As someone with an ADHD brain and a large family, space for thinking and reflecting can be hard to carve out. It’s even harder when I forget to prioritise it. This week I took a 4 day weekend with the public holidays around Easter and then didn’t rush to fill my schedule. I have 7 clients instead of the usual 12. I often comment that days with only 2 clients feel like a holiday! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE working with my clients, it truly is a joy and a privilege. It also consumes a large amount of energy and head space, with not a lot left over for quiet contemplation.So this week has been a conscious choice to slow down. I haven’t filled the gaps with a long list of tasks and to dos, as I have frequently in the past. Instead, I am simply allowing things to unfold. An impromptu road trip after work yesterday meant a few much needed hours of connection with my hunny. We talked kids, home, dreams, and finally my business. I voiced that I needed help with my marketing and social media. I have a sales and marketing background, so I’ve struggled to admit that this was an area I needed support in. I kept telling myself that I just needed to focus, get my sh*t together, make a plan and stick to it…In other words, instead of working with my brain and my capacity, I kept ‘writing cheques I couldn’t actually cash’ or telling myself to do things I didn’t have the resource or capacity to do. Does this sound familiar to you? Unrealistic expectations creating a shame spiral that robs us of ability to follow through? Unrealistic commitments to self that lead to overwhelm and procrastination?So back to the space.Sitting in a car where there is nothing else to do apart from talk or think is a way I have always found helpful to process ideas, identify blind spots, and often come up with some amazing ideas. In fact that idea for Core State Curation was born during another road trip with my hunny a few years ago. Facing up to the fact that I can’t fit in more was probably the most important takeaway from this road trip.Being able to find and afford help felt very far away last night, it was on the ‘nice to have some day’ list. This morning as I scrolled through social media I saw a post from another business person who is looking for some people to test out a pivot in her business with. It felt exciting and full of possibilities. I reached out and we are now in discussion. I don’t know how this will pan out but I am filled with hope and anticipation.It was also a good reminder of how powerful we can be when we focus, how things can come from seemingly nowhere when we are open to possibilities. To be open to possibilities we need bandwidth beyond survival. We need capacity to see and respond, to have the energy to imagine how this opportunity might work.Along with what feels like a major breakthrough in a long standing obstacle, having space has meant I had the energy to deal with some small admin tasks that were taking up valuable space. I needed to follow up on a faulty ebay purchase. I’d tried last week and got bogged down in trying to figure out a password and how to contact the seller etc. Today, in a far calmer and less fatigued state, I simply clicked on the seller, found how to message and he responded via email…no password and the inevitable swearfest required. I followed up on a parcel that hadn’t arrived, paid some bills…bliss!Creating space isn’t always about exciting new things or big adventures, sometimes it’s simply about having the bandwidth to do things that have felt overwhelming.It’s tempting to now ask - how can you create more space for creativity and reflection, but based on my own experience that is not easy to answer when we are in the midst of overwhelm. And of course, when we are in the midst of overwhelm is when we are most likely to need it!&nbsp;How about if instead we were to ask ourselves -What is getting in the way of me giving myself space and time for thinking and being?What are the stories I tell myself that make me feel I need to be productive and doing things?What are the stories around rest that get in the way of me not filling my plate so full I can barely function?All of these questions are concepts from the Contemplate modules of the Core State Curation course.&nbsp;Image by <a target="_blank" href="https://pixabay.com/users/engin_akyurt-3656355/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3727861&quot;>Engin">Engin</a> Akyurt from <a target="_blank" href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3727861&quot;>Pixabay</a>">Pixabay</a>

Creating space isn’t always about exciting new things or big adventures, sometimes it’s simply about having the bandwidth to do things that have felt overwhelming.



Creating Space for Creativity and Reflection

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Creating Space for Creativity and Reflection

Creating Space for Creativity and Reflection

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