Practice the Pause

<p>These days many of us live in a state of overreactive fight-or-flight response and chronic stress. The demands of modern life pull us in all directions and can often put the meaningful connections in our lives at risk--connections to our deepest selves to others and even to God.</p><p>But there is good news. New developments in brain science have recently proven that an intentional practice of pausing for a few minutes of meditation prayer or other contemplative practice actually <i>rewires</i> our brain in ways that make us calmer less reactive and better able to see the bigger picture.</p><p>In <i>Practice the Pause </i>spiritual director and writer Caroline Oakes offers easy-to-understand explanations of how this new brain science is confirming what every spiritual tradition has been telling us for millennia: by practicing the pause we become more self-aware and better able to understand others. We become more God aware.</p><p>With a refreshing focus on the Eastern Christian understanding of Jesus as a master of wisdom Oakes shines a spotlight on Jesus's own centering pause practice as a transformative path for personal and social change. We learn that even a seven-second pause practice can move us beyond the fight-or-flight responses of our ego in our daily lives and actually equip us to cultivate the common good in the world.</p>