Schooling from Space and Time

How do you create the space for something new? And rewire old and stubborn patterns that don’t really want to budge?

I wrestled with my beliefs around time and space as they related to productivity for many months (truthfully probably years). I visually mapped my experiences of (trying to set) a new rhythm to support my creative flow. I also did some systems sensing across a few weeks which turned into a playful rhyme and post below.

Visual map of 1) beginning a new rhythm and creative practice at 5am and 2)the impacts of that practice on my creative flow and sense of wellbeing throughout the day. April 2022

SPACE AND TIME

Why have you put us in a box?
Don’t you see the paradox?
Have you noticed when you fill me with joy, care, and fun,
is actually when the real work gets done?

MIND
What do you mean?
See this list of tasks and todos.
Only so much time in a day…
Time to double down!
Work should look a certain way!
No sense in combining it with fun, I say.

SPACE AND TIME
I may not make sense, dear mind.
I hear the part of you who feels responsible for moving all the cogs,
Believing the only way through is to grind, suffer, and slog.
Pushing your nervous system past the electric fence.
Is this really productive — to hurt and wince?

Agendas, shoulds, and have to’s
Become boxes, corners, and lines.
This is how you divide your day.
It’s preconceived and superficial,
the way you perceive space and time.
I’m actually quite spherical and flexible.
I’m musical and lyrical.
And quite malleable and magical.
Today, I sometimes rhyme.

Like a piece of putty, play with how you relate to me in a more malleable way.
You may feel guilty or like you’re wasting time.
There is a different map you can use to organize and design.
When you slow down, sharp edges can become curves, forming new shapes of possibility.
Welcome to a new paradigm of space and time.

We invite you to a larger collaboration with life,
by first suspending beliefs of how achievements are won.
Take moments to notice what happens when
You fill your day with spaciousness, care or play,
How this can be the most productive part of your day.

Systems sensing exercise
Elements: Space and Time, Mind
Question: What is there to know now?