Pressing the Pause Button
Amelia’s Story of Learning to Take a Break
Amelia was the kind of woman who could keep everything running. At work, she was the one colleagues trusted to meet deadlines, lead projects, and fix problems when others were stuck. At home, she managed the family calendar, helped with school projects, made sure meals were on the table, and still found time to check in on her parents.
To everyone else, Amelia seemed unstoppable. She was the picture of balance: professional, organised, and endlessly reliable. But what others couldn’t see was the toll it was taking on her.
Behind the polished exterior, Amelia was exhausted.
The Weight of Doing It All
Like many women, Amelia had grown up with the quiet expectation that she had to be everything to everyone: dependable at work, nurturing at home, and always ready to step in where others couldn’t. If she said no, guilt crept in. If she slowed down, she felt she was letting someone down
It wasn’t unusual for Amelia to answer emails while stirring a pot of pasta, fold laundry while on a call with a colleague, or stay up late finishing reports after her children were in bed. She told herself she was strong enough to handle it. After all, she always had.
But recently, her strength was faltering.
The Warning Signs
Amelia began noticing things she would have once brushed off.
Mental fog: She found herself reading the same sentence three times before it sank in.
Emotional reactivity: A small mistake at work left her in tears. At home, her patience with her children was thinner than she wanted it to be.
Physical strain: Tension built up in her shoulders and jaw. She often had headaches and her breathing felt shallow.
Decision fatigue: Even choosing what to make for dinner seemed overwhelming some days.
These weren’t just bad days — they were warning signals. But Amelia kept pushing forward, convinced she didn’t have the luxury of stopping.
Enter Coaching
It was Amelia’s manager who first suggested coaching. She resisted at first. “I don’t have time for that,” she said. But eventually, she agreed, curious about whether it might help.
Her first session felt strange. Instead of being asked what she could do, the coach asked questions about how she was feeling. Amelia wasn’t used to talking about herself — not this way.
Her coach asked, “What happens in your body when you’re under pressure?” Amelia paused, then admitted she often clenched her jaw and felt her heart race. “And what happens when you give yourself even a small moment to stop?”
She didn’t know how to answer. She rarely gave herself that moment.
That question stuck with her long after the session ended.
The First Pause
A few days later, Amelia sat at her desk staring at a spreadsheet that blurred before her eyes. She thought back to what her coach had asked. Almost instinctively, she pushed her chair back, closed her eyes, and took a slow, deep breath. Four counts in, hold, four counts out. She repeated the cycle three times.
When she opened her eyes, nothing had changed on the screen — but something inside her had shifted. Her body felt lighter. Her shoulders dropped. She was calmer.
It was the first time in a long time she had given herself permission to pause.
Small Shifts, Big Differences
In her next coaching session, Amelia shared the experience. Her coach smiled and encouraged her to build more of these micro-pauses into her day. They worked together on strategies she could use in real time:
Breathing pauses between meetings.
Mental detachment in difficult conversations, observing instead of reacting immediately.
Small rituals like sipping tea slowly, stretching at her desk, or stepping outside for fresh air.
At first, Amelia worried these pauses were indulgent. But as she practiced them, she noticed the benefits:
Her focus returned more quickly.
She responded to colleagues with more patience.
She had energy left at the end of the day to talk with her children rather than snapping at them.
She began to understand that pressing pause wasn’t laziness — it was an act of self-respect.
The Wider Lesson
Through coaching, Amelia also discovered she wasn’t alone. Other women she spoke to shared similar stories:
A nurse friend paused for a deep breath between patients in the emergency ward.
A fellow parent admitted she sat in her car after the school run for three mindful breaths before driving on.
A writer she admired confessed that making tea was often the pause that helped unlock her creativity.
These stories reassured Amelia that pausing wasn’t selfish or weak — it was necessary. Women, in particular, often carried invisible loads, and pressing pause was a way to carry them more sustainably.
Building Real Breaks
The more Amelia embraced small pauses, the more she saw the need for longer, genuine breaks. Coaching helped her challenge the guilt she felt about stepping back.
She began blocking time in her calendar for lunch away from her laptop. She created boundaries at home by putting her phone aside during dinner. She prioritised sleep, something she had neglected for years.
Her coach reminded her: “A pause isn’t about stepping away from responsibility. It’s about making sure you can meet your responsibilities with clarity, not exhaustion.”
That shift in mindset changed everything.
How Coaching Made the Difference
Without coaching, Amelia might have continued pushing until she burned out completely. Coaching gave her three crucial things:
Awareness – She learned to listen to her body’s signals instead of ignoring them.
Strategies – She discovered practical ways to pause, even in the busiest moments.
Permission – Perhaps most importantly, she stopped feeling guilty for taking care of herself.
Through the process, Amelia reclaimed balance. She became more present at work and at home. Her colleagues noticed her calm under pressure. Her children noticed her laughter returning at the dinner table. And Amelia herself noticed she no longer felt like she was barely keeping up.
Amelia’s Lesson
Amelia’s story is one many women will recognise: the struggle to do it all, the guilt of slowing down, the cost of ignoring your own needs.
But her story is also a reminder that change is possible. By pressing pause — in small ways and bigger ones — Amelia discovered strength she didn’t know she had. Coaching helped her see that taking a break wasn’t about falling behind. It was about moving forward with clarity, resilience, and joy.
In the end, Amelia learned the most important lesson of all:
Pressing pause isn’t stepping back from life. It’s stepping more fully into it.