About

What is a Lovely Pause?

There are many of us who go through life carrying the heavy weight of trauma, which can make pauses difficult for us.  We are work-a-holics who never stop, parents running off of guilt and anxiety who feel we can never do enough for family. We are addicts looking for our next fix so we can dissociate into oblivion whether it’s induced by drugs, food, social media, or a fantasy world of some kind. We find ways to distract our thoughts from the ones that constantly plague us. Pauses are not what we do. Our emotions are overwhelmed and we react or we hide. We fight or we fawn or flee. If we pause, then we will be forced to reflect, which is never pleasant when we have to deal with a lot of darkness.

Oh, but to pause! The beauty that is there. 

When you feel overcome with emotions, take a moment to pause. Your words will be better understood and you will not project your pain on others. In times of anxiety, pause to breathe, pray, and regain your focus.  Pause when you’re happy to be grateful for the moment.  Even when your body is aching from trauma, pause to take care of it. Everything we do in healing from trauma starts with learning to pause, recognize, and pay attention to what's going on within ourselves.  The pauses are hard. The pauses are where we confront ourselves, our demons, our past.  The pauses are where we tell ourselves the truth about where we are at and make the decision to take the next step.  As we practice these pauses, we grow, we become more aware, and we begin to cherish those pauses. Our time no longer needs to be filled or avoided, and those pauses, well, they are actually quite lovely after all.

A Lovely Pause offers community education and awareness, coping skills, and support to people with PTSD and other trauma-related disorders.