I can’t tell you how many times I have practised the pause; not because it always comes naturally but because without it, I am not the version of myself I want to offer the world.
In the rush of a busy end of term, the overwhelm of a new one, and the blur of everything in between, there are moments when the words that leave my mouth don’t sound the way they did in my head.
They come out sharper, or heavier, or simply wrong. They land in ways I never intended. They aren’t as kind as I hoped they’d be.
The pause protects me, yes, but it also protects the people I’m trying to care for.
It is self-preservation and self-regulation.
A tiny moment of choosing who I want to be, before I choose what I want to say. Whether we realise it or not, we are modelling it every day.
To the young people we love.
To the colleagues we lean on.
To the communities we hold in all their complexity.
We teach them far more by how we move through the world, than by any advice we give. A culture of belonging, empathy, trust, inclusion; it isn’t built on perfect responses.
It isn’t the absence of mistakes.
It’s the safety to make them, repair them, learn from them, and not lose yourself along the way.
Day 2 is simple:
Pause. Just for a breath. Long enough to return to yourself, before you return to others. That tiny moment can change everything. ☃️
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