Virtual Pause

Life is frenetic. There is a lot of noise out there in our world and in our internal beings. Analyzing things cognitively, problem solving the chaos away doesn’t always work. Sometimes we just need to pause. Sometimes we just need to see where we are on the continuum of chaos and stability, and just pause.

Our Listening Portion today:

Be still and know that I am God

be still and know that I am

be still and know

be still

be

August 29, 2022

I almost didn’t do my own pause this morning because it didn’t feel productive. I have been running so fast lately and I have so many things to do. But I forced myself. And then when I did pause, I kept resisting the temptation to get up and send an email or add something to do my to do list.

Pausing is hard. Yet if we want to live a life of integration, intention, and impact, we have to come back home to our true selves. We have to find ourselves. So that is what we will do today.

Listening portion today:

The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth,

It can lie down like silk breathing

Or toss havoc shoreward; it can give

Gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth

Like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can

Sweet-talk entirely. As I can too,

And so, no doubt, can you, and you.

Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings.

www.angiewinn.com

August 22, 2022

Dropping off a child at his or her new chapter in life is brutal. We just dropped off our oldest son for his second year in college, and it still left a feeling of a gaping hole in my body. We try to distract ourselves or stuff down our feelings, but invariably they show up at the worst times – like the chicken aisle at the grocery store.

Breath is the only thing that can pour into that gaping hole. Breath brings healing. Life. Breath settles our bodies, quiets our distracted minds, and allows our heart to feel. Breath connects our souls with God, our creator, for healing, guidance, and wholeness.

Listening portion today:

“After you have suffered a little while, God will restore you, confirm you, strengthen you, and establish you.”

1 Peter 5:10

August 15, 2022

There are times when you get hit out of nowhere with criticism that knocks you off your kilter. I call these “two by fours.” When we expect to get hit with criticism from a person, we immediately put ourselves in a defensive, flight or fight stance.

Today we will look at an alternative way – one that brings stability to our bodies and open ness and presence to our entire being. We will practice indifference, or non-attachment to the outcome.

Our listening portion today is from Ram Dass.

A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done

August 8, 2022

My 19-year old son and I hiked Angel’s Landing in Utah a few weeks ago. It is a narrow path with cliffs that plunge 1400 feet down on each side.

When we started, my body said no way. I was completely fragmented, and physically felt anxiety rise up in me.

When we are in high-stress situations, often times we keep pushing through it, ignoring the signals our bodies are trying to send us. We desire to accomplish our goal, to win in a conflict, to flee, so much that we don’t stop to gather ourselves and be fully present for what we are engaged in. That can lead to a crash after the event, a response that we regret, or an opportunity we were too afraid to take.

In today’s episode we will reflect on a time in the past or one coming up in the future where we need to take a pause, gather ourselves, and walk into the situation fully present.

Listening portion:

“a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.”

Isaiah 33:20

Episode 59: Active Resistance

August 1, 2022

When we are resting in our true selves, we are whole, integrated, and feel a sense of peace. Yet there are many distractions that constantly beckon us to engage – and they get us out of this place of rest. We cannot simply desire to be our true selves, we have to actively resist what competes for our attention. This could be our need for perfection, our constant comparing of ourselves to others, our need to fit in, our need for certitude, etc. We have to actively resist these things so that we can live from a place of stability and wholeness

In this episode, we will imagine ourselves at rest, and notice those things that are vying for our attention. We will imagine actively resisting them by letting them go. As we resist, and rest in who we truly are, we will be set free for service in the world, but from a place of our true selves and wholeness, connected to God. And that is what will change the world.

Our listening portion today is taken from Psalm 116 and 62:

“In God alone is my soul at rest.

Return to your rest, my soul.

Set me free for your service.”

July 11, 2022

We find ourselves in situations and relationships where we suddenly are surprised by our reactions. They seem incongruent to who we really are. We may become silent, withdrawn, lash out, promise something we know we don’t want to do or simply cannot do, or justify our response by blaming others. We become chaos.

This is in great contrast to how we feel and respond in the world when we are free, when our true selves are fully present in the situation.

Richard Rohr says, “remember, it’s not the brand name that matters. It is that God’s heart be made available and active on this earth.” Our “brand name” is our false self, trying to meet an expectation of the world or of ourselves, instead of allowing our heart to be made available and active on this earth.

In this episode we will be identifying a situation or relationship where our brand, or the perception of us, matters most. We will try to understand the underlying motivation behind it, and let it go. So that our true selves can be set free from the cage, and our actions and interactions can be aligned with our heart.

Listening portion:

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Jesus. Matthew 10:39

June 27, 2022

With all that is going on in the world, we may feel either compelled to do something, or we feel compelled to escape and hide, leaning on our distractions to stop the discontent we feel welling up inside of us.

Before we act, re-act, or hide, we need to pause. We need to pause because we need to connect ourselves to our true self, and to God, the divine, the universe.

In this episode, we will think of an issue in which we feel compelled to act. We will notice how it feels throughout our bodies, minds, and hearts, and then we will identify if we have our own ego driving our need to act. Then, we will go through our pause practice, settling our bodies, quieting our minds, opening our hearts, so we can connect our true self to God. As a new action rises up, we will go through the process again, identifying if it is coming from our false self/ego or our true self.

Our listening portion today is from Simone Weil, a philosopher, writer and activist.

“Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.”

Waiting for God, Simone Weil, 1951.

By the way, my book is now published on Amazon - Kindle, Audible, and paperback versions available. Pausing in Motion: Cultivating Resilience and Stability for a Life of Intention and Impact

June 13, 2022

Why do you pause? Why do you take this moment and stop, so that you can tend to your body, mind, heart, and spirit?

I know for me, although it brings peace and groundedness to my moment of chaos, it also has become the way I can help put my ego in the back seat everyday. And when I do that, I can actually see, discern, move and love in a way that does not expect anything in return. I can be transformed and that transformation can spill out over into my actions.

In today’s episode we will picture ourselves in a wide-open tent, where we feel grounded, calm, clear, and open. We will experience how it feels to be a peace. And then we will identify a situation in our lives where we are opposite of that – and imagine bringing our tent to that situation.

Our listening portion today is from Rilke’s Book of Hours:

Each thing –

Each stone, blossom, child –

Is held in place.

Only we, in our arrogance,

Push out beyond what we each belong to

For some empty freedom.

If we surrendered

To earth’s intelligence

We could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves

In knots of our own making

And struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again

To learn from the things,

Because they are in God’s heart;

They have never left.

Ranier Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

June 6, 2022

There is so much despair and hopelessness right now in our world. I know for me, it makes me either feel paralyzed – unable to move to do anything to help because I can’t see how my little self can actually be helpful – or it makes me want to grasp at finding a purpose and a path for me to help change the world – which causes swirls of dust in the midst of my own chaos, and doesn’t end up helping anything at all.

Today we will pause so that we can see the signs of hope in our lives, even if they are little signs. And let go of the things that keep us paralyzed or grasping, giving ourselves a chance to really see – see beyond the reality and see the signs of hope. From that place, we can begin to notice the stirrings of our souls as we connect with our creator and our led to participate in the hope and healing of the world.

Our listening portion today is from Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.