The Positive of Negative Space.

📖Recently, I was playing in my art journal—just throwing scraps of paper down willy-nilly. No plan, just the fun of layering scraps and seeing what came out. As I played, I noticed something: the more I filled the page, frankly it looked cr*p. 💩

That blank space that had been 'the job' to fill was now my number one asset. When I tried to fill every little gap I overloaded the page. There was no breathing room. No space for harmony - that it just feels right feeling - to come through.

🎨Anyone who draws knows you can't create light without adding the dark. You can't create the dark without leaving the light—or in this case, leaving the space.

This got me thinking about negative space in our lives. How the temptation is always there—and how the world often encourages us—to keep giving more and more. To fill every corner. To leave no blank space. No gap. No quiet. No pause. No void.

But without the negative space—the empty space, the gap, the void—there’s no room to grow. 🌱No space to play. 🛝No room for mistakes. No time to breathe. 🫁 No flexibility. 🤸🏻‍♂️ No space for surprises.🎈 At the extreme, it could leave 🫂no energy for friends or 💓no affection for loved ones.

✔️So the next time you look at your diary or your work and think, Could I add a bit more? Can I squeeze one more thing in?—pause.

Have you already given enough? Have you over-served?

🤔What if, by leaving that space, you give someone else room to grow? You give yourself time to breathe? You make space for the unexpected?

🤳🏻The constant messaging on social media. Influencers telling us to optimise this, hack that, be more efficient, get more done...buy my productivity planner...day after day after day — well meaning they are for sure but there comes a time, and I guess that's where I am now, for a big fat F that! These tools may have made you more productive, but have they made you happier?

It’s not realistic. And it doesn’t always lead to the best decisions—because you don’t get that time to reflect. You’re just in constant do-do-do mode. Achieve this, achieve that. Like a machine.

🤖But I’m not a machine. I’m a human. That lives on planet earth.🌎 It too can only take so much of extract this, maximise that. It too needs time to rest and has its cycles. 🌀

As Lola Young says, I’m messy. We all are.

This is why I care so much about harmony—and helping other women find it.

🌒Like the waxing and waning of the moon, we move in phases. There are moments for getting things done, yes. But there are also moments for rest. For quiet. For reflection.

🌞Like the seasons—there’s a time to plant, a time to grow, a time to harvest. But there’s also a time when the soil needs to rest. And we need to rest, too.

Does harmony resonate with you?

Where could you find the positive in the negative?

Bit stuck? Reach out and lets have a conversation. 💬

#worklifebalance #harmony #womeninleadership #mindfulness #mentalhealth