Proactive Pause: In today’s times of often disruptive change, it’s important to frequently “take pause” from whatever we’re doing and connect with our heart’s intuitive feelings and suggestions. This will often show us a less stressful and more effective choice than the one we were about to take. Through hindsight, most of us have realized how much stress we could have prevented at times if only we’d paused to reconsider our rushed choices or actions. What about those E-mails that we wish we could take back?

We tend to forget to take a proactive pause when we are under pressure to make speedy decisions and actions. Practice to pause in the heart for a more inclusive discernment before sensitive communications or important decisions. As life speeds up, it is tempting to hurry our conversations and choices which often overrides our heart’s intuitive promptings for the best decisions. Speed may appear to quicken our steps, but pausing to review can make the effective difference in where our steps land us.

When our mind and emotions jam from cumulative anxiety, frustration, or pop-up challenges, we can take a pause and genuinely ask our heart what attitude or perspective would create the most flow for restoring inner balance and clear direction.

Suggestion: To increase your memory to pause at times, make it a priority to practice for a week, even if you overdo it. This will entrain your intuition to alert you when pausing would be effective.

This ‘Care Focus’ is not to teach the intelligence of pause; most of us have already learned that from families, from schools and from stressful hindsight. Remembering to do it is the issue here. This sharing is to hopefully inspire a renewed connection with this powerfully effective habit. Using pause as a tool is helpful in dealing with these times of accelerated change, uncertainty and, especially, pressured choices.

Taking a proactive pause to review doesn’t really slow us down as it may seem; it quickens our path to a better outcome through increased efficiency and effectiveness.

Proactive Pause

In a world that constantly urges us to do more, be more, and move faster, the concept of pausing may seem counterintuitive. Yet, there is a powerful shift that happens when we choose to stop—not out of hesitation, but with intention. A “proactive pause” is not merely a break; it is an act of deliberate reflection that can transform our decision-making, our clarity, and our lives. In this essay, we explore the significance of the proactive pause, how it can be strategically applied, and why it is more important than ever in today’s distracted age.

Taking Proactive Pause

From our friends at HeartMath and Global Coherence Initiative

1. Center yourself in the heart and breathe in love and appreciation to warm your heart and increase heart coherence.

2. Now breathe a feeling of calm and see yourself remembering to “take pause” during daily activities to connect with your deeper discernment and smarter choices. When you pause, practice asking what your heart would say. Feel what your heart would do. Step into it.

(Know that a heart-connected pause is a compact meditation in itself – with quick results.)

3. Now, let’s send our deepest care and compassion to all people who are confused, anxious and suffering hardships from the chaos and disruption happening on the planet.

4. Practice sending compassionate care without over-stressing yourself emotionally about the world’s hardships through these changing times. It’s hard at times for all of us, but without self-care we reduce our capacity to effectively care for others.

5. Let’s remember that it’s the deeper connection with our own heart and with the hearts of others that will magnetize the intuitive solutions for our personal and global challenges.

You can continue to do this as this will help raise the consciousness vibration of the personal and collective field environment.

Proactive Pause, in fact, accelerates our path to better outcomes by enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

“In the pause between stimulus and response, we find our power.”
— Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) quote modified

• “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”
  — Anne Lamott, Small Victories (2014)

• “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
  — Peter Drucker, emphasizing the power of deliberate action and thoughtful pauses to shape our outcomes.

• “To pause is not to stop. To pause is to wait with purpose and to know when to leap again.”
  — Anonymous

• “In the age of information overload, the most revolutionary thing we can do is to take a break, breathe, and reflect.”
  — Anonymous

See also: Pause Stop Reset