Lately, I feel like I’ve ‘disappeared’ from social media. I retreated within myself, feeling a lack of energy to write, to share. I’m in a state of pause. I am surrendering to the feeling, to the presence.

It’s an unnatural state for me, as I’m usually constantly active. And yet, here I am again, implementing what I teach. The understanding is that, like in nature, there are seasons that interchange; each season brings different scents, behaviors, and existence.

But even in the pause, there is action. There is inner action: deep listening to what arises, to what is revealed. Listening to that part within us that wants room to express itself to transform and make space for something new to emerge.

This pause experience encountered me after returning from my California retreat. In my personal experience, organizing and leading the retreat in California required a lot of energy from me (more than usual). However, I understood that these forces were emotional. Arranging and facilitating the retreat awakened old pains and traumas within me, those that wanted to be present, to be acknowledged, to transform, and make space for something new to emerge.

However, meeting that painful place demanded a pause from the daily race to be fully present in attentiveness, love, and acceptance. Upon my return, after facilitating the retreat, I listened to the fatigue arising within me and decided to participate in a retreat for myself. Three days of pause, silence, and deep listening. I felt that I longed to stop, to be held and contained.

I felt tired.

And from within the pause and the deep listening, the pain arose, and with that came the soberness and the clarity of mind. From this realm of uncertainty, a gift sprouted. Another wall broke, consciousness expanded, and clarity emerged. And through that, space was created for what is to come, allowing me to take the next leap.

We all find ourselves in the race of life, leading companies and families caught in the “rat race.” Sometimes, the race becomes automatic, based on hold patterns and pains. And perhaps it is the automatic habits that navigate our lives, instead of us leading and navigating our lives (the organization, the family, the initiative) to the precise place that fulfills who I am today, unlike who I was two years ago?. Maybe it’s time to stop, reflect, and ask ourselves profound questions. And perhaps unexpectedly, something new will emerge in this pause moment and reflection. A new path or way to go forward?