Welcome to the Small Pause Blog

Even when something in us is asking to stop. For a long time, I thought my tiredness meant I was failing at something and that there was something fundamentally ‘wrong’ with me. I was broken. It led me to believe that I wasn’t: Disciplined enough. Motivated enough. Optimized enough. Passionate enough. So I tried harder.

I looked closely at my choices, habits, and how I acted when things got tough. I kept thinking something was wrong with me. One night, I sat alone in my dim apartment, surrounded by self-help books I hadn't opened yet. The quiet of the room felt overwhelming, and I couldn't stop thinking that everyone else had life figured out except me. I believed that if I could just be more disciplined, motivated, or organized, then things would finally fall into place.

You might notice burnout as persistent tiredness, reduced motivation, increased irritability, or a sense that something isn’t right. You may find yourself asking, “What’s wrong with me?” or wonder why things that used to be easy now feel difficult. So many people, when faced with this obstacle, feel ashamed when this happens and start to doubt their strength or value. Realizing these feelings are a normal reaction to long-term stress can help you feel less alone and more u

For anyone who lives through dark winters and long stretches of grey skies, you know the feeling. When sunlight fades and rain or snow becomes the daily rhythm, something inside us shifts, too.

I woke up this morning a few weeks out from my 55th birthday— a mixture of gratitude and disbelief. 55 years. How did that happen? It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating my 30th birthday, full of ambition and certainty about the path ahead. Now I find myself at this curious juncture, not quite old but definitely no longer young, wondering how the pages of my life’s calendar turned so quickly when I wasn’t looking. Was I really that distracted? Or did I live every mome

As you look around, you see folks tethered to their screens, creating the illusion of an expanded world full of 'connection' when all they are connected to is the small screen in front of them. Engineers who understand human nervous systems create algorithms that silently work in the background to keep your dopamine hits flowing and create addictions and disconnect. There is an app for everything, and we are being corralled into using them for even basic daily tasks. First,