I put myself in time-out

Hey, there. AmyK here.

The last few days have been a whirlwind.

The full spectrum of life that takes you from heart-filled moments of gratitude when you sit down to dinner with dear friends, to the heart-wrenching moment when another dear friend says his cancer has returned …

… to spending precious and fun time with family you love,

to being diverted to an entirely different airport in an entirely different city when you’re just thirty minutes away from reaching your original destination …

… to being able to walk the streets of Georgetown, the canyons of Sedona, and the beaches of California, all within a span of eight days,

to returning from three different grocery stores only to realize — you still forgot the mint.

It's a beautiful life. In all that it encompasses.

And life is a gift. For which 99.9% of the time I feel beyond blessed with a heart full of gratitude.

Which is why I had to put myself in time-out yesterday.

Yep. I needed a time out. I forgot my perspective.

I forgot to look through the eye of my Heart.

And instead, I got frustrated.

Technically, annoyed and a wee bit angry, but let’s not dwell.

If you asked me what happened, I would honestly say, “I was being a brat.”

That simple. That stupid. That human.

With all that is going on this world I needed to reset, recenter, refuel … I needed to get a grip, and shift from Ego to Heart.

And one of the best ways to do this is to escape to New Zealand for a decade, but if that’s not an option you can commit to this Friday, then the next best thing is putting your cute butt in a self-imposed Time-out.

Which is exactly what I did.

And it works.

In a world that applauds hustle and measures worth in output, this pause can feel like a luxury.

But in truth, it’s our lifeline.

A pause is the quiet invitation to get grounded and tune in to our Best Self so we can show up not from fear, urgency, or anxiousness, but from love, light, and our highest brilliance.

Think about the last time you reacted on autopilot … snapping at someone you care about, sending an email you regretted, or rushing through a decision you later second-guessed.

Those moments weren’t born from clarity. They came from an overstimulated nervous system caught in fight, flight, freeze or fawn.

The pause is what shifts us.

Just a few intentional minutes of stillness gives our parasympathetic nervous system, our body’s natural calming force, permission to do its work. Your breath slows. Your shoulders soften. Your heart rate steadies. And with that, we remember who we are at our core: not reactive, but radiant; not defensive, but deeply connected.

Pausing is not about losing time. It’s about reclaiming it.

A reset moment fuels every conversation, every decision, every act of creation that follows.

Here’s my invitation: carve out seven to fourteen minutes today.

• Set aside your phone, step away from the noise, and simply be.
• Breathe deeply.
• Place your hand on your heart if it helps anchor you.
• Let thoughts drift by without grabbing them.
• Seven to fourteen minutes may sound short, but it is enough to signal safety to your body, enough to awaken presence, enough to ignite clarity.

I took a twenty-two minute time-out and created the arrangement pictured above. I cut roses from our garden, gathered vases gifted from a friend, pulled out an olive board I brought home from travels to France, lit my favorite Sandalwood incense from Japan, and read some poems aloud in honor of my friend who is fighting cancer.

This practice is not indulgent, it’s essential.

When we pause, we magnify our brilliance. We become conduits of love and light, responding to life not from the clutter of urgency and anxiety, but from the spaciousness of truth.

Give yourself the gift of space this week. Seven minutes to remember your center, to reset your energy, to return to love.

Your brilliance is waiting in the pause.

Hugs,

AmyK