about space to exhale

Tired of feeling tired? You are not burned out because you are doing life wrong. 

You're fatigued because you have been navigating systems that equate exhaustion with success.

If you are constantly running on empty and barely pushing through, Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life will help you reclaim your energy, get some rest, and build a softer, more centered life. 

In Space To Exhale Lisa Hurley, five-time Anthem Award-winning author and Founder of The Great Exhale, offers a practical, affirming self-help book to help you:

  • Recover from burnout without abandoning your aspirations

  • Set strong boundaries that preserve your peace

  • Honor your capacity without guilt

  • Release the pressure to overperform

  • Redefine success on your own terms

  • Create sustainable life-work balance 

  • Embrace soft living as a liberatory practice, not a luxury 

Drawing from her lived experience as a burnout survivor, Reiki Master, and community builder, Hurley shares the exact tools that helped her move from exhaustion to ease. Through affirmations, meditations, journaling prompts, breathwork, and her signature Exhalation Point™ framework, she guides you through a powerful shift to:

  • Know Yourself: Reconnect with who you are beneath the pressure, and realign with what truly matters.

  • Love Yourself: Release the belief that your worth is tied to your productivity, and prioritize your rest, your needs, and your peace.

  • Be Yourself: Show up fully, set boundaries with confidence, and build a life that instead of draining you, supports you.

This book is for you if:

  • You are exhausted from constantly holding everything together

  • You want self-care solutions that go deeper than the surface level 

  • You are a Black woman seeking language, validation, and practices for your healing

  • You are ready to move from survival mode into softness, clarity, and ease

Book cover with abstract light teal and white swirling design, titled 'Space to Exhale' by Lisa Hurley, with subtitle 'A handbook for curing a soft, centered, serene life'.

Recognized and celebrated for its cultural impact, Space To Exhale has received multiple honors, including:

  • Gold + Bronze Anthem Awards

  • Nonfiction Authors Association Gold Award

  • North American Book Award (Inspirational Nonfiction)

It has also been featured in The Globe and Mail, affirming its relevance in conversations around burnout, rest, and modern work culture.

You do not need to keep living this way. You do not need to prove your worth through exhaustion. You do not need to keep going until burnout forces you to stop. 

You do not need to earn rest. You are allowed to exhale.

featured in major media, including The Globe and Mail

5-star rated on Amazon

12+ awards & honors, including 2 Anthem Awards

published by Wiley

at a glance

reviews from

the Nonfiction Authors Association judging panel

  • Personal Narratives and Practical Exercises

    “The lived experience of Black women in America is shaped by systemic racism and misogynoir — forces that fuel burnout, emotional exhaustion, and, at times, suicidal ideation. Lisa Hurley's Space to Exhale confronts these realities head-on. Drawing on her journey as an Afro-Caribbean woman in predominantly white corporate environments, Hurley offers personal narratives, affirmations, and practical exercises that empower Black women to resist overwork, prioritize rest, and reclaim their time, energy, and joy.”

  • Relatable, Empowering, and Creative

    “Hurley, an activist and community builder, has also cultivated the podcast that is the book's namesake. She draws upon the power of the auditory medium to tell compelling, accessible stories on the page. Her literary voice is at once relatable, empowering, and creative, inviting readers to embrace “soft living” and self-compassion. ​She grounds the lessons in poems and lyrical prose. ​I appreciated how poems like “Why I Breathe” and “The Alchemist” serve as reflective anchors, emphasizing self-discovery, resilience, and spiritual connection.”

  • Hurley's Work is a Profound Gift

    “As someone who is not a Black woman, I recognize I stand outside the primary audience of Space to Exhale. Yet Hurley's work is a profound gift to anyone invested in the well-being of Black women in both personal and professional spaces. My dissertation research explored the lived experiences of women of color advancing racial equity in STEM workplaces, and Hurley's portrayal of the "strong Black woman" trope powerfully mirrors my findings. Her candid accounts of fainting at work and a fatigue-induced car accident underscore the urgent, life-altering consequences of ignoring rest and self-care.”

  • Practical Wisdom and Soulful Encouragement

    “Space to Exhale offers Black women — and all readers seeking healing and renewal — a powerful blend of practical wisdom and soulful encouragement. Hurley's tools and insights inspire a deeper embrace of self-care, authenticity, and balance, guiding readers toward intentional living rooted in joy and ease.”

why Lisa wrote space to exhale

a note from the author

I wrote Space To Exhale because I have experienced the urgency of needing it. It is the book that helped me to get up after a breakdown. My hope is that if you are in a similar space, it will do the same for you.

Like so many of us, I spent years moving at an unsustainable pace: pushing through burnout, bypassing my body's signals, and treating rest as a reward instead of a necessity. Space To Exhale emerged from my own journey toward reclaiming rest, redefining success, and learning to center serenity, not as a luxury, but as a practice of self-preservation.

We live in a world that glorifies hustle culture, minimizes wellness, and positions productivity as a marker of worthiness. My goal was and is to offer a counter-narrative. Space To Exhale centers the idea that rest is not a reward; it is a necessity and a right. 

Rest is the new success.

At its heart, this book is a soft place to land. It is my offering to anyone who feels overwhelmed, depleted, or disconnected. It serves as a practical and compassionate guide for anyone seeking to live a less frenetic, more intentional life—one rooted in calm, clarity, and care. Space To Exhale was written to help you embrace ease, increase self-love, and create room to breathe. It is a deeply personal project, but also a timely one that speaks to the collective exhaustion many people—especially Black women—carry silently.

Whether you're navigating burnout, seeking peace, or simply longing to feel more at ease in your body, mind, and life, this book is here to hold space for you—and help you create some for yourself. Inside, you'll find tools to help you slow down, breathe deeply, and cultivate a lifestyle that honors your full humanity.

My hope is that this book will help you feel seen, affirmed, and held. May it offer you what I needed most when I began my own journey: permission to pause, to rest, and to exhale.

With love,
Lisa

the evolution of space to exhale

Space To Exhale did not begin as a book. It began as a community: The Great Exhale. That community became the birthplace of an entire ecosystem including the Exhalation Point™ framework, the book, the podcast, and the broader movement rooted in rest, healing, and the undeniable power of a deep exhale.

2021: The First Exhale

Lisa begins exploring the "exhale" idea through personal reflections on rest, breathwork, burnout, healing, and creating a softer way of living.

Listening & Learning

Through conversations with women, friends, colleagues, and future community members, recurring themes become clear: burnout, boundaries, healing, self-care, soft living, and rest.

The Exhalation Point™ Framework Takes Shape

Know Yourself. Love Yourself. Be Yourself.

2023: The Great Exhale is founded

A soft space for Black women to rest, connect, reflect, and return to themselves.

2025: Space To Exhale is Published

The Exhalation Point™ framework becomes the foundation of the award-winning book Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life.

2025: Space To Exhale: The Podcast Launches

The conversation expands through inspiring interviews and discussions on rest, joy, wellbeing, and authentic living.

Today

An ever-growing ecosystem of conversations, community, connections, and resources helping people make space to exhale.

explore the exhalation point™ framework

the story behind the name

Long before there was a book called Space To Exhale, the idea of exhaling had become a recurring theme in Lisa's writing, reflections, and praxis.

When it came time to name the community that would eventually become the birthplace of the Exhalation Point™ Framework, members were invited to submit ideas and vote.

The name they chose was The Great Exhale.

Looking back, it feels less like a branding decision and more like a moment of collective intuition. The community recognized and gave voice to something that was already emerging.

Years later, the concept would continue to evolve through The Exhalation Point™ Framework, Space To Exhale, and Space To Exhale: The Podcast.

the exhalation point™ framework

know yourself

self-awareness

boundaries

truth

love yourself

compassion

self-care

rest

be yourself

authenticity

alignment

freedom

frequently asked questions

  • Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life is an invitation to step away from hustle culture and create a life rooted in rest, self-knowledge, healing, and sustainable success.

    Blending personal memoir, soft-living manifesto, and meditation guide, the book explores what can happen when we stop measuring our worth by our productivity and begin listening to what our minds, bodies, and spirits truly need.

  • Space To Exhale is for anyone who feels exhausted by the pressure to keep achieving, producing, and pushing through.

    It may especially resonate with Black women, caregivers, high achievers, leaders, creatives, neurodivergent people, and anyone recovering from burnout or questioning whether the life they have worked so hard to build is actually supporting their wellbeing.

  • No. The book is written from my perspective as a Black Caribbean woman, and it speaks honestly about the experiences and expectations that often shape Black women’s lives. At the same time, its central themes—rest, self-worth, burnout recovery, boundaries, healing, and creating a more sustainable life—are relevant to readers from many backgrounds.

  • Yes, the ebook is available from Wiley, and the Kindle version is available on Amazon

  • There is no single right way to read Space To Exhale. You can move through it from beginning to end, read one section at a time, or return to the chapters, affirmations, prayers, breathwork, and reflections you need most.

    This is not a book you have to rush through or “complete” perfectly. You are invited to engage with it gently and at your own pace.

  • Yes. Alongside personal stories and cultural reflections, Space To Exhale includes breathwork, affirmations, prayers, invocations, meditations, journal prompts, and other practices designed to help you reconnect with yourself.

    The book is organized around the Exhalation Point™ framework: Know Yourself, Love Yourself, Be Yourself.

  • Absolutely. The book can support conversations about rest, burnout, boundaries, workplace culture, emotional wellbeing, identity, self-worth, and sustainable success.

    It may be used by book clubs, employee resource groups, leadership teams, wellness communities, sororities, nonprofit organizations, faith communities, and other groups seeking a more thoughtful way to live and work.

  • No. Space To Exhale is a supportive personal-development and self-help resource, not a substitute for therapy, medical treatment, mental health care, or professional advice.

    The reflections and practices in the book can complement the support you receive from qualified professionals, but you should always seek appropriate care for your individual needs.

  • Space To Exhale is available through Wiley and major booksellers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million, and other retailers.

    You may also request the book through your local independent bookstore or library.

  • Yes. Bulk ordering is available for companies, conferences, book clubs, employee resource groups, nonprofit organizations, universities, wellness programs, sororities, and other communities.

    Orders can be placed through Porchlight Book Company, which offers volume-based discounts. For speaking engagements or larger partnerships connected to the book, please use the contact form.