Lingering in the Pause: Practicing Yutori in Daily Life {Neck Release Video}

As I write to you, I’m sitting at my desk facing the French windows that open out onto a damp, wet view. After a few balmy May days of unusually warm, sunny weather, the rains have come in. The trees glisten with dark bark and vibrant mint green leaves.

But for now, there’s a pause before the next downpour.

And I’m noticing the softness in nature that rests within this stillness, wondering, as I continue to write to you, whether I can stay within this pause.

Can I stay with the softness between one state and another?

If I’m faced with a task or project, I can easily go to my head, which often leads to overthinking or overanalysing. So I’m intentionally trying a different approach, seeing if I can write from a more grounded place of embodied presence and awareness.

As I settle more into my seat, leaning a little more inwards, a little more backwards and little more down, I can feel my heart and body respond.

For those who joined me in Blausee for a retreat last autumn or the online mindfulness workshop for leaders in Sweden, you may remember my invitation to explore Yutori – the beautiful Japanese concept of living with spaciousness.

I first heard about Yutori from Naomi Shihab Nye, one of my favourite poets, in conversation with Krista Tippett. She described Yutori as a mindful way of approaching daily life, allowing yourself time to be truly present and savor experiences.

Naomi shared, for example, that it’s leaving early enough to get somewhere so that you know you’re going to arrive early. When you get there, you have time to look around. You don’t rush to arrive early, you calculate enough time and space to arrive with ease.

Yutori is also the moment you linger after listening to a beautiful piece of music, finishing a good book, reading a poem that touched you deeply, or watching a film that moved you. It can hold you in its space. No need for words or interaction – simply being with what is.

It’s choosing to create small, quiet moments in your day to simply be, without doing, fixing, or making something happen. Being guided by your senses, absorbing the stillness. The beauty. Or simply noticing.

A Tiny Tutorial: A Neck Release Practice

With Yutori in mind, I’d love to share this short, simple and effective video practice with you, to help you move through your day with more ease. It’s under 2.5 minutes and something you can return to whenever you feel tension gathering in your neck.

This is one of those practices you can tuck into your back pocket and carry with you. Feel free to share it with family and friends, too.

I’d Love to Hear How It Lands

If you try the neck release, I’d be curious to hear how it felt for you.

And if you experience a Yutori moment, I’d welcome hearing about that too.

You can simply hit “reply” and offer a few words,. No pressure for depth or poetry (though those are always appreciated). A simple sentence or two from your moment of spaciousness is more than enough.

It’s always meaningful to hear how these practices and reflections are meeting you, wherever you are.

With warmth,

Karen x

PS If you’re interested, here is the full conversation between Naomi Shihab Nye and Krista Tippett.