To interrupt a pattern is to stop a process of thinking, languaging, acting, moving, breathing, etc. And when you get interrupted, it opens up a space that then allows you to do something different. This gives us the chance to change our program and to develop a new and more empowering habit.

We quickly recognize the value of having numerous ways to interrupt old patterns, especially patterns of stress and distress. We have all kinds of skills, abilities, and understandings about how to relax and how to reduce stress. Unless we stop a stress state, all of our knowledge will prove useless. And, with a way to jar and interrupt a state or an old stress program, we can then shift our attention, languaging, breathing, posture, etc. so that it gives us access—instantly—to a state of relaxation.

Frequently the stressful states arise, not instantaneously, but slowly and gradually. They build up. The negative thoughts evoke more negative thoughts. The negative and unproductive ways of coping and responding evoke even more of the same. In this way, the stress state builds up to a threshold. The value of this lies in the fact that the sooner we can catch ourselves in this process, we can interrupt it. In fact, the sooner we catch the direction, the sooner and easier we can gently nudge it into a more productive direction.

Yet, conversely, the further along the distress process, the more intense and radical must be the way we interrupt it. As the stress state becomes stronger, the more difficult it will usually become to interrupt it.