Summertime: Extend Your Growing Season with a Purposeful Pause

Summertime, and the living is easy??

Warm and balmy days, twinkling fireflies in the cool night, sunshine so bright we need to shield our eyes even as nature continues to beckon us to pay attention. Trees and flowers beautify our paths, squishy wet sands cushion our toes and a symphony of bird songs help us meet each dawn.

We look forward to summer as a time when we can relax, unwind and enjoy ourselves. As the song goes, “summertime and the living is easy.” So…. how’s it going? Is your expectation of summer aligning with your lived experience? Or are you noticing that more than half of summer is gone and you don’t know how that could have happened?

If you answered “yes” to the last question, you are not alone. Many of us fill our days and weeks with so much “doing” that there is no room for being. And that is a recipe for missing your life. If you are not awake to feel the breeze and notice the multiple shades of yellow in a single flower, you likely are also not awake for the connections between human beings. Too much busyness puts us on autopilot, and when we are on autopilot, we are missing the parts of life that are glorious and joyful and tragic and beautiful. We are missing the very things that make us feel alive.

So, if you have been missing the summer, try flipping off autopilot and taking what we call a Purposeful Pause. It can be as simple as walking outside for a few minutes (or longer). Just let every sense in your body take in what is here to notice…and when your attention leaves the moment, for example, to go through your “to do” list, bring it back to your experience of this moment, the only moment you have to live and the only moment you can truly affect. There are many ways each day to take a Purposeful Pause (e.g. cup of coffee, walking down the hallway, commuting). Putting just 3 Purposeful Pauses in your day as part of your Mindful Leadership practice can begin to make a big difference in your ability to consciously choose how you are meeting your life – at work and at home. Experiment with a few Purposeful Pauses today and see if you can experience a summer where the living is easy (or at least easier).

Interested in learning more? Join us at our upcoming Finding the Space to Lead workshop in New York City on October 20^th or our intensive Cultivating Leadership Presence Retreat at the 1440 Multiversity in California on September 20-24, 2017.