Space implemented as a language is a powerful idiom, and for that reason exploring ways to transform an atmospheric moment is something to reflect on.
In Japanese culture the term Ma (pronounced “maah”) means negative space. It is a celebration of the gap between things. This meditative art is relished and extensively portrayed in all ethnic art forms from architecture, martial arts to flower arrangements. The love of emptiness, negative voids and spatial openness creates spaces that are full of possibility, potential just waiting to be born.
There is great power in the idea that where nothing is highlighted, where space is expanded, things miraculously just spring to life.
Where nothing is highlighted, where space is expanded, things miraculously just spring to life.
I find this really interesting. Curiosity is such a great teaser. So what other ways can spatial factors be explored for inspiration?
Perhaps consider the designs of efficient spaces when the natural division between objects, shadows, and between structures is juxtaposed.
Space can also symbolise the cosmos, the universe, the galaxies. Here the space between is unfathomable and where the intellect is incapable of forming boundaries around the emptiness. This expansiveness is often explored in meditation and as a creativity tool can be the shift that you are longing to explore into the rhymes of the unknown – the edge of the Wilderness.
Feng Shui and Negative Space
In Feng Shui, the spaces in an environment are vibrationally analysed by overlaying the Bagua Map to quantify the resonance of zones within a location. Then there is ‘Space Clearing’ where the energy is recalibrated to a new occupier’s vibration or a location energetically upgraded for repurposing. Space clearing also releases any past usage or environmental negativity.
But what I really want to discuss is the feeling that ‘I need space’. Why is this? Is it your reaction to a mixture of all the above? How can these moments spring into something else? A different perspective on where you are at, perhaps? It’s interesting to look a little closer at why you want to disengage. Is it a Time or Space issue or needing ‘Me Space’ a distance between sensitive moments?
When you feel that something is bigger than you… this is the perfect gap to incubate change.
It’s so powerfully potent when you are ready to just let go and to let time just stand still. This is when the concept of Ma Space is a powerful reminder that where nothing is highlighted, where space is expanded, things just spring to life. What wondrous insights can emerge when we disengage and are present? What possibilities are right there waiting for us to realise?
All this can be quite scary. We make this process challenging because of past conditioning. But as a Feng Shui Designer I see endless opportunities for taking time to embrace THE GAP for different outcomes. When we just welcome newness into our thinking we are at our creative edge – and this could all be as simple as Awareness.
