“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Ferris. As in Bueller.

I’m working on a longer piece on how immediate our lives are. On how quickly we respond, without really listening or paying attention simply because it’s what we are used to.

Think of blog writing. You write something and hit publish, and just like that, it’s a thing in the world. Texting. Posting our thoughts as we have them on Facebook or Twitter. Posting our food on Instagram. As we are chewing it.

It’s what we are used to.

I think, however, that we need to pause more.
@JenPastiloff (Click to Tweet!)

Last month, when I was going through the ectopic pregnancy, so many people emailed me to say congratulations. Now, I understand that people didn’t know what it was. (It’s an awful thing. The pregnancy can’t survive, and it can be life threatening to the mother), but having seen the word “ectopic” before pregnancy and the fact that I wrote words like “pain,” “complications,” etc. in the same sentence, it struck me as a sign of our times that people wouldn’t look it up to double check before they sent a congratulatory message. I was not, nor am I, upset at those people.

I do the same thing.

Everything existing in the immediate.

I am a fan of living in the NOW, in the moment, and all those other wonderful ideas surrounding “being present.” That isn’t what I am talking about.

I recently started teaching my workshops at a rehab. It’s the most rewarding and fulfilling job I have had besides working with kids with special needs.

Do you know how many messages I have gotten asking me if I am in rehab myself? A lot.

I posted the word “rehab,” and that’s all people saw. They missed that I work there, that I teach yoga/writing workshops there.

I’m glad for this.

Why?

Because it’s making me look at my own life, at my own patterns, at how I oftentimes don’t pay attention or am already on to the next thing.

What I am saying is: I need to slow down. Maybe we all do.

Another side note that I thought I would share is this: At first, when I got texts asking me if I was in rehab, I panicked. For about five minutes. “OMG, I am NOT in rehab, and people think this, and blah blah blah.”

Incessant Internal Chatter (I.I.C.)

Literally five minutes later, it dawned on me that I didn’t care what “they” thought. Not in a bad way, in the way that felt liberating, like I was shedding the cloak of “what will they think.” Finally.

And shedding that cloak feels good; it feels like you can get up in the morning and be who you are without explaining and justifying.

So for today, and everyday really, join me if you want in on slowing down, paying attention, losing the I.I.C. (incessant internal chatter), and shedding the cloak of “What Will They Think.”

I know it’s a lot for a Monday, but my guess is you’ve had your coffee by now, so let’s do this.

Here’s to pausing.

Jennifer Pastiloff was recently featured on Good Morning America. She is a yoga teacher, writer, and advocate for children with special needs based in L.A. She is also the creator of Manifestation Yoga® and leads retreats and workshops all over the world. Jennifer is currently writing a book and has a popular daily blog called Manifestation Station. Find her on Facebook and Twitter and take one of her yoga classes online at Yogis Anonymous.

Jen will be leading Manifestation Writing/Yoga retreat at Kripalu Center in Massachusetts in February 2014 as well as retreats in both Costa Rica and Tuscany in 2014. She travels around the country leading her signature Manifestation Workshops. She is also leading a New Years Retreat in Ojai, California.

*Poster designed by my dear friend and fellow Positively Positive contributor Karen Salmansohn.