Dr. D. reflects on savoring small, still moments—from sitting in a car to nighttime walks—and offers practical ideas for finding brief pauses, breath work and simple rituals to center during busy days.
Dr. D. forgot to go in and schedule this live talk today, my coffee chat. Our topic for the day is about savoring the moment and being still. And yes, here is my coffee.
"I like the shift in the mood of August. I love being outside at night just to center myself and take moments of gratitude and just being still " As a therapist, it is hard to get a moment to be still because you're always serving someone. But she has learned to savor these moments.
This is a really interesting topic. Sometimes that's all we need to get us through to the next moment is to know that we're still alive. So the fact is, you can breathe. Take a deep breath. That just slowed me down.
Because I'm excited. What do you like to do to be still? What does it feel like to be. If you can share with me in this chat.
Hello, Cadre, it's me, Dr. D. Please forgive me because I did it again. I forgot to go in and schedule this live talk today, my coffee chat. I do have my coffee. As you can see. I am in the car. I have a lot going on today. And which is kind of funny because our topic for the day is about savoring the moment and being still. So today I'm going to be still in my car. And yes, here is my coffee. I hope you got yours. I'm gonna take a sip real quick. Okay, so let's get into it. So hello there. All right, so we are savoring the month of August.
And I will say I used to think that October was one of my favorite months. But I'm starting to recognize I like the shift in the mood of August. It's like the weather around here just change. It was like almost 100 degrees for the past week. And then August came and it's 70s, it feels so nice. But I love the shift of the season and I love the quiet moments that I get to take of just going outside. And I'm a night person, so I like to go outside at night and just listen to the atmosphere. So where I live, it's pretty quiet.
I live. My friends say I live in a retirement community, but I do have older people that live around me. But there's lots of trees, there's lots of animals that like to walk through our backyards, like deer, rabbits. Like, it's crazy. It looks like a Disney movie sometimes. But I love being outside at night just to center myself and take moments of gratitude and just being still. Still. And I don't always remember having time to do that. And so my life has changed, I would say, in the past year and a half, become an entrepreneur where I can schedule my day the way I want it to look.
And now I would say that this time that I've had of being still has been a luxury because I didn't always have it. So if you are like me, or if you have a busy life or you have kids or. Or you are just a grinder, you just go hard all the time, you know, you always have something to do. And it doesn't always feel good to be still. And I know when I was younger, and I won't say it wasn't that long ago, I still felt this way. It was hard to be still because it felt like I was supposed to be doing something.
And so if I did take a moment to just be, I felt like I was being wrong. And Let me know if you resonate with that. So I have learned to practice being still. And even if you only have five minutes, you know, think of a space that works for you. Sometimes it's your car. So for me, I like many moments throughout the day now to be still. So there might be times, like if I'm leaving my office and I'm arriving home, I might take five minutes just to sit in the driveway in my car. No music, the car is not running, just to sit there and be still and to regulate myself before I go to the next thing, before I walk into my house, greet my family, and do the things I have to do for the evening, okay.
But there are other moments throughout the day that I've learned to be still. And as a therapist, if you have any type of, I would say, helping profession, so nurses, doctors, therapists, social workers, you know, it is hard to get a moment to be still because you're always serving someone, you're always making time for others where you don't even have time to go to the bathroom. Sometimes you may not have time to take a sip of coffee. You might just be sipping and walking at the same time. Or. I remember as a caseworker working in foster care, I had to eat and drink while I'm driving, going to a home visit, because there was no time to be still.
When you're still, you're. You're kind of expecting things to go wrong, right? That's the. The world I lived in. But I've learned to savor these moments, really to be grateful for the time where I have quietness. And sometimes being still isn't always quiet. I've recognized that sometimes being still, where you can hear your thoughts and they are just blasting at you, right? Sometimes being still causes you to hear your heart racing where you weren't paying attention to that before. Sometimes being still, you recognize, oh, my gosh.
I didn't take a breath. I'm just breathing like on autopilot. And I have learned to take deep breaths, to slow myself down, to be in the moment, to be grateful for the fact that I'm still breathing. And I'll share this with you. I'm just going on tangents here today, y'. All. This is a really interesting topic. Today. I have learned, and I think I was in a yoga class, maybe the lady said something about if you can take a breath, that is a sign that you're still alive, that you're still here. And sometimes that's all we need to get us through to the next moment is to know that we're still alive.
So the fact is, you can breathe. So you need to do that right now. Take a deep breath. Right. That just slowed me down. I don't know about you, but it caused me to just relax a little bit. It caused me to be aware that I was talking fast. I don't always notice that. Sometimes it caused me to be aware of my heart's racing. Because I'm excited. I'm excited about this topic. Okay. And I just want to. If you can share with me in this chat. What do you like to do to be still? What does it feel like to be.
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