Have you heard of the STOP practice before?
We discussed it in our Mindful Meditation Class this morning. It’s a simple tool you can use to bring Mindfulness into your everyday life.
One of the big benefits of mindfulness is it teaches us to observe our thoughts and emotions from a calm inner space without reacting to them. We practice this in meditation when we use our breath to anchor our awareness and invite attention back to our breath again and again. (and again and again and again!)
In doing this, we start to learn the patterns of our minds and emotions. We also get the perspective and understanding that thoughts and emotions both arise and fall away. Deeper practice offers us the opportunity to begin to recognize physiological responses that our body has to thoughts and emotions. All of this means that we’re practicing creating space between a thought and emotion and our reaction to those thoughts and emotions.
Practiced consistently, this leads to deeper feelings of peace and happiness.
So, what is STOP? It is practice you can use in the moment when you are experiencing a strong emotion to a person or a situation.
S stands for Stop, or pause. This could mean that you walk away from the situation, or that you simply take a moment to check in with yourself.
T stands for Take a breath (or several.) Deep breathing helps calm your nervous system, which can downgrade a feeling of anger or frustration.
O stands for Observe. Notice what thoughts and emotions you are having and what your habitual response might be. Notice what you can about the other person, if there is one involved. Do they look like they are upset? What else is going on with the situation?
P is for Proceed. Take what you’ve learned and move forward.
When you use the STOP practice, you are consciously creating space between your thoughts, emotions, and your reaction. This space allows you to react from your highest self, in the moment.
I hope you find this practice useful, and that you can bring a deeper sense of calm into your world.