595 thoughts on “The Power of a Pause – Lessons from a Garage Door”

1. Finding our feet in life and setting out on a true purpose to be there for others opens the door for our evolution, “and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body,” is a great step forward as you have shared Ingrid.

2. I have just started to read this blog and comments today, only to find there are now adverts popping up every few seconds, a new way of imposing on us, and I found it frustrating, so I will practise this stop moment now.

3. Ingrid such a simple thing as ‘pausing’ in our day is so relevant to bringing ourselves back in the rush the world is often in that we continually forget who we are. We are not machines that can go on and on and even a machine cannot go on either. It requires maintenance too. Our bodies are the same.

   But the importance is bringing ourselves back to us is the key to setting our day and our night up for a settlement we are entitled to. Otherwise we are in life’s and other things perpetuating cycle and its never our cycle.

   It was great to read this blog when project work consciousness looms over me. It is great reminder that throughout my day, I only need to pause and take those extra few second to bring me back to me and then I can be of service instead of being a slave to a loveless work environment.

4. Like you Ingrid, I get these moments of the most exquisite feelings of stillness that I do not want to end. I just want to stop still for ever so I can be in that space. I am teaching myself to move in and with the stillness which is the complete opposite to the nervous energy I’m running my body with.

   1. Mary just reading your comment, I can feel that stillness and not caught in life’s rush-ness. Why can’t we live often from this than anywhere else? Nervous energy is rife amongst humanity. However, when we feel that stillness, it is truly beautiful and we love serving from this point even more.

   2. Absoulutely Mary, being able to have the ability to be in motion while feeling the stillness, that resides within, is an amazing part of our awareness and evolution.

5. We think life is about the things we achieve but each moment has to potential to be a marker in how connected we are – and how we feel and what we bring. When we start to realise this we understand theres a deeper purpose to what we do each day.

   1. All of us are potential valves for God but most of us live in such a way that our valves are pretty restricted and what spurts through us isn’t God but a very managed interpretation of His expression. By changing our movements we can shift our alignment, which in turn allows our valves to open and God to pour through.

6. When we are in control of time we allow the space to unfold in front of us as we can then go about our day in a completely different energy as you have shared Ingrid.

7. Thanks Ingrid, I had a giggle at the impatience around the garage door opening because I see that same thing in myself, and the rushing (when looked at from the outside) is so silly, it’s so not our natural way. But gee, it takes hold when we let it. Also I realised how powerful that 15-30 seconds of connection was for you, for your whole day, and for the people you interacted with, so I couldn’t help but wonder – what could a whole day of connection to ourselves, to our stillness, and being in conscious presence with our body mean for the world?

8. “it felt amazing” Now every garage door offers a ‘pause’ moment.

9. The female body should not be rushed, it should be run with patience and grace. When we rush around trying to get everything done we put our body at such disease it is only obvious when we stop. When you lay at night, do you surrender and fall asleep like a baby or is your mind still running errands, thinking about arguments or what you need to do tomorrow?

10. There are more moments to stop and connect in the day than we realise for sure.

11. This is why I love Esoteric Yoga so much – taking time to stop in our day – to just lovingly be with ourselves. The change in everyday movements after a class is observable and palpable. Stop moments are gold.

    1. Me too sueq2012, I was sent a link to a sleep audio based on Esoteric Yoga which I used as I was feeling racy before going to bed much later than I normally would having been to a cocktail reception. The audio supported me to have that stop moment with my body reconnect and drift off into a beautiful sleep.

12. “For a moment I didn’t want to move as I had connected to a most gorgeous feeling of stillness and I didn’t want this to end. With this exquisite feeling throughout my body, the next step I chose to take was in this stillness so when I got to the car door I realised that I was going to get into the car in a very different energy than usual; and I sure did….” I love this. Taking a moment to stop can make such a dramatic difference to our day. Surely it is quality over quantity now?

    1. I love feeling these exquisite moments of stillness, and never want them to end.

13. Wow Ingrid, I love how you describe the difference between autopilot and consciously stopping to feel and claiming the energy you want to be moving in.

14. I love the simplicity of ‘taking a pause’ and all that comes from it.

    1. In the world of complication we live in, its simplicity really stands out, and very hard to ignore. And just before I read your comment I was about to take a short pause, so I read, then paused, and what a difference it made to how I was feeling in that moment. Yes, it’s that simple.

15. I love how it’s a ‘control’ we use to open and close the garage door…….we have the control in hand but here is the wise-ness of the garage door moving to its own rhythm 🙂

16. These moments of pause are magic Ingrid. When you added the magic moments up and they were only 30 seconds, it made me realise how many of these moments we can have throughout our day to support us to feel the fullness and yumminess of the amazing quality of stillness we can access from within.

    1. I love how these magic pause reconnecting moments can be brought in to areas of our day, taking as little as 30 seconds.

17. The surrender in life is not a submitting but a yielding to a universal flow, there is stillness and strength in it. A pause can allow us to deepen into that.

18. A moment of ‘pause’ gives us the opportunity to re-gather and re-focus if needed on the quality in which we’re approaching life and the impact from this can be truly profound.

    1. A pause, of any length, is a most wonderful opportunity to check in with ourselves before we move to what is next. And by stopping we have the space to listen to what our body is communicating to us – and it always is – and then respond, or not; there is always a choice. In the past I would not have chosen to pause, let alone listen, and the subsequent quality of what came next was always compromised. But now I know that 15 seconds can change my day and possibly someone else’s as well.

       1. A pause is like a gift to ourselves, giving us the opportunity to listen to what our body is communicating to us, and to re connect with the quality of energy we are choosing.

19. I just realized I have an equivalent to this garage door every working day. My work computer takes what seems like ages to run through its configuration routine when I turn it on in the morning. There are those days when I feel settled, can wait, or I naturally spot something to get on with while the computer is starting up. Yet there are those days when I am agitated, want to hurry the process, often because I have arrived later than I could feel was required that morning, and I am just looking for something to blame. A fabulous call to observe such behaviour and also witness the impact it has on everything else that follows.

20. 30 seconds – that’s all it takes – amazing – and so simple.

21. My internet connection is very slow and I am beginning to take an advantage of this – to stay with me and breathe – rather than feel impatience and my ‘wanting to get on’. Time for a pause and to be with me in my body.

    1. I too have discovered that taking a pause, of any length, goes a long way to dismantle any impatience that I have been holding onto. It feels so much more spacious and harmonious in my body when I am pausing than when I allow the impatience to rise, so it follows that the more pauses I take throughout my day, the more spacious and harmonious my day is; such a simple choice but with a very power-full outcome.

       1. So true Ingrid, I am starting to explore this too and my relationships are becoming more harmonious because I am less likely to react due to feeling more spacious and able to observe instead of feeling compressed.

       2. Beautiful awareness to bring into your day, ‘It feels so much more spacious and harmonious in my body when I am pausing than when I allow the impatience to rise, so it follows that the more pauses I take throughout my day, the more spacious and harmonious my day is’. And how amazing this feels.

    2. This is what I call a wise way to utilise time, to fill it up with space.

22. “But this particular morning with the words of that blog in my mind I decided to press the button and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body.”… Its amazing when we really stop and take a moment to feel our body how tense it may be, that we have ignored in our constant busyness of life. great post!

23. This is the outplay of space vs time. We condense life and what is there to be seen by having our own pictures and agenda.

24. ‘The power of a pause’ can change how we feel and can set us up for the next moment to be all that it can be.

    1. I have not experienced one pause moment that did not lead to me feeling very different from how I felt the moment before the pause. Even the briefest pause changes the energy I am in, simply because I have honoured my body and paused. In that moment everything changes, and therefore the next moment has this beautiful foundation supporting it “to be all that it can be”.

       1. You are queen of the pause moments Ingrid, very inspiring, I am looking forward to putting some of what you share into practise. ‘Even the briefest pause changes the energy I am in, simply because I have honoured my body and paused. In that moment everything changes, and therefore the next moment has this beautiful foundation supporting it “to be all that it can be”.’

25. As you say Ariana, 30 seconds and our lives can change

26. Sometimes, if we allow it, the simplest things can break old patterns and paradigms and allow us to feel an expansion of who we truly are

    1. That’s what I love about simplicity – it cuts through the consciousness of complication to deliver truth in a way that not only makes total sense but is all-encompassing!

27. Our breath is with us 24/7. It’s the most basic, simple yet powerful tool we have to remain steady, connected and calm. Considering the bombardment of life, it makes sense to make it our constant focus that supports us in our day.

    1. Checking in with how my breathing feels – as in the kind of rhythm and flow of it and how the in-breath and out-breath are in comparison with one another gives me a great insight into the quality in which I’m living life and it doesn’t need to take long, just a few seconds even..

       1. Yes, it’s such a simple and quick thing that we can’t say we don’t have time for.

28. Ariana it shows how amazing and powerful our true inner being (our soul) is because a short pause to connect to it can profoundly change ones day. Imagine living consistently in connection to all that yummy stillness.

29. We really have to clock the pocket of time it took Ingrid to come back to her connection… 15 seconds! It’s really a profound reminder of what we can do with every part of our day when we make it about the quality of our presence and the kind of day we choose to be in. Imagine a day when we are with ourselves connected to our inner love and stillness for 24 hours, and we simply repeat that? And any momentary few seconds pause of that is back to disconnection!

30. Great words Doug about how we “compress everything down to being about time”, effectively squeezing our own being out of the picture also.

31. Observing oneself is already a huge step towards moving in another way.

32. I just to have to see the title of this blog now and I am immediately checking in with myself and deepening my connection – thank you for a continuing inspiration Ingrid Ward.

    1. That – checking in with myself and deepening my connection – would be great to bring into much of our day,

33. I find that during my day when I am caught in the rush of time, I keep missing some very important signals and signposts. What an amazing reflection these situation like the garage door and red lights are to stop and allow the space for reflection and greater awareness. The crazy thing is that at times I can still override that by busying myself with a stream of thoughts e.g. planning my day, or even at times my iphone.

34. This was a nice and unexpected read. I was looking for the topic garage door when I ran across your blog post. I work on garage doors and you reminded me it is Friday night and I need to give work a rest and relax and spend some time with the family. Thank you.

    1. How very lovely to read your comment and to see that somehow you found your way to this blog. And I am very sure that your family were delighted to see you arrive home, maybe earlier than usual. Taking the time for ourselves and our family is absolutely price-less.

35. Those moments – lets call them moments of space and surrender – are there to set the foundation for my next movement.

36. All my life I have been in a rush to get things done work wise and now that I am getting older I am finding this more exhausting. After reading this blog for the first time I knew how much this 30 second pause throughout my day would help me so I gave it a try and it worked great but I realise now how easy it is for me to let the drive sneak back in so it is a matter of perseverance until it becomes more of a rhythm than the drive was.

    1. I too have found it can take time to bring something new into my life so that it naturally becomes a part of my daily rhythm and not something I have to continually think about. It is so natural now for me to take a pause when the door goes up but I often have to remind myself to take that second pause as it goes down. But why would I want to not take this very brief time to pause when I know how valuable it is for me and for my day?

37. We keep on cementing our misconception of time, thinking if we run faster we might eventually catch up with it. Quite ludicrous, really.

38. I love your garage door and the valuable lesson it provided – I had been pondering along the same lines recently and made changes to the way I am with it, enjoying the extra space those stop moments provide. Thirty seconds is a cheap price to pay for that wondrous feeling of stillness and timelessness.

39. Anything that gets us to stop and pause for a moment has to be good for our health

40. I find it so crazy when I have something as valuable as the moments pause and know how great it works to create space and stop drive and rush and yet I let it slip and over time forget to use it. Oh well never mind, back on the horse.

41. Great to come back to this blog for a re-read and have a word in my own ear about how I have completely forgotten about the power of a moments pause even though I was forced to have a three hour pause the other day before work when a car accident at the end of my street blocked me from leaving. I had all this time waiting impatiently huffing and puffing until my wife said what is the reading on it and I realised I have been too much in rush mode and totally forgetting to have a moments pause before I do something.

42. What a beautiful lesson you received from your garage door. I love stopping to check in with my body and see where I at, and allowing those moments to re-connect if I have strayed a little too far. They are certainly valuable moments that I now treasure because I know they support me with how my day is going to be. As soon as I do, the rushing and needing to get things done just disappear and the day starts to flow again.

43. Some of us yell at our little ones to hurry up, get dressed, brush their teeth etc. or some ask little ones to slow down, take a moment to tie your shoes before running outside to play. I do both with myself, like not allowing myself a pause to go to the washroom or have a drink of water. We aren’t just affecting ourselves we are also showing others, like our young people, what’s important and what is not when it comes to their body.

    1. Yes, children are incredibly observant. One of my grandchildren noticed my pause while the door was going up and asked why. So, I gave them the blog to read and they loved it. A few days later I was driving them somewhere and they naturally paused with me as we waited for the door to go up, and then when I had backed out they asked if I was taking a pause as the door went down. I was about to overlook that part but their honest question brought me right back to me. I definitely appreciated the loving pull-up.

       1. This is such a gorgeous example of the gift and blessing of reflection…for both you and your grandchildren. We are all always looking at each other to see what is genuine and love.

       2. Haha, love that, how your grandchildren were onto the pauses, and clocking whether you were taking a moment.

44. I find that when I rush things- what gets effected is the quality. I compromise and try to fit everything in. This blog highlights the absolute gems we can find in taking just a minute to check in- to feel our toes and hands and just appreciate that. It’s something we don’t welcome enough in this fast paced world.

45. I can often rush and want things done quickly but on reading this, I can see and feel how in fact those stop moments are offering me a moment to pause, to feel my body and feel how I am and to give myself space, for in the rush we cramp ourselves, we compress ourselves and we ignore the space in and around us. A great reminder to embrace pauses and space.

    1. How you describe what happens in our body when we rush, is spot on Monica; it feels horrible. It seems crazy now that I lived with these ‘cramped and compressed’ feelings in my body for such a very long time, so long they simply became normal. Coming to the realisation that they are in no way normal has brought me to a place where rush no longer has a place in my life, and if it does try to sneak in I grab it before it takes me over. A much more grace-full and spacious way to live.

46. Since reading this blog I too am making use of those pause moments and wow what a difference they make to how I move, my thoughts and how I express myself. Plus it is so lovely to sit and feel yourself from inside out – no words to describe, apart from inner harmony and a deep stillness.

47. “The Power of a Pause – Lessons from a Garage Door” – when we start to read life like this corresponding and waltzing with its communications…life becomes so much more [meaningful and purposeful].

    1. The knowing we can always read life like this Zofia, changes the way we live, as in every moment we are being offering lesson after lesson. It could be from a child sharing with absolute honesty, to a bird landing on a branch of a tree, and yes, even from a garage door. I have learned that it pays not to discount where the next lesson may come from as I may just miss out on the magic being offered.

48. I had the experience of having a pause today when I drove in a car that when you come to a stop at the lights, the engine turns off, and then starts again once you need to drive – sitting at the traffic lights with the engine off, waiting was such a great pause, a moment of settlement during this driving period – It reminded me of your blog, and the power of a pause.

    1. My car does the same, when that happens I will have a pause along with my car.

49. Love this blog Ingrid. It’s cool to imagine all the people who have read this who will be stopping much more for a moment of pause as they open and close their garage doors!
    I am enjoying the time and the space it allows in an everyday thing I do.

    1. I must admit having this image of many people pausing as their garage doors go up and down makes me smile often. And it also ensures that every time I open the door I too pause, as I can imagine them all watching to make sure I am walking my talk!

50. So beautiful it is to stop, even if it is only for a short while and feel our connection to the stillness within, and what a difference that short stop can make to our day and our relationship with others.

51. On my way home on the train….leaves that are every shade of green and brown, a blue sky and pink cloud; press the pause button!

    1. Love it Otto. A very simple reminder of the everyday pauses we are being offered; in this case by nature. One of my favourite pauses is also to take the time to appreciate all the shades of green there are, and how many there are never ceases to amaze me. Now I will add the observation of the palette of browns to my pauses! With the beauty on offer why wouldn’t we want to pause and appreciate?

52. Taking time to check in and feel our bodies instead of getting caught up in where or what we are doing is the best tool to support with lack of stress and tension. Being ahead of ourselves means we are leaving ourselves behind. So at the end of the day we can feel exhausted and flat and need tv, food and drinks to numb the detestation of not being with ourselves.

    1. “Being ahead of ourselves means we are leaving ourselves behind”. Fridge magnet!

53. A pause is a moment to feel the appreciation of what you have been living or an acceptance of what you haven’t been living. Each feels very different, but both are vital ingredients of our journeys.

54. I’ve set myself a programme of not multi-tasking. Completing one thing before moving on to the next, staying very present and focussed with each task but it’s amazing how hard I find it not to get pulled away by something and thus add to the buzz and complication. It’s the same as resisting pauses.

55. Yesterday I was sorting some stuff out in my house. I had lots to do and a deadline of when I felt I need to get it done by as I had an appointment later in the day. My daughter was helping me and being completely amazing in the support that she was giving; and then she stopped to make herself some breakfast; she took the time, made something delicious, sat down and slowly and quietly ate it. Meanwhile, I was still rushing about trying to get it all completed. But then I saw her, saw the pause that she had taken, and finally came to my senses and realised that it didn’t need to all get done that day. I could come back to it another time and so I dropped the dead-line, the tension immediately evaporated and the rest of our day flowed beautifully with the added space meaning that I was arriving at other appointments with plenty of time. A beautiful, simple lesson from a very, very wise soul.

56. Even though I am bringing more and more pauses into my day, I am still so delighted by the spaciousness I feel in me and around me each time I do. And then of course when I take my next step, in whatever form that takes, there is definitely “a flow and a lightness” to my movements. It is so clear that making the choice to pause is the most priceless gift to myself and to all those around me; the gift that keeps on giving as long as I keep pausing.

57. Simple & powerful Ingrid, very timely as well.

58. A great article Ingrid, reminding us of how spacious it feels when we take a pause.

59. The beauty of when we share these little moments from our life is that everyone can feel how true and very enriching they are, and so they stay forever with us pulsing through us reminding us of what is possible.

    1. And the most wonderful consequence of taking these price-less pauses for ourselves, is that it is not just us who benefits from them – and I certainly have – it is the quality of how we move from the moment of pause which benefits everyone. All our pauses have a huge ripple effect on everything and everyone else. No movement is ever separate from another.

60. If we are open to receiving the teachings, every part of life can show us something new. But the way we normally carry on is as if we are sitting in the classroom with our hands over our ears and our eyes closed tight.

61. It really is extraordinary when we pause, take the time, take a moment, feel the space that is there to be felt whenever we choose.

62. I love this Ingrid. So many lessons.

63. Who would have thought that a garage door would offer a stop moment? What occurred to me while reading this is that there are numerous moments during the day when we could stop, and yet we tell ourselves we are too busy and yet this example has proven that we only need 15 seconds.

    1. The revealing of the “I’m too busy” excuse has been well and truly exposed in me from this wonderful lesson. For some months now, I have been clocking it, not just in words, but also through in a feeling in my body. So it has had me wondering why I have chosen to live in a way that tells me I don’t have 15 seconds to stop and take a pause from what is unfolding around me, and to simply be with me in my body.

    2. Yes, it is remarkable at how easy it can be to be swept up in feeling the need to get something done, and then the push to get it done by a deadline, which then opens the flood gates for many other, ‘things to do’ to come flooding in to our thoughts. The pause definitely gives you the space and awareness of how you are going about something.

64. These pause moments throughout my day are certainly making a difference to the quality in how I move my body. I move it gently and with more presence which feels true to how my body wants to be moved.

65. I have noticed that when the traffic lights are red, I get a little impatient, as sometimes they seem to take forever to change, and I have felt the impatience in my body. However, since reading the blog, I am now using this space to become aware of how my body is feeling, and immediately, my posture adjusts, my spine straightens as I sit more upright in the car, and I take a few gentle breaths in and out, instantly, I feel connected.

    1. I used to hate it when the traffic light went red as I was heading towards it, usually because I was running late, again! But these days, like you, I absolutely love them and often when they stay green feel a little disappointed; what a change around that is. As you share, it is the perfect time to check in to see how your body is feeling, adjust your position on the seat, and maybe even close your eyes and take a few gentle breaths. It’s amazing how much you can do in a few minutes. Definitely a powerful pause moment.

    2. Daily life offers a myriad of opportunties to stop, take a moment and drop into our innate beingness.

66. It is so valuable to stop and reflect on any situation that occurs that slows you down – a garage door that wont close, a slow driver, or someone taking longer than they need to in the supermarket queue. All moments to appreciate and learn from rather than seeing it as a time to get frustrated or irritated by.

67. This blog reminds me of repetitively pushing the return button on the computer, as if this would make the internet go faster. Each moment contains the whole so it makes sense to be as present with it and complete it before rushing to the next moment.

68. 30 seconds… I realise the madness of resisting the opportunities offered in so many moments during every day to develop and deepen my relationship with myself, others and life; having a relationship with space rather than allowing myself to be governed by time. Thank you, Ingrid.

    1. But, resist them we often do Matilda. It really doesn’t make sense in the least that we would not check in with this amazing body of our several times a day, after all it is the precious and price-less vehicle which transports us through our lives from day one until our last day, often with very little appreciation.

69. Absolutely Gill, and it is this rhythm which supports us when life gets somewhat challenging, holding us steady as we navigate our way through what has been presented to us. It definitely is so important to keep in connection with ourselves, and committing to taking a pause at regular times during the day is a very simple way to do so; simple but very powerful.

70. I have spotted many times since first reading this article that sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t give myself permission for a 15 second pause; two breaths and my day can change or I can deny myself this simple act of true engagement with life.

71. There is an world of unending majesty to appreciate through our connection to our Soul and the more we embrace the opportunities offered to appreciate this the more we naturally live moved by a beautiful rhythm of deepening and expressing this divine quality through our living day.

    1. In connection to our Soul there is simply and only the magnitude to feel – it is entirely up to us in each moment whether we live in this or without.

72. There is nothing more delicious than being fully present in each moment, completing it and moving to the next.

73. Garage doors or moments to just stop and listen as another starts a conversation allows us to feel what is needed in the moment or become a catalyst in offering a deeper connection and quality with another that is felt far beyond the words.

74. I’m wondering…what if we gave ourselves 30s of pauses each day…wouldn’t that accumulate to lots of stop moments in our day to not need natural disasters to stop us big time on our tracks?

75. I love this blog and ever since I read it I have not left the driveway until the garage door is completely closed. Thank you Ingrid for offering a new awareness and a day-to-day example of bringing a pause moment into life.

76. I agree Ingrid – our body is offering us so many pause opportunities all the time and once we begin to observe they do, as you say build. My pause moment that began my relationship with deepening my connection has been traffic lights – those ones that seem to turn red just as you arrive – until you sit and connect and begin to appreciate this God given moment. The funny thing is that usually when I am feeling flowing the lights are more often than not green…….no coincidence I feel.

77. I bought a full – length mirror a couple of months ago, it is hanging on the wall just by my front door, and each day as I leave the house, I stop and take a pause – to look at myself and connect more deeply within, it is only a minute or two but in that time I allow myself to deepen and expand and smile beautifully back at myself – then I am ready to take the beauty of myself out into the world, I have grown to love this pause.

    1. Thank you roesemaryliebe. I have a full length mirror in my hallway too but I really don’t make the most of it. I hardly ever look at myself before I go out and if I do it is rather a cursory look at that. You have inspired me to pause before leaving home to connect with myself, appreciate myself and love myself before walking to the car or going for a walk or going to see the neighbour…whatever it is.

78. I like this for the detail that it brings. Because if nothing else, all of our lives are made up of all these tiny little moments that collectively create the experience we experience as our daily lives.

79. If I don’t check in with myself through out the day then what’s running the show at the end of the day doesn’t want to surrender its dominance and its free reign at the end of it. After reading this I’m really going to observe all that takes place so I can learn the mechanics of what I get up to! – and feel the consequences and make the choice of how I truly want to live.

80. A true pause is a moment of re-establishing a quality that then is taken into the next movement or action to be more of the same quality, in that sense it is not actually a pause as it is part of a ceaseless movement of repose and motion.

81. Life is a constant motion around and around in the same spot – there’s no race to be won or way to get ahead, and sometimes we all need to stop to remember that ~ it’s the grace we travel with not the end of the line, that is divine.

82. Old habits of rushing and having to get things done can be somewhat ingrained and embedded in our psyche, so these 15 second pauses are a wonderful way to stop the old momentums, and reconnect with our bodies and the volumous space within and around us.

83. Very such a long time, I held the attitude that I didn’t have time, and guess what, I didn’t have time, go figure. But now, I have stopped saying that, and just get on with what needs doing, and I find I have more focus, and much more space to get everything done without a drive or a push.

84. I have found that any tension or tightness in the body reduces my capacity to move more freely and hence feel more of what I am feeling in all that is happening around me. The stop moments help me first to feel the tension and tightness without trying to change this at all. This alone is already a blessing.

85. When I feel myself getting revved up or racy or reactive (irritated or angry), I get to realise that I have not had enough stop moments in my day to feel what I am feeling and to acknowledge what I am feeling. The garage door stop is a brillant idea of how we can bring these simple stop moments into our day at any point. Thank you Ingrid!

    1. I absolutely agree Henrietta, that the ‘revved up or racy” feelings are a great marker as to the choices we have made up to that point in time. And unfortunately, at times they are allowed to flourish as we continue to feed them by living in total awareness of how we are actually feeling. I was looking at my now ‘famous’ garage door the other day and had a chuckle on realising that the message I needed to hear was from such a large object. Obviously, I hadn’t been listening to the smaller messages so a much grander one was called for, and this time I listened. Note to self – don’t ignore the small ones!

86. There is such an incredible expansiveness that can be felt when we truly pause and connect to the stillness that is within us = space. Many of my behaviours in the past did not allow for this depth of connection, which is why it can be challenging at times to truly pause. If our bodies are over stimulated with coffee, sugar or stress etc we first get met with this momentum.

87. If the space around us is communicating all the time, the more we are present in each moment the more we are likely to be able to respond to what is being communicated.

    1. Very beautifully offered jennym, which shows us just how valid the power of the pause is, in our everyday.

88. I absolutely love those moments in my day/week when I just stop and be with my body and my breath knowing that it is enough and there is nothing else to do or nowhere else I need to be in that moment. Priceless.

89. We can either wait in expectation of eventually getting on with what we are wanting to do or happen, or we can simply be while we know the future to come to us without any waiting on our side.

    1. Beautifully said Alexander – as in our beingness there is a settlement in knowing the future is being lived through the quality in which we move now, and whatever comes our Soul will guide our way with what is next.

90. Since reading this blog, I have been introducing moments of pause throughout my day, and wow, such a subtle difference in my day with feeling and connecting to the stillness within .

91. It is so worth taking a moment or two throughout the day to make sure we are settled, connected and avoid the disconnected rushing around. Whenever I fight the opportunities such as the garage door to do this my day goes and the impatience and disconnection just builds, but when I honour those moments the added quality is invaluable.

    1. You make a great point here Golnaz, about your “impatience and disconnection’ building when you don’t take the opportunities that are offered to pause and be with yourself. I know that if I ignore one I will probably ignore the next one, but all the while I can feel my body becoming quite loud in its request for a simple moment of pause. These moments of frustration are now beginning to lessen the more I say yes to the precious moment I am being offered.

92. Who’d have thought a garage door could be the catalyst for such deep understanding and introspection. Just goes to show that God will utilise whatever, to get his message across.

    1. I had a big chuckle with the image of God asking himself – ‘what can I use to get their attention, nothing else has worked so it better be something very unusual, and big!’ And in my case must have been one of those, so he brought in the garage door! So, all I can say is – thank you God, the lesson has been huge and deeply appreciated!

93. A pause to reconnect can be very powerful making the difference in how we respond to a circumstance. It can change the energy of a situation affecting all involved, possibly for the rest of the day, or perhaps shifting something in yourself or another completely.

94. ‘My shoulders were up higher than they are supposed to be, my hand holding the bag was clenched tightly, my jaw felt a little tight and my breath wasn’t flowing as easily as I know it could have been.’ – It is amamzing to what detail you were feeling what was going on in your body in this short moment of pause.

    1. Yes Eva, this was one big lesson to the fact we don’t have to sit and mediate for long periods of time to be aware of how we are feeling. Those initial 15 seconds of pause were such an important gift and one that I absolutely appreciate, as this gift has had such a huge ripple effect in my life and seemingly in the life of others as well. In fact, it’s now impossible for me not to pause when the garage door is going up as I know if I do I will be squandering a golden moment.

       1. God is so generous, humorous and spot-on, he knows exactly how to get to us; if we are willing to see/feel, the gifts given can make huge changes in our lives. I agree Ingrid they truly are golden moments.

95. The more moments of true pause we take during the day the less time is left of a quality we need a pause from. At some point the focus then becomes to not take a pause from the beautiful quality we live that once was only known to us when taking a pause.

    1. I love this point, the more we truly pause from the ill energy the less we will need to pause.

96. Yes moments of pause are so important, it allows that moment of re-connection and honouring what truly lies within and know that the temporal world truly has no command over.

97. It’s true… Every time we honour the rhythm and flow of life, especially the pauses, we have the opportunity to expand our awareness and who we are.

98. I tried this pause in my daily life too, it is fabulous. When we do not stop or pause, we will be reminded by nature and other things to stop, but this is a much more responsible way.

    1. How true, if we don’t take responsibility and make a natural stop, we will eventually be stopped in one way or another.

99. ‘I decided to press the button and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body.’ – This is such a beautiful example of how simple it can be to stay connected and present in our body.

100. It is in the grace of ‘the pause’ that we can to feel the momentum we are caught in so we can then take the necessary steps to arrest it.

     1. Spot on Liane, this is what I am discovering for in the pause there is so much awareness as I reconnect with what is true.

101. It is pretty awesome how we can learn something so deep from such an everyday situation, Ingrid, and how this has such an effect on the rest of our day.

102. So often I catch myself getting annoyed or irritated because something is happening slower than I expected, or there is a so called ‘hold up’ along the way so this is beautiful to consider that these hold-ups are actually pauses with purpose that I can appreciate and accept on a much deeper level.

     1. I agree, this blog is a great reminder of the real reason these ‘hold ups’ are happening and the opportunity it offers and not getting annoyed thinking that we are ‘accidentally’ held up.

     2. I caught myself in this same irritation just this morning when I was doing the most simple job of taking hooks out of two large curtains, but the moment I clocked it I remembered your comment Andrew and it brought me to a halt. So, I closed my eyes, felt my body, breathed gently and in doing so could feel the need to get the job done quickly dissolve in the beautiful space I had offered myself. Once I opened my eyes any irritation had gone and the ease in which I completed the job was amazing.

        1. Getting ‘caught’ in a traffic line up is good practice for staying with oneself and not ahead of the moment we are in:). I actually like these times and observing all around.

        2. That’s awesome Ingrid, I’m going to take your great example here with me in my day today!

103. A pause has no boundary or construct… it simply offers space… So the power of a pause offers more than we realise.

     1. I have felt the awesomeness of the expansion you can get to when I give myself time to pause and connect deeply with my body. Those moments feel timeless and deeply restful and sometimes I can feel that the energy within my body and the energy without is the same so that there is no demarcation between the energy running through my body and my body itself – it’s like my body no longer has physical walls. This is not like bliss and checking out but an expansion of space in the body as the particles re-align and expand.

     2. I so agree Johanne. In that moment of pause the space around me and in me is tangible; in fact it feels endless and full of possibilities, as it offers a platform of stillness for whatever my next choice will be. And I have found that if that next choice is not a loving one it creates a huge disturbance in my body as that stillness is lost.

104. What a powerful realisation that the days when you don’t pause at all, you have trouble getting to sleep. It sounds like your body is still wired from the overactivity. I find when I have a pause or two in my day, it’s an opportunity to check if I am running my body ragged in the drive to get things done. With a pause I can feel what that drive is doing and start afresh, and have so much more energy when I get home.

105. The Universe is forever pouring wisdom and awareness through for us. Greater awareness calls for greater responsibility. Perhaps that is why we have so many ways of rejecting this stupendous gift offered to every single one of us constantly. So many ways of blocking it, and yes resisting the power of those pause moments is one of them.

106. I’ve recently come to feel how being early and having moments where I just stop during the day create space in what would otherwise be a never ending stream of activity- and what that then offers. It actually takes commitment to stop, because we’re so used to being in the momentum of continuously doing things. But when we allow space, there is the potential for more expansive and deeper conversations, ideas, projects to flow and come together- without us having to seemingly orchestrate things.

     1. It is becoming more obvious to me that we are addicted to the momentum we have built in our lives, a momentum that says loudly that we don’t have the time to stop, we have to keep on going even if we eventually collapse with exhaustion. No wonder exhaustion is the biggest plague that is facing humanity today and from this exhaustion flows the many illnesses and diseases that are highlighted in the escalating statistics of our global ill-health. Yes, it can be challenging to bring this momentum to a stop and it takes a deep commitment to the well-being of ones’ body to do so, but it is so very worth it.

107. I have also noticed that when those little moments of pause or calm or stillness present themselves or suddenly appear in my day, I can easily fight them or try and over-ride them. There is a strong thought process that kicks in often that says I need to be doing something or I must ‘crack on’ and that pausing and just connecting with me or the moment is a waste of time. Sounds ridiculous but it is true.

108. The power of a pause is so much more than imaginable it offers us so much being able to feel where our body is and feeling our stillness inside is the best gift we can give ourselves which changes everything allowing true quality space and flow in our lives.

109. What I love about the pauses is that they make me so much more aware of everything that is going on around me and I realise how blind I have been to so much when caught up in raciness and anxiety.

     1. Yes, I often spend moments connecting with my body before getting out of bed and it is amazing the level of detail than can be felt in different areas of my body. If there is tension it is magnified and by simply bringing awareness to these areas they start to release. Even though in pause it may look like not much is going on our whole body can be re-configuring.

110. To see the natural stop moments we have in our life as an opportunity to check in with our body, is something that will totally change the quality of what we contribute throughout the day, whether that is in expression or movement.

     1. Yes without the pauses it is easy to ignore or over-ride the body and miss the messages it is communicating with us.

     2. True Eva, imagine if for one day we all brought our awareness to walking and living with the quality of love, how massively this would change the quality of our collective experience.

111. “The Power of a Pause – Lessons from a Garage Door” – whether it’s a garage door, an open shutter or door, or unclosed cupboard drawer .. at every level we are being messaged or communicated to and it’s how we live life in this understanding that we choose to know how life is no random sequence of events; that there are no coincidences and that every thing messaged in our life is contributing towards the evolving of us.

     1. So true Zofia, when you say that “at every level we are being messaged or communicated to”, and those messages are not just once in a while, but endless. Everything is here to offer us the opportunity to learn and to evolve, but whether we choose to listen is totally up to us. I can definitely say that listening is absolutely worth it, even to the message from a garage door, as from the lesson that is being offered the quality of how we live our lives cannot but be changed.

112. A beautiful reminder that we have space around us all of the time when we but choose to feel it.

     1. We have space around us, within us and through us that is not ’empty’ at all but a vast field of communication that is constantly relaying the wisdom of the universe to us and through us. How much we can access will depend on how we move through space and how we allow this space to move through us.

        1. Yes, and can we feel at ease with this spaciousness and not automatically want to fill it up, therefore crowding the space from the natural flow of communication to be accessed?

        2. Developing a relationship with space or certainly becoming more aware of the space within and around us, supports letting go the whole time concept and pressure of never having enough time.

113. Having those stop moments during my day always take me and whatever I do to a more profound level. Those moments of re-connection give me great understanding as well as more clarity and settlement to maximize what I do from a more loving approach.

114. The pause – what a beautiful gift to allow ourselves to just be, a moment to connect, to feel the love that we are and to surrender to the love of God and the knowing that all is well, perhaps for only a minute or two but enough to then take this with us out into the world – a beautiful gift to give ourselves and the world.

     1. Those moments of pause, when brought into many areas of our lives, are definitely the gift that keeps on giving. If from one moment of pause our day can be changed, just imagine how life will change if we bring in many pauses throughout our day, pauses that then will become our normal not just a once in while occurrence. And this gift of course is not just for us, but for the world.

        1. Beautifully expressed Ingrid, the ability to pause, to reconect and feel our true selves again is truly a gift, and as you say it is not just for us, for in reconnecting and coming from a place of love in our words, actions, and movements there is more love expressed in the world.

115. ‘Even though I felt that I had not rushed to get ready by giving myself plenty of time, what I felt in my body surprised me.’ – we can always rely on our body to share with us that which we are not allowing ourselves to be aware of, or even what we are purposefully not wanting to feel. A moment of connection and a willingness to be honest is all it takes.

116. I was just pondering on how amazing it is that we can be so deeply inspired from something such as a garage door and how it operates. But when we do start to realise that such a seemingly innate object can offer us so much we start to appreciate that we are being offered equally deep inspiration and wisdom from everything around us all of the time. The key is whether or not we pay attention to the signs.

117. The more we learn to be patient, the more patience we get, which is a relief for our bodies who have to bear the burden of our stress quite literally. Its no wonder we feel tired if we have spent the whole day holding our shoulders up to our ears!

118. Yes, over time every one of our movements can have this quality of pause or stillness even while we are in motion.

119. Pausing for the first time in our life has a huge positive effect on us. When we then pause more often, it seems that the effect is less. However I suspect it is the same effect or perhaps even more, it is just that with the more common pauses we are less in out-of-control motion and therefore the contrast is less strong, simply because we live more harmoniously.

120. In a conversation today we could break down all the chatter about all the reasons why it appears to be so difficult to take a moment to check in and establish a loving quality with oneself to just one simple point: We either want or don´t want to choose it. That´s all, no long story, no excuses, no guilt, just a simple matter of choice, no arduous task, no hours of sitting and meditating or else, only 15 seconds while the garage door is opening or closing, or the traffic light turns red, or … now.

     1. I have spent more time in my life considering all the reasons I do not have time for a pause than pausing itself – true human madness.

121. What I love about your pause example is that we call it a pause and it might even feel like a pause but in truth it is not a real pause but a moment where we become aware that the way we are going is in a quality that is not supportive of ourselves which then allows us to ‘change gear’ and come back to a way of movement that feels true to us.

     1. I love the concept of ‘changing gear’ Esther. I can see that living in a momentum which is actually harming us is akin to always being in ‘overdrive’ in the fast lane. But taking the time to pause is the same as putting the car into ‘neutral’ or even into ‘park’, allowing ourselves the space to feel exactly where we are and how we are feeling. I am discovering how precious this space is and how my body is loving it.

     2. How true, changing gears should be the most natural thing in our everyday life, running on auto pilot doesn’t really serve as it offers no true quality.

122. Pauses are opportunities for the body to let go. Whereas relentless motion, interspersed with moments of physical collapse (aka sleep) don’t provide the body with the same opportunity to release itself.

123. The reason why we don’t get to feel the one long pause that life actually is, is because we fill it with all manner of clutter.

124. I am reminded of this often when I drive, we have tractors etc on our country roads and it is often that there will be a slow jam…so do I get impatient, or pause. Obviously I still need to stay aware of driving, but I do not need to be in rush to get somewhere, or do I take that as a moment that still offers something equal to when we are doing things…we get too caught in the doing and neglect how we are with ourselves and our being.

     1. Living in the country too, I can so easily relate to the impatience that can begin to rise when stuck behind a slow driver, a tractor or stopped by a herd of cows very slowly crossing the road. But having come to realise that there is always a reason for the slow down, even though it mightn’t be obvious at the time, I now welcome these precious moments in time and simply appreciate the opportunity to release any rush in my body and to enjoy what is unfolding around me.

125. ‘The power of a pause’… says it all doesn’t it… A pause offers a moment to stop and connect with our body and most importantly it offers the space to remember Love… The our actions and choices beyond this point have the opportunity to adjust to what is true.

126. The power of pause is pure gold. The more we stay connected to our body and physical presence the more we can read what is going on right in front of us enabling less reaction and more of staying steady.

     1. It is absolute gold Rachel and as we come to appreciate this, the more valuable taking a pause every now and then, becomes. Taking a brief moment in time to reconnect to ourselves a few times a day will slowly build and strengthen this connection until we get to a point where we are more with ourselves than not. The pause will not be a rarity, it will become a normal part of our foundation for life.

127. Yes, any reminder during the day of the quality of stillness that resides within us, can support us to not get caught up in the often tumultuous world we live in.

     1. And this is not only a blessing to ourselves and the world but also a reflection to others that we can stay with the stillness and not get caught up in what is happening around us.

128. There is an energy that propels us like an electric car on toy race track, hurtling around at breakneck speed. It’s only when we stop and take ourselves out of the race that we get to see there’s so much more to you and me. Its this driveness that seeks to distract us from our actual purpose in this world.

129. As well as sometimes rushing, like ducking under the rising door, I have also experienced looking to fill these natural pauses with another activity or job which needs to be done and on doing so not appreciate the offer of a stop moment to feel all that is there. Not that this means this is always a ‘bad’ thing as to me it feel like finding the flow and allowing ourselves to go with it and not against or trying to control it.

130. Cliché I know, but this article, the timing of it and my readiness to really hear it, are changing my everyday life… the potential and vastness in a pause is really remarkable, thank you, Ingrid.

     1. But what a valuable cliche Matilda. I have realised since this blog was published that I had not been choosing to take as many pauses in the day as I could have been, so the timing for me has been perfect too. I have been so inspired by all the amazing comments of peoples commitment to pausing in their day that I have recommitted to up my pausing, and what a change it has made, just in a week. Yes, the “potential and vastness in a pause is really remarkable” almost beyond description at times.

131. Driving in London offers many opportunities to connect with yourself and provides a chance to read the people around you who choose to increase their blood pressure and are always ensuring their horn works.

132. I used to hate the traffic light turning red as I was coming close and would find the wait frustrating, often because I was running late for an appointment; yes, that self-inflicted frustration! But these days I embrace the red light as I know I have a space in which to close my eyes, breathe gently and to be with me. And if I pause too long there will no doubt be a horn tooted in frustration at my slowness to move.

133. This morning I walked outside and the sun was so deliciously warm I just had to sit and enjoy its warmth. There is always a feeling of ‘I need to be getting on’ and it wasn’t long before I got my computer out… I find it very hard to just sit…

134. Pausing has allowed me appreciate and acknowledge what I have been doing.

     When I can do this my day has a better sense of completion because I was more present with the things I did.

     Then there is less need for food or entertainment at the end of the day.

135. I’ve been enjoying the pause my car gives me when the engine automatically stops when it is stationary (an eco feature). It has offered an interesting reflection as I notice it only ‘stalls’ when my commitment to truly stop as in put my foot on the brake occurs. Otherwise it quietly idles along in the background reading and waiting to take off.

136. I love these moments of ‘pause’ where the frame of time dissolves and space is simply there.

137. I guess we continue to pause until the day where pausing is a disruption to the magic of life – why stop something that holds everything?

138. Its amazing, I have recently had a smilier experience but with turning on my car. I have had my car from brand new and it is only a couple of years old so it should work fine and yet a couple of times recently it hasn’t turned on the first go, the engine not turning over and I realised it was because in my rush of getting in the car and feeling the tension of needing to get to work on time because I have been a bit late the last week, I was not giving my car space to actually turn on before trying to put it in to gear, which meant it wouldn’t start. I almost laughed at how it was showing me the lack of space in my day, how I throw myself into gear without even time to get the car turned on. I am now learn to just enjoy the brief moments of pause that allowing my car to turn on brings my day

     1. I have also been experiencing some revelations with driving my car too! I’m finding that when I put my foot on the accelerator nothing happens – I look to make sure I’m in reverse or drive, which I am, the brake isn’t on, then I push down on the accelerator a little more, still nothing, then I make what feels like a big push down with my foot and the car springs back or forward. It feels like I am being so much more delicate with my foot movements, that I’m having to relearn how much pressure to apply on the accelerator in order to move forward gently rather than having a jerky beginning to my journey.

        1. Thats also a super good point – I find, after rushing turning the car on, I can often ‘throw’ the car into reverse and move back very quickly, the whole flow of the movement totally rushed. When as when I use turning the car on as a chance to take a pause, everything flows smoothly from there because any rush i was in leading to the car is cut in that pause.

139. ‘… more often than not when it was about half way up I would find myself bending down to get under it: definitely not a comfortable or honouring move for my body, with my bags usually going in all directions.’ – this image reminds me of so many occasions where I find myself struggling – yet I find myself repeating the very same situation over and over. It may be that I have my handbag over my shoulder and I am carrying a cup of tea (not in a travel mug, holding a bag in my other hand. With great regularity, my handbag falls off my shoulder causing me to spill my tea. You’d think that after the first time I would either use a travel mug, or carry my tea in a separate trip …. perhaps now that I have expressed how ridiculous it is, I finally will.

140. Simply beaut-i-ful Ingrid, in these moments we have the opportunity to deepen the connection with ourselves and the all and then space expands.

141. If we never take a moment to breathe in, what exactly will be the quality of our out breath?

     1. On the surface this is such a simple question Liane, but when deeply considered, a very profound one. This is a question I have asked myself on the many occasions when I have realised that I have had no idea what the quality of my in-breath has been for quite a long period of time. In fact, I used to find that sometimes I had actually been holding my breath in response to what was going on in my life. Not the most loving choice for my body, a choice which has had a huge impact on my well-being for many years. Committing to bring regular pauses into my day is building the awareness of the rhythm of my breath and going a long way to heal this long-standing issue.

     2. A constant sense of breathlessness that I pretend I do not feel would be my answer, Liane, and then, when I do take care of my in-breath the underlying panic dissolves.

        1. If we ride life on the out-breath of God, that is, we live life in perpetual motion without the required pause of the stillness the in-breath offers, then it follows that we will live in a state of hypertension and hyperventilation. Is it then no mystery as to why exhaustion and depression are our modern day plagues?

142. It is only in the space of a pause that we can possibly know ourselves.

     1. Could it be, because chaos controls time?

        1. Or because in truth time is an arbitrary marker used to mechanically mark space. It’s a man made adjunct, therefore when we get caught up in time, we disappear in its falsity. On the other hand when we step out of the constraints of time we re-emerge and have the opportunity to know ourselves again.

        2. Or time controls chaos to give the illusion of order – but what is the essence of this seeming order and where is the control coming from, who or what is pulling the strings?

143. I don’t have any automated doors but I know exactly what you mean whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, I can use those couple of minutes in the kitchen or I can be quiet with myself and my body – or I can do both, by bringing presence to my movements of those tasks.

     1. Great practical example, we need these check in moments in our life, to check in and with ourselves and truly feel how we feel within our bodies.

144. Esoteric Yoga delivers us so much space that we can find our essence and re-connect to our deep stillness. Then we can hold that as our way of living as we go about our day but we can also get lost in our head, which will try and contract away from the stillness that is on offer in these sessions with thoughts that will want to make the body racy.

145. The job I am doing at the moment means that I often take a taxi to work. The journey time is a very useful window for me to get a lot of work done thus the temptation is to dive straight into my computer when I get in the car. But recently I have been stopping, taking a pause and really connecting with the driver and some of the resulting conversations have been super amazing. But what is also lovely to feel is the settlement in my body despite the fact that I’m not necessarily doing what I ‘need’ to do. Connection beats function!

     1. Absolutely Otto, making life about others and expressing from within, which is our essence is a blessing felt by you and the driver. So our being-ness takes the needy-ness out of life and we gain space so we can share deeply what ever is felt, wow what a joy-full way to start our working day.

        1. Very true Greg- it brought a spring to my step and a deeper presence to my day. Keep building…

     2. ‘Connection beats function’ and function interferes with our ability to connect.

     3. Ah yes…There is a general tendency for us today to want to fill in space and it’s very rare to see someone sitting without a mobile phone or device in their hands these days. Actually connecting before we ‘function’ changes the quality of the doing too.

     4. A presence that is present with a deepening Humble-Appreciative-Ness for sure!!

146. Our bodies prepare for what they anticipate will happen when it comes to exercise and it make sense that the same will happen in many other situations so when we feel our body is holding tension it is worth questioning what are we anticipating?

     1. So true Michael, why the eagerness to rush ahead instead of be with ourselves. Why do I run late for things and have that tension? As my commitment to me deepens, these things drop off and like the amazing example of a door we realise how often we put ourselves under stress when we don’t need to.

147. A pause, a moment – space to connect to and be aware of the much more than just the temporal activities we do, the multidimensionality of life.

148. Thanks Ingrid, I have been taking a leaf out of your book and spending those precious moments such as garage door and electric gate opening just to pause and feel the quality of my breath, as a marker of how I am and how the day has been so far.

149. ‘As I drove off I could feel how taking that pause had changed the way I began my work day’ – I can relate to this, the quality in which I start my day simply sets the standard for the rest of my day.

150. Ingrid, this is great to notice; ‘My shoulders were up higher than they are supposed to be, my hand holding the bag was clenched tightly, my jaw felt a little tight and my breath wasn’t flowing as easily as I know it could have been.’ I can feel how if we rush through our day without stopping that we could miss what is really going on in our bodies and that the tension and pain could get worse, build up and become more serious over time. It feels really supportive to have stop moments and feel what is going on in our bodies.

151. I work in a large long building that has 13 lifts. These stop moments travelling between floors allows me many occasions to connect to myself throughout my day.

152. When we really pay attention to the things that happen in our day, such as the closing of the garage door, we come to realise how much wisdom is being reflected to us in every moment of everyday.

153. Awesome moment of stopping to observe those ingrained habits that so often slip off our radar. The more we are able to bring a conscious presence to these seemingly insignificate moments, the more we build our ability to respond to life rather than live in constant reaction.

154. I have definitely felt a push when driving – wanting to optimise which lane I am in so I don’t get so held up with the traffic. However, this push results from my lack of preparation and not allowing enough time to get wherever I’m going. It feels so different to allow an extra 5 minutes and enjoy being with me as I drive, rather than the anxious rush which becomes all about getting from A to B, rather than enjoying the ride along the way.

155. ‘I don’t have time” attitude’ – I am realising that whenever this excuse pops up for me, I am not wanting to take responsibility for the choices I am making, in terms of not only how I prioritise my time and the quality of how I do whatever it is I am doing, but, before that – what am I connecting with that is impulsing me to choose what I do next? Am I connected with my body, allowing the space to feel into what is needed, or am I allowing myself to be run by something else entirely? There is a frustration that comes with “I don’t have time” – is that frustration a knowing that I’m allowing myself to be played?

156. It is ironic that we feel we ‘don’t have time’ – even to stop for just 30 seconds of our life. How indoctrinated have we become to live by the clock… when we have a natural universal rhythm that can be lived by all.

157. The quality of our pause is what determines if we are actually utilizing the magic moment for what it is offering to us or not. The more we can really surrender to the moment and be, then the more quality we can bring to that moment which in turn then feeds us back.

     1. When we truly pause, 15 seconds is a rich space to re-connect and still the rush of the world.

158. We complain about the day getting away on us, time going too fast, and yet “in fact in any moment there is the opportunity to pause” – be this as we are in a queue, waiting for the door to open, waiting for the elevator etc etc. These are moments to be seized but the “seizing” is done through letting go and not revving up the action. These moments are what defy time.

159. Re-reading this blog reminded me to check in with my shoulders and sure enough, they were able to drop an inch or two. It’s lovely to feel the body and let go of any tension we hold there, in every single part.

160. There are so many moments like this during the day when we can ‘fill’ the space with connection and appreciation. A great one for me is the transition time between jobs, when finishing a task and moving onto the next it’s easy to want a reward or a break or time for ‘me’ – but a moment of appreciating what has just happened and connecting to that is the best transition tool of all.

161. “Let’s get this door up and get going as fast as possible!” – What is interesting is how conditioned your reaction had become to the door’s movement both in the approach to the garage door and during it opening. Yet what you did by deliberately and consciously choosing something different (your connection to yourself) you changed a whole lot more than that minute or two around the garage door opening.

162. Working out in the garden for several hours this morning, the garage door was in sight and was a constant reminder of this blog – I worked from stillness, with a frequent pause and changing the broom from one side to the other to balance my body. Appreciating how effortless it is when working without push, drive or rush.

     1. You had me smiling Stephanie, with the image of you looking up every now and then at your garage door, but I too am often delighted by the simple everyday things which can be the reminder that life is not just about non-stop motion. One of them is when, after several days of no sun, my sheep will stand absolutely motionless with their faces turned towards the sun that has decided to reappear, often standing in this stillness for 15 minutes or more. I always love these woolly reminders.

        1. I love this Ingrid – there is always more to learn from sheep too 🙂

163. ‘But this particular morning with the words of that blog in my mind I decided to press the button and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body.’ I feel like I’ve been having one of those non-stopdays where my body is showing me it needs to rest, so I’ve just taken a moment to stop, feel and listen so that I can approach the rest of my day in a different quality. I love these blogs for the reminders they give me to be more present with myself and feel what I’d going on in my body.

164. What a great way to pause! I love that for a few seconds when provided the space to just stop we are serving a purpose in both getting to work and appreciating the body heading to work.

165. I was at my site yesterday with the roller door and I feel the whole of the inside and outside garden areas have benefited more than I could possible know from the moments pause in and out of the building, thanks to this amazingly practical piece of writing.

     1. That is amazing to read kevmchardy and amazing that you felt this. Super, super cool and much respect for following this through.

166. When we connect with another, from a place of connection with our self first, there is a moment of pause for us to deeply appreciate the divinity that we are.

     1. Gorgeous Alison and a great reminder of the connection we can have at any moment with another.

167. Years ago I would have thought you were being absolutely ridiculous Ingrid suggesting such a thing. Today though I have too learnt to appreciate the moments that come along where we can stop, feel, and appreciate the energy that is around us, what we are choosing and supporting the body to makes its next move with the connect of our inner stillness. Life becomes much richer when this is applied.

     1. Great point Natalie – it is in the experience and when we allow ourselves to be truly open and embracing of the situation and experience that we get to feel how powerful it can be. There is no power in seeing another do it and talk about it, though of course there can be inspiration – but the real power is tapped into when we live it for ourselves.

168. Do you ever look back at life and think to yourself if only I’d taken a moment to myself I would have made a wiser next move? Whilst those times are gone you can implement this wisdom right now.

     1. What If, we were to ponder back at any pivotal choices, the fork in the road scenario, we made in our development with or without judgement, what would the effect have been if we choose a moment of connection?

169. 30 seconds is all it took for such a big impact. I am going to experiment with pausing through the day and i’m interested to see how it effects sleep too. Our quality of sleep tells us so much about our quality during the day.

170. This morning I felt a bit of a drive getting up as there was a lot I needed to do today. After about an hour or so, not liking the feeling of this drive I simply stopped doing what I was doing in my kitchen and took a moment to simply close my eyes, check in on my breathing and to feel my body. It only took a few seconds to do but the difference I then felt in my body was palpable. Moving on, my movements had changed too and had become much more settled and delicate.

     1. It is really so important to choose the quality of your next moment; at first we need these obvious chosen pauses but I imagine – as I don’t know but witness others – you are choosing this constantly so there is not the need to completely stop and reconnect. That’s certainly an inspiring way to live.

171. A pause is not an indulgence or a check out it is an opportunity to check in, assess and move on with Love and care in our day.

     1. Very true, Samantha, to allow a pause is choosing to deepen our connection with what’s on offer in that moment.

     2. It is so true Samantha that “a pause is not an indulgence or a check out it is an opportunity to check in”. But maybe we have come to believe that it is an indulgence, for if we have paused we are not doing, and it is in the doing that we feel that we have achieved something and often receive the reward we are seeking. Knowing that by pausing, for no matter how long, the exquisite quality of our next movement will come with that self-loving choice, blows away the idea that we are indulging, in any shape or form.

     3. Agree. In fact I would say that in my case not pausing is the indulgence; maintaining the illusion of me-being-too-busy-to-stop allows me to indulge in the irresponsibility of moving without connection.

172. I slept in later than expected this morning. I was about to rush out of bed to get on with my day, when I stopped and gave myself a few moments to pause, connect and felt all the more amazing for it.

173. These opportunities for a stop are to be grasped with both hands for if a stop is required eventually it will come, if not with a moment at the garage door, possibility and illness or an accident lovingly sent to support us to come to that stop to see the energy we are living in.

174. There is such a light hearted accessibility in the way you write Ingrid… I want to go get myself a garage door! And quietly and inspiringly writing like this touches a part of us that knows the true value of connecting to the stillness we all have within.

175. When you have been busy and buzzy all your life, the thought of stopping for a moment feels like a complete waste of time but what perhaps we dont’ realise is that doing anything in the quality of busyness is also a complete waste of time, because it contributes nothing to humanity, energetically speaking. Therefore stopping to reconnect within and check the quality of our breath, our movements, our posture is vitally important before we do anything.

     1. I agree, it can freak us out to consider stopping when we have been busy all your life, in this it feels like we run away from our body and our relationship with it.

176. When toileting the elderly at work and needing to wait for them to complete (at times this can take quite some time) I have started to do sacred movement…. proving to be a great way to stop and use this time productively!!.

177. Do we pause for relief or pause for responsibility?

     1. The pause of appreciation is the difference.

     2. What an awesome question to ask ourselves Michael… and are we totally honest with ourselves when we ask it?

178. I can really relate to all of what you have shared here .. not with a garage door but the many times I have rushed and dishonoured and pushed my body and the times when I have stopped and given myself and my body space to just be …. and oh my goodness as you have also discovered the latter is sooooooooo much lovelier.

179. When we are not connected to ourselves, this is when we make ‘mistakes’ – when we injure ourselves, damage something, say the ‘wrong’ thing… our connection is foundational to our everyday living, and the quality of that connection impacts everything and everyone.

180. A great exercise to practice in those moments when we want to rush. Learning to come back to our selves and the quality of our posture and movement is a very effective way to cut anxiety, stress and worry that usually starts in our head and creates turmoil in our body. When we start with the body first it enables us to get our heads back on the moment in hand rather than being 10, 20 or a thousand steps ahead of us.

181. There is no-thing in Life that is not a lesson, therefore if we understood ourselves to be the constant students that we are, then we would evolve at a pretty fast rate of knots.

182. Beautiful Ingrid. How simple it can be to make loving adjustments in our life when we simply sit back and allow it.

183. As this wonderfully ‘random’ title suggests ‘Lessons from a Garage Door’ we can learn from any situation we find ourselves in. Life is valuable and being open to deepening our awareness is how the gold is accessed.

     1. True, in deepening our awareness more continues to unfold. I love how these blogs inspire that also.

184. I have loved playing with this during the week, and great to see it again as it is quite amazing how I ‘forget’ to do something that supports me.

185. It is crazy how small we have made life. We think that we need to hurry up to catch up or be on time all the while it is the stillness within that brings us space and clarity.

     1. I agree, what is clearly demonstrated in this blog is that we can take ourselves out of this self-inflicted imprisonment by a simple choice. Awareness is key.

     2. We spend our lives on a treadmill we created, trying to beat a clock that is immutable. Between every second there is space that time has no control over, that has always been ours to reconnect with ourselves.

        1. Yes, that is beautifully said Steve, it is more and more palpable that there is space and that time is not something to control or be controlled by but simply a helpful marker to see where we are at.

186. It is often the smallest of things that offer the most profound realisations.

     1. And that is the magic in life that we too readily ‘overlook’ – exposing our ignorance, when every moment is so rich with opportunities to learn and deepen our awareness.

     2. I feel like we are constantly being showered with opportunities to deepen our wisdom, we just have to be open to allowing the space to fully grasp what is right in front of us.

187. Nothing is insignificant or less important than anything else… we are constantly being offered lessons to learn from and to evolve.

     1. True, the stop moment can be huge and in our face or it can be minor, in the detail and for us to spot – either way, key is to be open to the learning that is on offer.

188. This brings beautifully to light how time is not the automated click system of seconds that it is mostly known and taught to be, but rather it is a movement through space. And this is how what we call 15 or 30 seconds can actually seem like too long, or no time at all, because it is not time that we move through but space. And our relationship with this space through the bodies that we have is the determining factor for how we live, or, the quality of our lives.

189. The beauty, awareness, stillness and expansion of moments of pause when accepted are super supportive and allowing of so much more and can become part of the rhythms of our daily lives with this honouring and space as we choose them more and more.

190. There are very few places we cannot close our eyes for a moment to reconnect. This moment of reconnection even works at a stop light when driving in London… for there is always someone behind you, ready to remind you when it is time to open your eyes.

     1. Yes, perhaps it is just a matter of letting go of control…

191. Everything we do offers us the opportunity to learn, deepen or confirm aspects of life. That is the beauty of how it is set up – constant learning when we are open to it.

192. A timely blog to read as I can feel I am missing out on those beautiful moments throughout my day to just pause, breathe and connect with my being which is deeply supportive to oneself and all others we come into contact with.

193. Pause moments are a gorgeous opportunity for us to feel where we are at in that moment and to honour ourselves with whatever adjustments we feel will best support us with our next movement to express the divine spark of light that we are.

     1. Letting what is within out… life couldn’t really be any simpler. How mad we are to complicate it so.

194. If we are not allowing the time for pause moments, what is it that is moving us forward? Where are the impulses coming from that take us into our next movement? It feels like, without a pause, we are not allowing the space to feel into what is needed. Rather, we are being propelled forward from a built up momentum. But, a momentum of what and where has it come from?

195. Ingrid, you mention how hard you found it to fall asleep when you’d not allowed yourself any pause moments during your day. It’s clear to feel that our sleep patterns are a reflection of how we have lived during our day. I have been feeling quite anxious over the past couple of months, and have noticed how when I’ve not taken the time to support myself with this by deepening my connection with my body, I wake in the night and am shocked at how tense my body is, particularly my arms, hands and jaw.

196. This “I don’t have time” attitude is tragic on one hand but utterly ridiculous on the other – seeing that time is just a convention, an agreement amongst us and does not truly exist in and of itself. And then, what do we actually do with all these ‘saved’ seconds and minutes? No bank will take these deposits and chances are that recovering from all this push and shove and stress will take a lot longer than the ‘time’ we thing we might have saved’.

     1. Reading your comment what comes to me is the children’s book Momo by Michael Ende in which our relationship with time is described beautifully and shows exactly that, that we cannot save any time and that life is not about time but about the connection with each other.

     2. Yes this is the irony of the belief ‘I don’t have time” … “No bank will take these deposits and chances are that recovering from all this push and shove and stress will take a lot longer than the ‘time’ we thing we might have saved’.” By falling for that belief we actually waste a lot of ‘time’ and energy.

        1. When we are stressed, it’s like being in a straight jacket, our whole body feels constricted and it’s a real struggle to even function and get things done. We have no awareness of the quality in which we are moving and doing things, rather, it’s all about moving forward and feeling like we’re ticking things off with Time monitoring our every moment. However, in connection with our body and feeling the settlement within, allowing ourselves to be impulsed into our next movement, rather than driven, there is an ease and a flow to our day. Moments of connection surrounded by space, wisdom and learning …. what a difference.

197. When we try something new and it feels supportive and like it advances us then we can make maximum use of the opportunity and create a ritual out of it, or simply make it part of our rhythm.

     1. I have realised how majorly important rituals and rhythms are to our daily life recently as mine have got astray due to guests staying in the room where I prepare myself for my day, everything just seems out of kilter.

198. Pauses = Space. Space = The Intelligence of God.

199. We can never underestimate a stop moment, they often lead us to greater awareness and understanding, and an appreciation for what is being offered to us.

     1. Some stop moments can be very confronting and challenging, yet, there is always enormous learning and healing on offer, if we are willing to explore and take responsibility for the fact that nothing in life is random. We are being very beautifully supported in terms of how everything constellates down to the tiniest detail to offer us what is needed in each moment for where we are at and how we respond to this shifts things again. As I type this, I am considering how much of what is on offer do I let pass to the keeper rather than making the most of these moments.

200. What this blog shows the world is how much our body is willing to communicate with us at any one time should we be open to listening. Here you took 15 seconds to listen and look what is shared with you.

     1. And how much our body responds to simple checkins and pause moments. Actively choosing what quality you want the next movement to be.

201. I’m slowly getting the lesson that when something decides to take its time to work, the computer, printer and so on, it’s just a gentle gift from God to take a few moments to connect with ourselves, take the foot of the accelerator and make a bit of space to feel my body. The more I choose to do that, the more I appreciate all the moments when I chose to look after it because it feels so gorgeous inside.

202. A great thing you share here Ingrid that there are probably many more moments and opportunities to pause than I previously realised in my day and I will now be on the look out for them more thanks.

203. Thank you for what you share here. I can feel myself taking a pause before I write and I can see that what I have written is different to what I would have written if I had not taken that moment. There are so many opportunities to make space for a pause and when we do more space opens up, when we don’t it feels like time is slipping through our fingers.

     1. Making space for pause, makes space for greater quality of expression in every way!

204. I know the push you’re referring to here and have experimented with this myself. There have been times when I have been so convinced that I need a holiday and all this space to unwind, to find myself feeling completely rejuvenated from integrating a bit more space in my day in seemingly small ways that have a huge impact.

     1. I think for many of us, the allure of going on holiday isn’t so much the destination, the change in food or the shopping, it’s the anticipation of having more space. But as you say Abby we can introduce that space into our everyday lives and reduce the feeling that we need to have a holiday.

        1. Equally, we can go on holiday and feel the exact same constrictions that we do at home – particularly if there are tensions in relationships from things felt but left unsaid. There may be a sunny veneer, smoothing out the surface in new surroundings – but everything that we wanted to get away from is still with us until we choose to address it. In fact, being on holiday can be an opportunity for us to feel things even more deeply than at home as we don’t have as many of our ‘go to’ distractions.

205. I love how everyday things can show us there is a deeper way to be. It’s so inspiring That we can learn from the ordinary and things can be the same actions but few so different. This is energy at its best.

     1. I agree HM, the idea that we have to go to India or a mountainous region in order to receive ‘spiritual enlightenment’ is rubbish and part of a bigger overall lie that says that evolutionary advancement is only for a select few. Evolutionary advancement is on tap for us all equally, as is God. No one has been barred access and no one ever will be.

206. I know exactly that ‘best use of time’ syndrome Jane, and in fact, once upon a time would have called it Good Time Management. And it does take a bit of dedication to un-train this way of regarding our tasks and the space in the day to get them done. But I’m finding allowing myself more space in the day (as Ingrid describes,) although irksome whilst my beliefs come up to challenge the new trial, I am confirming that I am worth being with myself – rather than as you say “ahead of ourselves”.

207. I find it interesting to correlate not having stop moments in the day to how well we might sleep at night, our ability to be fully ourselves requires us to be connected with our inner heart 24/7 and having regular stop moments helps us to do this as we build on our consistency.

     1. This has been such a huge learning for me Carmel and one that has changed the way I move through my day – well most of the time. And I am now committing to a much longer moment of pause before I go to bed when I spend 10-15 minutes doing some gentle exercises and movements, focusing on the quality of my breath as I do. Since introducing this evening ritual two months ago I have been going to sleep more quickly than I have ever done and sleeping very deeply. This extended moment of pause before getting into bed has been absolutely price-less.

208. What I find most remarkable about what you share here Ingrid is how choosing to take the simple moment of pause actually supported you immensely with feeling solid and claimed within yourself in other parts of your day.

209. Such a great practical blog! Yesterday because of the pause I managed to finish the day with my work van as tidy as it was when I started, something I have seldom managed.

     1. I love it Kev. I am sure that this will not be a one off as you will be very aware of the difference this has made to your day, and this is the energy that will greet you when you open your van door the next time; a wonderfully supportive way to begin your next day. It’s in the ordinary, that the extraordinary has the space to unfold.

     2. Very lovely, completing, ready for the next time. We so often think we have to rush because we do not want to fritter time, but hold it and make use of a true pause, wow it can be so supportive.

210. ‘But this particular morning with the words of that blog in my mind I decided to press the button and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body.’ and in doing so we give ourselves the chance to not only pause but to feel how we are in relation to everything and therefore our state of being.

211. “I had a huge lesson about the power of pause a few months ago, and from a garage door of all things: definitely not your normal classroom situation” – how life is our classroom and teacher Ingrid.

212. It is also very revealing when we realise how much we try to avoid these ‘moments of pause’, and a great opportunity to ask ourselves why and what it is we are avoiding.

213. Thank you for the reminder to take more stop moments. It’s crazy when you think that we are too busy to give ourselves thirty seconds, which is minuscule compared to how much time we spend rushing around getting stuff done. I’ve started to take a stop when I get in my car and when I stop the engine. Taking a few seconds to sit with me feels very honouring.

     1. I am really coming to see how much I have used the excuse – I’m too busy – to pause what I am doing and make some space for being with me. Maybe I simply didn’t want to be with me as my body would have had the opportunity to clearly let me know how awful it was feeling and that I was being called to make changes in my life. So by keeping busy I was actually avoiding the truth, a truth which now I absolutely welcome.

214. After reading your awesome blog Ingrid a pause is now something I want to have as it was so inspirational what happened to you while you are pausing. Most of us are really not aware of the power to stop and feel our bodies – thank you so much for reminding us that we are not only human doings!

215. It feels like these ‘pause’ moments are offering us the opportunity to re-evaluate and be more aware of what we are accepting as our norm in our day.

216. Agree Ariana it makes a massive difference when we take those moments to pause and reconnect. I do this before driving out of my garage… taking a few moments to feel my body in the seat and connect to how I am feeling.

217. When ever the mind runs ahead of the body you can feel a tension and anxiousness creep in, it is not natural for the body to rush. These moments of re connection bring us back to the body and offer space and clarity…

218. Ah the power of a pause, could actually feel the ease in the body this allows for, the space to reconnect and reset.

219. It’s interesting that we rush under the garage door and get frustrated when things are going slow and we ‘need’ them to happen quickly, however in the evenings or times which are convenient to us we may spend hours on social media, television, technology etc. This exposes that it isn’t just about time and wasting it.

     1. Yes there is clearly something that underlies that constant need for activity and stimulation and until we go there and understand why we do what we do, we will continue to justify the ‘need’ to go quickly and not embrace the pause.

220. The more pauses we are able to bring into life, the more life begins to feel like one long pause.

221. A beautiful lesson and offering Ingrid. It is surprising what is allowed to come up when we give it space and have a pause moment. I’ve just come out of work on my lunch break and while I was sitting at my desk I just kept fitting in one more task and left later than what I had felt too, with all the thoughts coming in that I won’t get everything finished today etc. But now that I’m sitting outside in the gorgeous sun reading this blog, none of those thoughts are there. So another great lesson!

222. The difference 15 seconds can make and how we so often avoid those pauses because we don’t have time, but we do, and when we do we give ourselves the space to feel and see so much more of us, our bodies and the world around, a great lesson shared Ingrid, thank you.

223. Just re-reading your blog Ingrid and I can so relate to what you have shared here – the constant push and drive that can be there even in the subtlest of ways, and how important it is to have moments of pause with the purpose of feeling if there is any agenda what so every in place and offering ourselves the opportunity to clock this agenda and eventually let go of it. This is so simply what I catch myself with most days – just a simple moment that I get to realise the push and drive I have gone into and to then just let it go to the best of my ability and yet not stop what I am doing, simply just changing the way I do it. A powerful choice – not always easy to do, but simple in its approach.

     1. Could our push and drive be the snowball rolling down the hill until we hit a tree? Our momentum comes from our choices! When we pause we allow the world to go rushing by, it enables us to reconnect with ourselves.

        1. A great analogy Steve. What I feel you are sharing here is that we either make the choice to pause and to be with ourselves or we are paused by the consequence of the ill-momentum we have built by the way we are living. I have had many enforced pause moments in my life, most of them very uncomfortable and often very painful, and all giving me the space to re-evaluate the life choices I had been making. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait to ‘get better’ so I could get back to the way I had been living before, which actually caused the stop in the first place. Crazy really, how we can choose to live our lives in such a disregarding way.

        2. That free will clause raises its head and rebuilds the broken snowball, looking for the next tree or cliff.

224. Every pause with purpose is an opportunity to behold space and feel what is truly on offer.

225. Living proof that we can alter the course of the Titanic by incremental choices that over time radically alter the trajectory of our lives. Moments taken to re-connect to our bodies and appreciate their living stillness can over time completely transform our countenance, allowing us to settle into our bodies and hold steady in the world.

226. There have been days where I felt there was no space to stop and connect because I went into thinking I have too much to do and not enough time. Whenever I go into this it feels awful, my body feels tense, my breathing feels shallow and I am not myself. Whereas when I allow moments of pause to reconnect, to recenter and bring my body back to stillness, I feel I have all the time and space in the world. The compressed feeling in my chest gone, leaving my body feeling light, fluid and my movements in flow and ease. It is such a trick to fall for the illusion that time is everything when in fact spaciousness is the key to life.

227. The small moments of pause allow us a gap to feel what energy is running the show. We can reconnect to the energy we know to be true in a split second, and the difference is profound.

228. I’m very much aware of the times during the day when I could allow pauses, rather than race ahead to the next activity. This exposes a tendency I have to not stopping to deeply connect, which offers so much more..

229. 30 seconds is no time at all to be taking out of the day to pause, yet it has long lasting effects, so well worth taking the time for.

230. I like the sound of your pause moment Shirley, taking a moment before turning the engine off, will try that tomorrow.

231. This blog has invited me to stop and make time for those lovely pause moments throughout my day as a checkin, and see where I am at!

232. Your blog shows us that there are many many moments in our day that can offer such depth, quality and awareness… and we miss out of these golden moments, of being with ourselves, because we put more effort into the ‘doing’ rather than doing what we need to do and still, stay with our body, this beautiful quality you describe. It doesn’t have to be one without the other.

     1. Very well said Johanna, and this reminds me that we can either allow time to govern our movements or allow spaciousness into our day to connect to the magic of God and connect to who we are.

     2. Yes, staying in constant motion is the name of the game that is to keep one away, distracted, from connection within their body, and hence, connection to the stillness … So how perfect and valuable are these moments – moments that offer a stop, reconnection, to feel and become aware of the so much more we are.

233. The pause moment is like purposefully opening a door that offers the opportunity to step out of time constraints and into space and formlessness – a moment to appreciate the grandness of the Universe that we are irrevocably part of.

     1. There are days when I have to spend a great deal of time in front of the computer. My reconnection is literally walking out the door and walking with myself. I bring me, back to me!

234. Since reading this blog I have been practicing being with myself until the garage door completely closes and I am finding that it is a very nurturing thing to do because it gives me a moment to just be with me. Our beingness is just there willing and ready to be re-connected with all day everyday.

     1. Very beautiful Elizabeth and the more we live in connection with our body the more we open up opportunities for our Soul to drop into our body to express the light of God. But when we disconnect from our body, we shut out all access to multidimensionality, our connection to God.

235. Every pause offers space. I realized today that the little stop moments make me also offer others more space with crossing the street or in traffic and it makes the whole day go in an ease and flow that keeps surprising me.

236. Rather than the tendency often experienced as we work through the day’s tasks and challenges; which is our body tensing up.. connecting to myself feels like it literally allows space in my body, opening me up, and releasing the connective tissue and muscles instead.

237. Thankyou Ingrid. I was waiting for the garage door to hit you on the head and hence your big pause, but it was you pausing. The way it is — we are either paused by the outside due to bringing the outside in or we bring the pause from the inside so it is felt on the outside.

     1. Ha ha Rik but it actually isn’t funny is it, when we get stopped by illness or accidents. Yet for most of us we don’t even pause to get the message of the momentum that has bought us to the point of a stop.

     2. I laughed out loud when I read what you had written Rik, as I have had many enforced moments of pause by either hitting my head or being hit on the head; there was definitely a head hitting pattern in my life. No laughing moment, in truth, but one big message to say that I had been ignoring all the small messages up to that point. Yes, we have a choice in every moment – pause or be paused!

238. What a turn around and to be able to appreciate and feel how much taking these moments to connect and feel where are at is very empowering.

239. This is a beautiful example Ingrid, allowing the pause, a space, in amidst the everyday things in our life, opportunities we are constantly being offered but decline to let ourselves see. Opened our eyes you have. In each moment am I supporting or sabotaging myself?

240. The beauty that you share here is that when we pay a little more attention to one area in our life it has a huge effect on the rest of our life.

241. A friend of my father used to pause for 15 seconds before driving out of his front yard so that “he’d miss all the accidents that might have been going to happen to him”. I can’t comment on what his impulse behind this was and some would rightly say that this is a seemingly insane piece of reasoning, but if he had used those 15 seconds to truly pause, connect and deepen his stillness before starting to drive, then I am very sure that it would have had a very positive effect!

242. You are not the only one Jane! A classic for me is that I might treat myself by taking a taxi rather the the tube and then, instead of using that time to rest in the comfort of a taxi and re-fuel before the next appointment, I’ll take advantage of the internet connection above ground and deal with emails or similar. We resist stillness very, very stubbornly.

243. As well as pauses, I also like to sometimes take myself out a situation for a brief walk. At work, or at home, or wherever…if I am feeling that it is all pretty intense or I am stuck in something and not seeing or moving with clarity and connection, then a great tool is simply to walk away from it and walk. Serge Benhayon’s magnificent walking therapies that have been written about on this site are a deeply supportive tool of enormous power. But what always feels equally huge for me is not just the walking itself, but the actual initial choice to go for that walk; to take myself out of whatever I was in, to be honest as to where I am at and to claim connection before function. I feel this is the same for you and your garage door pause. There are two aspects to it; the settlement you feel in that fifteen seconds..but, before that and what allows it in the first place is that initial choice, the knowing that you are more. Its huge.

     1. Yes, and to me it feels it is not only the choice as such but the deep knowing that we deserve this simply because we are so much more than this everyday hustle and busyness.

     2. Absolutely Otto, honoring and choosing for the knowing that you are more connects you to the all, to each and every one and to God, the most loving choice there is.

     3. Taking ourself out for a short, purposeful walk can often be a pause from what we are doing especially if it’s getting a bit tense or complicated. In that moment of pause – the walking (not running) away – we can receive the clarity that was absent while we were enmeshed in the complication.

        1. I like the differentiation between walk and run that you have made. Adding to this and something that I am working with at the moment is ensuring that the walking away is not a withdrawal. I have done this often and it is a killer in that I am basically saying I am going to be less so that I don’t have to feel the tension of that situation. Dropping my vibration so as not to feel the unsettlement. Not cool! So watching that one a lot at the moment.

     4. I love this – “claim connection before function”

        1. Yup. It’s gigantic for so many of us. We love function because it provides temporary relief from the pain of the lack of connection. But, the veneer is very thin; it doesn’t work or last and means we just end up seeking more relief – hence the extreme exhaustion of humanity.

244. It’s interesting how we convince ourselves that we don’t have time and yet this is a perfect example of one of those stop moments that only took seconds.

     1. It’s very common for us to say ‘I don’t have time’, yet we have the same amount of time every single day – it’s not so much our lack of time that hinders us and weighs us down, it’s how we choose to fill our time, not just in terms of what we are doing, but in terms of the quality of our movements from one moment to the next.

245. When we are run by an energy that isn’t true, there’s a relentlessness to what we do – a perpetual state of motion without a hint of repose. This energy let run wild leaves no space for us to regather our true selves. That is sad for our real essence ends up trapped in the proverbial garage where no one can see.

246. I love the way you have connected the way you sleep with the way you were in the day and how it is the days that you do not take moments to stop that you wake in the night without being able to go back to sleep. I wonder just how many people this effects and how exhausted so many of us are without knowing how to change. Since reading this blog I have realised that there are so many moments where I could stop and be with myself which would make a huge difference to how I feel at the end of my day.

     1. I am pondering on this connection Fiona, the link between not taking moments to stop and pause during one’s day and how this impacts sleep, very interesting, as there are many times I wake for the toilet, and don’t really get back to sleep!

247. Yes, life can become full of simple practical rituals that keep us connected to the wisdom and beautiful quality held within the body.

248. What you’ve shared is beautiful Ingrid, that wisdom can come in the form of a ‘stop’ and in space, rather than only in the form of actively seeking to learn something by reading, having a conversation etc.

249. Who would have thought a pause could be so powerful and life changing and it is something I look forward to making part of the things I do daily thanks to the power of this blog.

250. Most of us are living like runaway freight trains, which makes pausing nye on impossible. What most of us consider a pause to be, is in fact something that physically prevents us from getting on with our errands, e.g. being at the cinema or going to the beach. But having lived this way for a very long time, I know that what happens is that as soon as the film is over, or I leave the beach, I move like a greyhound out of the traps. The difference with a true pause moment is that it encourages the greyhound to walk rather than run.

251. I have been so inspired by the comments I have read that I have begun to bring more of these precious moments of pause into my day and I can feel them slowly becoming part of my daily rhythm, not just something I do every now and then. I also realised that to take just 10 pauses of 30 seconds each during my day I am only using up 5 minutes of my 24 hour cycle. Now that’s definitely not a lot of time and from the wonderful response I am receiving from my body every second when I am fully with me, is absolutely worth it.

     1. So many of the comments about how people pause and where they have these moments make complete sense yet they are so great to be reminded of or even to hear for the first time. Imagine them all being put into a book, a book of pause moments to reconnect.

252. By taking a moment to pause, we send the message from our bodies, to The Universe that we have the time and the space to stop and The Universe has to then mirror back to us that same sense of time and space. When we feel that we don’t have the time to stop, then again The Universe has no choice other than to mirror back to us that same lack of time and space.

253. When we do check in with our body, it can be very revealing as to how much tension we are holding onto that otherwise goes unnoticed.

     1. True Sandra, I’ve noticed the more I let myself check in with my body, the more often my body signals to me what tension is there.

     2. So true, Sandra, this tension constricts us, and can make us feel like we’re struggling, when in truth, we’re just allowing in another energy that is driving us to feel this way. When we pause and re-connect with our body it’s amazing how quickly these feeling dissipate as we let go of control and surrender, with the knowing that we will know exactly what our next steps need to be to best support us in what we are doing.

254. I love what you’re sharing here Jane, no you are definitely not alone with this ….. as I was waiting for the kettle to boil this morning (which doesn’t take that long these days!), what was I doing …. cleaning the kitchen bench top, which was actually pretty clean anyway. I can feel how it was something to do to fill the space, rather than an impulse to do something that was needed in that moment. It feels very supportive to allow myself to clock this and have the awareness for how this keeps my body in ‘constant alert’. Thank you.

255. ‘I had a huge lesson about the power of pause a few months ago, and from a garage door of all things: definitely not your normal classroom situation.’ – what a gorgeous and very playful reflection of the opportunities that we have each and every day to connect with and learn from the absolute wisdom on offer, in the most unlikely places. These opportunities are constellated just for us, hence the enormous joy when we discover them, our learning fits like a glove for where we are at in that moment.

256. Life is a joy to live when we view everything around us, and that is offered in way of situations, as a constant learning and evolving, of enriching our lives and all those around us.

     1. Life sure is Paula and it is a great reminder to know that whatever is before us is for us to learn, grow and evolve from, nothing just happens by chance.

257. “I had a huge lesson about the power of pause a few months ago, and from a garage door of all things: definitely not your normal classroom situation.” And that is exactly what is missing in our classrooms, our everyday, every moment life. We have made school and learning very abstract instead of always making it relatable to our living way.

258. And there are so many pause moments in a day. A cute little game would be to see just how many opportunities we are offered in one day to simply pause and checkin, deepen our connection.

259. Super valuable sharing Ingrid. Thank you. Just this morning when I started working on my computer it decided it had to update, restart etc. At this moment I decided to use it to feel into my body. I thought to myself – how many moments are in the day that we can either get ourselves in a tissy because they are not happening quickly enough or we could use them to deepen our surrender in our body. Eg. Traffic lights, microwave, elevators, computers turning on etc Of course each choice leaves the body feeling a very different way and subsequently means the quality we continue the next activity or greeting with us also very different.

260. I love how once we commit to building space into our day to check in with our selves our ability to observe life begins to expand too. All those little moments where we choose not to react but instead come back to our bodies empowers us to hold a steadiness through the day that supports not only our selves but all everyone we engage with.

261. Bringing moments of stillness, of pause, and space into our day is so supportive in building a deeper relationship with our bodies, which then leads to a greater ability to listen to what the body is saying to us. That inner quiet voice that is so easy to override is given the space to speak more loudly, and then slowly, it becomes a little easier to make more loving choices – and not so easy to override what our body is telling us, all of the time.

     1. I love the idea of giving our “inner quiet voice……the space to speak more loudly,” and when listened to it is hard to comprehend that we have not stopped to listen more often. The tenderness and wisdom of this voice has forever been speaking to us but unfortunately, we have become so adept at tuning it out, but when we pause and offer it the space to speak, life has the potential to change in many wonderful ways.

262. Lovely how those little spaces give rise to a willingness towards other spaces or longer spaces. I know my exercise in the mornings has grown gradually thanks to the loveliness my body gets to enjoy in those very present moments.

     1. There is definitely a grandness these spaces offer us when we choose to take them.

        1. Most definitely, they allow us to open out giving the whole body a huge breath of universe, rather than carrying on to feel ‘squeezed’ – read here stressed or rushed!

     2. It sure is, we just have to start with 1 simple thing and then slowly everything becomes the same quality and then we allow ourselves to go deeper with it and so on. It is magical how simple life really can be when we allow it to be!

     3. There is a real exquisite ness when we are moving with and from our bodies and exercising this way feels so different to the way I used to exercise through hardness and pushing and yet I don’t do it because I still have this belief that exercise needs to be hard work. I feel to bring more gentle exercise to my morning rhthym and see if that supports space in my day too.

        1. That’s what I did Fiona, made excuses, though my reasons for not exercising were different. But now, the gentleness and the intimacy with which my body communicates is what keeps me with it.

263. In communication with the universe we can read where in a cycle we are. My first day in a new country and already I’ve been shown a valuable lesson: to read where we are at any given point. Waiting to embark on a boat, I was given a set time two hours ahead, no distractions, no food outlets no wifi, just a bus shelter to shade from the baking heat. My irritation with this enforced pause, soon morphed into understanding. All there was to do was wait as locals I shared the shelter with were doing and deeply connect. Nothing more called for. It also signalled the beginning of a new cycle and possibility to slow right down and deepen my connection with self rather than constantly wanting to be doing.

     1. Every location we are placed in offered us opportunity and also others. When we embrace and appreciate this we can feel our purpose in life.

     2. This is beautiful Kehinde – we miss opportunities of deep connection of simply being with others when we forget to pause for ourselves first.

264. This is a powerful reminder that we can easily be caught in the perceived pressures of time and in doing so lose the connection to the stillness we hold. I’ve noticed that whilst reading this blog I have stopped tapping my foot and my body has let go of the underlying need to get things done in the same way. Thank you for showing your experience with your garage door Ingrid.

265. I took a moment of pause one morning earlier this week because I felt unable to work or concentrate. I felt a heaviness in my chest and I didn’t know why. I laid down and put my hands on my chest and to my surprise, the moment of pause supported me to release a huge package of sadness. I realised later on if I had not stopped to feel what was going on, I may have missed the opportunity to clear the sadness and then buried the sadness deeper into my body.

     1. What a great example of just how much support our bodies are in our own health and well-being. Allowing the pause, the space and the presence, for it to do its thing. Wonderful.

        1. Yes, our bodies are amazing, aren’t they? They are always supporting us to surrender to stillness its natural state and I am appreciating this more and more.

     2. What a beautiful gift you offered yourself when you chose to lay down and allowed yourself to feel your body. Sometimes these feelings are what we want to ignore no matter what and so they get pushed further down and hopefully out of sight. But they never go away, sitting and waiting for the opportunity to rise again at a later date to get our attention. The gift you gave yourself was so very precious indeed and will probably continue to keep on giving.

     3. Your body spoke, you listened, the job was done, onwards.

266. It certainly feels that way Richard, very well expressed. I find these moment deeply healing and magical.

267. I allowed myself a pause today, in the turbulence I could access a breath of unaffected stillness.

268. No matter how busy the day may be, there is never not the opportunity just to pause and check in and if I run my day believing that this opportunity never arose, I am purposefully lying to myself because I don’t want to feel the irresponsibility with which I am moving.

     1. Beautifully said, Otto – ‘there is never not the opportunity just to pause and check in’. When we hear ourselves complain that we don’t have enough time – time isn’t actually the problem, it’s how we are choosing to fill our time that is calling out for some consideration and perhaps some ‘letting go’ so we are more able to feel into what is needed, as opposed to working through our list, ticking things off.

        1. “Never have enough time”. Examining this closely exposes the idiocy of these kind of comments. Every single day of every single year there is exactly the same amount of time. It never alters, it never varies, it never suddenly becomes less or occasionally becomes more, it is a fixed; a fixed that we all know and are all totally aware of. Thus, any tension that we have with that amount of time is purely because of what WE have chosen to do within it….because it hasn’t changed…so the responsibility is entirely ours. It’s amusingly daft when you really consider it; wow, we are good at dodging the bullet of responsibility.

269. I welcome a pause at any given moment when it is presented just to take that time to enjoy being with myself and feeling my body and vibration. It always gives us and opportunity to drop and go deeper with this or not.

270. One year ago I had an experience where I was very impatient in getting out of my car and going inside the house after coming home from work. I pressed the automatic door to close as I was driving in the garage & the door closed down on the car….oops I learn’t my lesson the hard way- to slow down and check in how my body feels and stop to pause to reconnect.

     1. That’s a big and obvious lesson! But we all get them all the time in all shapes and sizes and yet will pull in all kinds of excuses and justifications. Astonishing to be really honest about how much we are resisting that deeper connection. Oh how we love to believe in life.

271. Yes, Ingrid. We can move in disconnection to our bodies or take each moment as an opportunity to move with presence and awareness of our innately divine quality. The choice is ours to make with every breath and step.

272. This blog has really struck a cord with me and supported me to create way more stop moments in my day at times when I tell myself that I don’t have time. Time for 15 seconds, even 10 seconds. It’s ridiculous that we tell ourselves we don’t have ‘time’ to stop when it is the very act of stopping that creates so much space to step into.

273. Pause moments are doorways to inner horizons.

274. This is amazing and shows how powerful these moments of stopping are; ‘there was no rush in my body, no tension and all from two pauses of 15 seconds that took up a whole 30 seconds of my day.’

     1. It sure is amazing and goes to show how everythign matters and has an effect on everything else, even if it is simply just a few seconds out of the thousands we have each day.

     2. I love this too Rebecca it shows the power when we allow space and not time.

275. Utterly brilliant Ingrid I love the practical simplicity of this sharing. I totally can see why this would be so powerful, I am going to bring this into my day and see where I can put in some 15 sec stop moments.

     1. Me too Vanessa, and no one can say they cannot spare 15 seconds!!!

     2. Same for me Vanessa, and I too love this blog, these magical moments are pure gold. Let’s keep expanding on these golden moments throughout our day and see the ripple effects take place.

276. Those moments of a pause help us to live in a way we choose to as we stop and feel our bodies we don’t just keep moving but can choose how we want to move next. However many stop moments we need it is worth having them as we are then truly able to choose how we want to live.

277. Ingrid, this is really helpful to read and makes me realise that I have moments like this where I carry lots of bags or move in a way that hurts my body, it was great to be more aware of these moments after reading your article and then making a different choice; ‘when it was about half way up I would find myself bending down to get under it: definitely not a comfortable or honouring move for my body, with my bags usually going in all directions.’

278. As part of a programme of self love I have found the grace of giving myself little stop moments to check in utterly profound in playing their part in keeping me steady, real and present. Whilst small in themselves, the result of each pause is profound as my body re-settles, let’s go of tension and reconfigures so that more natural living expression can be brought through.

279. Clocking those moments that we deem as unimportant because we are so attached to the doing can make all the difference to our day. Life is not a race or about how much we have achieved during a day but about our movements in connection to self.

280. This is so amazing, a mere 15 seconds to pause can change how we approach our entire day and have a positive effect on everything we do. I am so going to introduce this back into my life. I used to pause before driving from one job to another so I wasn’t carrying the momentum of each site into the next but I have long since let that fall by the wayside but thanks to this blog I now remember the importance of the pause.

281. Eventually all of us needs to renounce and see through the huge lie of time. A great first step is to start to stop and feel the truth of space.

     1. It sure is Joseph and this blog goes to show how when we take the time we actually get more done rather than rushing thinking of the next thing before we have completed what is right before us.

     2. Brilliant Joseph, great that you’ve nominated this because it is one huge lie that humanity is currently deeply caught in and a majority of people are not even aware of this.

282. This is another example of how if we give ourselves space the body responds by giving us an opportunity to not get caught up in the stress of getting things done and always being in a rush.

283. Life wisdom in every moment, this is how cool true school on earth is, it is called The way of the Livingness.

284. Moments of pause: eating a handful of nuts and dropping one, cutting yourself with a knife whilst preparing food, tripping on a step when you are travelling hard and fast, getting a ‘frog’ in your throat when you don’t express what needs to be said. We are getting these signals as reflections all the time and it is always our choice to pay attention and reconnect or ignore them.

     1. The very busy day and life can take us away from this connection and pause or it could give us many opportunities to learn how to commit to life in a way that is supportive to ourselves.

     2. It is in these moments you describe Carmel that we realise that we have disconnected from ourselves. But observing what has just happened and making the choice to press pause, those moments will come to a stop, that is until we check out from ourselves again.

285. Taking those little moments to tune into my body throughout the day has empowered me to take much better care of myself and hence feel a thousand times healthier as a consequence. Clocking the moments when my shoulders start to get tight, when I begin to feel thirsty or tired enables me to take a moment, reconnect, ask what my body needs and respond. A glass of water, a visit to the Ladies or a brief walk to get my circulation going maybe all it requires, but the few moments of being with myself are golden because connecting to the stillness empowers me to innately know which one to apply to restore my body’s equilibrium and hence underpin my well being.

     1. I like that ‘asking what my body wants’ I don’t think I have ever asked that question. I think a lot about what I want next which obviously involves my body and can be caring for my body but I have never asked it what it wants. I will experiment with this.

     2. Yes, I totally agree, being aware of how I am sitting, how is my posture is, is my spine straight or am I slouched, how am I typing on the keyboard and if I need the loo then why haven’t I been? Having this awareness of what our body is calling for makes such a difference to how we feel not just in ourselves but towards ourselves. The more we care about ourselves the more we want to care and each little moment of stopping and checking in is another building block towards a solid foundation.

286. When we feel ‘too busy’ to pause, this is exactly what is being called for. In pausing we give ourselves the opportunity to zoom out and feel the whole of what we are working on, bringing a spaciousness that invites us to feel into what is needed, as opposed to being a slave to time with functionality – ticking boxes to get things done and crossed off.

287. I love how life around us is constantly offering us a point of evolution, an understanding about ourselves and about life that supports us to forever learn and grow.

     1. It certainly does Paula and we either go with the flow of evolution or go against it. These little pause moments are gold in supporting us to feel the spaciousness and stillness on offered constantly.

288. The energy we are in is by far the most crucial factor impacting the quality of everything in our life. It is very wise to allow ourselves the space to observe, assess and deepen our awareness of what is going on.

289. Ingrid on reading about your feeling of ” “Let’s get this door up and get going as fast as possible!”, it reminded me of how I used to be in such a rush that I would try and pull the receipt out of the dispenser at the self serve checkout, before it had fully come out. This now has become a moment for me to pause and to feel whether or not I am in a disconnected rush or a connected steadiness. Life is constantly reflecting us back to ourselves, it’s quite incredible really.

290. There are times when I have felt eternity in a moment. When we experience this, it is undeniable that much can be done in a short space of time when we get ourselves out of the way, and connect to ourselves in these moments of pause.

291. 30 seconds, 60 seconds here and there is nothing in the grand scheme of things, and yet in the minutia lies the expansion of moments and the slipping away from the tyranny of time itself. For otherwise we are slaves of time and forever under its control. We live in a world that must have schedules and time frames to adhere to but whilst we still respect these fully, we do not need to be controlled and dominated by time.

     1. It has become so obvious to me over the last few years that the majority of humanity are ‘slaves of time’ so much so that we have learned to drive and push ourselves to fit more than is sensible into our waking hours. I was definitely one of those slaves and the subsequent impact brought so much anxiety and stress into my life which regularly affected the quality of my health and well-being. Choosing to free myself from the self-imposed slavery has been so very liberating in many ways.

292. Is there another possibility in those moments that we would ordinarily find frustrating? This really highlights that every moment offers us an opportunity. The question is are we seeing this?

293. It can be challenging to find those moments of pause in our day when we are not used to it. But when we introduce them in the smallest of ways, this can be so regenerating and calming overall, and also it seems to me that it allows a moment to feel complete before the next thing comes along.

     1. For me, these are the key words when it comes to bringing change into our lives: “when we introduce them in the smallest of ways” we are not overwhelming ourselves with many massive changes all at once so it is much more likely that the changes will become part of our foundation for life. One block of change at a time and the foundation will hold steady when something threatens to wobble us.

294. How often do we celebrate being on ‘auto pilot’ and ‘multi-tasking’ which celebrates not being present in what we are doing, something that usually leaves us exhausted and leaving us drained of vitality. The pause you have experienced speaks loudly of the exquisiteness of stillness and it also speaks loudly of the vitalness which you then took into your day. ‘Pausing’ is such a simple thing to do and takes such little time but brings the most gorgeous rewards.

295. After reading this blog this morning I practiced it and the drive I had afterwards blew me away of it smoothness, flow and ease. Like all the drivers were in synch with each other and each could drive without the usual stopping and waiting. So one little stop transferred into almost endless space.

296. At the 2018 Universal Medicine Australian retreat, Serge Benhayon presented on the topic that we are the architects of our own lives. What I took from that, is that we are far more responsible for what goes on in our lives, even fully responsible. This blog reminds me of that, as here you are choosing to take 30 seconds to set your self for the day in a much more loving way where you are connected to stillness and not choosing to be in the rush/stresses of the day. You are engineering your life to be less ‘intense’. The architect of your own life.

     1. How truly awesome it is to appreciate how 30 seconds can have such a significant impact on our day, absolute confirmation of the fact that whether we like it or not, we absolutely are the architects of our own lives. It’s super important for us to understand this so we are more aware and honest about what it is we are choosing in each moment.

     2. So true Sarah. This blog so clearly shows how much of an architect of our own life we are. It shows how every single little choice can make a fundamental difference and how easy it can be to totally transform our day, not just for ourself, but also for everyone else who we interact with or affect by the trail we leave behind.

297. This is one of the most valuable blogs I have seen. What Ingrid outlines is the key to the Kingdom of God and much else beside it.

     1. I couldn’t agree more, Christoph. I was inspired to put into practice what Ingrid was sharing as I left home yesterday and the difference was enormous. Not only was I able to feel how I am normally a few steps ahead of myself when I leave home, but choosing to pause, connecting with myself and feeling my body opened up that moment into something truly glorious. I could feel myself as a part of so much more, as opposed to my awareness being on getting onto the road and getting to work. My world became spherical rather than linear.

     2. Christoph, today you have offered me a huge lesson in appreciation, for when I read your comment I realised that I had not been appreciating deeply enough what I had shared. But why wouldn’t I, as I know that the commitment to taking pauses in my day has made such a difference to so many areas of my life, so why wouldn’t it offer the same for others? So, much appreciation to you…and to me.

298. There is magic in a moment, and always more in the next.

     1. Love the simplicity of this Michael… and the absolute wisdom offered in every moment if we are open to receiving the magic.

        1. And may I add Paula that, sharing that magic offers us just as much wisdom as the receiving does.

299. Thank you, Ingrid. I love how simple practical situations can offer us a profound learning opportunity if we are open to them.

300. Another sharing of how the simplest everyday moments can set the scene for us – it is all about deeply apprecaiting the quality we can bring and honouring our bodies to feel all that we are.

301. Thank you Ingrid – I enjoyed a deeper moment of pause whilst engaging with the closing of the garage door today. Awesome reminder that the quality we bring to every detail matters.

     1. Thank you for sharing Stephanie. I did have a chuckle when I read this as I suddenly had a picture of people all around the world taking a pause as their garage doors go up or down. Don’t you love the power of the ripple effect?

302. I love this blog, I can so easily let my day run on without pauses and often, like Your experience Ingrid, I will have something happen that wakes me up to expand a pause that has already been offered to me like when I bump into something or when I forget where I put my keys.

303. You are describing about five minutes of your life and the richness that is felt in that is beyond time (anything that time can hold).

304. After I read your blog Ingrid, and the comments below, I was inspired to close my eyes to connect to the stillness, I heard the gentle rain outside after months of dry weather, and could appreciate how it restores the land and plants to life. Washing away dust and leaving everything clean, renewed and revitalised, a symbol for the stop moment that washes us clean, a new start to whatever will be presenting next.

305. You communicate so clearly here the power of the pause, Ingrid, and not only does taking that pause change the how one begins the day it has a ripple effect upon everyone else one encounters.

306. There is a way to live where our every movement has the stillness akin to a pause and yet on the outside we are moving fast – this is really gorgeous and busts the whole illusion about time.

     1. Yes, living that way is wonderful.

307. Thank you Ingrid, for the inspiring blog, so simple, just 15 seconds and reminds me that stillness is just one gentle breath away

308. Being able to let go of time and yet still be totally apart of life and what we have to get on with is one that is worth mastering. I am only recently appreciating how much this really does have an effect on how we feel and the quality in the way we live life.

309. I was pondering on the beliefs around taking time to stop. Sometimes it may seems that it is for lazy people, or just for a few who have plenty of time during the day, even it may be seen as selfish when we put ourselves first before others…but having stop moments like this in such a purposeful way is actually a very responsible choice to make as enriches what’s next, simply because we bring our presence into any task or job we do, and this is already precious in itself.

310. In summer in The Netherlands we can have a lot of bridges that open, giving all the traffic sometimes quite long stop moments. Last Saturday I had three open bridges in a row, making the 20 minute drive all of a sudden a 45 minute one and it took me a while to surrender to the stop moments that were on offer and read why they were there for me.

311. An awesome reminder of how changing the energy of our day can take literally seconds.

     1. Yes, every moment there is a choice.

312. It’s easy to think that we don’t have time to stop but what you shared here Ingrid is very revealing about how simple can be take just 15 seconds to ckecking to our body. How wonderful having access to such a deliciousness within.

313. I love that, as this felt so good for you you decided to expand on it and pause and take time for you when in your car while closing the garage door and before driving off. Very cool. As you share these tiny moments we build in the day for ourselves when we pause may seem small but actually have a huge impact with our true wellbeing and with the environment around us. I, as I am sure many others are, inspired by what you share here.

314. Beautiful to feel how this brief pause imprinted your whole day and how often I do not allow myself to stop, yet when I do it transforms the quality of all that follows.

     1. How powerful is that stop that it can alter how we feel in our bodies and get us to a place where everything shifts.

315. Whilst I don’t have a garage door that I can use in the same way for that beautiful pause, I do make time before I get out of bed in the morning to connect, to pause and to stop before I get up. I also do the same before getting into bed, but I am inspired from your blog to take those pause moments more into my day.

316. The way you describe it Ingrid leaves me feeling that with the way we live we are always making music. Do we let anarchy and driving heavy metal play or do we let the sweet symphony of the true us sing out? Sometime we all need to press pause to switch tracks.

317. There are so many opportunities like this in our day – especially if we leave our smartphones in our pockets!

318. A dear friend and very wise woman wrote to me yesterday about the importance of space and how this gives us the fertile ground upon which we know exactly when to move and what to move. ‘Never make time your master.’

319. To start your working day with these moments of being honest and bringing yourself back to you is a great start of the day, a foundation to build on and like you say you are now committing to more stop moments, which are actually very natural moments to connect to the truth of your body. The outside world is full of demands and expectations on us to go in drive but we can live with the wisdom of our body and reflect the stillness that is in us all.

320. “…when I am waiting for my computer to ‘wake up,’ the traffic light to go green, the kettle to boil – in fact in any moment there is the opportunity to pause..” – I love those examples Ingrid of life’s own “pause moments” – they do so much more then what their intended purpose is whether to heat water, or stop and order the traffic.

321. At one of the jobs I do there is an electric roller door in which I enter the building through, it is the service entrance and I have realised through this blog how impatiently I wait for it to open and close as it is rather slow and I felt the time was wasted,but I will now cherish those moments to be in stillness and I bet if I timed the door it wouldn’t be much more than the 15 seconds even though it used to seem to take forever

322. What a valuable piece of writing to share Ingrid! The amount of times I rush off for work without pausing for anything are far to many when those 15 second moments of pause to gather our stillness are there to always to change our entire day if we choose them. Such a great idea to start introducing them into the rest of the day, as often as possible I’d say and watch life unfold much more in rhythm with the universe.

323. Perhaps it’s worth a try, to take a moment every now and again and to check in with how the body’s going. We can be so engulfed by our day, have to’s have to not’s that this relationship gets forgotten, what would happen if we brought more attention to it?

324. I do recognise the impatience when for a reason I have somewhere to wait, may it be in a queue for a ticket office, a checkout or on the road when I am stopped by the barrier of a railroad crossing. It is like I am loosing time as I cannot continue in being on the move but lately I found that this is not it. It is that I am offered a moment of rest, a pause to stop and just to be with myself. And in that moment I could feel that the impatience I used to feel in these situations is because I was running from an emptiness that did not want to be exposed.

325. This is a reality for me too, not having time in my day because, because… yes because of what? It feels like a habit, or an addiction to not to allow space in my day to just be with myself. So occupied with a drive from my mind, a drive that only can get caught when you do take a moment to stop and contemplate otherwise this drive will not show its real face.

326. The Universe is like a massive mirror, it simply and impartially reflects back to us what we are reflecting with our bodies. If we, therefore are transmitting that we don’t have enough time, then not enough time is what we will get. If we however are able to reflect that we have the time and the space to slow our movements down or even stop completely then the Universe has to reflect that same sense of space back to us. The Universe will forever show us our experience of life, when our experience of life changes, then so does life.

327. When we fill our every waking moment with activity of some kind then our days are very congested and contracted, whereas even so much as the briefest of moments of pause offers us a moment of potential expansion.

328. Ingrid this is exquisite. Because of your living quality, your words convey a living depth that I can easily feel in my body and it feels somehow that some of what you have shared has been energetically transferred from your body to mine or at least the invitation for me to experience what you are sharing is now living in me.

329. Thank you, Ingrid. My body really loved reading what you are offering here, I am left feeling spacious and still within, and gorgeous in my movement. So true, we move through our day as if stop/pause is the deadliest thing and has to be filled with something/anything at any cost, trying to get from A to B and we get lost somewhere in-between, and while we are too busy eradicating every opportunity to pause, we say we have no time to pause, then again, it is actually so very simple and easy and everywhere.

330. Yes indeed Richard, very beautiful to appreciate every moment of our day and allow this to expand. It is so easy to miss out on this when we dismiss what is there for us to connect to is simply divine.

331. Wow, I love your gorgeous reminder Ingrid to have regular stop moments to connect and check in with our body. I can very much relate to everything you’ve shared. 30 seconds can seem a very long time when we are in a rush and when we are being impatient. The wisdom you’ve shared I am going to take in and apply to the rest of my day.

332. Thank you Ingrid. On more than one occasion I have driven out of the garage with the garage door half up because I have been in such a hurry. I will definitely incorporate this garage door pause moment into my life now having read your blog.

333. Every door is an opening for a stop moment to reconnect and enter a new paradigm. Then to Explore and expanding our awareness by knocking on door of life as when we enter a new paradigm is such a joy-filled part of Living in The Livingness. So next time there is an opening garage door by virtue of this blog we will all get a blessing when we appreciate the stillness that you have shared Ingrid.

334. That’s so true Jane, we are very conditioned to be fixated on time, what I love about this blog is how it confirms that it’s space that allows and supports us to live in a way that is simple, where everything flows rather than us feeling as though we have to control everything, reducing our life to function rather than being the glory of who we are.

335. There were a couple of points during my day today where I just stopped and felt whatever was there to be felt, I reminded myself about the 15 seconds in this blog and it was amazing how it was totally possible from what seemed to be a very busy day.

336. ‘As I drove off I could feel how taking that pause had changed the way I began my work day, or any other day for that matter’ – through this loving choice we’re not only changing how we are with our selves, but how we are with everyone else we interact with during our day.

337. Absolutely love what you share here, Ingrid, your very practical example of allowing the space to connect with our stillness, thanks to your garage door, has inspired me to try this out myself when I leave for work this morning. I can feel how no matter what time I leave in the morning, there is a sense of urgency with which I am leaving the house – this is what I am then greeted with when I return. All these seemingly small choices have such a powerful ripple effect.

338. What a great blog Ingrid and I totally get the power in a pause you are describing here.

339. I love the irony of what is offered here… we think we don’t have time to stop – even for 15 seconds out of our day of 86,400 seconds! And yet when we do, it feels like time expands, life is more spacious, our day flows harmoniously and we feel amazing to boot – how worthwhile and valuable is that 15 seconds?!!

     1. Also why do we get into such a rush in the first place that we even need to consider time in this manner. That is already a set up. I like to leave with plenty of time for space!

340. Beautiful sharing Ingrid… it always amazes me and also inspires me how much our bodies can reveal to us about the way we are choosing to live when we stop to feel what is truly going on within… wisdom and understanding way beyond what we could ever think of.

341. A beautiful example of how we can take time to connect to our selves and our bodies in the midst of our busy days and what a grace it brings to every aspect of our lives when we do.

342. Often we are so consumed by a certain way of living and moving we do not realise we are not breathing our own breath, if indeed we are breathing at all! These small moments of pause are not little at all for they are the much needed ingredient that help to restore our true breath so we can move through the day without leaving any piece of us behind – we carry our all, to all.

     1. If we are not breathing at all chances are we are dead. Better to pause and breathe before we die 😉

343. Very gorgeous Ingrid. When we ‘slow’ down time, we open up space; the Stillness in which our true self is found.

344. Oh I laughed out loud when I read this – “As I stood there, which felt like a very long time, but which turned out to be only 15 seconds”. I can totally relate to this, time can stand still when we choose too. Or maybe we move into space as we make it less about time.

345. There sure is plenty of opportunities where we can take a moment and be with ourselves and our bodies. Having these moments is what starts to build it so we can have periods of times where we don’t need to check in because we are already checking in and taking it us were ever we go.

346. I often stop in the car before turning the key in the ignition and if there is someone next to me, I just look at them and ask ‘are you ready?’ and this is my/our cue to be for a moment. Nothing spectacular when you are not connected, but an extraordinary moment in space when you are connected.

347. Awesome and simple sharing Ingrid – and those stop moments matter only when we stop and truly connect as you have shared. There is an expansion that happens and it feels like there is all the time in the world. And in this split moment, we get regenerated. A great reminder for me today! Thank you!

348. Yes I have found that too Jane. The more I take all the time I need to be prepared to go somewhere, the easier the trip and the earlier I arrive. It used to puzzle me how this actually happened but coming to understand more about space and placing less focus on time my understanding is expanding and so is my joy of experiencing something that is actually so very normal.

349. This highlights that there is a ripple effect for every moment, regardless of whether we stop or whether we continue in the rush.

     1. Great point Richard and one worth asking and investigating further.

350. Any moment gives us the opportunity to stop and connect or to continue in the momentum of rush. The results are obvious and do make a difference.

351. Whenever I am in the elevator I take these seconds to do some sacred movement. I love to stay on and to not check out by situations that are seducing me to wonder of with my thoughts. These little moments are true nurturing moments. They help me to stay in a quality that allows me to be more observant in life.

352. Every movement has a starting point- the moment we are present and connected with our body, the movement itself gets taken care of by the quality we´ve chosen.

353. I love it Ingrid thank you for sharing and reminding me there is never any need to rush. It is something I notice at traffic lights I can’t make them turn green quicker so why not use the opportunity to pause and take a moment rather than getting anxious wanting them to change.

354. Introducing a moment or moments to pause can feel so uncomfortable to start with as we’re faced with that feeling to get moving and keep on doing, which often feels like a relentless momentum and a tension, when we don’t do that. But you’ve shown that none of the excuses we tell ourselves of ‘I don’t have time for this’ really stand up, and that we feel more expanded and more still as a result of just checking in with the body and how it feels. So simple, so easy, takes so little time but connects us to an inner stillness that supports us throughout the rest of the whole day. Thank you for sharing.

355. I love this example and the others you have given Ingrid and it made me realize how many moments of space are on offer in the day and how often we try and fill up these gorgeous moments of space with ‘doing’, As if we need to be doing something all the time. It seems like often we feel we have not enough time and this may actually be true because if we do not allow for space in our lives we will be ruled and dictated by the clock, always leaving us feeling we are just a tad behind.

356. I love this Ingrid and it is a great example of the difference between time and space. By getting yourself out of ‘time’ (by not rushing, feeling late,looking at the time or wanting things to go faster) we end up with a huge amount of ‘space’. As you say, you felt like you had all the space to simply connect and be with you when it took only 15 seconds.

357. Thank you Ingrid this is so great to read, it is like giving ourselves permission to feel and live the simple fact that every moment is precious and thus determines the preciousness of the next moment.

358. There is an image we take from the human side of life and apply it to life as a whole: we can force life to get where we have to go’ faster. The problem is believing that this apply other than to our human bit, and by making it the way, we assure that we get nowhere outside of the human part.

359. Love this Ingrid! Isn’t it amazing how when we commit to bringing more love to something it ripples out into all other areas of our lives.

360. Wow Ingrid, 30 seconds of gold that set up the whole day to be in that same quality of stillness? I can’t imagine anyone saying they don’t have time for that! Recently I have begun a little ritual where I stop and pause in my car upon arriving at work and take a moment to close my eyes and breathe gently through my nose (The Gentle Breath Meditation) and in that pause appreciate all that I bring to my workplace in the quality of love. It is amazing to feel the difference between the days that I have done this and the others where I tend to rush into work in a more anxious state, disconnected from my body and any sense of stillness. I also do a little debrief meditation after work when I get into my car and it is very revealing to see what state my body is in (was I racy, tired, sore, etc.). That way I am coming home more connected to myself and letting go of tension built up during the work day.

361. A wonderfull and practical example of how to simply BE you in your day…

362. Ha ha this is very funny Ingrid what you are sharing as I was staying with friends and they went into the house via the garage door which to me seemed to take forever to open and I found myself ducking under the door as it slowly opened. I couldn’t wait for it to fully open and then I tried to close it before it had finished opening. I totally did not read the message given to me, to use the time to stop and connect.

     1. It is true I wonder how many people would actually wait until the whole garage door is opened before trying to walk through!?..such is the rush and bustle that the world seems to operate in.

363. It’s really worth appreciating the difference such a seemingly small change can make!

     1. It sure is Fiona, and how massive an effect it can have on the rest of the day.

364. Awesome blog Ingrid, the opportunities to pause and re-connect to our innate stillness, present themselves in the most mundane of daily tasks. As you share here Ingrid, with the pause, there is no mundane anymore, simply the joy of being in presence with all.

365. We have so many moments available to us to support us, how many do we really maximise?

     1. Knowing every moment is there to expand- how often do we choose expansion instead of familiarity, comfort and irresponsibility ?

     2. How many moments do we flatten and roll over because we’re so fixated on time and function – getting from point A to B?

     3. Great question Michael, when we live under the pressures of time it can be very difficult to see the potential to maximise the spaciousness that is constantly being offered to us.

366. Could there be 43,200 seconds in a twelve hour period? If so then 30 seconds here and there seem like nothing but what a huge difference they can make. When those 30 second pauses to reconnect to stillness can allow us a change in ourselves that lasts for as long as we let it that is super cool.

     1. I love and appreciate how you have expanded on the number of seconds in 12 hours Elaine. It certainly makes the point even stronger for taking the 30 seconds to be with ourselves as we still have a huge number of seconds left to ‘spend’. Spending them wisely will naturally serve to build a quality that will support us so steadily in everything we do.

     2. I like that Elaine, 30 seconds in twelve hours is just a small fraction of the total but as you say can bring us so much. Imagine how life would be if we would be able to live 50% of the twelve hours in that close connection with ourselves, or even the full 100%. Sure the world then would be completely different from what it is now.

367. Ingrid thank-you for re-confirming the power of a pause, the mornings can often be the busiest time of day, amazing to put a stop to this daily momentum and take responsibility for the quality of movements, our state of being.

368. I love the power of the pause you describe Ingrid, it is a moment of discernment, feeling and returning to the body, and the reflection comes to us in an instant.

369. 30 seconds and you got all of this!! I could feel how my body changed when I continued to read your blog (and I guess this is showing me how I am still absorbing) as when you said your body was tense clutching your bag and you were bending down to go under the garage door my body felt a tension and on the second part when you said you waiting and honoured yourself, gave yourself space and reconnected I could feel my body go ‘ahhhh’ no tension and drop more. This also goes to show the ripple effect in that everything we do is energetically felt by the rest of the world! For me that is more of a reason to pause and stop.

370. Gorgeous Ingrid – suffice to say this blog has given me cause to pause. Life isn’t about living in slow motion but if you’ve been addicted to relentlesss drive for most of your life then any opportunity to break this apart is crucial.

     1. Good to mention Joseph, it is not about slow motion in life but to stay connected with the rhythm of our breath and body.

371. Most struggle when moments of space are offered simply because in that moment we are offered a moment to let go, and deepen within ourselves. We also get offered a space to feel that none of what goes on outside of us is truly who we are. Now if you are identified by what you do and caught in your day, stillness is the most resisted thing and hence why these pause moments are also the most resisted things even though time wise they are so short!

372. Very beautiful Ingrid, attending to the detail of the body, and not the wants of the mind, allows everything to expand.

373. Surely there’s an analogy in there about slowly opening up to start your working day 😜 And I bet if you were to revert back to bending under that door, you’d really notice it. I guess that’s what life’s about – while we think it should be faster, higher, stronger it can actually be slower, more gentle and loving.

     1. It sure can Nick and the more we honour our bodies rather than pushing them like bending under the door the more we are in flow with our body and I find the more I actual get done as the less racy I am and the less mistakes I make!

     2. Every now and then I can feel the old urge to duck under the door begin to rise as the door rises, but it feels so horrible in my body that it does not get the opportunity to take over. Door ducking no longer has a place in my life, but the power of pausing certainly does.

374. A gorgeous practical inspirational sharing.

375. Yes indeed, Ingrid. There are opportunities throughout the day to connect to the loveliness of our breath, our touch etc as a reminder of the exquisite quality we all innately hold within us. It is simply a matter of letting ourselves feel it!

376. I love your sharing Ingrid… I am inspired. ‘All from two pauses of 15 seconds that took up a whole 30 seconds of my day. And to think that previously I considered that I didn’t have the time to wait that long!’ A few seconds of connection can support the whole day!

377. I love it Ingrid, and although I do have some stop moments I know I could bring in more. Very inspiring.

378. Ingrid what a delightful post on giving ourselves a moment and the ripple effects this has on not just the rest of the day, but also our lives too. Pausing is creating space where in space we can see so much more.

379. A beautiful space opening up to be with you and a gentle reminder of the power of pause.

380. It is through the consistency of checking in with my body that I am realising has an impact on my steadiness to live a life that is full of joy and vitality. I do not need anything outside of me to stimulate or excite me – the choice to connect to my body is enough.

381. “But this particular morning with the words of that blog in my mind I decided to press the button and take a moment to pause, close my eyes and check in with my body.” A beautiful sharing, thankyou Ingrid. There are so many opportunities to pause during our day – so much easier to go with the flow rather than rail against being held up for 30 seconds!

382. It feels very loving to wait for things to complete as opposed to rushing whatever we do out of the way.

383. I love what you have shared Ingrid and it is a reminder for us all that a stop takes no time at all but what it offers is way beyond our temporal understanding.

     1. ha ha yes a stop takes no time – quite the opposite as it can open up space and then seeming miracles can happen for example stop and find you get there faster!

384. There was one other comment – I’ve noticed how the University of Life does have a habit of providing lessons in the strangest of ways. If we are walking in the world with our eyes open then there are lessons aplenty, and if we ignore these my experience is that the lessons somehow become more expensive (either emotionally or financially) as the thing I’m ignoring has a bigger and bigger impact.

385. I love that Ingrid. I am often surprised myself how I tense my body throughout the day and even when I am lying in bed. Bringing these stop moments into place is very supportive because it only takes a moment to feel what is there and then we can let it go.

386. Who knew that 30 seconds could have such a profound influence on your day, but then when you connect with space you connect with something so large and grand… everything is different from the moment before.

387. From the smallest of things so much has unfolded, I love that you have felt how by stopping for 30 seconds before you leave for work sets you up to bring a totally different quality to your day which is then felt by all those you come into contact with. That totally takes the self out of self care.

388. Ingrid what an incredible sharing of a moment that so many of us have where we want to get through something instead of being with ourselves and deeply caring for ourselves at that moment.

389. Beautiful Ingrid, we say we don’t have time to create moments in our day that will support us yet just pausing to reflect on how we are feeling can make all the difference in our day. The ‘don’t have time’ or ‘life is just too busy’ are statements that are made but these statements are not the issue here… it is our investment in the doing that we need to look at and address.

390. I had an interesting experience yesterday where I was caught in traffic getting home. I can remember this happening before in the same place and finding this really awful and getting very frustrated. But this time I simply accepted that it would take some time to get home and didn’t go into the same frustration and instead simply waited patiently and enjoyed the time being with me without any rush.

391. Ingrid, this article is great. What an amazing difference it makes to have these stop moments where we can connect and be still. I love this when I allow myself to stop and close my eyes and notice how my body is feeling and then move from here. I have started doing this if I feel upset about something, this allows me to notice how I am really feeling rather than reaching for food or something to numb myself.

392. I too love these precious moments – just a few seconds of deepened connection to our stillness can be more revitalising than a big sleep or holiday. In fact sleeping or holidaying in exhaustion are not even revitalising!

393. How wonderful Ingrid! I also woke recently and instead of leaping into the day I stopped, I connected to the essence of my being and also to my body. I lay in bed enjoying the feeling of simply being with me. As a result my whole day was completely different. I felt settled in myself and without the usual anxiousness, nervousness, or need to rush. I was mentally and emotionally much more calm. This pocket of time I gave myself set the tone for my whole day, it was quite astounding to feel how powerful it was. I liked the practical ways you have identified simple stop moments throughout the day to reconnect to yourself and your body, lots of great opportunities to feel where we are at and build conscious presence.

394. I’ve observed what happens when I pause and connect before moving when at work and with my client. The quality of the movement changes, feels spacious, light and multi-dimensional.

395. Perfectly constellated. This morning I woke and felt the need to pause on a project infused with the energy of rush.

396. Your garage door is a veritable treasure as are all these seemingly mundane tasks we perform every day, each one providing an opportunity to pause, be still and connect. And as there is nowhere in the world where we can bank those apparently ‘saved’ seconds we think we gain while rushing – long live the pause and your garage door.

397. Introducing little pause moments prove to be the possible answer to the continuous drive we tend to live in. As the answer to put a stop to this nervous driven drive in our current society is actually so simple, why then is this not publicly advertises on the billboards, TV, the internet and on the radio?

398. That inner connection we come to experience when we make the considered choice to take a pause is so exquisite that I can imagine that once you have experienced these that you will introduce more pause in your day than only at the garage door in the morning.

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