It can be easy to fall in love with the movement of yoga. Sun salutations invoke a river of sensations just under your skin. Standing postures build a sense of purpose and confidence. Inversions transform the foundation you rely on and invite new perspectives. 

Each asana practice is a study of movement and form; experimentation with an array of techniques and tools. A laboratory for being present and finding time to pause. 

Can you also learn to love The Pause? 

The Pause gives perspective and clarity to the movement. You ask: “What is it like now?” and wait and listen for the answer. 

I didn’t encounter a vinyasa practice for the first three years I was doing yoga. My early exposure to yoga featured shape and pause. I learned about the yamas and niyamas before I’d heard of or saw a surya namaskar (sun salute). 

And while I loved these sequences when I first learned them, I’d also fallen in love with The Pause. 

The Pause came to me in vrksasana (tree pose). I was standing on one foot in a college rec center; staring out the large windows into the deep green of trees along a distant river snaking around campus. I realized that each time my mind went to one of my anxious thoughts, I lost my balance and fell. When I consciously cleared my mind and focused on the color and texture of the trees in front of me, I could sustain more ease and balance. I found The Pause. 

I recently learned that my teacher trainees have a favorite “Tias-ism” (their word for things that my teacher says that I repeat in practice). 

“Pause. Take a breath for nothing” I repeat, as Tias repeats what his teacher said. This moment gives you time to feel your heart rate and breath. It can offer clarity and focus on what the next right action is. I hope that the trainees will repeat this invocation to their students, continuing this lineage of The Pause. 

It’s also something I hope you’ll remember to do when you are stressed at work. When you see the light glisten on the ocean waves during an amazing sunset. When you spill a full cup of coffee. When you welcome the birth of a new baby. When your best friend is grieving. When the beauty and pain of the world are asking to be felt and seen.

Weaving The Pause into your practice and into your day is both challenging and nourishing. Inserting a pause in difficult moments gives you the opportunity to assess and respond. In my experience, the pause gives me clarity on the next right action for myself, for others, for the world.

How does yoga help you find The Pause?