Making space for nothing

I seem to have spent time this week engaged in conversations about nothing... Or more precisely, creating space for nothing in the form of mindfulness. The challenge of our day to day world is of course the amount of stuff we fill up our waking hours with. Unchecked technology, noise and life can be overwhelming, hence the current trends of mindfulness, decluttering and generally doing less to feel more.

I've not really ventured into formal mindfulness as yet. The idea of an app doesn't appeal - surely this defeats the object of creating a bit of empty space to allow creativity and reflection in, but I do appreciate that it's about creating a habit and that takes energy, commitment and prioritisation.

I'm currently reading a book about emotional agility (Susan David). The basic premise (so far) is that you need to create space between emotion and action which then allows time to make informed choices around action or intervention. It draws on the Thinking Fast & Slow concept - ie that much of our information processing is based on the intuition of many years of conditioning and experience. It's far less frequent that we stop and analyse the information and situation around us before acting. While this is super efficient it can also be flawed - and of course results in an emotional rigidity that can affect our ability to grow and properly assess the full range of options open to us. If no two situations are ever truly the same then should we embrace each day with a 'beginners mind' in order to truly life life to its fullest extent?

In reality, this is probably more aspirational than achievable. Unless you are the Dalai Lama I suspect most of us have to accept that in order to get through the day there is a lot you have to accept will come from the unconscious and just get it done. The question for me as I try and develop myself and my thinking around this, is can I be more aware of the situations where I or others would benefit from a beginners mind approach. Can I leave my bias and conditioned responses at the door to allow a different set of thoughts and feelings in? And how to do this?

The concepts introduced on our OD course resonate greatly here. The exploration of the process layer and all that might go unsaid but is vital in how people hear, react and embrace (or not) the bias and behaviours they are subject to in delivering the organisational objectives. For me this is fundamental. My world has a huge amount of autonomy built in with limited shared goals beyond the blunt ones I've spoken about previously. We talk about being purpose led, but I don't see that purpose binding us together today. Part of that is where we are operating- ie primarily in the content and procedure layers and with a fast thinking mentality.

My challenge to myself is to see if I can create this space between emotion and action. To stop and assess 'how am I? how am I feeling?' as I do what I need to do. In doing this I want to explore whether I can pinpoint the areas where my passion and emotion is stronger, indicators of where, with a little more focus, I could start to unpick this idea of a purpose led me.