The Lost Art Of Pausing: Why July Might Be The Perfect Time To Stop Doing And Start Reflecting
By Dr. Veronica Dumas, Psy.D. | Miami Shores Living Article
Published on 7/12/26
July in Miami feels very different than other months. Schools are out, kids are in summer camp, traffic seems a bit more manageable, and friends are coming and going from their vacations. The longer days and slower rhythm brings with it a quiet awareness that we’ve crossed the halfway point of the year. While January arrives with resolutions and promises to ourselves and others, July offers an invitation to pause and ask ourselves a simple question: how am I doing?
As a psychologist, I work with people every day, who are exhausted from doing too much and stopping too little. We live in a culture that celebrates productivity, rewards busyness, and equates constant doing with success. The result is that many of us move from task to task without ever giving our mind a break, or the opportunity to reflect or simply wonder. And this is something our brains desperately need.
The Disappearing Pause
Can you remember the last time you stood in line without reaching for your phone? Or sat on your porch or your backyard without answering emails? Most moments that were once quiet, have been hijacked by constant stimulation.
Research at UC Irvine found that people now average just 47 seconds of focus on a screen before switching. This is down from two and a half minutes in 2004. After even a single interruption, it takes over 23 minutes to fully regain that focus. Every notification accepted, every tab switched, every scroll one focuses on, is training the brain to expect constant novelty — and making deep focus harder to return to each time.
Overtime, all of that switching makes it harder to focus deeply, to tolerate stillness, and to engage in sustained thought. In other words, many of us have forgotten how to be bored. And that, it turns out, may be a serious problem.
Why Boredom Is Good For Your Brain
Parents are very familiar with the all too annoying phrase: “Mom, I’m bored”. We’ve treated boredom as something to eliminate as quickly as possible. But boredom isn’t the enemy at all. In fact, it may be one of the most undervalued mental states we can be in.
When the brain is not actively focused on a task, it activates what neuroscientists call the default mode network, a distributed system of brain regions associated with self-reflection, imagination, memory consolidation, and creative thinking.
Research at the University of Utah, has even demonstrated that disrupting the default mode network through direct brain stimulation, limits our ability to generate original, divergent ideas, suggesting that creativity isn’t just enhanced by mental rest, it may actually depend on it.
When we don’t have much external stimulation, the brain starts generating its own ideas, forming new connections between memories, experiences, and thoughts that don’t normally interact when we’re busy. So those brilliant ideas you come up with when you are in the shower, it's not a coincidence, it’s actually neuroscience.
Boredom helps us develop:
Creativity and imagination
Problem-solving skills
Self-awareness
Independent thinking
Emotional regulation
The Case For a Summer Novel
When was the last time you read purely for pleasure? Read just because you wanted to.
One of the simplest and most research supported ways to give your mind a real break is to pick up a novel this summer. Reading engages the brain very differently than scrolling. Social media constantly fractures our attention. Every swipe is a new stimulation, a new micro-decision. Short format video engages our brain in a way that is very disruptive. Reading asks the opposite of us. We need to stay with one story, one set of characters, one unfolding world.
The benefits are striking: research from the Mindlab International in collaboration with the University of Sussex, found that reading for just six minutes reduces stress levels by 68%, making it even more effective than listening to music, taking a walk, or having a cup of tea. The study showed participants had a decrease in heart rate and muscle tension, suggesting a calmer physiological state after reading,
Reading also appears to strengthen empathy and perspective-taking. Research at the New School in New York City found that literary fiction improves readers’ ability to understand what others are thinking and feeling, a skill that if you spend any time on social media lately, seems like it could use some reinforcement.
A beach novel may not seem productive, but perhaps that’s exactly the point: productivity isn’t always the goal. Sometimes the best prescription for a restorative summer is just being fully in the moment, with a wonderful easy to read novel and an attitude of dolce far niente.
July The Mid-Year Pause
I often encourage clients to think of July as a natural checkpoint, a time to breathe. If January serves to set up the goals for the year, July may serve as a point to ask ourselves: what have I learned so far?
And instead of immediately generating new goals or pivoting on old ones, this is a month for quieter reflection.
Questions worth sitting with in July:
What has gone well this year that I haven’t yet fully appreciated?
What challenge taught me the most this year so far?
What am I still carrying that I need to let go of this year?
Which relationships deserve more of my attention?
How do I want the second half of this year to feel?
Notice that these questions are less about achievement and more about awareness. Because meaningful change rarely begins with doing more, but rather with having more clarity of thought, and actions that naturally unfold with greater self-awareness.
A Summer Challenge
This month instead of adding something to your endless to-do list, try subtracting something.
Week One- 1 hour unplugged: Leave your phone inside and go for a walk. Sit outside and notice what comes up in the quiet spaces.
Week Two-½ a day unplugged: Try spending a half-day without social media or any unnecessary technology. Take it a step further and turn off your phone for an afternoon.
Week Three- read for pleasure: Pick up a novel, a memoir, any book you’ve been meaning to read for years. Get lost in it.
Week Four- reflect: Pick up a journal, find a quiet place, sit and wait to see what comes up, write without a goal.
A Final Thought
Perhaps the greatest luxury available to us right now isn’t another vacation or another accomplishment. Perhaps the greatest luxury is a PAUSE. A chance to hear your own thoughts, to pay attention to the humming of birds or to remember what summer actually means. An invitation to sit in the middle of the year, halfway through and ask ourselves: who am I becoming?
The second half of the year is full of possibilities, but for now, let's just take a PAUSE.
