Jeremy chuckled. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You’re always coming up with little life hacks to help people reduce their stress.” He picked up the paperweight on her desk and tossed it between his hands. She’d not seen him this wired about anything in a long time.
“This is exactly the sort of thing that could help to grow our reach,” he said.
“Grow our what?”
“Look, it’s just a daily thought from you. One thought; I know you have thousands to choose from. A two-minute hack — it could be a breathing exercise, a herbal tea blend to try.” He threw his hands up, nearly dropping the paperweight. “I don’t know, a bloody rain dance. Whatever. Just give it a try, will you?”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because it’d be better coming from you.” He shrugged. “You know it’ll be mainly women reading it, and they usually want to hear from a woman, don’t they?”
Catherine pinched her lips together.
“Go on. For me?” His brown eyes pleaded in the way that usually had her giving in to him.Oh, for Christ’s sake.
“Alright. Fine. But it had better not take up too much time; I’m already pressed as it is. And I can hardly see why we need to increase our…”
“Reach.”
“Yes, that.”
“Just trying to keep things fresh, Catherine. Alice thinks it’s a good idea too, don’t you, Alice?” Jeremy called out towards the door.
“Yep, whatever you say, boss,” Alice yelled back.
Catherine sighed.Two against one.
Despite her scepticism when Jeremy had suggested the blog, the following day she woke up buzzing with ideas and almost as excitable as he’d been when he was bouncing around her office. After a morning of meetings, she found herself in Snoots, snaffling her favourite corner table by the window. Armed with a pot of tea and a pen, she let her thoughts flow.
A lot of her clients were time-poor people, who struggled to squeeze a moment’s peace into their lives. They usually scoffed at her suggestions about meditation and yoga classes — nice in theory, but just another thing to add to the heavy pile already weighing them down. Perhaps if the time commitment were minutes, not hours,then they could create a little space for the calm they craved.
Mindfulness doesn’t need a mat; it needs a moment.She uncapped her pen and scribbled that down. That was it — her angle. A micro-blog of mindfulness moments; each post would be like a little pause.
Next, she brainstormed a list of names:
The Pocket-Pause? —too vague.
Zenlightenment? —too lofty.
The Daily Breath? —too frequent.
She stared into the distance, tapping her lip with the end of her pen. Her eyes widened as the perfect name presented itself —Om-the-Go.With a happy hum, she jotted it onto the page and crossed through the rejected candidates.
And with the premise formed, and the name decided, the ideas for content flowed from her pen.
Later that day, Catherine found herself eager to pitch her ideas back to Jeremy. This time, she was the one bouncing around his office.
“That all sounds great, but I don’t really understand the name.”
“Oh, Jeremy!Omis the sound of the universe…” She closed her eyes and hummed, “Ommm.” When she opened her eyes again, Jeremy stared at her with a blank expression.
Catherine called out for Alice, and seconds later their assistant’s blonde curls appeared around the doorway. “Alice, you know about Om, right?”
“Er, do you mean like,ommm?” Alice hummed.
“Yes, exactly.” Catherine smiled at the confused-looking woman and turned back to Jeremy. “But it’s more than just the sound. It’s about the vibration and breath. It’s tuning into an energy that’s bigger than ourselves.”
“Right… oohkay.” He bulged his eyes.
