Taking space without reservation, nervousness or fear, with the awareness and feeling that it feels completely ok. This is a topic that does not come naturally to me or to many of the people I work with. Especially when it comes to leadership and self-leadership, clarifying roles and setting boundaries with understanding and kindness, clear communication and conflicts, taking space is a key skill.
So what does "taking space" mean?
It's most obvious to me when I'm singing or performing. I have a real soft spot for female roles in opera that are neither sweet nor beautiful. I love women who are passionate, strong, assertive, sometimes vengeful and desperate.
I can't sing such roles when I'm slumped over, when I'm trying to take up as little space as possible or be quiet. The role needs its place - and exactly its place. Not too much, not too little, but just the right amount of space to express and communicate. This space comes with the attitude, which is fed by the objective and intention, emotion and plan. The exciting thing is that it is an interplay: by adopting this posture, I can sing it. By singing, the posture takes hold of me.
At the same time, taking this space is also important for everyone else who is involved: if I don't take my space, I leave everyone else hanging. Taking my space then also has something to do with permeability. A permeability for the perception of the actual shared space - for the audience, the fellow performers and musicians. What happens in front of me, next to me, behind me. After all, that's what it's all about now: acting together musically, reaching people and capturing them in the magic. But that cannot and must not mean that my space collapses to accommodate the others. On the contrary, if I don't play out my space, the collaboration becomes unstable.
This complexity of space is easily transferable to my day-to-day work as a trainer and the working reality of every person with leadership and communication tasks. It is important to be there with your whole body and to hold goals and intentions in such a way that they can also advance the goals of groups or individuals.
So of course we are not just talking about physical space and the actual expansion of the body within it: because of course our body can get bigger and smaller and take up more or less space. That is also the point, but not only.
Rather, space depends on our posture in a double sense and goes beyond the boundaries of the body. The posture can be expansive, open, respectful, free, turned towards ... (feel free to use your own words). It corresponds with the inner posture: Do I feel spacious, open, respectful, free, ... ? And am I aware of the space around me? How can I achieve this?
So why is space such a central theme? Because the focus on space connects directly and immediately to the entirety of the human being: Mind/cognition, emotion, embodiment/attitude.
Working in and with space - literally and metaphorically - is important so that clarity of intention, communication (speaking, conversation, presentation and more), body (embodiment) go hand in hand in order to master everyday situations and challenging situations as a (self-)leader with more relaxation (comfort) and ease (ease) and collaboratively.
In practical terms, this means that I recognize the connections within myself and can change them!
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