Reflection & Action: As I set up for my early morning seminar, one of the attendees arrived in a very sorry state. He was literally shaking and vibrating. I stopped my preparations to see if he was all right.

It turned out he had just navigated one of the busiest freeways in the city to get to the program. He lives in a rural area, and the non-stop, high-speed, horn-honking traffic had pushed him far outside his comfort zone.

What bothered him most was the way the other drivers cut in front of his vehicle. When I asked why people cutting in front irritated him so much, he looked at me like I was from Mars and exclaimed, “Because they’ll get there before I do!”

Now the real source of his frustration was apparent. In his mind, he’d run and lost a race, and he was livid.

I suggested he think about freeway driving as a dance rather than a race. Someone cuts in front … presto, new partner! One driver cuts from the left and another from the right … and doh-si-doh, you’re dancing the butterfly! Tail lights flash up ahead … brake dancer!

In truth, whether he raced or danced, the trip would have taken the same amount of time.  However, his state of mind on arrival would have been completely different. He would have been present to the more positive aspect of the experience.

Instead of having run the Indy 500 and lost, he would have danced all the way to the conference room and been entertained. Sometimes the pressure is all in our minds!

Quotes Of The Week: “The question is not what you look at but what you see.” – Thoreau

“Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way.”  – Douglas Pagels

Resource Of The Week: Take A Break: 67 Ways To Pause When You Absolutely Positively Do Not Have The Time. These booklets are always available from the Pause Shop with discounted pricing for bundles of 30 and bundles of 300.

Readers Write: Marg F. writes: To me, being stressed about speed is a choice.  When I have to sit in traffic, I take the time to stretch and do some mini yoga exercises to slow down my breathing and my life.  When I am standing in line at a check out, I am doing isometrics – tensing and relaxing my muscles, without anyone knowing!  I now find the tension that others choose to live with funny, and a bit sad.  Life is too short for tension – we need to make exercise and relaxation the new thing to do!

Margot P. writes: When I am able to talk on the phone and get dinner in the oven (and sometimes I still have my coat on when I’m popping something in the oven), I think to myself, “Great! I’ve killed two birds with one stone.” The only problem is that I was never really present to enjoy or pay attention to either task at hand.

Editor’s Footnote: Since it received such a positive response last year, once again during the months of July and August, your weekly Pause will feature nine messages from the ‘Best Of Pause’. These are readers’ favorite messages from the earliest years of the Pause e-zine.

Featuring these Pause Gems will give me a bit of a breather to regroup, research, and develop some great new material. It will also introduce our more recent subscribers to some of those early ideas.

Whether you are a long time subscriber, or new to the list, I sincerely hope you enjoy these gems. Have a wonderful summer. I’ll be back again in September with your regular Pause format featuring all new info and resources.