So many of us forget to pause in life, even to stop to take a deep breath and recognise our achievements – our very life! We stomp around banging on about what isn’t working, what we wish would or could happen, and if only. We expect everything to fall into place and arrive when we want it to. Like in the movies, like with Amazon! But pausing is powerful and healing. Pausing exudes confidence and energy. On video, stage and even page – pausing is magical. With the written word we have punctuation, in the spoken word we have – pauses. This is The Magic Of The Pause.

-A pause is like an oral comma – GV

I know as a speaker, getting up on stage, feeling the heat of the lights, the fidgety, curious audience and those flighty butterflies in your belly, the pause seems like near impossible. All you want to do is get the words out, hear the applause and exit stage right. But once you get the balance of Confidence and Competence tipping in your favour, taking on The Magic Of The Pause will bring out the virtuoso in you.

-Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes – including you – Anne Lamott

The benefits of switching off abound in blogs, articles and even news reports. However, actually doing it is another thing. They say for example meditate, just sit and breathe. But if you are the active type of creative person, that advice has no meaning. What! Sit still and do nothing?

I understand, I am not a passive artist, I know that sitting is the new smoking! I am also aware of my body and all those crazy chemicals, hormones and creative juices that need stimulation of the moving kind. If you are like me – and I know many people do not get off on sitting and gazing, then try these exercises to Pause, Unplug and Switch off.

1. Do something totally different like Hula hooping – learn to dance tango or start baking.The idea is to be daring – take a risk or jump at a new opportunity.

2. Get out of the house. Dress up, brush your teeth, look hot, snazzy and gorgeous and get out of the house. Take in a museum, a theatre show, a tennis match, horse race or drink cafe at Harrods. Get off your beaten track. Step out – like 3 kilometres outside of your comfort zone.

3. Practise speaking – stopping – breathing and speaking again in front of the mirror. Sneak in a smile, a twinkle in your eye,  a shoulder shake. Let your butterflies go free. And breath.

As they say, Practise makes Performance!  If you want to develop The Magic of the Pause then hop on a call with me.
Together we can starve the fears and feed the beliefs.

 

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