PAUSE: The Prayer that Needs no Answer©

The Novel

There exists within everyone the potential to experience a state of comfort, peace, and happiness. The attainment of this state takes us beyond our accomplishments, beyond all longing, beyond even the identification with self.  This is what we achieve when we PAUSE.

Lara stands frozen at the threshold of a dark reality; her husband, tormented by a devastating mental illness, slides deeper and deeper into a well of insanity.  With her life threatened, her world shattered, and her carefully constructed coping skills slipping away, her path converges with Dr. Elwood, a brilliant, charismatic, yet inscrutable University Professor.  He teaches five powerful Resource States that shaped not only his life, but the lives of every student who ever sat in his classroom.

From Dr. Elwood: “How can we know ourselves completely?  How can we know anyone?  There is a gap between how we see ourselves and who we actually are.  That gap is filled with genetic patterning, core personality, trauma, and developmental wounding.  The gap acts as a filter to what we let in, and a filter to what we let out.  It creates unconscious obstacles to well-being, success, and a faulty perception of who anyone is!

If we cannot recognize what keeps us from seeing others clearly, it is difficult – if not impossible – to fully know ourselves.  It is like looking at the world through the dark and narrow lens of a welding helmet.  Imagine what that must feel like.  Our heavy mask shields us from the light.  No one sees our real face.  Without perceiving what lies deeper, we can only live on the surface of our lives, are only drawn to the bright and shiny, and can only know narrow paths filled with illusions and distractions.  The MASK does not reveal the truth of who others are, and certainly not the truth of who we are!”

Applying Dr. Elwood’s PAUSE Model completely changed Lara’s life.  She was at the end of her ability to cope, felt completely victimized, and lacked the necessary resources to move forward.  He taught her to see herself and others differently.  It wasn’t easy, but she learned to change her state of mind, open her heart, and contacted the Essence of who she was.  Dr. Elwood taught Lara that she had a choice to make – not just once, but in every moment of her life.  She took off her mask and chose Love.

Lara’s experience before she met her mentor could be anyone’s.  When you can’t walk away from the suffering, when the strength you developed to that point is not enough, when frustration and hopelessness seem to rule each day – there has to be a better way.  Embodied within the PAUSE Model of Counseling™ are the tools that enable us to contact the power and happiness of our natural state.  PAUSE, The Prayer That Needs No Answer© describes one person’s path of uncovering a better way.

The five Resource States of PAUSE as taught by Dr. Elwood, include:

P-Present uncovers how we resist the natural flow of health and well-being in our bodies.

• It provides a practical application of Character Analysis, inspired by the works of psychiatrists Wilhelm Reich and John Pierrakos.

A-Aware Witness identifies and addresses the personality patterns contributing to most of our challenges and frustrations.

• The many authors of the Enneagram influence our teaching of the Aware Witness. 

U-Unified Self  supports us in integrating the various apparently separated aspects of ourselves to deeply increase our resources in the present.

• Based on the research of leaders in the field of neuroscience and trauma resolution, a unified, coherent sense of self generates feelings of confidence, self-esteem, and productivity.
  

S-Surrender invites us to confront unconscious patterns of resistance and projection that obscure the underlying lesson life offers.  Our biggest growth occurs here.

• Based on the timeless wisdom of A Course in Miracles, resistance and projection are transformed into a bridge creating an abiding connection to our true nature.  The lessons our personal curriculum teaches us leads us to understanding, forgiveness, and peace.

E-Evoke Essence aligns us with the ultimate resource, the part of us that reflects the highest and best aspects of ourselves, which we call the Essential Self.

• Grounded in consistent, reliable resources, the individual’s path to wholeness becomes clear, with Comfort, Gratitude, and Joy as our guides.

The books, “PAUSE, The Prayer That Needs No Answer^©” and “Allowing The Magic©” are expected to be published in 2015.

New Vistas International™, the New Vistas International™ logo, Mastering the Therapeutic Process™,  The PAUSE Model of Counseling™, The PAUSE Model of Hypnotherapy™, Hypno-Workout™, and PAUSE the Prayer that Needs no Answer™, are trademarks of New Vistas International, LLC, and are based on the five Resource States of PAUSE.