5. Pauses give you the rhythm
Pauses are more than breaks. There is nothing ‘broken’ in pauses: after you have just finished a task, and before to start the next one, you take a bit of time to reconnect yourself with your body. In doing so, you let your parasympathetic system the occasion to work for you. And, even more importantly, the pauses give you the rhythm of your working day, like in music. Can you listen to music stripping away all the pauses? Can you read a text without spaces or punctuation? Canyoureadatextwithoutspacesor punctuation… of course not! This is the sense of pauses: they give you the rhythm. It is an art, so it needs practice. Be patient with yourself: allow yourself not to be always successful when you start. And while not into work, allow yourself new possibilities for serendipity, that is finding new ideas that you really needed but you did know neither how to have them nor that they were out there, waiting for you.
The techniques that will be presented in the following sections are the results of my experience in the oriental arts. I have distilled them form my mentorships and workshops into this e-book. It is important to note that they were thought to be easily learned by anybody without any previous knowledge, experience or interest in oriental arts. There is nothing mystical behind them. And you can substitute them with other techniques, if you know any of such disciplines. The main aim is to unwire your mind at least for 2-3 minutes from the sequence of the tasks planned in your slot sheet. As you already know, the pause should last 5 minutes if you follow the normal rhythm of work; therefore, your technique will last 2-3 minutes at its most, because you should allow yourself the time to prepare and enter in it (1 minute) and the time to exit and go again to your usual place of work, let’s say your desk. In fact, in general it is better to change physically place when you experience your pause.
The fundamental techniques are solos. However, during the years I realized that one of the most urgent need for many people is to work better with their teammates, so I recently introduced a couple of techniques for pairs and groups. This is the first time I present them in a written form.
Last remark: I never do every technique every day, and so I do not expect others to do. Take them easy! If your pause is a cup of coffee or a sigarette, that will be your pause. Only avoid to talk about work with your colleagues in the meantime: if you do so, it is not a pause anymore.
I. Slowly. In-Hale.
This is the matrix of all other techniques: in a sense, it is always present when you practice the it than to others.
You sit comfortably, with your back free – yit should not touch anything. Put a hand on your chest, next to your heart, but never right over it. In other words, the top of your fingers will be towards one of your shoulder (it is far easier to do than to explain, believe me).
The other hand should lay gently on your belly. Now feel that you are alive because you are breathing. Breath through your nose only. Do not try to change anything else of your breath: simply pay attention. Feel your breath. Your body will do the rest. Many people suddenly enter a state of tranquillity.
In your mind, start repeating the following sentence: “I. Slowly. In-Hale.” Do. It. Slowly. This is the most important thing to remember for every technique for pauses. If you do not change your physical rhythm, you do not enter really in a different mood apt for pauses.
Humid Eyes, full of light
Many people I know work in front of a monitor for many hours during the days: software developers, scholars, students, and so on. I am not exception. Our eyes are heavily stressed if we do not address them specifically during breaks, and this technique is to be done every time we feel that our eyes need to rest a bit. You should sit comfortably as in ‘I. Slowly. In-Hale.’ This time you put your palms gently just upon your eyes. Not on your eyes: hands should let some space, no pressure on them. Eyes should be able to blink normally, without touching your hands. Put your elbows on the desk, in order not to contract your shoulders. Now close gently your eyes. In your mind, start repeating the following sentence: “humid eyes, full of light.” Visualize a warm light coming into your eye bulbs, and feel their humidity. Generally, eyes become more humid, sometimes the eyes start a secretion of tears, without any special emotional connection. If this is the case, your eyes are already under overwork: do it more than usual. To finish the exercise, take the hands off one after the other (slooowly!) and open your eyes. Is your sight a bit better? Try to focus an object, before to take your glasses again — if needed. Sometimes people declare that they see better, sometimes not. In any case, it is worth a try.
Listen to your bones
The other sense many people use a lot during work is hearing. Many people should talk or listen to people for hours, on the phone, in videoconferencing, or in face-to-face meetings or conversations. They should be well aware of what others say, and at the same time they should carefully choose words when they talk. This exercise is dedicated to them. Again, you should sit comfortably as in ‘I. Slowly. In-Hale.’ You put your hands on your outer ears, covering them (you can also close your eyes, if you are in a comfortable situation, but it is not mandatory). Now, focus your mind on the sound produced by your body. You can hear the sea (it is your heartbeat) in many times, and certainly you hear your own breath. If you need to repeat a sentence in order not to think to anything, my suggestion is to tell yourself: “I. Listen. To. My. Bones.” After some years of feedback, I realized that many people get distracted by any sentence repeated in their mind when they are listening to the sounds produced by their own body, so you are free to repeat the sentence or not. As you prefer.
Take a walk to the silent side
While the previous techniques were in soloing, this one is a technique for groups. Suppose that your team has a longer pause (10 min) all together and the ritual is to go to the café on the opposite corner of the street to have a coffee or tea together. You decide all together to Take a walk to the silent side. Choose a ‘gate’ to get in and a ‘gate’ to get out: the main door of your office can be the first one, while the second one will be the entering door of the café. Between the two doors you simply remain silent. You are not allowed to pronounce a single sound with your mouth — no words, no whistling, nothing at all. In my experience, some people feel uncomfortable in behaving in such way. And if someone say hello? Well, you can smile, have eye contact, wave with your hand and even move your mouth as if to say “hello”, but without any sound. Teammates will have the experience that they can communicate in silence among them, without words, only with gestures. And if there are tension in the group, they will get lower a bit. You will realize that in the café people start to talk again in a different way: the decibels will be lower, and the rhythm of chatting will be slower too, in most cases.
Talking palms
This is the most difficult exercise, according to the participants of my workshops.
A last note
You can always invent other techniques in your teams, for yourself or for everybody. This is really helpful, it strengthen the links among the team members. If you want to share them with others, I will put them in the official web site of the ArtP4T.