The Power of the Pause: A Gift for the New Year

During Rosh Hashanah, we are accustomed to looking back on the year that has passed, reflecting on it, and opening a new chapter.

But when living with trauma, the idea of “starting over” can sometimes feel like a demand to ignore what happened - as though the past could simply be erased with the push of a button.

In yoga, we learn that true renewal does not mean erasing the past, but changing our relationship with it. Just as the breath on the mat does not try to eliminate the air that has left our lungs, but instead makes space for new oxygen to enter, emotional healing also

requires us to first become willing to let go.

This release begins with recognizing the patterns that no longer serve us. The protective mechanisms that accompanied us through difficult moments; the contraction, constant vigilance, withdrawal, or need for complete control - may have been essential to our survival in the past. But as time passes, those very same mechanisms can become the chains that keep us bound to our bodies and our memories.

Through practice and reconnecting with the breath, we learn to notice the contraction in the body as it arises, to observe it with compassion, and to choose to soften and release it, little by little.

A Moment to Reflect: The Pause

Rosh Hashanah is also known as Yom Teruah, the Day of Sounding the Shofar - a day characterized by the sound of the shofar, whose calls are made up of breaks and pauses.

In yoga practice, one of the most powerful spaces is the pause between breaths (Kumbhaka), because this is where we practice developing greater awareness of the mind and regulating our responses - a practice that can directly support us during moments of overwhelm in everyday life.

Interestingly, for many of us, it is much easier to hold the breath when the lungs are full. Holding the breath after the air has completely left, however, can often stir a sense of unease. The reason lies in attachment: when the air is inside us, we feel “full” and in control. In contrast, pausing when the air is gone asks us to encounter complete release - to encounter emptiness. And this is precisely the place that can frighten us.

True growth and healing do not happen through forceful holding on, but through our ability to remain present within that emptiness, to quiet the mind in the space between the past and the future, and to discover that even when we completely let go, the body and spirit know how to breathe again.

As you sit around the holiday table this year, remember that growth is not a linear journey made up of one victory after another. It is completely okay to arrive at the beginning of a new year with a heart and mind that are still carrying a burden.

Renewal is the willingness to meet ourselves exactly as we are in this moment - with all our fluctuations, sensitivities, and pain, and to trust that the body and spirit carry a natural capacity to heal.

Wishing you a year of deep breaths, of gradually releasing the weight of the past, and of discovering the inner stillness from which new hope can grow ॐ