Day 3: Listen to Nature

Sally-Anne, 03.04.20

Welcome to Day 3 of 21 Days on the Mountain, our video series where I teach you how to develop the Power of Pause.

Being able to step away from a situation and gain perspective on the bigger picture is an essential leadership tool. In order to do that, we need to have emotional awareness and be able to calm our minds when things around us might be challenging, turbulent or confused.

So today I encourage you to take a moment of calm in a quiet natural environment, and create some inner space with our three-step practice of pause, focus and breathe. Watch today’s video below, and join me in the Alps as we practice the Power of Pause.

Video Transcript

Hello, and welcome to 21 days on the mountain, a chance to pause together for a few minutes. Well this is Day 3 and believe it or not I’m in the middle of a ski area just a couple of hundred meters from our house. It’s a beginner ski area and it’s an absolute joy, particularly in February and the French school holidays, to watch children learning to ski here, from tiny tots at the age of three up to whatever beginner level, some adults too.

So in the winter here even just a month or so ago it was an absolute hive of activity. But today it’s quiet. You might have just heard the sound of a passing truck and you might in the background hear the waterfalls. I’m surrounded by three waterfalls here which are getting fuller and fuller as the snow melts. And also the sound of birdsong.

So silence is never rarely complete silence, here in nature actually hardly ever. We live in a small Alpine village and our neighbours are often busy creating things, making things, chopping wood, building things, and the sounds of nature are ever-present. So just taking a few moments here in silence to pause, press the pause button here. Bring your awareness inside, and as you bring your awareness inside, breathe. Just like we did the last couple of days. Breathe consciously into your body, allow your breath to arrive at about the place that you have your focus. And as your breath arrives here, sense that space where you’re focusing expanding, as if you were creating space inside. And as you breathe out, sense a sense of release, of letting go. And as you do that you might enjoy a moment of calm.

Let’s do that together for a couple of minutes now in silence. Pausing, focusing, breathing, and allowing ourselves to stay in this present moment with our breath and with our focus as best we can.

I’m going to close my eyes because it helps me concentrate and you might like to do the same. Breathing in through your nose, following the path of your breath, feeling its arrival in this space. Feeling your body expanding as you breathe in, and releasing as you breathe out. And simply enjoying this present moment, staying in this present moment. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, feeling spacious inside, this moment of calm, right now.

Pause…

And when you’re ready, on your next breath, gently open your eyes.

So today, a greater sense of quiet. On Day 1 and Day 2 I taught you the three steps of pausing. I spoke about the power of pause. And yesterday I talked about five principles of forming and keeping a habit. Of getting the pause habit. But the most important of all of those is finding joy in it, finding peace and calm in it, to make it a habit for life. If you find your moment of calm everyday for these 21 days you will be forming a new habit. And if you keep practicing it will be a habit for life, perhaps like second nature.

Thank you for joining me today. Have a peaceful, calm day and in any moment when it feels not as peaceful as you’d like or as calm as you’d like, remember to pause and focus and breathe. Thank you.

21 Days on the Mountain

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