Wiley Portraits and Pages: Lisa Hurley
Space to Exhale isn’t another manual on how to “manage” burnout. It’s not about pushing through the overwhelm. This book is about pulling back.
It’s about choosing softness and sovereignty. It’s about release. It’s about making the deliberate choice every day to say no to the myth of resilience and yes to rest, ease, and alignment. For every Black woman who’s felt like she had to be Superwoman just to exist, Space to Exhale is a soft place to land.
When Women Exhale, by Diamond Michael Scott
In a world that often demands constant hustle and unrelenting strength, Lisa Hurley’s debut book, Space to Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life is nothing short of revolutionary.
With wisdom rooted in lived experience and practical strategies, Lisa invites Black women—and all women—to remove their superhero capes and embrace rest, authenticity, and joy. This book isn’t just a guide; it’s a call to action for a global movement toward softness, sisterhood, and self-care.
PRESS
Meet Lisa Hurley, by Canvas Rebel
Stories of Risk & Reward
Risk, for me, often looks like choosing softness and rest in a world that rewards harshness and hustle. But while risk has been an almost-constant companion in my life, I view it as part of my sacred calling. Taking smart risks is a conduit to manifesting your purpose.
One of the biggest risks I ever took was redefining what success means to me. Traditional success often involves metrics that the world can see: C-suite roles, impressive titles, big-name clients—and long hours. The thing is, those success measures also tend to bring with them exhaustion, depletion, emptiness, and burnout. However, I choose to define success differently. To me, rest is the new success.
Meet Lisa Hurley, by Canvas Rebel
As an activist, a part of my remit is to shine a light on issues affecting my community. As a Reiki Master, it is my duty to do whatever I can to help to make things better: to heal, uplift, elevate, and nurture. Out of the intersection between my activism and my healing work, The Great Exhale was born.
I founded The Great Exhale in order to serve and support Black women like myself who are in search of a respite from harmful spaces and organizational cultures. The Great Exhale is a private membership community designed to be a soft, safe, healing sanctuary where Black women around the globe can relax, lay their burdens down…and exhale.
The Working While Black Effect: An Excerpt from Space to Exhale by Lisa Hurley
—Sharon’s Anti-Racism Newsletter, Curated by Sharon Hurley Hall
Hello friends,
This is the second excerpt from Space To Exhale by Lisa Hurley. If you missed it, check out the first one, Expected to Excel. This excerpt talks about a common experience for Black women in the workplace. Read on for details of both the Working While Black Effect and how anti-racism advocates and accomplices can take steps to counter it…
Expected To Excel: An Excerpt from Space to Exhale by Lisa Hurley
—Sharon’s Anti-Racism Newsletter, Curated by Sharon Hurley Hall
Hello friends,
Some of you may know that my sister Lisa Hurley has a book coming out in May. It's called Space To Exhale, and it's a "practical guide to help Black women - and everyone that needs to - remove their superhero cape, embrace rest, and create lasting life-work balance". The reason why this book and those spaces are so needed is explained in Chapter 8 of her book, titled Working While Black, and I've got permission to publish a couple of excerpts, which deal directly with the racism many Black people experience. Here's the first one.
PRESS RELEASES
Lisa Hurley five-time Anthem Award–winning author and Founder of The Great Exhale, continues to gain national recognition for her début book, Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life (Wiley), which has earned a Gold Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association Book Awards. This recognition further solidifies Space To Exhale as a critically recognized work addressing burnout, workplace culture, life/work balance, and the lived realities of Black women navigating systemic pressure.
Space To Exhale by Lisa Hurley Earns Gold from Nonfiction Authors Association, Building on Its Award-Winning Momentum
04/27/2026
Space To Exhale by Lisa Hurley Ends The Year on a High Note by Winning Multiple National and International Book Awards
12/31/2025
As 2025 draws to a close and cultural institutions reflect on the work that captured the zeitgeist of this landmark year, Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life by Lisa Hurley has emerged as one of the most decorated nonfiction titles of the year, earning multiple national and international honors.
Published by Wiley, Space To Exhale has been recognized across award platforms spanning literature, social impact, community care, and cultural leadership. The book has received two honors from The Anthem Awards: it is a Gold Anthem Community Voice Award winner and a Bronze Anthem Award winner in the DEI Book category, signaling its resonance at the intersection of wellness, equity, purpose, and collective care.
Lisa Hurley and Sharon Hurley Hall Announce Triple Finalist Honors in the American Writing Awards
11/27/2025
Award-winning activists, authors, and podcasters Lisa Hurley and Sharon Hurley Hall have been honored as finalists in the prestigious American Writing Awards, marking a significant literary achievement for the sisters whose work continues to influence global conversations on race, rest, identity, introversion, and soft living.
Hurley’s début title, Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life, has been named a finalist in the Best New (Début) Non-Fiction and Non-Fiction (General) categories. Hurley Hall’s renowned book, I’m Tired of Racism: True Stories of Existing While Black, has been honored as a finalist in the Non-Fiction (Multicultural) category.
Space To Exhale, the first non-fiction book by award-winning activist, noted speaker, and Founder of The Great Exhale, Lisa Hurley, has been honored as a double winner in the 5th Annual Anthem Awards. The title has received both the Bronze Anthem Award and the Anthem Community Voice Award in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category (Book, Story, or Feature), demonstrating its profound resonance among judges and readers alike.
Widely praised as a defining text in the global rest movement, Space To Exhale offers readers both invitation and instruction. It grounds readers in soft living, decolonized self-care, and the truth that rest is the new success
Lisa Hurley's Début Book, Space To Exhale, Wins Two Anthem Awards
11/18/2025
Award-winning activist, acclaimed author, and Founder of The Great Exhale, Lisa Hurley, has been recognized as a Finalist in the 5th Annual Anthem Awards for her transformative book, Space To Exhale, A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life (Wiley, 2025).
Celebrated for its message of rest, soft living, and self-care, Space To Exhale serves as both an invitation and an instruction manual for everybody who is ready to exhale—especially Black women navigating capitalist systems that glorify exhaustion while pathologizing ease. The book posits that rest is the new success, centering self-care, life-work balance, and emotional wellbeing as vital acts of resistance and restoration.
Lisa Hurley, Author of Space To Exhale, Honored as a Finalist in the 5th Annual Anthem Awards
10/06/2025
Anthem Award-winning activist, Reiki Master, and Caribbean-American writer Lisa Hurley celebrates the official release of her highly anticipated début book, Space To Exhale, available now wherever books are sold. Timed to coincide with Juneteenth, Caribbean-American Heritage Month, and the second anniversary of The Great Exhale, Hurley’s healing-centered community for Black women—Space To Exhale is a balm, a boundary, and a blueprint for Black women who are tired of the grind and ready to reclaim softness, stillness, serenity—and rest.
“In a society that constantly demands our constant labor and defines our rest as laziness, Space To Exhale is a loving, liberating reminder that we deserve to breathe, without guilt or apology,” says Hurley. “This book is my offering to everyone who has been told to keep pushing through exhaustion, burnout, and pain. Enough. It is time for us to rest. It is time for us to relax. It is time for us to exhale.”
Anthem-Award Winning Activist Lisa Hurley’s Début Book Space To Exhale Offers Black Women a Blueprint for Soft Living
06/17/2025
Three-time Anthem Award-winning activist, writer, and Reiki Master Lisa Hurley announces the release of her début book, Space To Exhale, a powerful and poetic ode to rest as the foundation of radical self-love for Black women. Timed intentionally, the book will launch on June 17, 2025, to align with celebrating Juneteenth, Caribbean-American Heritage Month, and the second anniversary of The Great Exhale, the wellness community founded by Hurley that centers Black women's healing, joy, and rest.
In Space To Exhale: A Handbook for Curating a Soft, Centered, Serene Life, Hurley issues a gentle but bold invitation for Black women to reclaim their time, their joy, and their breath. The book explores rest as a form of resistance, reclamation, and healing, offering readers insights into finding peace amidst societal pressures.
Lisa Hurley's Book Space To Exhale Offers a Timely Blueprint Encouraging Rest, Healing, and Liberation for Black Women
05/21/2025