On the STOP technique, writing & week 41 of 52

Yesterday, for a few moments, I stood with my dogs in a winter wonderland and felt held by the silence, by the snow-coated scene. My thighs began to prickle, and I felt total peace.

My pup, Potato, taking a pause.

It was a single moment in which I could stop all the chatter, all the worry, all the planning, all the striving, and all the news. Reality was as much about what was within as it was what was external, seemingly propelling toward me.

I didn’t need a meditation cushion.

I didn’t need a complicated ritual.

I just needed to stop.

STOP is a mindfulness acronym, a simple reminder you can take with you throughout the day, employ while reading the news, or it is something you can practice when you meditate.

“Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

This is especially helpful if you have trouble focusing or indulging times you’d ordinarily slow down. STOP is a simple concept. The acronym stands for Stop, Take a Breath, Observe, and Proceed. If it seems overly simplistic, there’s a short audio that explores it a bit more below.

In the meantime, we can tackle it through expression. I’ve been playing with this, and the exercise is freeing.

Writing prompt: Turn this mindfulness acronym into a prompt. I tried it this week a few times and wanted to share. This works with poetry or micro-fiction/micro CNF. So pick your genre and proceed …

Stop: Write a scene or line in which time stops and there is space, perhaps the space Viktor Frankl speaks of.

Take a breath: Describe a single breath and all comes with it.

Observe: What is noticed in the moment of pause? What sensory details come to life? What thoughts magnify or swell?

Proceed: What happens next, where is one to head from here?

Photo by Калинин Михаил (Mikhail Kalinin) Nod to James Lucas for sharing this image.

AYTL experiment: Implement the STOP mindfulness practice each day, just once. If you forget one day, try it twice the next day. You can always return here and practice with me. Let your view of the world slow enough to see it all.

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In community,

Jen