On my walk this morning, I stopped at my local parkette. It’s one of the places I like to go to clear my head and let ideas find me. I sat down at a picnic table, centred myself, listened to the birds, watched the kids playing, and then I began to watch the cars driving past. (Usually I try my best to ignore them.) However, today I was being presented with a reminder. I share it here in case it’s for you too…

The parkette is in the centre of a large round-about which includes four stop signs allowing cars and people to safely enter the surrounding road and the central parkette. As I sat, I observed at least 30 cars as they approached one of the stop signs. Of all those cars, only one came to a full stop. The rest slowed then rolled right through. One didn’t even stop as both a car and a pedestrian approached from a cross road. “Gotta beat ’em” seemed to be this driver’s modus operandi. This got me thinking about the importance of stopping. Not just when you’re behind the wheel, but in life.

How often do you come to a full stop in your day, week or life?

Do you rush through your day and year anxious to get to the next thing and achieve the next goal or do you regularly take time to stop and enjoy where you are?

Coming to a full stop – voluntarily or involuntarily – invites you to take yourself into account.

Stopping allows you to ask and reflect on:

How am I feeling? What do I need right now?
Is this where I want to be? What would I prefer instead?

Within the ‘stop’ is often the cure.

When you allow the ‘stop’…

• you allow yourself an opportunity to find the solution you’ve been chasing yet never seem to catch up to.
• You notice what you’ve been ignoring.
• You become aware of the cause of your unhappiness, discomfort, dissatisfaction or pain.

It’s important to regularly make time to stop so you can listen to your inner voice and hear your inner response.

Only from awareness can you begin to create change.  

I invite you to take a moment now and come to a full stop. Journal, take a bath, meditate, go for a walk – anything that allows you to come back to You so you can appreciate where you are and better see where you want to go next without the blinders of routine, schedules and goals.

The reason they put blinders on horses is so they won’t get distracted. The horse’s attention is thereby focused on someone else’s agenda. When they get where they’re going, the horses stop and the blinders are removed. What did the horses miss seeing on route? What are they experiencing and perhaps appreciating more once the blinders come off?

Covid19 not only forced us all to stop, it gave us permission to stop. It offered a cocoon to rest in and see what wanted or needed to be transformed. It offered a chance to drop our blinders, look around and see what we appreciated (and didn’t) in our lives, why and what we’d rather have instead.

We’re getting used to wearing masks. Let’s not get used to wearing blinders again too.

Give yourself permission to be fully in the driver’s seat of your life and come to a full stop at every sign telling you to do so, so you can clearly see where you’re meant to go next. 

As a Love Note from your Soul said:

Did ‘the global pause’ remove any blinders for you?
What will you do to ensure they don’t go back on?