We’re back with another 2-Minute Tip, and we’re focusing on what I call “the power of the STOP.” As a society, we are constantly on the go, with this frenetic, chaotic, frantic pace, and the ever-growing to-do list: what didn’t get done yesterday, what needs to be done tomorrow, what absolutely has to be done today. We’re often so busy with all we do that we miss a lot of our opportunities to simply be. We are always doing something.
But, as an alternative, I just love the invitation that author Sylvia Boorstein says: “Instead of saying, as we often do, ‘Don’t just sit there, do something!’, every once in a while we need to step back and say, ‘Don’t just DO something. SIT THERE!!’”
Periodically, we really just need to disengage for a few moments. There’s a fantastic book called The Power of Full Engagement, by James Loehr and Tony Schwartz. One of the things they talk about is this idea that our ability to fully engage in life is dependent on our ability to fully disengage periodically. Sometimes this means disengaging from technology. Sometimes, disengaging from too many things, wedged into our schedules. Or disengaging from our own negative self-talk, or our focus on many of the things that we can’t control, instead of some of the things that we can control.
So, your invitation this week is to put a little bit of a “buffer zone” in between your “to-do list” and your “to be commitment” and find some times where you’re just concentrating on this idea of “Don’t just do something, sit there!”. It will allow your mind to sort of sift and settle. It will allow your body to reset and recharge, your mind and your body will start connecting better with one another, so your energy and focus will skyrocket just by taking those powerful, purposeful pauses.
We tend to yawn a lot during our days because our brain is trying to tell us that we need to step back and take that deep breath and simply BE in this moment. The magic is here in this moment, if you’re never present in this moment you’re never going to experience either the moment…or the magic.
So, that’s my invitation to you this week. Experiment with that powerful, purposeful pause, and it will be a productivity tool that will dramatically improve your outcomes AND you’ll be a heck of a lot happier and less stressed in the process. Hit that pause button now!
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