Do you have a Regular Pause and Rest Practice?

As I am working with my clients, I am reflecting on how the main focus of my work is to facilitate new perceptions and perspectives. When you are stressed, it seems that your attention becomes restricted to a narrow perspective. Let's imagine that you're looking through a periscope. You push the periscope up and scan the landscape ahead. And what you see is reality. But it's the only reality. If you were to turn to the right, or to the left or move a few degrees, you'd still see reality, but you might notice something else, something more or something less. Or take the metaphor of the many filters and lenses.  The object we're looking at, the landscape or the people change depending on the lens or filter. So I encourage people to try different lenses. And I tell stories. No matter how many times you are watching a film called Titanic it will sink. Trust me. It will. The story may have different characters and different plots and there may even be a happy ending for some of the characters. But one thing is sure. At some point the ship will sink. Guaranteed. Now depending on which aspect you're focusing on, you might feel happy for the character who survived and went on to live a long and healthy life or feel devastated because of the many emotional and material losses. And it's all real on some level. And then there is the lesson: perhaps if the Captain had heeded the warnings, the catastrophe might have been averted. So let's steer our ships safely through troubled or dangerous waters?

There are some many ways to contemplate life. What is for sure is that we need to stop and take stock. And there are many ways to do this. Which is your favourite? Do you have a pause and rest practice?

View all blog posts