Power in pressing pause
June 28, 2023
Hands up if you currently feel like a mouse on a wheel, with an over committed diary running from one task to the next without time to take a breath?
Or are you a woman who feels overwhelmed, depleted, reactive and simply tired of trying to keep up with the demands of family, work and life commitments?
Too often we put other people’s needs above ours, forget to prioritse our own self-care and become reluctant to set boundaries or simply say no to the constant pleasing and over-commitment in fear of rejection.
Let’s explore the power of simply pressing pause for ourselves.
Let’s start by looking at our own brain health.
Did you know our brains stress centre (lets call this the red zone) is designed to light up when we feel threatened? Once the red zone lights up, our responses include emotional reactivity, muscles getting tight (ready to run), heart rate up and a you vs me approach to communication that can feel isolating, aggressive or closed. Now this can be beneficial to us, it’s not always a bad thing! For example if we see a snake, or if we see a child about to run across a road, our red zone does a great job at protecting us and others.
Our green zone executive centre in our brain is designed to see all sides, to work together with others as a team, is a calm place of clarity, empathy, creativity, problem solving and insight. But because it takes in more information, its a bit slower! It might take an extra moment to help you realise when what you thought was a snake, is actually a stick.
The red and green zone in the brain work a bit like a see saw. When the red zone fires up, the calm green zone shuts down. When the green zone lights up, the red zone calms down.
Pressing pause helps give the green zone a chance catch up and means you can start to operate from a place of calm clarity, helps you solve problems and communicate with others with less reactivity.
What does pressing pause looks like:
Pressing pause before reacting and sending that email.
Pressing pause on a conversation if you feel reactive, giving yourself the chance to get centred before communicating in a solutions focused way, seeing all sides.
Pressing pause and creating space if you’re circling around the same problem and getting nowhere.
Creating space and pressing pause to refuel – get some sleep, turn off netflix, take time out, get a massage- what do you need to refuel for yourself?
Taking short moments of being rather than doing. That might mean, lying on the grass for 5 mins, walking on the beach, being in nature, enjoying a tea in the sun, sitting by a fireplace. Without filling each and every second of your time with scrolling, TV/radio, to-do lists and planning,
Short moments of mindfulness Taking a break from worrying about the future and regretting the past by simply enjoying the present moment. A hot bath. Your breath. Your food. Your surroundings.
Pressing pause, creating space helps you find clarity and insight. It helps communication within your work teams and family relationships. It helps you refuel so you can move from a place of depletion to a place of renewed energy and enthusiasm.
There is so much power in creating space and pressing pause for yourself! Even waves on the shoreline reach back and pause, before gathering energy, momentum and direction to come in.
Like to press pause for yourself?
Like to learn more about developing resilience through life challenges?
Niky offer’s her Rise UP program for women online as well as her within her four day Rise UP retreat.
