A Pause Amid Chaos
- Darryl Richards
- Mar 4, 2021
- 3 min read
Sometimes it’s just overwhelming.
You know there are 24 hours in a day, but you always seem pressed for time. The alarm clock acts like the starter’s gun for a race and you are just going. Work responsibilities take over your day. Or maybe it’s taking care of children or an aging loved one and you put their needs ahead of yours.
With everything going amid the stress of pandemic life, it can be hard to find time just for yourself. And that may be the easiest thing to neglect because you think there’s always another day or a better time.
Often our hectic lives can make it seem like we’re standing in the middle of Times Square in New York City pre-pandemic. Even if you’ve never been to New York, the “Crossroads of the World” paints a picture of constant activity, honking horns and people brushing past each other on the sidewalks without a care.
And yet even with all this activity going on, there’s a forced pause.
If you didn’t know it before, there are stoplights in Times Square. A signal that no matter where you’re going or where you want to go, you have to take a moment to pause. How do you handle it when the light is red? Are you on edge just itching to go again or can you hit the pause button?
Can you take five of the 1,440 minutes you have each day just for yourself?
There are several benefits to turning inward through meditation. Besides reducing stress and anxiety, just five minutes of regular practice can improve your self-awareness and lengthen your attention span.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like you’re in a different zone the first few times you try to meditate. It’s a practice and it takes time. Just work on getting into a comfortable position. You can sit in a comfortable position, a chair or just lay back.
Let your eyes become heavy or even close. It’s OK if you hear a lot of noise and can’t shut it out right away. Take notice of the background noise, whatever it may be at that moment. We often transport ourselves to a tranquil place during meditation but sometimes it’s not possible right away.
Focus on your breath.. Inhale for a count of four. Pause and release for a count of four. Inhale for four. Hold for a moment and let it go slowly for a count of four. Repeat that pattern a few times.
Breathe in and this time lengthen your pause before exhaling. Continue to breathe and pause before letting go on your own count. The more you can focus on your breathing, the more the distracting noises ebb away. Sometimes in meditation five minutes can seem like forever. But the more you do it, the more you’ll wonder where the time went.
When you come to the end of your meditation, allow yourself to gently become present. Rub your fingers together lightly. Place your hands over your eyes and slowly let them open.
When you start to feel there’s not enough time for you, just think about a stoplight and remember we all need to pause. Whether you’re in New York City, Las Vegas, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai or Mumbai, there’s always a need to pause. Just like a yellow light means to slow down, we all need to remember to pause.
Take another deep breath.
The light is green. Travel mindfully and safely.
Namaste.
Reading this really resonated with me because it captures how easy it is to feel overwhelmed and disconnected in the middle of constant noise and pressure. The idea of intentionally pausing, even briefly, feels both simple and powerful, yet something I often overlook in daily life. It reminded me of Schon's reflective model, particularly the idea of reflection-in-action—being aware of what we’re experiencing in the moment and gently adjusting our response rather than just pushing through. Your words highlight that a pause isn’t a luxury but a necessary reset, helping us return with more clarity and presence. I also appreciate how you frame stillness not as inactivity, but as a conscious choice to reconnect with ourselves. It makes me think…
I just read this post “Lean on These” and it really stood out to me how simple reminders and gentle practices can make such a difference when life feels overwhelming or noisy, because sometimes we don’t need something complicated, just a few grounding ideas that help us pause, breathe, and reconnect with ourselves, and the way the author presents it feels calm and reassuring rather than instructional, which makes it easier to actually take something from it and apply it in real life; it also made me think about how important it is to have consistent support systems in place, whether that’s through mindful practices like yoga that help reduce stress and improve overall wellbeing or through structured environments that…
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This post genuinely stopped me in my tracks — and honestly, that's saying something because I've been running on empty for weeks. The stoplight analogy is brilliant; we never think of pauses as productive, but you've reframed that beautifully. As a student, exam season hits like Times Square at rush hour — assignments piling up, revision notes everywhere, and barely a minute to breathe. I even searched "take my exam for me" at 2am last week, which tells you how overwhelmed I was feeling! But instead of spiraling, I reached out to New Assignment Help UK for some academic support and carved out just five minutes each morning for the breathing exercise you described. That tiny pause genuinely changed my…
This really resonated with me — the stoplight analogy is such a perfect way to describe those moments when life forces us to slow down whether we like it or not. As a student juggling deadlines, part-time work, and everything in between, I rarely give myself permission to pause. But those five quiet minutes of focused breathing genuinely do shift something. Even when I leaned on an Assignment Writing Service UK to get through a particularly overwhelming semester, I realized the real relief came from learning to breathe through the stress, not just outsource it. Your reminder that pausing isn't wasting time — it's self-care — is something I needed to hear today. Thank you for this calming and grounding…