Creating Space to Access Wisdom Daily
Tony Zampella
Wisdom Coach/Speaker, Teacher, and Strategist to cultivate conscious leadership.
As first defined by?William Davies of LRB , the term reaction economy best fits the lives we all navigate. To quote Davies, “Each of us becomes a junction box in a vast, complex network, receiving, processing, and emitting information in a semiautomatic fashion, and in real-time.”
Reactive Spaces
Davies focused on?reactions such as facial expressions, gestures, or emojis , which have become an influential currency of the digital public sphere. Nonetheless, his term describes a reactiveness that has splintered our attention and fragmented our awareness.
Getting through the events that make up our day can drain us, and fending off those who fill our capacity with clutter can be overwhelming. This much we can recognize.
Managing our schedules can become so impossible that it is easier to react to events: we apologize for slights, wing it on calls, and feign preparation at meetings.
Over the past two decades, we have discovered three significant spaces and practices—1)?Empty?space,?2)?Prep time, and 3)?Fallout?—that can enliven your participation in activities and expand possibilities.
This blog will first distinguish?Empty space?to uncollapse compressed spaces. Empty spaces develop the conditions for?Prep time?and?Fallout?that reveal our flow of life. These spaces may seem like additions to your schedule, but they reveal a deeper truth.?We require space to show up as co-creators who cultivate the quality, care, and insights to navigate this reaction economy.
So Many Events
Consider the many events we experience in a day. Eating, writing, responding to emails, working out, meetings, researching, reading, meditating, calls, tasks, shopping, Yoga, and traveling to events, to name a few. Notice how these events often run together; by 3 p.m., we are FULL. We lack the space to prepare or recover.
In this process, an “Event” is defined as an “instance” or occasion in which we show up to participate. Any “happening” we choose to attend or engage or any concern we wish to fulfill is an?Event.
These instances might include grocery shopping, practices, traveling to work, meetings, calls, lunch, workouts, Yoga, school/study, entertainment, games, etc.
Events take up most of our lives and reveal what we care about. Yet when stacked together, they can become compressed into a stream of stress.
For some events, such as grocery shopping or workouts, we have a set routine that prepares us. We examine cupboards and the fridge to make a list before shopping. We grab our exercise shoes, shorts, and bottled water before heading to the gym.
We arrive at some events prepared and ready to participate, yet we wing it at others.
Empty Space:?for?reflecting, remembering, restoring
Much like the compression of time, our information overload and hyper-interconnectivity have compressed space. Personal, professional, downtime, daydreaming, family, and reflective spaces are merged into “on time.” Bells, dings, haptics, notifications, buzzers, emojis, and so forth are akin to Pavlov’s experiments.
We no longer experience sacred spaces to process, prepare, or restore ourselves.
We must develop practices to “decompress the spaces” we’ve been conditioned into by our culture of “speed and urgency .”
1- No Space for Wholeness
Thirty years ago, phones, TVs, and games occupied different spaces. We could focus on a designated activity in a subway, car, park, beach, or bathroom. Today, the phone can access excess connections, information, and consumption to shop, entertain, chat, and work anywhere, anytime, for anything—all at once.
Blurred boundaries confuse our views, communications, structures, and agreements. We careen from one event to another, accumulating unresolved items. We feel drained, uneasy, and anxious.
The impact of compressed space fractures our attention and fragments our awareness.?We lack the capacity:?to be present to experience our being, to remember our priorities, or recognize our wisdom.
Consider the meaning of?mindfulness ?“sati” (Pali) or “smrti” (Sanskrit) is “bare attention” or “to remember.” Remembering is an underappreciated condition in which life has shattered.
As a practice, dedicated, reflective spaces are necessary to cultivate the capacity for discerning insights and remembering (recenter) our wholeness.
To ponder these questions, I explore?reflective spaces?and then?pausing?as a practice to create space.
2- Reflective Space
It is important not to conflate space with time.
Reflective space?is empty and taps into our awareness of being to reveal what’s arising. For instance, just scheduling 15 minutes after a tense, mentally draining meeting may not support creativity or reflection. We also need a practice for clearing spaces. We might take a walk to dissolve concerns or restore energy.
Becoming?aware of the spaces in our lives ?involves recognizing what fills our spaces and then understanding how to restore them.
FILLING SPACE
The axiom space abhors a vacuum is truer today than ever. We fill any space on our calendar or in our lives. Our conditioning toward speed, urgency, and productivity cannot stand wasted space or time. Guilt wrenches us back to load up any space with tasks.
Even when we create intentional space, concerns from previous events fill our space with distractions, expectations, and fixations (DEF).
These items fill our mind with concerns that weigh us down.
Empty space?clears our mind of these concerns. When we recognize expectations or attachments, pausing creates the space between our experiences. We can detangle our impulses and?let go of and let items be ?to move freely.
Buddhist teacher and editor?Judy Lief ?speaks of different spaces:
Notice the quality of space within you and around you. Pay attention to the boundaries of your physical body and the space in front, behind, and on each side of you. Also, pay attention to the mental–emotional space that accommodates the comings and goings of sensations, thoughts, moods, and emotional upheavals. Whatever arises on an outer or inner level, notice the space in which both you and your perception rest.
RESTORING SPACE
Our understanding of?space is limited ?and often collapsed or ignored. Recognizing physical, mental, and emotional spaces supports restoration to cultivate wholeness.
Creating a norm and practice to place space between events to become clear allows us to experience the arising and emergence of being. We experience sensations and receive facts, patterns, meaning, and intentions that offer insights and direction.
3- Pausing
The experience of “space” can appear in many forms. Our ability to create, recognize, and appreciate space depends on pausing, as follows:
Pausing slows our rate of interpretation and reflexive listening. It includes 1) stopping habitual energies, 2) calming the breath, and 3) resting into the moment. Two applications of pausing include?pausing before speaking?and?pausing between events.
Pausing before speaking allows us to experience what was just said and witness our response.
Placing “space in between” any event completes the previous event. We are now ready to enter the next event, clear and restored. If any preoccupations or distractions remain, capture these for later self-reflection.
We can practice creating space multiple times a day:
In addition to these practices to clear space, two constant and sacred spaces—Prep time?and?Fallout—accompany our flow of life. Together, they reveal a whole view of our actions and activities.
These spaces may seem invisible. We may notice their absence through patterns and signs. Winging it no longer works, quick fixes miss patterns, reacting is counterproductive, missteps are more frequent, or we become oblivious to important cues at a meeting or event.
Cultivating empty space for?Prep time?and?Fallout?expands our awareness to support co-creation.
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Prep Time:?the?context for participation
Prep time expands awareness. We tune into our attention and intention: who we are as co-creators and what we are co-creating. It offers a?context for participation.
Without the intention rooted in preparation, your participation will be reactive. Prep time offers the space to consider how and why you participate: Why do you care enough to show up, and how do you wish to contribute?
Creating the space for prep time on your calendar supports “designing” your events and involves three levels of reflection: framing, support, and scoping.
1- Framing
Context is critical to our participation. This isn’t always obvious. Framing events as part of our commitment, purpose, or values will support our preparation and participation.
For instance, why did I sign up for a coaching webinar on my calendar? Was this to support a practice, expand learning, develop my professional identity, or connect with other like-minded people?
Remembering the meaning of scheduling any event can impact our participation. Events and activities matter. Why they matter is often lost, and we feel disconnected. Every event on our calendar—even arduous tasks—matters to us somehow. A moment of reflection can discern what matters most.
Some prompts that support framing include:?What am I responsible for bringing to the event/meeting? What is my intention for this meeting? What are my expectations? Why was I invited? Which of my values, commitments, or practices might this event support?
2- Support
In this context, support might include research, material, logistics, practices, details, timelines, and other resources or people. Support ensures we have what is required to frame and scope each event.
Depending on what is required, we may schedule several prep events. For instance, if you are invited to a meeting to manage a new project, you might require budget figures, logistics, and a list of team members and expertise. This would require a few emails before a meeting and some time to crunch numbers and perhaps check in with others.
Support involves space for the following:
Support is often concealed inside beliefs that we can “do it all ourselves!” This is unnecessary. We attend more meetings than necessary, pressure ourselves, add stress, and become isolated. Be clear about what’s expected before the event or meeting to determine the type of support.
3- Scoping
Scoping ensures that you have the capacity and are aware of your limitations. When practiced, scoping reduces the unnecessary pressure that causes stress. Once we’ve?framed?an event and considered the?support, we can scope out an occasion by placing a series of prep events on the calendar.
Prep events might include allotting time for research or collaboration. It might also be just 15 minutes before the event to breathe, become present, and gather your notes. Using prep events helps scope out projects.
We need to discover our time and space and whether we need to renegotiate any items. Not all time is equal. Some prep events must happen long before a scheduled occasion to absorb ideas, request info, or coordinate action with others. In most cases, some prep time right before an event supports framing the event or centering ourselves.
To be clear, scoping is not a management or strategic-only exercise. Scoping shapes our being. Our actions reveal our care.
Details matter. Our attention to detail speaks to our judgment, credibility, the quality of our performance, and our follow-through on commitments. Moreover, discerning action offers the space to adjust and adapt to change and avoid unnecessary missteps, often costing more time, energy, and resources.
Finally, these three reflections—framing, support, and scoping—may include a single event or multiple events scheduled before your actual occasion (call, meeting, workout, practice, or task). They create a context for your presence, participation, and contribution. Without prep time, our participation is left to chance, not choice.
Once we create space for prep time and enhance our participation, sparks will fly. We’ll see that reflecting on these events and activities also requires a sacred reflective space for Fallout.
Fallout:?the?context for possibilities
Although?prep time?expands the awareness for our participation,?fallout?recognizes awareness and cultivates insights?because?of our participation. When we participate, we co-create. This disrupts patterns, invents possibilities, and invites openings.
Fallout is a way to sort out any emergence from our co-creation. It completes our participation and offers a?context for possibility. Key to fallout is tuning into the reflective spaces developed earlier.
There is no reason to notice or develop possibility except for it being the genesis of discovery, where ideas, the unpredictable, and innovation emerge.
Creating the space for fallout time involves two levels of reflection:?Follow-up?and?Possibility.
1- Follow-up
Most people understand following up on details or actions as fundamental after all events and activities.
Typically, we follow up on our promises, requests, agreements made, offers to consider, or commitments to clarify. Follow-up may require clarifying the details, logistics, timelines, or other relevant background information.
Finally, following up creates completion. Resolving loose ends and lingering concerns frees our mind to be present and available.
2- Possibility
This aspect of fallout is often unknown or underappreciated.
Possibility is a special space of emergence where we experience?a-ha moments?by connecting dots, integrating experiences, and realizing potential. Creating space in your day to reflect on fallout cultivates discovery, acknowledges possibility, and creates completion.
Any emergence or discovery is subtle and arises ONLY?because?of our participation. For example, somebody mentions a book, you discover a pattern, a connection emerges, and signs or signals point to a special moment that moves you.
In these?a-ha moments, you learn something, see something, and connect to something. Remarkably, you would not have even realized these ideas or discoveries if you didn’t have space for fallout. Imagine how much we miss?
Later, reflecting on the event, you recall a book that you purchase, connect with someone that cultivates a future relationship, reflect on an idea that alters your thinking or discover a technique that optimizes a practice.
Not creating the space to reflect on fallout reduces the nature of our being—our discovery and creativity that results from our participation—to simple transactions. This “self-reduction” minimizes our efforts, participation, potential, and possible fulfillment.
Any reflective practice, such as “completing your day ” or our?grounding practice , will create the space to come back, reflect, remember, and restore wholeness.
A Way of Being
Empty space, Prep time, and?Fallout?expand our awareness and deepen insights to enhance participation and expand possibilities. We no longer need to be the victims of the reaction economy.
The recognition and opening of these compressed spaces support?seeing and?experiencing?the action-life-cycle via the impact of prep time and fallout on our lives.
Our?health, vitality, and aliveness?are a function of participation. Participation is attractive, even magnetic. Prep time enhances our participation to create connections and invite openings.
Creating space will help “design” your life to?consider?all your needs,?scope?out the required action, and?arrange?the necessary resources. Ultimately, we can appreciate the fullness and wisdom of what is occurring and emerging.
Meta-Note: This blog has three sections:?Empty space?(1116 words),?Prep time?(722), and?Fallout?(387). The focus on empty space reveals its importance. Often concealed or overlooked, empty space discloses much and supports developing quality space for prep time. This blog — as in life — focuses on empty space and prep time. Both require attention as the necessary conditions for the natural emergence of fallout.
Reading?Time: 10 min.?Digest?Time: 13 min.
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Tony Zampella ?is a consultant and practitioner at Bhavana Learning Group, a learning community serving coaches, educators, and entrepreneurs. His work integrates?ontological inquiries ,?Buddhist psychology , and?Integral meta-theory ?to develop learning cultures that cultivate conscious leadership.