Over the last two weeks, the biggest thing that I have been working on is space.
Space to think.
Space to write.
Space to get quiet and see what comes up.
Space away from the noise in my head about what a great article looks like, or a great speech, or a great workshop.
Space to simply allow my own creativity to show me what I need to do, write or say.
This has required me to get very intentional about my time. Organise things differently to give myself more of a lead time, rather than work last minute spurred on by the adrenalin of imminent deadlines.
It is a different way of doing things, after decades of juggling such enormous workloads that everything was done at last minute.
And each time I do that – get intentional about my time – it gives me space to write first decent drafts – and then go away and let things percolate so that when the busy busy of the thoughts quietens down, the clarity of my own creativity and intuition comes through.
Sometimes it is really hard to slow things down.
What makes it hard, however, is that I tell myself it is hard. I tell myself that if I was any good, I would know all this stuff quicker.
Hello inner critic, I thought it was a while since you were around.
And that’s where I remind myself – these are just thoughts. Thoughts about the situation.
And when I step away from the desk, stop telling myself to just push through, that’s when the inspiration comes.
It strikes me as ironic that this same capacity for thought that gives us such a hard time and makes us feel constricted and stressed out by a particular situation– is the same capacity for thought that comes up with new and innovative solutions to the same situation in hand when we allow ourselves the space.
Ironic, but reassuring.
Because it tells us that we already have all that we need to know what to do. All that we need inside our own creativity and thought.
When we simply allow ourselves space.
How about you? How do you give yourself space to breathe, to think differently about things? How could you do it a bit more? What impact would that have?