E11: The Most Powerful Way To Stay In Aligned Energy All Day!

Been looking for the most effective way to keep your energy and your vibe up in a way that's fast, fun, and fits easily into your schedule?

Then look no further!  

In this episode I share all about Power Pauses and how you can use them intentionally to:  

• take the ouch out of your slouch and wake up your sleeping booty (111% a thing when you sit all day) 
• turn on the creative master piece maestro aspect of your brain  
• the 3 questions to ask yourself to take a Power Pause in the most effective and efficient way 
• and lots more!   

This podcast is a must for entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners, or anyone interested in personal growth and overcoming anxiety naturally.  

Wanna try a Power Pause for yourself and experience as session that is so fun that people call them "recess time for adults"? Ya you do!!  Book your complimentary Power Pause session here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/powerpause

Say goodbye to racing thoughts and sleepless nights with the Anxiety Tracker & Journal! Get instant access for just $11 https://www.megan-nolan.com/tracker

Want to learn more about me (Megan Nolan)? Check out my website: https://www.megan-nolan.com  

Also, subscribe to my channel so you never miss an episode!  

Mind the typos, here's the transcription of the episode:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Purposeful Powerhouse podcast.
In this episode, we're going to be discussing the power of the pause.
Yes, the act of slowing down and how that might actually help you to speed up might actually help you to take all the beautiful things that you have on your vision board and make them the reality that you are living because power pauses are the most effective way for you to stay in aligned energy, aligned energy with the vision that you have for yourself, for your life, for your relationships, for your community.
All of those beautiful things, power pauses are the most effective way to stay in alignment with that to stay in control of your energy.
Otherwise you might feel like you got back on the stress express and ch ch ch can't stop, both.
Stop.
Here.
We go all the time vibes.
And in our last episode, we talked about how there are three important questions to ask yourself.
One of which is what do you not have time for in your life? And many of those things that you don't have time for anymore, like maybe saying that you're going to exercise or do yoga and then intending to do it later or not getting to it.
Having that inner dilemma of like, oh, I always say I'm gonna do this and I never get to it and I feel like a load of crap because I never do that or sitting down to me and it feels like there's, you know, a troop of monkeys and trumpeting elephants in your head.
And it's like you can't for the life of you find the gap between any of these ga bazillion thoughts and you get really frustrated and then you start to have that, you know, judging dialogue happening or maybe that feeling of just always being frantic, frazzled in that sort of hustly energy and that just feels internally chaotic.
And so what is it that you don't have time for anymore? And these are often characteristics of what I call the worn out entrepreneur.
And so we wanna make sure that you know what you don't have time for.
So when it pops up and comes out, then you can say no, thank you.
I'm not doing that anymore and pausing and deciding what actions you do wanna take, what thoughts you do wanna have, how you wanna show up, right? And so that's so important and we talked about how the key to that is having these rituals and these routines around staying in that energy, staying in that full embodiment, staying in presence because otherwise the ma long to do list and the bazillion and one things that are buying for your attention constantly are really apt to pull you out of that.
So make sure to listen to that episode after this one, if you haven't listened to it yet.
But one of the tools that I am so honored to share that has been such a powerful game changer for me and is foundational inside the mindful strength method, the work that I do with my clients and my students and myself because I'm a product of the work that I do because I, you know, also have that really strong desire to make sure that, you know, something is really effective before and that I understand it at a deep knowing level before I share it with other people.
And that is power pauses and power pauses are just like they sound, they are powering down to power up.
They are pressing pause on the go, go, go to drop into the present moment, which is your point of power to be able to cultivate connected awareness, to cultivate presence, to cultivate a sense of grounded, to tap into natural energy, to get into aligned energy.
Because power pauses are the most effective way for you to get into and stay in aligned energy.
And so what they are, there's so many ways that you can power pause.
And so how did I come upon this little tool? Well, I as I have mentioned in some previous episodes have experienced a getting to the point of being completely burnt out, feeling so frustrated with myself that I wasn't doing the things I was teaching other people to do.
I was just powering through the long day, you know, running on caffeine and cortisol.
I was telling myself I was doing all the good things because I was taking the vitamins and doing this and loyal and, you know, micro dosing the mushrooms and drinking the special teas and all the things.
But yet I was just going, going, going, going.
And what happened was that I realized that I was pouring, pouring, pouring and the cup got empty and I kept pouring, pouring, pouring and then the cup cracked and it was leaking and I just kept pouring, pouring, pouring.
Power pauses are a way for you to pour back into yourself.
They're a way for you to charge the battery if you will because you're basically like a Tesla.
You can go far, you can go fast and you're incredible.
You have an incredible design to sleek sexy animal.
You, and it does depend on one thing, the battery being charged and I know you got one of these little phone phone or little ipad or something, something like that that you're listening or watching this on and you charge it and you might even freak out a little bit when you can't find a charger.
I know I do that periodically.
And that's the interesting thing about us.
Right, is that we will go and go and go and go so we can go no more.
And it's that whole age old question of like, how bad are we going to let it get before we actually do something? And that's the thing.
Right.
A lot of times people will wait to start doing yoga until they become more flexible.
They'll, they'll wait to start doing flexibility training until they hurt themselves.
Or they go to the physiotherapist or they have an issue or they're having headaches all the time or, you know, we wait to start exercising until someone in your family, you know, God forbid has an illness or something.
And you're finally motivated me, for example, you know, I've avoided meditation for a long time because, you know, that whole like trumpeting elephant screaming monkey situation existed inside of my head.
And I had the story because the judge my, you know, my head saboteur of the negative committee in my head was like, you just can't meditate something's wrong with you.
Like this is, this just doesn't work, don't do it.
And what's the point? You just get frustrated? It's just so frustrating.
And like that was the story inside my head.
And then unfortunately, I don't know how many years ago, but um a few years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, which is a type of dementia where there's protein build ups in the, in the brain and she started to forget and have changes in her personality and you know, not remember my grandfather.
And so, and or my mom, my aunt.
And so, you know, me being me the lifelong learner and you know, tell me if you can relate to this, you get passionate about something and you're like, I want to do something about this.
I'm gonna take action here.
I'm gonna figure out how to make sure that this doesn't happen to me and or any of my siblings or anyone that I love because there's ways around this, right? And so I started doing the research, like the good little student that I am and I discovered that one of the most powerful important things that we can do and this is a little side tip um to keep your brain happy and healthy and functioning well and slowing the aging process is meditation and actually the combination of cardiovascular exercise.
So getting your heart rate elevated and then doing some form of meditation after is actually even more potent because with cardio, your brain stimulates the growth of new neurons, new brain cells and then meditation, it helps them to mature in age.
And the very process that helps the brain cells to mature and age, which is the one that so many people myself included, get frustrated by because we keep going back and we have to start over.
We just begin again, begin again is called effortful learning.
And that's what actually challenges the neurons to grow.
So the combination of cardio and meditation super potent tool set for brain health, you know, and for a whole bunch of other reasons too, you know, like focus and clarity and ability to stay on task and keep yourself calm and grounded and to navigate stress and to sleep better and boost your immune function.
All of those things are beautiful benefits of meditation.
But yet for the longest time until that happened, I avoided it.
And so a lot of us will avoid something until, you know, it becomes a real imminent issue.
A pressing issue.
And that is the case oftentimes with entrepreneurs because with a million and one things on your plate, it can be very easy to keep bumping the, the self care further and further and further down the list, but not when you care so much about how you feel that you are making time for yourself every day, even if it's just a few minutes.
And that's where the power pause comes in.
And so for me, I realized that, you know, being someone who's always loved morning exercise and morning routines, and I had that on lock.
And that's why it's a huge component of mental of the work that I do inside, inside my community and with my clients and inside mindful strength is setting the stage with that morning routine.
But what I realized was that I would do the morning routine and I was like, check, I'm all good.
And then the rest of the day, I was like no bricks.
And then I get to the end of the day crash and I tried to go to sleep and my brain was like, hey, you know, you know, all the bing bang, bing bang bang because I had never taken the time throughout the day to unwind, right? My stress level was at 100 and then at the end of the day, I just felt like I could just be so tuckered out and then I would just crash and I didn't.
Right.
And that's when we start to have struggles with our sleep.
And that's one of the hallmarks of anxiety overdrive is having issues with your sleep because you're so busy throughout the day that you are running out of stress level of 10 and then trying to just, you know, get sleep at night is even more challenging in your brain because it's just super active in the day.
We tend to wanna, you know, wake you up in the night to keep things to be able to process information and, and dialogue about things and, you know, pretty much recount every mistake you've already made in your whole entire life like mine does.
So what I realized was that taking very intentional pauses throughout the day is vital, vital because not only does it take the ouch out of your slouch and help you to walk tall with confidence.
You have more energy.
So you wake up your sleeping booty.
Yes.
Totally a thing.
If you're a sitter all day or move you back into strong posture, keep, gives your brain energy because lots of the nourishment and nutrition to the brain actually comes from movement of your spine.
So it's important to have your spine moving throughout the day to nourish your brain.
And so I realized that that was a really potent key.
And the thing is is that, you know, it's all well and good for you to get aligned with your vision and drop into the gap and you know, connect to the where you're going and what you see for yourself first thing in the morning and then if the rest of the day you've been hijacked by the negative committee in your head and you are still in that state of the worn out entrepreneur of like struggle, struggle, hustle hustle, go, go, go, go, self doubt, self criticism, overworking, perfection and whatever it is.
And at the end of the day, you're like, OK, that was fine.
I'll just go ahead and call it a day.
You're spending most of the day in that state.
So power pauses are the most effective way to stay in aligned energy.
So the idea is, is to have a power pause in the morning and then little minutes, mindful minutes throughout the day.
So how do you take a power pause? Well, there's so many different ways you can do it and it really is about dropping into the present moment, using your body, using your breath, using your being as the tools to do it.
Ok.
So what you can do is think about times in your day when you start to wilt when maybe you go and grab that next cup of coffee, maybe you go and grab a little more fruit or a little more sugar.
A little something, something to give you a little.
Pick me up because you're tired.
An ideal time to take a power pause is before that happens.
So you get your body up and moving, change your state, change how you're feeling and drop back into presence into alignment.
OK? And the cool thing is, is when you move your body, as we said, you know, you're moving nourishment and blood flow through the body, you're engaging your muscles, you're getting a natural boost of energy, you're changing your internal, emotional and mental state and physical state simultaneously.
So, but those are some good times when you find that yourself, you find yourself drooping.
So to keep your energy up when you have done a lot of work and you still have more to go and you need another little whoop go time.
Pick me up.
That's another great time for a power pass.
If you had a moment when you were like Wow.
And you got upset, maybe you got triggered.
Maybe somebody said something obnoxious.
Maybe some th something didn't go as planned.
Maybe it was like 17 hours on a project and then it blew up.
It's a time to express the stress and get it out of you.
Otherwise it just continues to fester.
Right.
And then when you're in that hijacked state of stress, that's when your mind will start to kind of, oh, it recruits all the other little characters of like, if you're already frustrated about something, you know, and, and then you start to judge yourself and then you start to like, say, oh, well, I'll just keep doing this, I'll just push you.
I'll skip my workout.
It tends to be a slippery slope or what have what's called a contagion effect.
And we all know what it's like for you to go into a room and somebody's upset and then their energy kind of bounces off of you and then all of a sudden you're like, and you feel it too, right? So you just know that your effects can have that you can have that same effect on other people too.
Right? And so if you had a moment when you've gotten bound up tight, when you feel yourself contracted, that's a really potent time to pause, we wanna shake the energy off, right.
We wanna shake the energy off and out of you.
And there's a reason why we see this so much in nature.
We see this so much in nature.
Like, think about your dog, you know, periodically the Bailey dog will just get up and do a little sh sh shake, shake and then just trot off like nothing happened.
Or if you've ever watched Swans get in a kerfuffle, they have their little kerfuffle and then they float away and they flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, and then they float away like nothing happened.
What that's doing is actually clearing the survival stress from your body.
When we shake it off, shaking is a powerful tool.
It's a trauma release.
It's a stress reduction tool and it's actually a natural usage of your own, your body's own reset mechanism.
Because what it does is when we shake things off, it actually sim signals, excuse me, signals to your limbic system that the stressor is over and it resets your nervous system back to homeostatic state or balance or home back to connected awareness back to presence.
Otherwise, we know that the old negative committee in our head wants to just walk away and be like, wow, 17 hours on that project and still didn't get it right.
Squawky, squawky.
And then it continues off into the rest of the day or you can take a power pause, clear the energy, shake off the stress, get out of that space reset, get perspective, get back to yourself and then go back into the rest of the day.
OK.
So those are some really important times to take power pause and hopefully some reasons as to why.
And not just from an energetic clearing your energy perspective, wiping the slate clean, shaking it off, starting to melt some of the stress.
But also from a physiological perspective.
Because if we're running high on a high stress state, then we are in a different part of the brain, then you high functioning, creative, magnificent, focused, present kind leadership energy.
Where your sage, where your wise, purposeful powerhouse self lives.
When we're in stress, you're in your Amygdala, which is the survival center of the brain.
That's not your masterpiece zone.
It's survival zone.
OK? And if we don't take a power pause and we just keep going in that state, then we're not able to access all the brilliance that is there for you in your prefrontal cortex in the stage, mind in the creative space in the brain.
OK.
So that's when and why? Now how well that's up to you? Really, really what you want to use is these three questions? What, where is your breath? Where is your breath? And I want you to feel for the answer because that's really the essence of a power pause is coming out of your head and into your body.
Most people live life as an out of body experience because they live it in their head.
When you ask yourself that question, where is my breath? Feel for the answer and let that take you into your body and take you into a place of presence.
And that's one of the tools is using your breath to connect on purpose.
That's one of the pillars of being a purposeful powerhouse is using your breath, using your body.
So that's the first question to ask yourself, where is my breath? And then ask yourself, what do I need to come into balance right now? And after you've used your breath as kind of a barometer for where you're at.
If your breath is short and shallow and you're feeling that like woo wound up upset energy, then perhaps we need some movement to ground.
Perhaps we need some uh clearing breathwork to let the stress out or if your breath told you, oh, I'm tired today and I just don't know if I have it in me.
Then perhaps what you need to come into balance is a little bit more invigoration, some movement, some moving meditation, maybe some vigorous breathwork to stimulate you back into a more energized, uplifted, vibrant state.
And so where's my breath? What do I need to come back into balance? And then who am I being? Every time we take a power pause, we always want to create a power statement.
And a power statement is essentially an intention, a tool that we use in yoga, intention setting or setting your song Culpa song Kala meaning vow to the truth because the truth is whatever you need you have within you.
It's simply a matter of cultivating it, practicing it, allowing it to be embodied and fully expressed.
It's tapping back into that, right? And clearing away all the stuff that is not that, that's right because that's some of the stuff we decided, we ain't got no much time for that.
What do we have time for? What is it that you want? How do you want to show up into your day? How do you want to go into the meeting? How would you like to make that Facebook live or that phone call? Because that's your sense of purpose.
And power is deciding how you get to show up.
And so that question, who am I being? Answer it? I am and then fill in the blank I am are powerful words.
What follows them is said to become your destiny, they become a command to the subconscious mind.
So declare it very intentionally, declare it on purpose.
Choose an emotion associated with your vision, a quality associated with the highest, most expressive, most expansive version of yourself.
Choose something that feels good to you.
So what we're doing there is creating a clear intention through this statement.
I am cultivating a new mind.
I am brilliant.
I am radiant, whatever it is.
And then we want to feel that in your body, we want to use the power pause to fully energize that quality.
Because what we're doing there is cultivating that energetic essence vibrating yourself because every emotion has a vibrational frequency to it.
Bringing your own vibrational state to that frequency, combining it with the clear intention and you're sending that signal out because your thoughts are electric, your thoughts send out signals into the universe, into the world around you and your emotions are magnetic.
That's what makes up your electromagnetic field.
So we wanna make sure that we are cultivating these elevated emotional states so that you can be in alignment, staying in aligned energy, right? Staying in aligned energy with your highest self, with your future self.
When she with your true self, with your sage, whatever label feels good to you there.
And of course, you can take shaky breaks, you can dance, you can do yoga, you can go outside, you can go for a walk, you can do breath work, you can do meditation.
It's all you you get to decide that's a beautiful thing.
And so really what they do is they give you a chance to come back to you.
They give you a chance to blast through stress.
They tell you to tap into creativity and focus and clarity and presence.
And so they become a tool, they become a go to tool.
And so I would love to know how that lands for you.
Power pauses are such a staple in my life because literally what they do is they stop us from going, going, going on autopilot.
And help you to be really intentional about how you are showing up how you are living, how you are being in each moment.
Because otherwise it's really easy for us to get caught up in the negative chatter in our mind.
And that causes so our thoughts and that affects our, how we feel.
It affects your energy, your nervous system, it affects your behaviors, which then affects your results.
And so, so, so, so important to do things throughout the day that are nourishing to your nervous system that are nourishing to you at the deepest level that simultaneously give loads of other benefits because why not? And that's really, you know, you know, of course, we can do something just for the pure joy of it.
And that's the cool thing about power pauses is that they, they should feel joyful to you.
They should feel fun, right? We don't want it to be some arbitrary something that you just have to add to the list, do it because it leaves you feeling good.
And that's another hack.
Actually, two more schedule them into your schedule, put them in your calendar otherwise easy to skip.
And that's what my students in the power pause movement say, you know, they gotta put them in their calendar.
Otherwise it's easy to forget and then celebrate yourself.
It might seem silly in your mind.
We'll probably want to make it silly and ridiculous.
But what we do inside the power pause.
Movement is I have everyone print off a monthly tracker and when they come to a power pause live, they, they write it on there.
They write their power statement, they give themselves a gold star or draw it on with a colored marker because that's so important.
At the end of each one, we do a little wiggle shake, shake and we give ourselves a pat on the back because we don't do that enough.
And so that actually helps to create the habit because when that happens, you get a release of dopamine, which is one of your neurochemicals that helps you to keep motivated and, and your brain loves that.
So it's like what whatever we just did, I like that and I'll probably remind them to do it again because that was great.
I really enjoyed it.
And so it's a little bit of a hack, a little bit of a brain hack.
So that's what I wanted to share with you today because I want to really hopefully impart that when you do these things that nourish you and nurture you on the deepest level and help you to take control of your mind, use it on purpose, right? Because you're choosing your thoughts throughout the course of the power pause, you're moving your body to keep it strong and healthy, you're breathing.
And then that way as you finish up the power pause, you decide who are you going back into your day? As who are you being? And that's truly what a purposeful powerhouse CEO does making yourself and your health a top priority and taking time for yourself even just a few minutes, so potent.
So impactful has a huge Roy because your energy affects everything and you are the number one asset in your business and in your life.
And so really taking that time for yourself is, is, is vital, not to mention the fact that stress is associated with every major chronic disease.
So probably should have said that first, you might have paid a little more attention, but no, we gotta save the big ones till the end.
Yeah, stress.
In addition to not being the high functioning area of the brain, other than being focused on survival, stress causes inflammation, it causes tension, it causes emotional upset, mental health issues, insomnia, pain, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.
So yeah, whatever you can do to take the lid off the boiling pot of stress, sometimes it is absolutely beneficial.
So that's all I have for you today.
Except for an invitation.
I would love for you to join us for a live power pause.
Come and check one out for yourself.
They're fun.
They're fast and they fit easily into your busy day in a way that works for you that helps you to come back to you.
So come and join us for a live power pause.
I'm gonna drop the link for you.
To book your session.
Complimentary session.
I want you to check it out.
And you know, the cool thing about them is, is they've actually been coined the adult recess time because they're that fun.
Turns out adults need recess too.
Oh, actually side note adults who play, which is what power pauses are about.
And you know, we're not going to be like playing board games or whatever.
We're just doing things that are fun and light and energizing and playful actually are more productive.
They're happier, they're nicer humans, they get more done.
They have higher functioning brains because play actually brings us back into the connected state of the nervous system that's really powerful to remember, right? Because it's always about doing things that are not only uplifting and invigorating, but also are really nourishing for your nervous system because that's running everything right? Running everything subtly inside of your body and in your life, truly.
So come join us for a live power pod session.
No yoga mat, no yoga pants needed totally fun, live interactive session.
Usually a combination of breath work and yoga and inspirational intentions and truly are the most effective way for you to stay in aligned energy.
So come and join us, experience one for yourself, love and in person virtually, of course, via the magic of zoom.
But we would love to come and have you join us and come and check out what's happening inside the power pause movement people who care so much about how they feel that they take time for themselves every day or as often as they can because we also have grace and we leave space for things that happen, right? So until next time, thank you so much for being part of this incredible community and for learning how to think and move and show up on purpose.
Take good care.
See you soon

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