Building a Life That Has Room to Breathe

A life packed with obligations, however meaningful each one might be individually, can leave very little room to notice how you are actually doing. Building in deliberate space, even small pockets of it, allows for that noticing to happen before things become overwhelming. It helps to approach this without expecting an immediate or dramatic result.

This might mean saying no to one additional commitment, or protecting a regular period of unstructured time each week. A life with room to breathe is not necessarily a smaller life, simply one with enough space to actually experience it. This is one of those things that gets easier the more often it is practised.

If your life has felt without room to breathe for a long time, support can help. MensLine Australia offers support for men on 1300 78 99 78, and Lifeline can be reached at any hour on 13 11 14. There is no wrong way to begin, only a decision to actually start.