Table 2.

A 5-minute Pause for Awareness

Let’s try a 5-min pause for awareness and being present in the moment

Sit dignified, hands on lap, spine erect, eyes closed, or soft gaze downward

A cycle of breath (inhale/exhale) to the count of 5 takes 10 s, 3 breaths can create a pause and some space to allow you to make a conscious response rather than an unconscious reaction

1. Put your awareness on your thoughts, don’t engage with the thoughts, just notice the thoughts. Imagine your brain like the sky, and the thoughts are clouds just drifting across. Become the watcher of your thoughts—no judgment, just observing them and letting them go, drifting across your mind like clouds across the sky

2. Now, take your awareness to what you’re hearing; does it seem different from 1 ear to the other? Notice the sounds in the room, the sounds outside the room, and focus your awareness on what you’re hearing

3. Now, move your awareness to your breath. On the inhale, imagine the breath moving from the bottom of your spine all the way up to the top of your head, and then on the exhale, imagine that breath coming down from the top of your head, slowly descending the spine to your pelvis. Focus your awareness on that loop of breath moving up and down your spine. Slow the breath down: inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts. Put your awareness on the space between the inhale and the exhale at the top of the breath cycle. Breathe through your nose, slowing the breath down. Thoughts may come into your head, let them go without attaching to the thoughts, no judgment, gently come back to the breath. Do 5 cycles of breath: inhale slowly, exhale slowly 5 times

4. Now, imagine that loop of breath, making a circle through your body. On the inhale, imagine the breath moving from the bottom of your feet, up your legs, your pelvis, your belly, chest, and head, and then on the exhale, imagine the breath looping down through your body. Follow the inhale as it moves up, and then follow the exhale as it moves down; do 5 cycles of breath, putting your awareness on the breath, moving up and then moving down your body

5. Now, continue to expand the breath within your whole body, creating a balloon of breath. With every inhale and exhale, make that balloon bigger; imagine your skin thinning out and imagine the space you’re creating filling that balloon with molecules and atoms and space

6. Now, expand that breath, so it fills the whole room, then the whole house, the whole building, the city you’re in, the province or state you’re in, the country, and then blends into the space of the universe. After 5 breaths, collect all your atoms and molecules and return to your body