Does Your Life Need Whitespace?
We all need room to breathe.
White space is like air; it is necessary for design to breathe.
~ Wojciech Zieliński
I’ve been sitting, waiting for inspiration to strike to write this post and there has been none. Don’t think me naïve; inspiration complies with no one’s agenda. Still, I’m sitting in my chair, waiting, soon to resign myself to the possibility that it may not show up today. It’s Monday and I’ve given myself permission to surf the web, scroll the gram and see what might show up. I also meditated. And reviewed my bank of ideas to see if anything would spark. It’s now noon and while I have a voice inside me that says “WTF, Susan, why are you frittering away your day?” I’ve decided that it’s all good.
Why?
Because Mondays are a day with loads of white space.
On Mondays I don’t schedule anything with anyone for any reason. I write on Mondays and lean into the spaciousness of a full day all before beginning my week of more active content creation and client meetings. It usually includes lots of movement and opting for a more self-aligned pace.
The boundaries around Monday are high and fierce and the more Mondays that pass, the firmer my boundaries around my white space become. And surprisingly (or not), white space has inspired this post. Finally. Inspiration.
Mondays give me the experience of white space I crave. And it’s not just me, most of my clients long to include more white space in their lives. As the quote above acknowledges, white space in our lives is what allows us to breathe. White space is more than just extra time, it’s essential to help us meet needs known and unknown.
So in today’s letter I’m going to explore white space and while ambling ended up in the the art, design and content world for some inspiration on the topic.
Let’s lean into white space!
What is white space?
According to my reading and research this definition is incredibly useful for our purposes, illustrating that “white space is the area between design elements” and, “it is also the space within individual design elements”. This matters. White space is more than the space around a painting, it’s also the white space — or the visual contrast inside the painting itself.
Take a moment, as my clients have, to look at where there is white space between the different elements of your own life, and where in a day you find that white space or breathing room. And while you’re doing this, can you drop into the palpable sensation of “breathing room” in your body? What does a day with breathing room feel like and what does one without feel like?
Two kinds of white space to build into your life
1) Micro white space
What is “micro” white space? This is the kind of space between lines and paragraphs. It makes content more legible, more easy to understand and consume. What does this look like for us?
Micro whitespace is a life that has breathing room. It has a pace that might feel more aligned to your own. It’s that time when you can legitimately sigh between meetings and allow your breathing to move out of your chest and into your belly.
In life, what benefit might the micro whitespace offer? What would happen if there were 10 minute breaks between client sessions? What if there was room for a lunch break or a short walk? What if you didn’t have to rush to the doctor’s appointment and left the house 10 minutes earlier that you had to (I’m working on this one).
Scan over your week ahead and see in what one place you can include breathing room. Here are some places to check for micro white space:
In your morning routine — is there enough time to savor your coffee?
Between meetings — can you take a moment to move?
In your work stints — are you taking breaks to re-hydrate?
When leaving the house — do you have to rush?
Your online calendar or scheduling app — what are your scheduling rules?
2) Macro white space
Macro white space may be easier to envision. It’s the larger spaces around a major design element that allows that element to come to the forefront so that it can be more easily noticed.
This kind of space is differently vulnerable to being used up. We know we need it and schedule it into our calendars only to surrender it to absolutely anyone or anything. This space meets different needs than the breathing room granted by micro white space.
Macro white space acts as a container for the overall design of our lives. If micro white space allows us to breathe, macro white space allows us to lean into life and be in it more fully.
This kind of spaciousness allows you to feel yourself in your life.
Does your life have the white space it needs? Here are some questions to engage with on behalf of macro white space.
Is there room for a creative pursuit to overflow and absorb you?
Do you leave ample room for rest in the way you need it?
Whose pace are you going in your life overall?
Have you considered a sabbatical?
If you were going to go on a weekend retreat what would you do?
Are evenings/ weekends about work, pleasure, play, rest or…?
I’m leaving these questions to your imagination because that’s what white space allows us to find is our imaginations.
Maybe to sum it up it can be in the idea that less is more.
And even as I suggest that less is more, I’ll be the first to admit that when I read that new belief I desperately want to embody, it brushes up against older ways of thinking that say to me — more is more. It’s simply not true.
But when I bring intention forward and allow myself to choose well, allow myself to be rhythmic and evolutionary, and consciously say no to what doesn’t fit this season, I can remember that less is more and choose this again, and again.
Whether it’s white space or pink, or any color or texture you imagine bringing into your life I hope this letter has inspired you to find a small way to bring in a wee bit more space.
