Pause, Breathe and Grow with a mindfulness journal for creatives

London creative director and graphic designer Radim Malinic is no stranger to the world of publishing; his bestselling Ideas and Branding books have graced many a desk. While those releases were great sources of creative inspiration for the design community, his latest tome is more about spiritual growth than an artistic one.

Written By: Giacomo Lee

1 December 2020

Pause, Breathe and Grow: Notes on mindful creative life is a book created by Radim to help us make time with our thoughts, plans and ambitions by leading a more mindful creative life, as inspired by the events of this thankfully-ending year.

"When Covid-19 and the first lockdown hit, like all of us I had not just to change how I worked, but how I thought about work," Radim says about the book. "I soon realised that ridiculously long to-do lists needed to go. Pre-pandemic, I'd frequently find myself leaving the studio late in the evening wondering why I never felt closer to being finished; why I felt deflated after working flat out for at least 12 hours a day. I was far from happy."

"Something had to change. If this year's shown us anything, it's that we need to appreciate the small things in life – cherish every new day, and celebrate victories regardless of how small they might seem. We’re all relearning how to live in the world. To help me cope, and to remind myself how I managed to get through bad situations before, I compiled a collection of daily prompts."

The foundations of Pause, Breathe and Grow lay in making progress in realistic increments. Designed to be used alongside one's work schedule, each page focuses on just one thing to achieve in a day. Containing enough prompts to enable readers to try a new exercise each day for 126 days (around four months), the book also includes spaces devoted to tracking moods and habits, and to jot down daily notes and reflections.

The prompts in the book aim to help avoid task overload and endless lists that never get fully ticked off. They offer new ideas for improving workflow, and more broadly, for helping find peace with the world. Through easy-to-follow advice on approaching tasks with clarity, thoughtfulness and creativity, Radim helps untangle the mind from knots of seemingly impossible deadlines and unshakeable doubts.

Designed, printed and bound in London, Pause, Breathe and Grow is a certified climate-neutral print product manufactured using 100% offshore wind-generated electricity. The book is available from today, 1 December, via pausebreathegrow.com where you can also download a sample. Bonus content includes three guided audio meditations by Adiba Osmani from Inherestudio.com for readers to download and keep.