What if took a moment or two...just for you?

Have you noticed it yet? That feeling that time is both racing ahead and running out all at once?

We're in that stretch now...you know the one...where the holidays are approaching and the year-end is looming. The to-do lists are multiplying and so much needs to get done. The world feels heavy, and yet we're supposed to somehow summon “holiday spirit” while it all swirls around us.

And in the middle of all this doing, when we finally stop for a moment to catch our breath? We often feel guilty.

We call ourselves lazy. Unproductive. Behind.

Here’s the part we tend to forget: pausing gives us a moment to feel like ourselves again. And that's something we deserve far more often than we allow.

In all this rushing around, trying to do all the things, we forget that calm doesn’t show up because we muscled through the list. It shows up when we give ourselves a tiny break from the hustle, even for a moment.

So this week, I’m not asking you to do more. I’m inviting you to pause.

Your Invitation This Week: Practice Pausing

Here are three pauses to try this week:

• The Permission Pause: Give yourself sixty full seconds to stop doing, fixing, planning, or managing. Just breathe. Let your shoulders fall away from your ears. Call it what it is: a moment to reset your mind, body and spirit. It's NOT a moment of slacking.
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• The Presence Pocket: Find a tiny pocket of your day—waiting for your tea or coffee, sitting at a red light, standing in line—and treat it as a built-in pause. Instead of reaching for your phone, place a hand on your chest or belly and take three slow breaths.
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• The Coloring (or Doodling) Reset: Pick up any pen, marker, crayon (whatever’s nearby) and spend five minutes coloring a small section or doodling something simple. No need for perfect lines and no goal either. Just your hand moving and your mind unwinding.

Here’s the Thing About Coloring…

It’s one of the easiest ways I know to slow my mind down. To stop the spinning. To just… be. And if you’re looking for easy ways to bring more of these moments into your week (or gift them to someone who needs it!), I’ve got you:

• Pocket Editions: 4x6 coloring books...small enough to tuck in your bag, keep on your desk, or slip in a stocking. Portable permission to pause, wherever you are.
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• Digital Coloring Packs: Download, print, and color whenever the urge strikes. No waiting, no shipping. Just instant calm.
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• Custom Coloring Pages: Want something unique? Send me a photo and I’ll turn it into a custom coloring page—your own one-of-a-kind pause.

Before you go...let's be honest with each other for just a moment...

The holidays will happen whether you rest or not. The year will end whether you’re present for it or not. But you get to choose how you move through it.

You can arrive at 2026 frazzled and burnt out. Or you can arrive knowing you chose yourself in small, steady moments along the way—even if it was just 60 seconds, just a few breaths, or a few strokes of color.

This season, while you’re giving to everyone else, don’t forget: you deserve the gift of your own time...doing something just for fun, just for you.

Sending love and calm vibes, Chris

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