The noise is getting noisier. The distractions evermore distracting.
We spend more and more time 'plugged in'. More time 'switched on'. Trying to operate at full speed. Caught in fight or flight for too much of our day, trying to respond to the latest calls for 'urgent'.
We crowd our diaries with commitments. We jam another task onto an already overworked ‘to do’ list. There is always something, or someone, waiting to be heard.
It can feel like the space literally gets squeezed out of our days.
Stranger than all this busyness perhaps, is that when the space we so often need actually comes, we're not always sure what to do with it.
We have lost our connection to the basic need for some freedom to just be. White space.
With the frantic backdrop of our busy, modern lives, more than ever, we need to be kind to ourselves. We all need to retain some space in our days. We need a healthy buffer.
This space is necessary for:
- reflecting
- thinking
- making sense of things
- deep work
- creativity
- resetting
- catching up
- restoration
- self-care
These are what I like to refer to as the quieter arts. Quiet but also critical.
In a noisy and distracted world, they too often suffer at the hands of busy, urgent and calls for 'more'.
However, Yang will always need Yin. We cannot sprint all the way.
We need to carve out and ringfence this space in our lives. As the opportunities for it reduce in our day-to-day interactions, we need to actively protect it. We need to develop habits that prioritise this time.
Keep the buffers in your life. Find and protect your own white space.