The Space You Give to Yourself

"Take Up Space"

This past week, I thought a lot about what topic I wanted to share here, as I usually write about things I'm struggling with, ideas that I have been playing with, or things I heard or read that may have resonated with me.

Sometimes the topics or what I want to write about seem to flow out of me because it's usually about ideas that have been a lot of time in my head before opening the blank page and starting typing.

Today though, I had some ideas about some topics I wanted to explore more, like stress or anxiety and how to allow ourselves to pause in life to deal with it. But when I opened the blank page to start the newsletter, I continued to think about how I needed to take some space. About how I needed to just give myself some space to have the ideas form in my head first so I could then get them out on the page.

That's how I started thinking about this concept of space, "of taking up space", "of giving ourselves space", and of "making space", and what any of these phrases really mean.

You have probably heard from someone before the advice to "take up your space". To take your time, to take your space. We often relate this with our physical space, with making ourselves bigger and enlarging ourselves, with taking on a power pose, and that by default will mean that we are taking up our space.

Using our body and our physiology to embody whatever change we want to make is an amazing tool to START the change. But I like to remind myself that even though most changes start with the tangible, with the body; they also require something bigger than that.

That's why when I started thinking about how "taking up your space" could translate to more than just enlarging your body. About how taking up space could also mean recognizing that where you are right now, where you are in the present moment, is a making of your own choice.

To empower ourselves to the fact that we have chosen to be where we are. That every moment of our lives is there because we choose to be there.

I believe taking up our space is really about changing our perspective of the moment we are in and really considering the power we have in creating each moment.

So, the next time you think about giving yourself space or about taking up space, think about the narrative you have of where you are right now and choose to help yourself. Choose to be where you are. And choose to notice the power you have in being there.

And as for the physical space, when you take a breath, do it in a way that you take space INSIDE your body.

“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are”. - Chinese Proverb.

On Beliefs as Self-Validating Facts

One phrase about beliefs I saw this week.

“Angry people look for problems and find them everywhere, happy people seek out smiles and find them everywhere, pessimists look for trouble and find it everywhere. Brains are good at filtering inputs to focus on what you want to believe.” - Morgan Housel.

You can always choose where you want to be, when you want to be, and how you want to be.

Taking accountability for most of the things you encounter in your life leads to encountering more of the peace and empowerment we are all looking for.

When you stop blaming others and start taking accountability for the fact that every issue in your life is 100% (or at least 99%) your responsibility, you gain control of the fact that if you created the issue, then you have the power to fix it too.

On Feeling Out of Place

You have probably heard the trendy advice of "getting out of your comfort zone" as a necessity for growth. I think what we don't realize is that by getting ourselves out of our comfort zone, we can also feel like we are out of place and sometimes, even, feel like we don't belong.

Being an immigrant and moving to a different country alone made me realize that getting out of your comfort zone oftentimes can feel lonely and it can make you think that you don't belong. But the feeling of belonging to a place, to a group, or even to a situation can really vary depending on the perspective you give to that situation.

When I searched the definition of belonging, it said 'an affinity for a place or situation'. The Cambridge dictionary defines it as a feeling of being happy or comfortable as part of a particular group, and having a good relationship with the other members of the group because they welcome you and accept you.

The more I think about it, if you intrinsically start to believe that you belong, that you are an important part of the group, you can then create that feeling of belonging. So, as with most things in your life, belonging and feeling comfortable as a part of something starts first with the belief that you do.

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Follow me on LinkedIn!?This newsletter comes out at the end of every week. In between, I also share shorter posts with motivational tips and tools, so you can find the inspiration you need to create a better life.

How do you give yourself the space you need to feel at peace with where you are in life? Simple (and not always as easy), you start to recognize the power and the choice you have in creating every moment in your life.

See you later this week!