The 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E.
The 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. has been created to address the accelerating CYCLE OF NOISE (distraction, disruption, distortion, disinformation, disengagement and overload) in today’s society, and the increasing levels of uncertainty, stress and negative behavioral change.
As this change in society continues, we must develop new tools and techniques that can put us back in control of our personal well being, so as to continue our path toward elevating our sense of PURPOSE and POWER.
STEP #1: PREPARE AND PERSONALIZE
Our first step of the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. provides the foundation for the four additional steps of P.A.U.S.E. that follow.
PREPARATION is an intentional action to do something different, something that will lead to a positive and permanent change in your life.
It’s a mindstyle shift, designed to create new positive and permanent patterns of preparation, protection and well being. When we PREPARE for a more positive future, we move from our outside channels of choice to our inside channels of choice. We set the time and place aside in our mind to become committed to ourselves and the intended positive process of change. When we incorporate the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. process into our daily activities, we expand our awareness, ability and control in new ways to help us diminish the negative impact of the increasing outside channels of control from technology, media and consumerism, by upgrading and increasing the inside channels of control leading to the development of our PURPOSE and POWER.
NOTE: The first step of the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. is PERSONALIZED and designed to accommodate individual differences in ages and stages of life.
STEP #2- ATTEND AND ATTUNE
The second step of P.A.U.S.E. is designed to learn how to develop and direct our ATTENTION to three distinct inner information streams; the body stream, feeling stream and thought stream. In this step of P.A.U.S.E., we ATTUNE to these three streams of inner information, which provides the foundation for the integration and expansion of our inner awareness.
We often neglect the important interconnected relationship between our body, feeling and thought streams, as we become more immersed in the outside world of technology, media and consumerism. Step #2 of the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. is designed to inform and remind us, of this important interconnected relationship for well being.
STEP #3- UNCOVER AND UNLEARN
With the completion of Step #1 and Step #2 of P.A.U.S.E., we can begin to incorporate the first two steps into the third discovery stage of P.A.U.S.E. to UNCOVER, and if needed, begin to UNLEARN our tradeoffs, triggers and unwanted patterns of behavior.
Each of us over time, have compounded our experiences and their accompanying memories, into beliefs, values and patterns of behavior that either support our well being and future success or limit us. This can result in reacting automatically to the “triggers” in our environment. Our NATS (negative automatic thoughts), activate and direct us in unconscious ways that limit our ability to make important and powerful choices in our life.
Many of our pre-programmed thoughts can be “re-programmed” over time. Brain science currently reveals that our “neuroplastic” brain is capable of re-wiring old circuits of thinking, previously thought to be unchangeable. This allows our pre-programmed thoughts to be “re-programmed” over time if we can recognize the existence of these patterns.
STEP #4- SHIFT AND SHAPE
From the awareness and insights of our UNCOVERING and UNLEARNING process, we can open new opportunities to SHIFT our learned limitations and SHAPE our thoughts into new non limiting possibilities . This can be accomplished by using alternative inner information streams in ways that increase our well being and potential for positive change.
EXAMPLE: Imagine that you’re late for an event, something that’s very important to you. You’ve done everything that you can to get ready and prepare for it, but something completely out of your control has occurred that interferes with your schedule and your timing. The “panic alarm” goes off in your head (body, feeling, and thought streams) and you begin to imagine all types of negative consequences. With increased awareness, a SHIFT, SHAPE and substitute thought stream activity is possible, creating the accompanying changes in your feeling and body streams.
STEP # 5- ELEVATE AND EXPAND
The final ELEVATE and EXPAND step of the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. is based on the contemporary brain research of neuroplasticity and new habit formation. Rewiring negative learning circuits in the brain can create a permanent increase in positive behavior patterns, but the permanence of these patterns depends upon the commitment and reinforcement that is made in this final step of the 5 STEP P.A.U.S.E. Practice, repetition and consistency are the foundations for new habit formation.
Research indicates that it can take several months (average of 66 days) of committed action to create a new and permanent positive habit pattern. The final step of P.A.U.S.E. is designed to insure that the positive changes employed can and will remain, by reinforcing the change process for a prescribed period of time… building it into your lifestyle and mindstyle skills.
In a world of accelerating noise, stress, and increasing chaos, the “outer noise” is playing an increasingly important role in creating your “inner noise”. This exponential change in THE CYCLE OF NOISE began to unfold slowly in the mid nineties, with the evolution of the Internet and the combinatory effects of media, technology and consumerism.
Over the past 20 years, processing information has become quite different from the information processing of the past. In the competitive NOISE environment, we can only expect higher and higher levels of noise, leading to higher levels of stress, uncertainty and chaos.
There is no reversing our new modern world, leaving it entirely up to us, as to how we will deal with the changing information / attention economy and the profound behavioral impact that it now has.
Today, everyone needs an updated “toolkit” to manage the subtle, silent seduction, of contemporary technology and its impact on our future well being.