Embrace the Japanese Concept of “Ma” To Be More Creative, Less Over-Burdened, and More at Peace

Ma kicks efficiency culture in the balls

On Tuesday, I wrote to paid subscribers about the importance of low-key, easy-going Summers.

And that includes work, wherever possible.

In the spirit of that idea, this week’s Friday article is something I recently wrote on Medium. Unless you’re a member over there, this will likely be a new article for you anyway, but you’ll have to forgive me for not writing it exclusively for Substack. Life this week got in the way.

Honestly, the thing went gangbusters viral which means there is some value in its ideas. And I think it jives rather nicely with what we talk about here at S+S.

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When it comes to sitting still, I can’t do it.

If I have a moment of quiet, it needs to be filled. Every idle walk has to count towards my daily steps. Every book or article I read has to have the potential to inspire an article of my own.

I’m also extremely inefficient at this, which means I spend a lot of time thinking about filling up my time whilst I lounge on the sofa watching Gilmore Girls and feeling horribly guilty about it.

It turns out that I do not (yet) possess Ma.

Ma is the Japanese concept of negative space. Its sometimes described as a “pause in time.” Whilst the concept is often used in a physical sense — the negative space in a drawing or architecture — it’s just as relevant in life too.

Ma is when you find the space for nothing. For being idle. For not cramming your over-stimulated brain with yet more content, more noise, more everything.

The benefits of Ma are stratospheric. We’re talking about becoming more creative, we’re talking about being at peace with ourselves.

It’s only when we embrace negative space — those pauses in time — that we can kick efficiency culture and all its BS promises of health, wealth, and happiness to the curb.

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Ma goes against everything you’re told is normal

Efficiency culture — the concept that you must be wholly efficient at all times — is getting out of control.

Lord knows there are enough writers on platforms like Medium that extoll the virtues of an overworked schedule, fitting in all the hustle and grind that your poor little overworked body and brain can — and often cannot — handle.

But that’s the way of the (Western) world now, is it not? They’re not spouting anything we don’t all hear every single day.

That if you’re not hustlin’, you’re hurtin’ yourself. If you’re not maximizing your time, are you even ambitious, do you even care about your goals, your career, your life?

We’ve streamlined everything so much that there is little time for the concept of Ma.

We’re told it’s lazy to sit on the grass or stare out to sea or take a moment to yourself. There’s no time to foster creativity from within because you should be listening to a podcast or reading a book to spark it for you. You should fill your time from the moment you wake up to the second you go to bed with your quest for self-optimization and improvement, no?

All this maximization talk is rather ironic because it’s not like it’s working. Our anxiety levels are high. We’re overstimulated and overburdened.

We have no peace.

But if you embrace the concept of Ma, in whatever way works for you, you could have.

There’s nothing more terrifying than embracing negative space

In the world of TokTik, on-demand programming, and YT shorts, our brains are so over-stimulated that embracing negative space seems like a terrifying concept.

It seems so… boring. Especially if you’re a big extrovert like me who embraces noise and stimulation as part and parcel of a comfortable daily life.

But even the most extroverted of us know, deep down, that the pause in our days is when the magic happens.

I’m a frequent flier yet I’ll never download movies before I get on a plane and the sort of budget travel I do doesn’t offer in-flight entertainment. Usually, I’m too tight to pay to sit next to my husband so it’s just me, my wifi-free laptop, and my journal.

And boy do the ideas flow. Especially if there’s a window seat and a sweet view involved.

When I embrace negative spaces — such as on flights — ideas just won’t stop coming. As does a feeling of peace I would never get when I was hustling and grinding.

I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about. We know the concept of Ma works, so why are we so scared of it? Of spending time alone, quietly, doing nothing?

More to the point, why don’t we take the opportunity when it arises?

That Protestant work ethic has got a lot to answer for.

To embrace Ma, you’ve gotta cultivate an FU attitude

I’ve talked about this before — if you want to live a life worth living, you’ve got to cultivate a F**k You attitude. One that genuinely doesn’t care what people think about you and doesn’t listen to the noise about what you “should” be doing.

Embracing Ma is no different.

Rejecting efficiency culture ain’t freaking easy. Like I say, it’s embedded in our very way of being. It’s how your parents think you’ll get ahead in life. It’s what self-improvement bros with millions of followers tell the world is the only way.

The only way to reject the BS is to not give a shit.

Like I say, I’m not there yet. I try and then before I know it, I’m ten guilt-ridden Gilmore Girls episodes in.

But cultivating this attitude isn’t a switch. It’s a long process by which you’re battling decades of society-driven norms. Give yourself a break. Start slow. It won’t be that long until that FU attitude is yours for the taking.

Ways to Introduce Ma into your life

I get it. You’re overworked not just because of hustle culture but because late-stage capitalism is garbage for everyone other than those at the very top. You’re a parent whose child demands everything of you 24/7. You might feel that there is no room for embracing the concept of Ma in your busy life.

For the answer to that, I’m looking to the most irritating of self-improvement bros.

They say if you have time to scroll TokTik, or you watch the American average of three hours of TV a day, you’ve got time to hustle.

I say if you’ve got time to do that, you’ve got the time to embrace Ma.

Promise me you’ll try just one of these ideas. Just one…

• Take a solo walk with no podcast or other self-improvement device to hand other than the benefits of moving your body.

• The next time you take a flight, take a journal, not a movie.

• The next time you’re in a queue, don’t check your email, eavesdrop a little instead (because people say the craziest things in the most public of places).

• Sit on a bench and people-watch for at least 5 minutes.

• Only take a single photograph of the next event you attend. Spend the rest of the time enjoying it instead.

• Read for pleasure, not for self-improvement.

It’s not easy to question efficiency culture. Most people will think you’re nuts — or at the very least, lazy — for doing so.

It’s no surprise. If you reject maximizing every part of your life, it likely means you’re not filling your time with stuff that makes other people money. It means society will tell you it means you’re unambitious and thus a lesser human.

But you don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, remember?

As for me, I’m continuing my quest to find peace and creativity in quietness, however hard I find it. I’m trying to not feel guilty about not using every second of my day to improve myself and my situation.

Because I’m allowed to do that.

You are too.

Ma says so.

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