01.12 Pause

For this anchor point video, I invite you to join me in my favored way of pausing – going to my forest sit spot. Get yourself a cup of tea, lean back and come along!

Why pausing?

Pause is all about finding ways to recharge your batteries and having a time of rest and rejuvenation. It is helpful for nurturing relationships, with yourself as well as with others. It can be time to take a break to distance yourself from the topic you are working on, for cooling down when things are getting overheated or to let insights sink in. Pausing can also be very active like running, chopping wood or having a party – it really depends what you are taking a break from.

Pause when you are:

feeling overwhelmed
low in energy
getting out of effort you are putting in

Different ways of using pause

In her book ‘Cultural Emergence’, Looby is mentioning different ways of using pause in the design process. And in making this video about pause I was literally exploring all four of them.

When I decided to start with a pause at my forest sit spot, I was using pause as a way of designing the video. And although there was a lot of action and reflection involved, I did not plan anything and just followed the flow of the moment. This way I came back rejuvenated, relaxed and full of stories to share with you. Then I got sick and was forced to take a pause from the design for a few days. My body demanded a rest to heal and I think that can count as an example for pausing becomes a need itself. And the forth one is pause as ways of meeting the needs of the design, which I hopefully managed to do as my vision was to provide you with a kind of pause during this lesson.

Reflective questions

Were you using pause in your design process so far, and if so, how did it show up?

How was pause influencing your design process?

The whole design process has been full of pauses for me: I pay attention to it for a day, or a couple of days in a row, then the rest of my tasks and responsibilities invade and I don’t think about it for some days, then I get back to the design, then back to other things, back to the design… (also influenced by the rythm of the course). I pause from my work when doing this design and pause from the design by doing my work.
The moments of connection I have based my first action plan around will be moments of pausing in my day to day life.
As my design is about self-care, there will be several instances of pause to build into my habbits in the future, be it meditation, connecting with nature, seeing my friends…