word search: voluntary pause between desire and action


Some years ago, I read that Japanese has a word (or idiomatic expression) that
means roughly:

[code]

    The action of voluntary interposing a pause between the
    moment you desire something and the moment you start 
    to do something to acquire it.
    
[/code]

I was never able to find it again. Does it really exist? If yes, what is it?
Is it some jargon word (e.g. religion, philosophy)?

* * *

As @Sawa suggested, I'll try to better define my request. Imagine this
sequence:

  1. I see a beautiful thing in a shop window.
  2. I desire it.
  3. I decide to sit down and wait.
  4. After some minute, I get up and, in case, I go inside the shop to buy the thing.

I am searching for a word that describe the 3rd step of this sequence.




In this case, I would suggest the idea of 「立ち止まる」（ _tachidomaru - coming to a
stand still._ )

I've seen this used by people when they are describing someone who is stopping
to think about something; not yet acting (other than stopping whatever action
they had been doing beforehand.) It conveys a sense of stopping everything to
ponder about the next action one is to take. _Potentially for the sake of
making a life changing decision._

[Here is an example](http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jsse3/bbs/propose/48-3-2009.pdf)
of this phrase in one type of context.




I'm taking a risk here in that I'm not 100% sure, but, we're trying to do
[answers not
comments](https://japanese.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/593/comments-are-
not-for-answers)...

Anyway, a long time ago I used to work in animation at a Japanese company. One
of my directors stressed to me the importance of `間{ま}`, which he described as
the pause a character takes just before a motion. Having just a fraction of a
second of pause just before doing something, made characters appear much more
natural than just bursting into action.

So I think `間{ま}` might be the word you're looking for.

Note that the kanji `間` is usually read `あいだ` when on it's own, and `かん` when
part of a compound (for example, `時間{じかん}`). `ま` is a rarer reading.

