The Magic of Creating More with Less.

I hope this finds you having an awesome Friday!

Today I want to share with you today a life changing concept we’ve been covering in The Art School.

You may or may not be an artist or define yourself as creative (not even all of my Awesome Art Schoolers define themselves as artists…although I will have them ALL owning their creative genius before we are through!). Even if you don’t see yourself as creative, I promise this idea has life changing potential for anyone who is willing to apply it to their life.

It’s the concept of Negative Space.

My Grandma Donna, an art teacher, was the first one to teach me about negative space. I was a young girl when I sat down with my sketchbook at her dining room table for a drawing lesson.  I remember the sunlight streaming in through the windows, falling across the gleaming pine floor, and her walking to the cabinet and taking a curvy, white pitcher from the shelf.  She turned to hold it up so I could see, tracing her finger along its outline as she explained that the space that surrounds the body, whether that body be that of a person or an object, is the negative space.

She told me that negative space is just as important as the body/form itself because it allows us to really be able to see, understand and appreciate what we see. This is because the relationship between what is there (positive space) and what isn’t there (negative space) creates a boundary that our eye and mind can understand. Negative space in art, she told me, is what brings balance to a composition.

I am not quite sure why, of all the special times and art lessons with my grandmother, that particular one stands in such clear and stark relief in my memory.  But I did know that as soon as I decided to create The Art School that I wanted Negative Space to be one of the core teachings.  It is an aspect of the creative process that has such broader meaning for all of life and endless literal and metaphorical wisdom and applications to offer.

Often times we have the belief that in order to create more, we must do more.  In order to BE more, we must do ALL the things or have more or fill our days, weeks, years until they are stuffed to the brim.  Often times our minds are stuffed to the brim, too, with all kinds of thoughts and beliefs and very little space between them.

The magic of leveraging negative space, however, is that you can actually create more with less.

Negative Space, as applied to your life as a whole, is about creating room around your most important priorities, the things that you really love and that make you feel most alive.

Negative Space is the opposite of FOMO.

Negative Space is Trust.

Negative Space is Abundance.

Negative Space is room to breathe, pay attention to yourself and your life, and offers generous room, time and permission to go deep into your own life, mind and creative process.

Negative Space is saying no to that which doesn’t serve you, and yes to what does.

Negative space is saying no to settling or low expectations for your life, and yes to what you truly love and believing in your dreams until you are living in them.

In Art School, we have been focusing on all of these iterations of how Negative Space is relevant to becoming more powerfully, effectively creating our dreams.

But the focus I most want to share with you today is the Sacred Negative Space your create in your mind as it pertains to who you believe yourself to be.

I am always asking my clients, “Did you know that you get to believe whatever you want about yourself?  You get to believe whatever you want about the kind of person you are, the kind of life you get to live and what is possible for you to create.  Did you know that?”

Because if you know that, and believe that, not only is it very important to choose, with intention, the positive thoughts you want to believe, but it is equally important that you insist on Negative Space around those thoughts.

Just as important as committing to your dream and the thoughts that support your belief that you will create it, Negative Space teaches us that it is equally necessary to cultivate a discipline of not indulging in believing thoughts that don’t serve you – self-doubt, self-loathing, destructive self-criticism, second-guessing, self-pity, wondering “if” it will happen, instead of believing that it will, and committing to believing that exclusively.

There are endless ways to apply this concept to the sacred art that is your everyday life.  There is nothing too mundane, there is nothing too sophisticated.

If you are interested in creating more with less, I’d love to hear from you–

What ways do you think Negative Space could help you create some magic in your life?

In particular, what is one thought that you know, if you could only believe it, you would be golden?

And what is one thought you’d like to be rid of forever?

I read all your emails and respond to as many as I can, so hit reply to this email and let me know what you’d like to have on your mind – and what you’d rather not anymore!

I hope you have beautiful, spacious weekend!

Love,

Leah

P.S. The Art School is off to an AMAZING, amazing start!  One of my goals with The Art School is to be the premiere, go-to program for artists/creatives who want to create their greatest art, their greatest dreams and their greatest life.  I’m already stunned this semester by the work participants in this program are doing.  And I have so many more ideas for how to build on this experience and make it ever more amazing in the next round for those who want to continue on and for those who will be joining us for the first time.

If you weren’t able to join this fall round, never fear! There is a winter semester of The Art School coming in 2019!  You can hop on the waitlist by emailing me at leahbadertscher@gmail.com with WINTER 2019 in the subject line.  By being on the waitlist you’ll be among the first to know of early bird offers, discounts and special free trainings/classes I’ll be offering in the weeks leading up to the official start of the winter 2019 semester. If you’re new to The Art School, you can learn more by visiting www.leahcb.com/the-art-school or by scheduling a free, laser-coaching session with me at: https://leahcb.as.me/discoveryconsult

Finally, I wanted to leave you with a illustration for the Negative Space story.  I took this this morning but it is the same pitcher Grandma Donna used for my drawing lesson those many years ago.