Creating space to support growth.
There’s a Viktor Frankl quote that's very helpful when contemplating how much choice we have in our life decisions.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
The more space you have, the greater your ability to process information. The goal with creating space is to move away from the primitive emotional amygdala, and towards the evolved prefrontal cortex, where executive functioning occurs.
In mindfulness we talk about the “space” as being a pause before taking action, a moment to reflect before engaging. The space allows you to think before reacting, creating a thoughtful response vs a habitual or emotional reaction. The concept is that your reaction to stimuli is not attached to the stimuli itself. And the delta between the two is actually manageable, with the desired result being an increase in the delta. How you create & increase that delta takes training. And you guessed it, mindfulness practices help :)
Here are a few Mindfulness tips to help train your brain to notice & create space:
*Listen to sounds in your environment, pay attention to the space between the sounds.
* Sit for a few minutes & let your thoughts wander. Examine the space between thoughts.
* While walking, observe the moment between steps.
* While eating, notice the food your mouth & pause before chewing.
* Sit & breath, identifying the space between the inhale and exhale.
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about noticing the space between stimulus & response. The more you practice, the easier it will be to perform.
What's the goal? By noticing what is occurring in the environment, taking a moment to think, you can then consciously choose what action to take.
Creating Space
