Do you say grace before a meal? And by “say grace” I mean take a moment to pause before diving in. The pause could be prayerful or completely a-theistic. From an Alexander Technique perspective, the important thing is the PAUSE.
Just about every religion folds pauses into the day and year. Prayers in the morning and at night. Prayers before eating. Prayers for our children or even our pets. Meditation while walking or working or doing absolutely nothing. Prayers five times a day no matter what incredibly important project was underway at that moment.
One need not accept the teachings of any particular religion (unless, of course, you want to). But we would do well to emulate those pauses throughout the day.
Pause when you wake up in the morning.
Pause before you go to bed at night.
Pause before you eat.
Pause while you are working or walking.
Pause throughout the day, even, or especially, when you feel like you are too busy to pause.
Teach your children to pause. (Pets are already really good at it. My cat is asleep at my feet while I type this.)
Because if we don’t make room to pause, the day will be off and running from the moment we drag ourselves out of bed in the morning til the moment we collapse back there at night. And that sure puts me in a crappy state. There is no room for gratitude or change if we never stop.
So before you leave this blog, I invite you to PAUSE.