Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Stay Sparked. This is a sparkle snack to inspire you in your day, a short inspiration-infused conversation.
Speaker: i am Betsy Finkelhoo, the creator of the Power Affirmation Journal and Somatic Bodyworker. i am Jon Halcyon Stinn, host of the Hoog Nation YouTube channel. We are here starting off with gratitude always.
Speaker: So today I'll share my gratitude is for clear skies, big, bright blue skies. It's been pretty rainy, which is great. But I am just soaking up the the majesty of no clouds in the sky today.
Speaker: So grateful. Hmm. Oh man, I am today feeling especially grateful for a particular house plant of mine. I've got a ZZ plant that is massive and it's had a little issue with pests lately. So I've been hand wiping each of its leaves um every couple of weeks and really feeling this intimate connection and appreciation for this big, beautiful green creature.
Speaker: That's amazing. What a lucky plant. Aww. Well, we're going to start off with a shout-out to our sponsor, Lucid, a mushroom nootropic coffee drink, or if you prefer, matcha, and a nighttime dream drink with cacao.
Speaker: It's so delicious. So cheers to you, are our sponsors at Lucid. Check them out, becomelucid.com. Mm. Mm-mm. Yum. So on today's Sparkle Snack series, we are talking about the power of the pause.
Speaker: Simplifying, slowing down. I find so much value in a pause, and I really... tap into the value and importance of pause throughout the day ah with my work, with my clients, and also in my own mindfulness practice.
Speaker: Because I find that in our day-to-day lives, the system that we live in is pretty fast-paced. depending on where you live, of course, but especially if you live in a city or if you are, you know, working a lot, it's just pretty fast.
Speaker: And so I find that the pause, even if it is just a three second pause between conversations, between topics in a conversation, maybe a pause after a meeting to just reset and breathe in the car after you, you know, have a big ah meeting or you know, even just a pause ah throughout the day rather than just like continuing to try to be productive.
Speaker: I find it just brings so much balance and harmony. And so we kind of wanted to geek out on that and hopefully inspire y'all out there to be reminded about the power of the pause. Oh man, I so need this reminder. When we were talking about this topic, I was like, oh, I have not been pausing lately. But I am brought back to right when I got sober about three years ago, I had this significant shift in my pacing, you know, where I was trying to let go of that kind of urgency and and the patterns that I had and
Speaker: So one of the antidotes to that was to try and to take pauses, to try to to to be become aware of the moment. And like one of the things that that i someone taught me was tune in and are there any muscles flexed that are not being used in that moment?
Speaker: And like, wow, has that been a powerful like tool for taking a pause? Because I'm constantly discovering, oh my gosh, I am tense and in my shoulder and my arm and my leg and my back.
Speaker: And the the taking the pause allows me to to break out of that like constant tension. Absolutely. i know right now that just reminder made me check my body.
Speaker: Am I holding anywhere? and I noticed my toes were sort of curled. was like, well, I don need to have, I can relax my feet. And I noticed how throughout the day there's these unconscious places where the breath might be held also.
Speaker: And that also contributes to a different type of energy, usually moving fast. And it makes it life a little bit more difficult to move through. And I always come back to the tortoise as one of the animals that lives the longest.
Speaker: And part of what its magic is, it breathes really slowly. And so when we can slow down, we can actually extend our life force.
Speaker: And it's so powerful to actually recognize when we're not slowing down. You know, um I was recently having a conversation with someone about rushing. And rushing is an internal process.
Speaker: It really comes from the the state in which that we're in. So if we're having to get somewhere, there's this like tightness and rushing and usually the breath is kind of held and it's like, and usually what happens when we're rushing is we spill something or nod something over or, you know, kick something and then we have a broken toe. The car in front of us pulls out, you know, you get all the red lights and it's from that place of tension.
Speaker: And so when we can pause a moment when rushing and just check in, is this how i want to be operating right now That for me has been a total game changer to be able to take the reins of this idea of rushing and to be able to go,
Speaker: No, actually, i can move swiftly and stay focused while also staying relaxed. And then I get in the car and then I like take a breath.
Speaker: Even if it's just one breath, that's that little pause before, you know, i'm if I'm rushing, I'll get in the car and then all of a sudden I'm like in reverse and doda-da- doda ho super fast paced. And then by the time, you know, the middle of the day comes, I'm burnt out.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh. I dated a woman who had a I don't rush policy. And at first I had so much difficulty, you know, like if she's walking across the street, like I always like start trotting if a car is coming up, you know, and if there's I'm always like there's a little like that tension. And and she would point out, like, how much time are you really saving?
Speaker: And I'm like, oh my gosh, it's almost zero. and But I'm adding a this tension and this lack of focus to everything without actually changing the timing too much in my life. And it it is it's really it's still hard for me, but it's I really am a believer in that idea that what's the value of of not rushing is so much greater than the value of taking a tenth of a second off the task time.
Speaker: no Absolutely. And if you do yoga, you know, shavasana is the final pose. It's always at the end of the class, always at the end of a yoga session. And many teachers talk about the shavasana is the most important posture and sometimes the most difficult posture.
Speaker: And it is just laying down. Literally, you're not exerting energy any energy. You're in complete relaxed corpse position. And that is so powerful to be able to settle in, truly, truly settle in and be in that place of non-doing or as we're talking about the pause before you're off to the next thing.
Speaker: So beautiful. And how can we have spontaneous shavasana throughout the day? Especially when we have so many opportunities to fill the spaces.
Speaker: you know, like I find myself now... If I'm watering the plants, I'm probably listening to a podcast. You know, if I'm driving, I'm probably listening to things. So that the the moments that could be pauses, I'm filling almost all day long.
Speaker: and And so for I was going to make a joke that I'm actually really good that ah the corpse pose, you know, but the more thought about but actually I'm not great at doing nothing and taking a pause.
Speaker: Mm hmm. It's because sometimes you just fill it up with all these other distractions. the Right. My sister and I were just talking about in moments when there is a pause, whether that is waiting in line at the store or maybe waiting for something to load on your computer while you're at work or you know waiting for the food to cook.
Speaker: It's so often that we're like, well, I'll just go ahead and grab my phone. Let me just, you know, do something. And so we have been slowly taking away those pause moments. And what would it be like to reclaim what it is to just simply be in the moment and to just wait for the thing to upload?
Speaker: Or just stand there and watch your vegetables cook on the stove without trying to multitask? Or what would it be like to truly just stand in line, not try to look at a magazine or feel that that you know constant seeking for some kind of dopamine?
Speaker: It's so powerful to train ourselves. I just finished rereading Siddhartha and the Siddhartha's final teacher is a ferryman who just listens to the river.
Speaker: And the the this grand wisdom of simple pause and observation amazing. it's It's hard to to accept in the in the in the the pace of our lives and in the the accessibility of information everywhere constantly. It's really, it takes discipline to say, I'm going to have faith that there is wisdom in this pause.
Speaker: And the spaciousness. Yeah, I think meditation is such a teacher in that because oftentimes when we can still the mind or still the body, it's very difficult oftentimes unless you have a practice.
Speaker: But often there's these really beautiful insights that can come or moments of peace. And the metaphor of the pond, and there's ripples on the top of the pond, which are represent our thoughts.
Speaker: When we start to slow down and simplify the mind, then the top of the pond becomes clear and you can start to see the reflection of the world around it. And so to be able to be in that place of, okay, I can actually...
Speaker: Slow down here. And I'll share one that is um maybe this can be our closing spark. Actually, we'll wrap it up for the Sparkle series, even though we could probably geek out a little longer. um But in the spirit of the Sparkle series, my closing spark is really about how do we implement pause in conversation?
Speaker: And I've been practicing this with my partner where we have so many topics to talk about. And oftentimes we'll just get into it and we talk about this thing and then that thing and this thing and that thing and then on to the next thing. And then our brains are just so full and they kind of hit capacity.
Speaker: And so what we try to do is actually take a breath. Especially when we get to a place of either completion of a topic or maybe recognizing that ah one topic is going to be bookmarked and then we're going to move to the next one. So we'll just go, okay, got it.
Speaker: Let's just pause.
Speaker: Breathe. And getting in the car also. All the things that have to happen in order to leave and then get in the car and then we look at each other. Take a breath.
Speaker: And keep moving. Yeah, that was good. i think my clothing spark is... a reminder to myself and anyone to to, to notice these places where that a pause is possible.
Speaker: You know, like i I've gotten into the habit of not picking up my phone if someone calls, because I know that I have a tendency to, to jump into uh, a ah like ah pleasing. what do i what what do I need to do for this person when I'm on the phone? So i generally...
Speaker: pause and then call back so that I know that I can be present without some some lingering need that is that is causing me to be reactive instead of present.
Speaker: And I think that there's so many times during the day when I have the opportunity to take a pause rather than click on another tab while that's loading or clear or whatever the the the easy filling the space is. So I appreciate the reminders. Thank you, Betsy.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. Thank you, too. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, if you're in a pause, stay there. But if you get antsy afterwards, you can find me online at lifestudent.com. And we can also share a pause online every morning at 9 a.m. I do a live broadcast of of Connection and Gratitude, as well as a noon Gratitude Circle and Zoom. So find those links through lifestudent.com and we can pause together.
Speaker: Amazing. i love that. And I love helping people pause in person. i do one-on-one sessions with body work and energy work, sound healing, meditation.
Speaker: i love just creating a sanctuary for true reset ah through breath and all the wonderful things. So if you are local to Asheville, please let me know. I'd love to get you set up with a session or occasionally in Encinitas and San Diego.
Speaker: um You can find my work on poweraffirmation.com. Yay. Yes, and we'll close it out with an affirmation in the spirit of the sacred pause. Taking a breath.
Speaker: I move through my day with grace. I move through my day with grace. I move through my day with grace.
Speaker: And so it is.
Speaker: Thanks for listening. Thanks, everyone. Stay sparked, people. Stay sparked.
Speaker: Find us on Instagram at stay sparked and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for helping us spread the spark.
Speaker: Stay sparked, friends.
