The space between stimulus and response

Between every stimulus and your response, there is a space. Most of us never notice it: we react automatically, driven by habit, emotion or fear.

But that space is where your freedom lives.

Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps, wrote it: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response."

The practice of mindfulness is, at its core, the practice of widening that space. Every time you pause before reacting, even for a single breath, you reclaim your capacity to act.

Today's practice: The next time you feel triggered, stop. Take a breath. Notice the space. Choose.

If the trigger is an automatic phone check, apply the same pause to a concrete moment with the STOP method for phone distraction or the guide to stopping automatic phone checks.