White Space and Balance Can Make Us Better Business Leaders

"Hi! How are you doing?"

“Oh great….just busy!” 

How often do we engage in this type of conversation on a regular basis? Being busy and having a million things on our to-do list seems to have become a badge of honour. “Busyness has become a status symbol,” according to the Harvard Business Review. “People also consider those who exert high effort to be ‘morally admirable,’ regardless of their output.”

But here’s the thing. Being busy causes us stress, affects our mental health and emotional well being, and is a major health detriment. In short, being busy just doesn’t work anymore. What does work? White space and balance. By bringing in more white space and balance, we can not only increase our happiness and improve our mental health, but we can be more present, connected and generative leaders as well.

What is White Space and How Can It Reduce Stress?

White space is a fundamental concept in art and design. It’s the area around objects in photos. It’s the unpainted parts of a canvas. It’s the spaces between letters. It’s blank margins and empty spaces. Without enough white space, design is too overwhelming and hard to digest. 

White space is also fundamental to our lives as Bold Kind leaders. It’s the times when we slow down in life and stay in the present moment. It's when we're meditating, observing our breath or contemplating nature. It’s sitting and doing absolutely nothing. And we don’t do enough of it. Even when we’re “relaxing,” we’re on our phones, reading or chatting with friends. When we take time for ourselves and create white space in our day-to-day lives, we give ourselves breathing room and reduce chronic stress. 

White space is important because it allows our minds to meander. By creating moments in the day when we're not doing, just being, we stop our minds from always being on the go, give ourselves a chance to regroup, and reduce our stress levels.

Creating Balance Generates Inspiration

The word "balance" refers to an even distribution of weight, enabling something to stay upright. Balance is also key to our lives, whether it's a balance between life and work, a balance between spending time alone and spending time with others, or a balance between staying active and finding time to recharge. 

How can you find more balance in your life? Where are you sacrificing something you love? The solution might be simple: not working on a Friday afternoon so you can go to your son's soccer practice, or meditating in the morning instead of jumping up to get the laundry done. Just like the weight on scales, when we create more balance, our lives are in better alignment and we're able to gain perspective.

Stress Relief Tips to Slow Down in Life

It can be hard to slow down. We’ve got businesses to run and families to take care of. It can take a while to retrain our brains into understanding that not only is it okay to slow down, it also helps us be stronger. If it feels too daunting, it can be helpful just to take small, purposeful steps to start you along the way:

• Stop overbooking. What activities or meetings can you step away from to relieve stress?
• Empower others to do more. Where can you step away from being involved in day-to-day tasks so you can do more of what you love, and improve your well being? 
• Have an open door. How can you create space for friends, family and team members to reach out to you, so you can cultivate deeper, more meaningful relationships?

Spend time doing things you love. What activities (e.g., mindfulness meditation, physical activity) would you like to make time for? How can you make that happen so you relieve stress, improve your mental health, and feel more joy and satisfaction?

More Bold Kindness Tips for Optimal Mental Health

At Bold Kindness, we believe in a kinder, more compassionate way of being leaders and developing people. By bringing in more white space and balance into our lives, we are more able to bring our full selves to work and live lives we truly love. If you'd like to find out more, check out Cathy Thorpe's book, Bold Kindness: A Caring, More Compassionate Way to Lead.