Permission to PAUSE: Set 1

These cards are not tasks or to-do lists.

They’re permission slips—tiny doorways into calmness, clarity, connection, and self-trust.

Each card offers small anchors:
– a peaceful image from nature
– a soothing or strengthening affirmation
– a gentle grounding action you can take right now
– an optional journal prompt/reflective question, if you’d like to go deeper

You don’t need to use them perfectly.

You don’t need to do all the steps.

Let your body, your nervous system, your intuition guide you.

There is no “right” way.

There is only this moment—and whether you’d like to soften into it, or rise more steadily from it.

**Visit FranLaff.com/PAUSE to see all sets and lists of card names in each set**

Ways to Use These Cards:

• Draw one each morning as a soft intention or centering moment.
• Pull one during overwhelm to interrupt spiraling thoughts with a grounding action.
• Use them in journaling—copy the affirmation, respond to the prompt, or simply write what comes.
• Make a small safe haven shelf or mood board with your favorites.
• Use them in therapy or healing work, as prompts for somatic reflection or nervous system support.
• Take one outside with you, and look for something that reminds you of that image in the world around you.
• Collect the ones that resonate into your own custom set of reminders.
• Share them with a friend who might need a moment of peace too.

These are not performance tools.
They’re not about improvement.
They’re about returning—to yourself, to your senses, to the ground beneath you, to the part of you that’s already whole.
Wherever you are in your day, this is your permission to pause.
To breathe.
To feel.
To just BE here.