The Importance of Space

Let’s talk about the importance of space.

Do you remember the beginning of 2021?  I do.

The arrival of my yearly wake-with-heart-palpitation-anxiety was imminent. The same anxiety I’ve had every January for the last 3 years, heralding the arrival of NatEx on the horizon.

NatEx 2021 – A Whole New Ballgame

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always loved creating memorable learning environments for my favourite peeps. But in 2021, I took it to a whole new level.

I thought creating a hybrid event would be a relatively easy pivot. Just add on the online bit to something I had done before.

But in reality, I created 5 distinct events running concurrently, with …

• 300 attendees
• 16 sponsors
• many exhibitors
• 19 speakers
• staff & volunteers
• from 5 different countries
• online & offline
• varying from tech-phobic to tech nerds
• during a pandemic

And to top it off, we covered some of the most challenging parts of business and life including racism, sexism, ableism, and vulnerably getting things wrong to start learning together, to create a more inclusive profession and health system.

Whew! It was full, to say the least. My bandwidth was at capacity.

When Your Bandwidth Runs Out (And I Don’t Mean WiFi)

In my trainings, I often mention the analogy of bandwidth. You know the feeling when your Wifi just can’t quite handle the TV streaming, Minecraft playing, Xbox gaming, Zoom meeting AND upload of your latest YouTube vid or Insta story?

Or is that just in my house?

It literally is a bandwidth issue. There just isn’t any more room in that optical fibre for more information. So the whole thing slows, skips, misses a bit, gets out of sync, and sometimes … crashes altogether.

The Importance of Space

So, the question is… how do we remedy this problem before we have to completely unplug and reset?

We create space.

So that’s what I did. And what do you know? Things started to run more smoothly.

After NatEx, I created space. Space in my…

• schedule
• mind
• relationships
• house
• car
• inbox
• and social media stream

In the past, one of the easiest ways I’ve found to do this is to go on retreat. And this time, I took myself off to the Blue Mountains to do just that.

So there I was at the beginning of Quarter 2, 2021, with ripples of my radical sabbatical positively affecting my family, health, book, and all of my other projects.

But it also had the side effect of having to embrace my new, slower pace. Which for a traditionally A-Type go-getter like myself presented a bit of an internal challenge and a lesson.

What Space Taught Me

From this experience, I learnt that with space and a slower pace comes:

• more creativity
• better quality ideas
• deeper conversations
• more measured and thoughtful responses.

All of which led to a change in the direction of my book. To share some more vulnerable stories that only my business besties and my husband had been privy to before. All in the hopes that the book can be of more useful impact to you the reader and your journey.

So I thought it best to let you know my publisher and I chose to move the release date back to include these stories.

We greatly appreciate your patience. I know it will be worth the wait! If you want to make sure you don’t miss it, you can pre-order your copy right here.

How To Make Space For Yourself

What do you do to create more space in your life?

There are so many different options – physical, emotional, financial, time. Something else.

But as you may know, I’ve always loved immersion retreats. Not only do they offer rest, relaxation, and a change of pace from everyday life, they offer stimulation to your whole nervous system and open the way for exciting new ideas.

That’s why I created some incredible retreat experiences coming for you this year! If you want to inject a new sense of joy and purpose into your life and business, I hope you’ll join me. I would love to spend time with you there.

Get all the details and save your spot at an upcoming retreat here.