Space to Exhale

Tips, tools, and strategies to help Black women, and all women, manifest happier, easier, more fulfilling lives

In Space To Exhale: A Handbook For Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life, renowned activist, entrepreneur, and speaker Lisa Hurley delivers an inspiring and practical guide to help Black women remove their superhero cape, embrace rest, and create lasting life/work balance. In her debut book, Hurley reveals how Black women can curate a happier existence—one filled with ease, love, and psychological safety—so that they move from merely surviving to vibrantly thriving.

Space To Exhale shares relatable anecdotes to help readers realize they’re not alone in their struggles, whether in life or at work. With her trademark warmth, wisdom, and wit, Lisa draws on her experience as a Reiki master, community builder, and career creative, providing readers with tools for transformation: affirmations, meditations, invocations, breathing practices, journaling prompts, and more.

Space To Exhale invites readers to:

• Discover – or remember – who they truly are
• Cultivate self-love through self-care strategies like breathwork, mindfulness, and affirmations
• Embrace everything about themselves: their melanin, their culture, their crowns, their unique magic
• Transcend the often exhausting and demoralizing experiences they face in majority-white workplaces
• Live their most authentic lives – both personally and professionally – by aligning their public and private personas
• Prioritize rest, and embrace the beauty of underdrive

Space To Exhale: A Handbook For Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life is a balm for the spirit. It earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of anyone seeking to embrace the art of the pause, take a deep breath, and consciously make their dream life a reality.

About the Author

Lisa Hurley is an Anthem Award-winning activist, writer, and speaker. Her work centers Black women, and operates at the nexus of self care, community care, joy, and rest.

Hurley is the author of Space To Exhale, a transformational book created to help people beat burnout, embrace rest, and curate a soft, fulfilling life. Part memoir, part manifesto, part meditation guide, Space To Exhale is a self-help manual that inspires us all to remove our superhero capes, put our masks on first, and create lasting life-work balance. Lisa is also the Founder of The Great Exhale, a virtual community where Black women can relax, lay their burdens down—and exhale.

Lisa is an executive member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a board member of YuVoice, and a juror for the Anthem Awards. As a result of her activism, she has been honored as one of the Top 20 Entrepreneurs to follow on LinkedIn, voted as one of LinkedIn's Top 50 Black Creators, and recognized as one of the Top 10 Anti-Discrimination Activists Worldwide. In addition, she has been honored by Hush Loudly as an Introvert to Watch, and as one of pocstock's Future of Black America Top 50 Leaders.

A Founding Member of The Book Academy, Lisa is also a graduate of the University of the West Indies, with a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics & Foreign Languages, and of New York University, with a Master's degree in Music Business.

A believer in good vibes, Lisa is a Reiki Master Teacher, and is known for her inspiring affirmations on TikTok. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with her adopted Jack Russell Terrier, reading a good book, and expressing her creativity through fashion.

Of Caribbean heritage, Lisa is a world traveler with an understandable preference for warmer climes. Her love languages are sunshine, naps, and laughter.

Table of Contents
Prologue xiii

Author’s Note xv

Introduction 1

Part I Know Yourself 11

Chapter 1 Know Your Self: Remember 13

Chapter 2 Know Your Values: Align 29

Chapter 3 Know Your Strengths: Focus 49

Part II Love Yourself 75

Chapter 4 Curate Your Thoughts: Manifest 77

Chapter 5 Curate Your Circle: Connect 107

Chapter 6 Curate Your Capacity: Rest 133

Part III Be Yourself 167

Chapter 7 Working While Black: Learn 169

Chapter 8 Curate Your Career: Strategize 205

Chapter 9 Curate Your Energy: Elevate 225

Chapter 10 Curate Your Soft Life: Exhale 245

Conclusion 265

Epilogue 271

Resources 273

Glossary 275

Acknowledgments 281

About the Author 287

Notes 289

Index 297