause shall not be considered lost time, but seen as the return of one's heart in order to capture a view of the beauty that is one's life and their place in this world.

Sacred Pause = Saving Grace