🕊️ Pause & Pray: When your nervous system needs joy again

🕊️ Pause & Pray: When your nervous system needs joy again

(A gentle reset for tired hearts — faith + mental health)

Take a slow breath in.
Let it out longer than you breathe it in.
Unclench your jaw. Drop your shoulders.
Place a hand over your heart and whisper: “I’m allowed to enjoy something.”

Sometimes healing doesn’t start with deep processing.
Sometimes healing starts with play—with lightness, creativity, and a moment where your body remembers: I am safe enough to smile.

If you’ve been carrying a lot, play can feel silly… or even selfish.
But tired heart, hear this: joy is not a luxury.
Joy is a nervous-system medicine.
Joy is part of restoration.

A 60-second play reset

For one minute, do something tiny and playful:

sway to one song

doodle a few shapes

step outside and look for something beautiful

make your coffee or tea like it’s a small gift

watch a funny clip (one only)

dance for 30 seconds in the kitchen

color one corner of a page

While you do it, breathe slowly and repeat:
“God, meet me here.”

Scripture to hold

“A joyful heart is good medicine…”
— Proverbs 17:22

Prayer

Jesus, I’ve been so serious.
So responsible.
So focused on surviving and helping everyone else.

Today I’m asking for permission—
not from people, but from You—
to receive a moment of lightness without guilt.

Restore what stress has drained.
Soften what trauma has tightened.
Teach my body that joy can be safe.
Teach my heart that laughter can be holy.

If all I can handle is a tiny spark,
then bless the tiny spark.
Grow it gently.

Thank You that You are not only with me in the hard—
You are with me in the healing too.
Even in the play.

Amen.

Tiny step for today

Choose one playful thing and schedule it like it matters (because it does):
10 minutes of play at: _____________ (time)

And when guilt tries to interrupt, answer it with truth:
“Joy is part of my healing.”

"💗 With love and grace,

Jennifer Nicole Green, NP-C
Founder of Lolli Love — Faith-rooted, trauma-informed well-being for tired hearts."