Welcome
to
Pause for your cause..
A time to step back and reflect, take a deep breath or simply stop
your personal merry-go-round
of activities.
..Just for a minute or two.
Once a week you will find images, videos, and quotes
that may refuel your spirit.
Today we touch upon the nature of distractions. We all are bombarded by an onslaught of sensory input. While we contemplated what the Pause for your cause subject would be this week, two readers sent us an email that really made us pause.
Krizia Irish and Cindy Graham are two Bay Area entrepreneurs who have created an intriguing product entitled the 'meaning-to-pause' bracelet. It fits snugly around your wrist and every 90 minutes gently vibrates, reminding you to pause and become mindful of the present moment.
Truth be told. our first reaction to this product was somewhat skeptical-isn't this a contradiction in kind? Adding just another distraction to the current overload? But this question was quickly followed by another...We already use all types of devices to keep us on track...alarm clocks, pagers, PDAs...Why not take advantage of technology to recapture one of the few things in life that is not a commodity...the gift of time?
Irish and Graham told the Vallejo Community Issues Examiner: "We created the meaning-to-pause bracelet to provide a gentle reminder to redirect our thoughts on what is important. Thoughtful and meaningful pauses can be anything: remembering a loved one that has passed, mindfulness of the present moment, prayer, meditation, reflecting on our purpose, being grateful, showing forgiveness or performing a random act of kindness. At the end of the day, we hope the wearer will have lived their best and most purposeful day by giving meaning to their pauses."
We asked these enterprising women what kind of personal experiences inspired them to design this bracelet. Cindy Graham shares:
Krizia and I were both in high end Business Sales for a large multinational corporation for 20 years. Direct sales is a grind and every month brings a new set of stress and anxiety. We served very demanding customers and good service was never good enough…we always had to be raising our game to improve our levels of sales and service. Our days began at 6:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM. We’d get home and have the demands of family life and then get to bed around 10:00 and wonder where the day went?Sadly, we rarely connected with anything meaningful during the day….we worked at a breakneck speed for 12 straight hours - every day…..eating lunch on the run and never slowing down to reflect on the most important things in life. It was a race and the speed of that race never changed. After years of total exhaustion and the unfulfilled feeling of not seeing the bigger picture in life, we got to thinking – what’s at the finish line – what’s waiting for us if we don’t slow down and be mindful of why we are really here. Aren’t we here to be good human beings to each other and help each other live meaningful lives? We knew that this is the life we wanted to create for ourselves…..but in the end, we had to go through the pain of “the race” to learn the lesson.We tried all kinds of visual reminders to slow down and connect to meaningful things during our chaotic days - nothing worked. We finally figured out that we needed to be prompted to pause....this is how we came up with the meaning to pause bracelet. It works perfectly! "
Thanks to Krizia Irish and Cindy Graham for allowing the Vallejo Community Issues Examiner to preview this bracelet. You can view bracelet style options in our slide show below.
Full ordering information is available at their Meaningtopause website. (You can also catch a conversation with Irish and Graham on BlogTalkRadio)
Comments