PRACTICE WITH US
Real people.
Room for you.
What is Pause?
We’re a space, a practice, a community, and a movement helping people slow down, connect, and make room for what matters.
You don’t have to do this alone.
We are not an app.
We’re real people, practicing together. Live teachers, shared conversations, and room for the joys and struggles of being human.
We are universal.
We draw from ancient wisdom and modern science. You can practice with us whatever your beliefs or background.
We are legit.
Our teaching is grounded in MBSR, research, and years of personal practice. We bring that foundation into everyday life through The Pause Method®.
You are welcome here.
You don’t need experience or a calm mind to begin. Bring your whole self. There’s room for you here.
OUR MISSION
To help people make space for what matters and reconnect with their own inner wisdom, in service of a more present, loving, and resilient world.
OUR VISION
A world where presence, love, respect, and wholeness shape how we live together. It begins in this moment.
OUR GUIDING VALUES
Authenticity. Courage. Simplicity. Belonging. Playfulness. Open-Hearted Presence.
For us, this means showing up honestly, meeting ourselves and each other with care, and making room for the hard things as well as the joy. It means keeping the practice simple, returning over and over to what we know truly serves us when we forget, and, most importantly, remembering that we need each other.
Small moments, many times.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND PAUSE
Our team.
FOUNDERS & LEAD TEACHERS
Ryan James Kenny
Ryan brings compassionate presence, curiosity, and humor to his teaching, drawing on years of supporting people through difficult moments.
Rena Satre Meloy
Cofounder · MBSR teacher
Rena is a mindfulness teacher, artist, writer, and designer. She brings warmth and creativity to the community. Her favorite place to meditate is in the sunshine.
Xochilt Hoover
Teacher & guide · MBSR & yoga
Xochilt brings movement, meditation, and breath together with clarity and heart. Accessibility and representation are central to her teaching.
Ryan is a licensed clinical social worker and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher. He brings compassionate presence, curiosity, and humor to his teaching, drawing on years of supporting people through difficult moments.
Rena founded Pause with Ryan in 2015 to help people find a greater sense of peace within themselves. As a striving A-type and a lifelong overachiever, Rena leaned into meditation as a source of healing and a way to find greater balance and ease.
Xochilt is a dedicated movement and mindfulness facilitator committed to empowering students to navigate life with greater clarity, resilience, and heart.
Her teaching is deeply informed by her commitment to evidence-based practice: she is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher trained through Brown University and holds over 500 hours of specialized yoga training, covering trauma-informed mindfulness, anatomy, mobility, subtle body, and yin, giving her a unique, holistic perspective on the mind-body connection. This deep experience has allowed her to teach on a global stage, notably as a Nike Global Yoga Instructor featured on the Nike Training Club app.
Being of mixed race and Nicaraguan heritage, Xochilt believes that representation in the yoga and wellness industry is vital for our collective well-being and is central to her work.
When not on the mat or cushion, you can find Xochilt enjoying quality time with her husband and her dog, Griffey, spending time in her garden, or enjoying a competitive game of pickleball with friends.
A former Buddhist monk, David Sudar completed an intensive 21 month Vipassana meditation retreat in Myanmar with his core teacher, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and continues to spend 1-2 months a year on silent retreat. He currently works as a meditation & Buddhist teacher, regularly teaching with the 10% Happier App, Pause Meditation & the Path of Sincerity Sangha.
David also holds a B.A. in Psychology, has completed a two-year training in Hakomi Mindfulness-Based Somatic Psychotherapy, and often weaves into his teaching his studies of Zen Buddhism, Classical Yoga, and over 4 years spent across 25+ countries. In both his work and personal life, his great passion is integrating ancient wisdom traditions with the realities of modern life.
Amy Kisei is an authorized Zen teacher, spiritual counselor and mindfulness instructor. She has been practicing meditation for almost 20 years. Kisei has 12 years of monastic training and teaching experience from Great Vow Zen Monastery, and holds a BS in Earth Science and Gender Studies. She is trained in Mindful Eating through the University of California San Diego. In her spiritual counseling practice Kisei utilizes the tools of meditation/mindfulness, dream-work, process art and ceremony to help people in their healing & awakening process. She is passionate about bringing the practices of meditation/mindfulness into environmental justice & climate grief work.
GUEST TEACHERS & COLLABORATORS
David Sudar
Buddhist teacher & guide
A former Buddhist monk, David brings deep retreat experience and a passion for integrating ancient wisdom into modern life.
Amy Kisei Costenbader
Zen teacher & spiritual counselor
Kisei brings years of monastic practice and teaching, with a love of creativity and a commitment to our relationship with the natural world.
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
What pausing feels like.
“…a place of peace and pause and depth…”
J.K. · Pause member · excerpt
“My nervous system appreciates you guys. Thanks!”
Tyler
“…learning more and more who I really am and want to be.”
Beth · excerpt
“…will instantly make you feel like you belong in this community.”
Pause member · excerpt
“…a steady sustenance, taken three times weekly to retune my mind and refresh my soul.”
Ed · Longtime Pause member · excerpt
“The almost daily meditation online has been such a welcome anchor for me. Thanks for your humanity and sweet presence.”
Faye
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OUR STORY
One pause led to another.
A serendipitous meeting. A shared practice. A community that keeps growing.
2013 · NICARAGUA
A serendipitous meeting.
We met on a beach in Nicaragua. A shared love of adventure and mindfulness became a partnership, and a new life together in Portland.
2015 · PORTLAND
Pause begins.
We knew burnout firsthand. Mindfulness helped us find our way back to what mattered. We started Pause to share that practice with others.
THE EARLY DAYS
A pause sets things in motion.
We chose the name Pause because it inspired us. As we practiced it in everyday life and shared it with others, it became the heart of our mission and everything we offered. What began as a name held the seeds of a movement.
PARKS AROUND PORTLAND
A studio in a duffel bag.
When the weather was good, we bounced between Portland parks, toting yoga mats and cushions in a giant duffel bag. We found a patch of grass, spread out, and practiced together.
BORROWED SPACES
Space, generously shared.
Through the generosity of friends and colleagues, we landed in J. Pepin Art gallery, 220 Studio, and other community spaces around Portland. People made room for Pause, and we kept finding ways to gather.
JANUARY 2020 · PAUSE STUDIO
A new place to gather.
After years of building community, we opened Pause Studio. A room full of cushions, big windows, and space to slow down together. It felt like coming home.
PAUSE STUDIO
A community comes to life.
The room filled with people making time to pause together. The community we had carried from place to place was flourishing in a home of its own.
2020 · ONLINE
A new way to gather.
Then, just two months after opening, the pandemic closed the studio. We found each other again on Zoom, joined by people from near and far. The space changed. The care and connection stayed.
FAMILY · LOOKING AHEAD
The world we’re practicing for.
As parents of two young children, this work has become even more personal. We want them to know that a kinder, more connected world is possible, and that we all have a part in creating it. We’re learning alongside them, one small pause at a time.
TODAY · GOING AND GROWING STRONG!
Still practicing, together.
Pause now supports people and workplaces in bringing mindfulness into everyday life. We’re still practicing what we teach: making space to be human, and coming home to what matters most.
Most of us are so preoccupied with the noise, the uproar, the cacophony of the modern world that we have no energy left for constructive living.
We long to pause, to absorb into our day-to-day existence, some calmness, some inner order in which we can call our soul our own, in which we take time to experience some beauty, to know and enjoy our friends, and to let whatever creative impulses or visions we have be heard, listened to, have their moment.
~ ROLLO MAY, The Significance of the Pause