The Sacred Pause

Michael J. Formica at Psychology Today blogged about a tool for managing stress and anger known as the Sacred Pause. As he explained it, the Sacred Pause is a tool for getting to the root of a stress reaction or strong emotion. The Sacred Pause entails simply taking a breath when we experience a stress reaction, and naming it. Once the emotion is named, the next step is to peel back that layer of feeling to see the next layer, until the root cause is revealed. Formica gave this example:

John has a problem with road rage. When other drivers do something that he feels is “stupid” or “dangerous” or just plain thoughtless, he tends to respond in an overly aggressive manner. Responding with the Sacred Pause for him would mean being with his immediate feeling and voicing it. He is angry – employing the Pause would mean stopping and vocalizing or sub-vocalizing his feeling – “Angry, angry, angry…”. This would then lead to a peeling back of the layers of anger over the “next” feeling – “Fearful, fearful, fearful…”. And, going into the fear, reveals, “No control, no control, no control…”.

I imagine this could be an effective tool for strong anxiety. I can see myself employing it when I get fearful in the car after a sudden stop because someone has pulled out in front of us abruptly.

My current state of Complex PTSD is one of high-functioning. I am mostly symptom-free but I have moments that take me by surprise, and periods of high stress make me more vulnerable to outbreaks. But no life is stress-free, and any tool that can help me with those surprise times seems valuable.

More about Sacred Pauses

Lama Surya Das: Six Steps to Anger Management