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October-December, 2019

Pause to Encourage

by Mary Gerard Lenihan

The Pause Practice holds possibilities! One possibility in the Pause is encouragement. We never know just how lifted up we can be until we lift up someone else. Who doesn’t need encouragement? Who cannot benefit from being encouraging?

To “encourage” is to literally instill courage in another. A student was feeling disheartened the other day because her goals appeared to have fallen apart in her hands. She was given the space to simply be with her experience, to pause. In the pause she shared that new possibilities were showing up in her mind; life wasn’t over after all.

Encouragement creates an environment of connection. We realize that we are all in this together. What I like about practicing Pause to encourage, is that I don’t have to figure out ahead of time how I am going to encourage someone. Rather, I find myself simply raising someone’s spirits in some way that is spontaneous and enjoyable… all in moment. And don’t you love when out of the blue someone raises your spirits in an unexpected way? This happens at Job Corps all the time. The other day I walked into a Pause class and one of students had a beautiful smile on her face — what a lift!

Pause to encourage yourself too. Discouragement is like forgetting the light is on — encouragement can always be found in your Inspired Mind — where the light is. Imagine walking into a light-filled room with your eyes closed, feeling around your closet and looking for your white shirt. Hmm. Instead of rumbling around in the dark closet, falling into the closet, knocking things over, getting hit on the head by junk falling off the top shelf, tripping over the stuff at your feet, busting your toe on the edge of the chair as you walk out with what you are guessing is your white shirt — only to find that you grabbed your plaid pajama top! Clear up the confusion . . . Pause. Choose to use the light that is fully at your disposal in your Inspired Mind! Flip the switch ON. How? Pause, and Let your Inspired Mind step forward.

One thing is sure — every time I am at the St. Louis Job Corps campus, I see someone encouraging another. And in this, I pause.

Pause to encourage another. Pause to encourage yourself. Otherwise:

Something gets left undone that needs to be done. Someone is left unloved who needs to be loved.

Learn about the practice of Pause. Visit:  PauseForInspiration.org. Mary Lenihan is the Co-Founder of Pause For Inspiration, a nonprofit public charity.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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