Mindful Monday: New Year and the Pause

Uncategorized Jan 06, 2020

No, not that pause. It’s Monday. And if you are like me, you are fully back to work today after the holidays. Even if you love your job, like I do, the work you put on hold is still there. I had lunch with my girlfriends on Saturday, and even though I don't work with them any longer, just mentioning the name of the same people who used to trigger me, still did. Hmm. I've done all this work on myself and yet there is more healing to be done. 

How about you? At the stroke of midnight last Wednesday, you vowed that this is your year. That this year will be different. But will it? Truthfully, how many years have you told yourself that.

As 2019 breathed its last, the person you were at 11:59 pm last Tuesday---Is that the same person today? For the most part, yes.

However, you have the power. You have the power to control how you react in difficult situations. You have the power to control how you react to people who push your buttons especially when they enjoy doing so.

Doing my best He-Man imitation, “I have the power.” (I watched a lot of ‘80’s TV with my sons.) No seriously, if you think back to the pause, think back to the choice that He-Man made when he lifted his sword—well maybe you don’t get the reference—but the point is to take that pause.

Pause before you:

  1. React to the person pushing your buttons
  2. Send an email. Any email.
  3. React to that difficult situation, thinking “how else might I respond?”
  4. Pause anytime you sense you are getting tense.

 

Victor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor said: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

 For me that space lies in my daily meditation practice. Even if you don't meditate (yet), take a deep breath, count to ten, and re-frame the situation.

 Happy New Work Year. Happy Monday. And as Courtney Cox says at the end of the He-Man movie, “Good Journey, He-Man.”

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