Pause

This week’s Pause™  cast is on the theme we are working together is pausing or more precisely learning to pause. We emphasize how we can attempt to start learning to engage in this practice when we are caught in stressful and reactive situations. (Which is when we need to Pause™ most!) We discuss how pausing is a necessary component to the healthy rhythm of our lives, but also a fundamental need in our Avodas Hashem. The presence we are seeking is always here and now. We just need to stop moving in order to feel it. We get caught in behaviors because we didn’t pause and come back to what we can call our soul state (the goal is soul) and respond from our higher state of being. Rather than tapping into our true selves, we ultimately behave in ways we regret. Taking regular intentional pauses throughout the day can mitigate these unskillful behaviors.

We conclude with the STOP practice. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/27/443104073/trauma-workers-find-solace-in-a-pause-that-honors-life-after-a-death “Freedom is the capacity to pause in the face of stimuli from many directions at once and, in this pause, to throw one’s weight toward this response rather than that one.”-Rollo May

The pause is especially important for the freedom of being, what I have called essential freedom. For it is in the pause that we experience the context out of which freedom comes. In the pause we wonder, reflect, sense awe, and conceive of eternity. The pause is when we open ourselves for the moment to the concepts of both freedom and destiny- Adam Philips
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In this week’s Pause™ the theme we are working on together is Acceptance. What it is, what it isn’t and how we can get better at leaning into it.

We discuss how acceptance is an active process. It’s not as people mistakenly think as some form of passive resignation. There's nothing passive about it. Instead acceptance is an act of recognition that things are actually the way they are (and on a deeper level as they are supposed to be.)

Acceptance doesn't mean that we can't work to change the world or to change circumstances of one kind or another. However it does mean that unless we accept things as they are, we will try to force things to be as they are not. And that can create an enormous amount of difficulty and suffering.

Join us in learning how to put out the welcome mat for whatever arises in our lives.
The Goal is Soul.

“The curious paradox is when I accept things as they are then I can begin to change.” - Carl Rogers
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In this week’s Pause™ cast we discuss the quality of living with a Beginner’s Mind.

We rarely experience things as they are. Everything that we see and feel is colored by our thoughts, memories, beliefs and expectations. We are always expecting, when we could be accepting. The way to get past this barrier is to cultivate the kavanah (intention) of chiddush. The practice of chiddush is developing the ability to see things without preconceived interpretations: to know that one does not know and to appreciate what is, rather than what might be. For the Jewish spiritual seeker, this mindset forms the basis of cultivating Jewish Mindfulness-- yishuv hada’at.

 This moment is always new and it’s one we've never been in before and yet we bring so many of our own ideas and expectations to every moment that we can't actually allow ourselves for the most part to see things as if for the first time. With each breath, then, in each moment, we can wake up to the truth of our lives and change how we react, how we engage with the world. We are not trapped in our habitual reactions but instead we can be born again into a new sense of who we are.  What a gift it would be to bring this awareness and quality of mind to our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. We finish with one of my favorite Chassidic Stories.

You are gonna really enjoy this one!

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In this week’s Pause, we discuss how to define “Mindfulness.” 

The power of living with intent lies in its application and practice. Our lives unfold in moments, right here and right now. The current moment is the only moment we really have. Can you show up fully to this moment and this life?

We discuss the spiritual imperative to connect to the moment and how mitzvos call upon us not to disregard the present moment. All mitzvos connect us to Hashem in the present moment. Mindfulness isn’t a state of being or a “vort”; it’s a practice. In the moments that we clearly live the truth of existence we are alive and experience the presence of something beyond ourselves. From the moment that we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, Judaism’s commandments provide guidelines that sensitize us to the present. The episode concludes with our first meditation together - Mindfulness of sound.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Presence-Jewish-Mindfulness-Everyday/dp/1602803196/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9TBODNV6R9SR&keywords=living+in+the+presence&qid=1676455831&sprefix=living+in+the+presenc%2Caps%2C275&sr=8-1

You are listening to the Pause podcast with Dr. Benjy Epstein A podcast where we will be giving ourselves the permission to pause. This will be a practical guide to live a life with courage presence and authenticity. Reconnect with your most soulful and authentic self by pausing together.

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