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Pause Theory™️

@pausetheory

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a living study of pause.
a love practice🖤
ritual • writing • gathering
👂🏽: Pause Theory on Spotify or Apple
by @adjournteahouse @adjournwithtonia

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Pause Study 002: on sacred rage.

I broke my pause for a little while to be mad. Out loud. In public. 😂 And whew, I’m proud of myself!!

Love always to @jennsroberts for creating this brilliant story residency at the @coloredgirlslab + helping us love on each part of us. 💜✨

I’m learning that pause doesn’t always have to be soft or quiet. Sometimes it gives us enough room to hear what we’ve been swallowing.

I’m still grieving. I’m still mad. I’m still tender. I’m still becoming. I’m making room for all of me.

P.S. The Rebirth of @adjournteahouse is on the way. I’m taking my time with this one, love. Stay tuned. I miss y’all. by @pausetheory

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16 hours ago

“I forgive myself for NOT being perfect.”
- Beverly Smith (my mama) 😌

Seven words I recite in this PAUSE.
And lately, it’s the *NOT* I keep returning to.

A few years ago, my cousin @charmher engraved these words onto a wooden coaster for me. ✨

This is a mantra my mother repeated during her transition and made sure my sister @blair_ebonyyy and I carried with us.

As I grieve the closing of the studio. The loss of a pregnancy. The life and business I thought I’d have. Changes in my body, my energy, my capacity. All the things that shift as we age and live and lose and become.

So this morning, I’m saying it again…

“I forgive myself for not being the perfect…”
- business owner, wife, friend, sister, daughter, artist, steward of everything I’ve built and the perfect version of myself for me

I’m so grateful my mother left us these seven words before she passed.

And in my PAUSE this morning, I offer them to you as you begin your week:

“I forgive myself for NOT being perfect.”

Hopefully you have the day off today. Go enjoy some of it while being wonderfully, humanly imperfect.

(Okay, back to the pause. Love y’all.) by @pausetheory

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22 days ago

52 weeks. Four seasons.
One invitation: PAUSE + notice where you are. 🌿

The Root + Flow deck was created as a yearlong companion for intentional pause, divided into four seasons, each with its own tone, guiding words, witnessing prompts, and simple ways to embody pause.

Pull one card each week.
Sit with the prompt. Write to it.
Make something from it. Practice it.
Or forget the order entirely and choose the card that meets you where you are.

Because the truth is, our seasons don’t always arrive on schedule. And learning to care for ourselves means learning to listen for what we need now.

If you’ve been waiting for yours, this is a beautiful time to begin. 🖤 Link in bio 👆🏽 by @pausetheory

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25 days ago

Sometimes the PAUSE is quiet. Sometimes the PAUSE is shaking a little ass + remembering you’re alive! 🪩

Tomorrow night, we’re choosing the latter!
One last party at the TeaHOUSE. 🖤🪩

Many years of pours, pauses, playlists, experiments, gatherings, good people + a whole lot of becoming happened at Nicole Drive.

Tomorrow, we’re giving thanks with the volume turned UP!!

My sister DJ @blair_ebonyyy is curating the soundtrack + we’ll pass the aux cord, love. We’ll have a tea cocktail flowing. Bring a bottle + come ready to kick it!! Grab a ticket before hand or JUST SHOW UP…donations welcome at the door!

We’re dancing. Chilling. Reminiscing. Toasting to what this room held and calling in whatever comes next.

FAREWELL TeaHOUSE PARTY
SAT 8/22 | 8 PM–12 AM
4471 Nicole Drive, Lanham, MD

Grab a ticket in advance OR pull up and donate/pay at the door. I just want y’all in the room 🙏🏽✨

Come party at the TeaHOUSE one more time. 🖤 by @pausetheory

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a month ago

I am a student of TEA and PAUSE. ✨

I am also an intuitive tea blender which means I spend time learning about + selecting each ingredient before I blend.

I am exploring tea from a beautiful tea sampler I got from @seventeahouse777.

Part of my process for selecting base teas is to simply choose what I adore before adding any magic to it. This is my PAUSE.

I sit.
I smell.
I feel.
I sip.
I taste.

And, if I love what I feel, you’ll see this ingredient soon. by @pausetheory

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a month ago

Pausing with gratitude ✨ Can I tell you about my great day, love??!!

…because I deserved a juicy good day. Okay?!?
May it always be easy.
May it always be joyful.
May it always be loving.
May it always be bountiful.
May it always be FREE.

Asé. ✨
🎶 @blair_ebonyyy @bevandburns_ by @pausetheory

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2 months ago

Trying not to miss my life while I’m living it.
I refuse to.

Pause Theory: a study in noticing what’s still here.
There is so much life worth noticing.
Have you paused to notice lately?

🎶: @aleciarenece
🫖: @adjournteahouse by @pausetheory

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2 months ago

pause study / 001: grief + what remains

I’m allowing myself to be a student of grief + love. In many ways, I have been for my entire adult life. Both have shaped nearly two decades of my work, the way I gather people, the rituals I create, and the questions I keep returning to.

So, as part of my surrender, I’m going to spend the next year writing, studying pause, and documenting what shows up when I stop long enough to notice.

This is the first study, love.
I hope you’ll wander through.

xoLaTonia

Study companion: tulsi / holy basil 🌿

Traditionally used to support the body’s response to stress, tulsi is keeping me company as I study grief. tending to some of the tender, squeaky places in me, one cup at a time. by @pausetheory

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2 months ago

Our very first deck. Feel Flow 🌊

Before Root + Flow. Before @pausetheory had language. This was ME… feeling my way through it.

And baby, she still speaks.

I am worthy of love.
I am worthy of joy.
I am worthy of peace.
I am worthy of breath.
I am worthy of ease.
I am worthy of softness.
I am worthy of being held.
I am worthy of nourishment.
I am worthy of safety.
I am worthy of becoming.
I am worthy of it all.

Looking back at this deck, I feel so much pride. Not because it was perfect, but because it was honest…typos and ALL 😂. It was the beginning of me trusting what wanted to come through.

Adjourn has continued to evolve and stretch and deepen.

In May, we turn 7.
Seven years of tea.
Seven years of PAUSE.
Seven years of LOVE.

Can you believe it? 🥹🥹🥹
Song: @msjanehandcock ❤️ taken in Adjourn Teahouse by @pausetheory

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5 months ago

Hey love, I’m LaTonia 💕Tea alchemist, curator, artist, and the hands + soul behind Adjourn.

I went back and forth about posting these intimate photos from my little PAUSE, because to me, PAUSE is SIMPLE. Sustainable. Something you can do anywhere!

But there is also something beautiful about pausing safely in community with loved ones.

My bestie @sunshinearnold11 invited me to Roatán, Honduras, and for a few days. Sun on our skin. Salt water. No rushing EVER!! ☀️

I stepped away from the studio, the emails, the orders, and got quiet enough to ask myself, WHO am I in this season?

This trip did not give me all the answers, but it gave me space to hear myself again…to slow down and SEE. To FEEL.

Now, you do NOT have to go to Roatán to pause. This is just what it looked like for me last week!

Sharing a little of it with you.
Pause intentionally.

PS. That little monkey scared the #%?! Out of me lol 😂 by @pausetheory

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5 months ago

If you do NOTHING else today…

Just PAUSE.
Stop. For just a moment.
Sit in the sun.
Silence the noise.
Sip some tea.
Intentionally 💕

xoLaTonia by @pausetheory

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6 months ago

I welcome PAUSE freely and without hesitation.
Today, I’m not doing a THANG except what makes my body feel calm. Relaxed. Nourished.

Slow cooking breakfast.
Slow nail painting.
Slow walking. Slow reading.
Slow loving. Slo breathing.

Errythang feels like it needs to settle under this blanket of rain. Grateful!

Take some time to PAUSE intentionally today, love! ❤️ by @pausetheory

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6 months ago