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Incredible lightness of ‘being’ Sian Clifford, entrepreneur and winner of our New Wise Voice award, explains how, after burning out, she surrendered to a kinder, more ‘feminine’ way of living and working – and learned to ‘be’ as well as ‘do’ photographs trunk archive
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t the end of 2015, I found myself in a dangerously catatonic state. As well as having three jobs – one for money, two for love – I had given myself six weeks to create, brand and launch an entirely new business, something I had never done before. ‘Still Space’ was founded to share my maverick approaches to slowing down, alongside the empowering practice of connecting to your authentic self. As Christmas loomed, I was so exhausted I could barely choose what underwear to put on or recall whether I had eaten that day or not. I felt hollow. I shall borrow from Tolkien to explain: ‘Like butter scraped over too much bread.’ I put even more pressure on myself
to get everything done because that seemed to be the only way out. Lost in my phone, laptop and social media, I didn’t notice when my footing faltered, or the earth fell away beneath me, or even as I plummeted, down, down, down into the deepest, darkest depths of a nervous breakdown. No, not until I smacked into the earth so hard that it cracked me open, did I look around and find myself in an abyss so immeasurably bleak, that it was too late to claw my way out. Welcome to rock bottom.
Grounded and safe
In a ball on the floor, I wept. I begged. I prayed. I ‘furied’. Until a tiny, kind voice within me whispered: ‘Stop what you’re doing.’ I railed against >>>
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