Dear Laura, Whenever you find yourself in a struggle with an exercise, shorten the exercise. You need to find your beginning place. That place is different for everyone. If you can pause for five minutes, that's your beginning place. But five minutes can be a very long time when you are starting to introduce a pause into your way of functioning. You may have to start with one minute or 30 seconds. Start with the amount of time you can bear. If it's 15 seconds then do 15 seconds periodically throughout the day for a few days. Then move up to 30 seconds. Remember, the key is to develop your strength tolerance. Increasing your pause time gradually allows you to develop your tolerance. No white knuckling is required. :) Please carry on, and let us know how you are doing. And thanks for writing and sharing this piece of your experience. I'm sure it is helpful to others too.