The Sacred Pause

How slowing down became my greatest source of peace

Photo by Frames For Your Heart on Unsplash

First published on Medium

It’s funny how easy it is to get caught up in speed — in the endless doing, the striving, the measuring. For years, my days started and ended with screens. Twelve hours of staring at glowing rectangles, chasing the next deal, the next trade, the next client project.

At some point, I wasn’t working anymore — I was spinning. I was the kind of tired that no nap can fix. That was my normal.

Then life decided to make me stop.

The Breaking Point

It wasn’t just burnout that broke me open — it was a hurricane. Hurricane Helene hit our region hard, and we had to evacuate. I remember packing up the essentials, stepping outside, and feeling this eerie stillness in the air. Nature had paused everything.

That week, the storm outside mirrored the one I had been ignoring inside.

When the power went out, when the water stopped flowing, when the internet went silent, something else came online — a whisper inside me asking, 

“What if I stopped?” 

Not just physically, but deeply.

I had spent years as an investment adviser and software engineer — always chasing, optimizing, producing. My identity was tied to performance. But in that pause, I started to see how empty that chase had become.

The First Real Pause

The first real pause came in a moment of temptation during the evacuation— a friend offered me an exciting trading project, something that would’ve reignited the hustle. My reflex said yes, the people-pleaser in me said yes, but my heart whispered no.

For the first time, I listened to the whisper.

Saying no to that project wasn’t about rejecting opportunity — it was about reclaiming sanity. It was the first sacred pause I ever took.

I didn’t have a name for it then, but it was the beginning of a new rhythm — one built around meditation, reflection, and daily stillness.

Let’s Pause Together

Before I tell you the rest of the story, let’s experience what I’m talking about.

Let’s take a few minutes to pause — not as an escape, but as a return.

I invite you to gently close your eyes if you feel comfortable. Take a deep breath in… and let it go.

Feel the weight of your body on the chair. Feel the floor beneath your feet.

Now, bring to mind something or someone that naturally opens your heart. It could be a loved one, a pet, a memory, or even a sense of divine presence.

As you breathe, imagine sending a gentle wish toward them:

“May you be happy. May you be peaceful. May you be joyful. May you be free from suffering.”

Take a few breaths in that space. Feel how your heart softens, how your breath steadies.

Now, let that same kindness turn inward.

May I be happy. May I be peaceful. May I be joyful. May I be free from suffering.

Just notice the shift.

That’s the power of a pause — it’s not about stopping time; it’s about touching eternity within time.

Take one more breath.

And when you’re ready, open your eyes.

What I Discovered in That Pause

When I first started practicing this — sometimes for just three minutes a day — my life began to reorganize itself.

I realized something profound:

What’s holy to me isn’t the output. It’s the process.

It’s the morning hours when I write, heal, and create. It’s journaling through the old stories that kept me small. It’s the moments when I listen — not to the world, but to that still, quiet voice inside.

That’s where sacredness lives.

And the more I paid attention, the more I noticed something beautiful — peace doesn’t come from controlling life; it comes from being fully present for it. It comes from uncovering habituated, conditioned, non-reflected ways of being, layer by layer.

As I often remind myself, prayer is speaking to God, and meditation is listening. Why not do both? Creation, after all, is a conversation — a two-way flow.

The Antidote to Hustle

Rainn Wilson once asked in his book Soul Boom (affiliate link):

“What is holy to you personally? […] Where does sacredness live? […] What should be sacred to all of humanity?”

That question hit me like truth does — quietly but deeply.

I started asking myself every morning, 

“What is one thing that is sacred to me today?”

That one question rewired my life. It turned productivity into purpose. It made me realize that the real wealth I was seeking wasn’t financial — it was peace of mind.

Peace became my portfolio.

When I built my business around that truth, everything changed. I didn’t work less — I worked better. My energy felt sustainable. My creativity deepened. I couldn’t wait to start working each morning; I was serving from overflow.

Let’s Practice the Sacred Pause

Let’s take another few minutes together to feel what it means to make something sacred.

If you’d like, close your eyes again.

Take a few deep breaths.

Now bring to mind your day — everything that’s on your mind, all that’s waiting for you when you leave here.

And now ask yourself, quietly,

What is one thing that is sacred to me today?

Don’t overthink it. Just let the first thing that arises — a person, a value, a moment, a feeling — come forward.

Hold it in your awareness.

Breathe into it.

This is your sacred center. The place from which your best self acts and speaks.

Now, with one more deep breath, commit — even if silently — to honoring this sacred thing in some small way today.

Take your time. And when you’re ready, slowly open your eyes.

What We’ve Lost — and What We Can Reclaim

When we lose touch with what is sacred to us, we lose our peace. And peace, I’ve come to see, is the most precious wealth in the world.

Without it, we cannot serve others or ourselves in our highest way. We just spin — busy, exhausted, half-alive.

But when we pause, when we listen, everything changes. Even burnout becomes a teacher. Even emotional upheaval turns into a source of enlightenment. Even a hurricane becomes holy.

Because in the sunlight of awareness, as Thich Nhat Hanh said, everything becomes sacred.

A New Kind of Wealth

So here’s the paradox: When we stop chasing success and start cultivating stillness, success begins to find us — not as an achievement, but as alignment.

I have been building my business around that truth. I’ve been building my peace around that truth. Now I get to share it with you.

And the invitation I’ll leave you with is simple:

Pause daily. Reflect weekly. Retreat deeply.

And each time you do, ask yourself — What’s sacred to me today?

You’ll find that question alone is enough to change everything.

Closing Invitation

If this message resonated with you, I’d love for you to stay connected.

We’re building an online community called Shift Your Identity — a space for people who want to live, work, and create from peace, not pressure; who want to build a conscious life, not one shaped by adopted expectations.

You can join us online, continue exploring these and other practices, and share your reflections.

But most importantly — take this pause into your life. Protect it. Nurture it.

Because peace isn’t a luxury. It’s our birthright.

And the pause is how we come home to it.

With love and alignment,
Cristof Ensslin

From Frustration to Freedom: A Channeled Path to Inner Peace

Photo by Stepan Konev on Unsplash

Hello and welcome. This is Sophia.

I am opening up this space here for channeling a message that is relevant to the right person. So I invite you to come in, take a deep breath, and arrive fully into this moment. A message that's relevant to you will emerge. Take what resonates and leave what doesn’t.

Let's go on this channeling journey and see what amazing gifts and messages await us.

Close your eyes.
Get comfortable.
Completely relax.

Your mind and your body arriving in this moment, feeling awake, alert, and relaxed. For the next few minutes, set aside all your ideas and projects, anxiety and fears, memories, inhibitions, pain, and tightness. Anything that your mind is being drawn to, just let it be. Don't engage in it.

And know that in this moment, all is well.

Know that everything you're experiencing is happening for you. It's happening for your path forward. You are being supported. You're being guided, and you are being helped on every step. Every step of the way, there are guides—benevolent beings, life force energy, universal energy, the chi—moving in the direction of expansion and growth, healing, and transformation.

What lens you pick and choose for your life is all up to you. You can choose the lens of peace and brotherhood, optimism, pragmatism—or you can choose to stay in the lower energies of fear, distrust, anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, and even things like frustration and impatience. These pull you down.

And yes, there will be moments when you feel frustration, when you feel impatient. The task at hand is to not stay there—to help yourself with tools to come out of that state as fast as possible.

When impatience arises, you recognize it as impatience. And then ask yourself:
What is behind this impatience?
What is it here to teach me?

There's always a lesson. There's always a message behind everything.

Impatience is showing you that you're not at ease with what is. You're wanting to push through, speed up. You're rejecting the process as it appears.

Your task then is to take a deep breath and accept the process. Do what you can to speed it up, but be at ease with how things unfold.

There is divine timing. There's intelligence in how things develop. And anytime things take long, things get delayed—reflect back on the seeds that you have sown. Take responsibility and use events as a mirror, as a status report of how things are.

If you're getting delayed, then you may have sown very tiny seeds of delaying someone—just in a very small way.

If you're getting a lot of stoplights on your road and you're getting impatient, it's important—the combination. If you're at a red light and feeling impatient, then what have you done in the past? You don't have to know exactly, but know that you have sown seeds of obstruction and blocks for others.

However, if you're at a stoplight and you are at ease, then you've sown seeds of ease for yourself and others. The context is very important.

If you look at the red light and think:
"I'm being protected."
"I have a moment to take a deep breath."
"Oh, look how beautiful the trees are."

If you're in the present moment, then that red light is facilitating your enjoyment of this moment. You can pause and observe the beauty around you.

However, if you feel frustrated or impatient, then this red light is serving as a mirror—showing you your inner state, the state of your mind. And when you get that status report, your task is to take a deep breath and come back into wisdom.

Come back into the knowing that all is happening in its own time. Come back into the awareness that you can only focus on, do, and influence what is within your control. The red light operates on other factors, and it's there for your protection.

With this change in attitude, with this understanding of the process, you relieve yourself from low-energy states—frustration, impatience, anger—whatever pulls you down instead of uplifting you.

Your task is to help yourself come back into the wise state, which you already know you have. You're already wise. You already know that impatience and these low-level energies are not beneficial to your path, to your purpose here in life. To stay there is not beneficial. To move out of it is.

So don't be concerned if you do fall back into old ways of being. Just practice coming out of it. Recognize:
"Oh, there it is again."
"Ah, I'm throwing a tantrum again."
"Here it is."

And have this two-minds effect.

• There’s the mind that is throwing a tantrum, being impatient.

• And then there’s the mind that can watch you being that way and help you out of it—like a loving brother, sister, friend, or your future wise self.

Whatever identity feels good to you, use it. This observing self can recognize what's happening, acknowledge it, and guide you back onto the path of peace.

Every time you come out of those low-energy states, you are taking a stand for inner peace—for your own peace and, as a result, peace on this earth. That is where it begins—in these small micro-moments where you are able to take action.

This is your practice ground. And when you are a master, that is what leads to enlightenment. You can practice right now, in each moment.

Your best tool is the breath, the pause—that moment between the feeling, the impulse, and the action, so it's not a reaction but a response.

So, my friends, this is my message for you today. I hope you found it helpful. Again, as always, take what resonates, leave what doesn’t, and make changes in your life bit by bit.

Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time and attention, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

---

Want to go deeper? Grab your free Self-Referential Reflection Worksheet—a tool to uncover the hidden lessons in delays, impatience, and life’s mirrors. Download here.

---