Hello friends!

I've always been known as someone who is very productive. It's rare that you'll find me sitting around doing nothing. And that's because, for the longest time, I believed that all space in life should be filled in. That any space left unused is waste.

But I've recently changed my stance.
​Unfilled space is a useful resource itself.

That's what this week's exploration is about.

This week's theme:

The power of space.

Let's start with a simple thought experiment:
What makes a room a room?

You might be thinking: "The walls...?" ​
And you'd be right!
But only half right.

A room is indeed its walls.
But it is also the space that those walls enclose.

And it's not just the walls.

• A jug is the material it's made out of AND the space it encloses to hold liquid
• A portrait is the subject AND the background that frames it
• A conversation is the talking AND the listening for the words to be received

And so here's the first reason why space isn't useless.

"Okay Eric, but I don't see why it shouldn't be filled in."

Well let's take this thought experiment slightly further.

Imagine that you fill the room to be only made of walls.
What a useless room that would be.

Or imagine a jug, but the pottery artist decided to fill in the inside with clay.
What a useless jug that would be.

So here's the second reason why space isn't useless.

"Oh okay... I'm starting to see what you mean. But how does this translate to my life?"

Great question.
Your life is also a system.
It has its structure (your identity, your routine etc.)
But it also has space (moments of no intention)

And all those moments of space?
​They are working something.​
Even if you can't see what's being worked.

Creativity is brewing in moments of boredom.
Courage is brewing in moments of fear.

Even something as mundane as sitting on the toilet is doing something useful that you cannot see.

And so the final takeaway of this newsletter is this:

Wash your dishes without listening to a podcast.
Resist the urge to switch tabs while your AI is responding.
Sit on the couch and just do that. Sit.

The space is doing work.
Let it do its work.

If you'd like to explore this more...

In this week's video, I extend this concept further to discuss why space feels so uncomfortable, and the small daily habits I use to build the capacity to hold it. You can watch it here:

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That's it for this week's issue of Emotional Explorations! I hope it brought you clarity and I look forward to writing to you again soon.

Best,
Eric