Space

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

I need my space. Give me some space. I crave space. This is a great space.

Space is considered an element in some traditions; water, wind, fire, earth, and space. There is space between our teeth, our cells, our toes. Space in our drawers, cupboards, and empty pots. Space is everywhere. We often forget about space, or perhaps just take it for granted. Yet, on a deeper level, we know space. The space of our heart, our mind, perhaps even our soul space.

There’s space-space, which is vast and infinite. Any trip to a planetarium will illuminate the vastness of space and put life into perspective quickly. Then there is the spaciousness found in the depths of the ocean. There’s even space in atoms, the space in which each electron energetically swirls.

Space is valuable, necessary, and the canvas from which all of creation arises and exists.

Think of music. The notes have value, but the space between the notes gives meaning. The same is true for the written word.

Withoutspacethissentencebecomeschallengingtoread.

Space is also neutral. It is not bothered by what is in it. It receives, accepts, and allows anything to enter. Think of your favorite jar. It is just as okay holding dried lentils as it is holding applesauce or becoming a makeshift wine glass. The jar is just fine with any contents. Space takes nothing personally.

Here’s where it gets a little crazy to contemplate - we are space too. Just containers. Containers that receive thoughts, emotions, sensations; all of which come and go. Why is it that we fail to be as neutral as our favorite jar when it comes to holding all of it? Good question. And one I am still working with.

One of the things I’ve learned through my own mindfulness meditation practices and facilitating others is that when we pause, breathe, and practice presence, we become aware of the ever-present spaciousness within. Think of a balloon. Flat, empty, latent space. Blow into it and the space becomes apparent. It grows, expands, fills.

We are similar. Our mind space and heart space can feel flat, even contracted. But breathe into yourself and feel the latent spaces within you open, expand, receive. A balloon will eventually pop; it has its limits. We have limits too, AND we are limitless. Our bodies and nervous systems have limits; our capacity for awareness can feel much larger.  The space within us is a lot more like the infinite vastness of galaxy space.

When I was a contemplative education student at Naropa University, pursuing my master’s degree, one of our many exercises was space awareness. My classmates and I would walk around a large, empty, spacious room continuously reciting, “space, space, space, space, space.”

Sixteen years later, I’m still trying to figure out the meaning of that exercise. Every now and then, I get a glimmer of meaning, and then it fades. As I understand it today, we were practicing embodying space. Really feeling the feeling of spaciousness, being space itself in which all experiences, thoughts, feelings, stories, emotions - every single piece of life minutia - arise; all of it is welcome and belongs.  That is a tall order, yet it is possible to experience it for oneself.

Pay attention to your breath right now. No need to change anything about it; just notice you’re breathing. Notice what expands like a balloon. Then notice what happens next. Just like blowing into the balloon, there is a limit to your inhale.

What comes next?  Can you feel it?  Can you feel that slight pause, a transitional space between the end of the inhale cycle and the birth of the exhale cycle?  Notice what happens in this new phase. Can you feel the deflating of your internal balloon? The release.

As a kid, did you ever release a filled balloon and watch it crazily fly through the air, emptying itself? That is what is happening during the exhale - a sweet release, an emptying, a letting go.

Now notice: how do you feel?  Perhaps a bit lighter, spacious even?

This is the power of mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork. They all have the potential of reuniting us with our innate spaciousness, within which all of who we are can be held – the things we judge as good, bad or ugly – in neutrality, just like our favorite jar.

Meeting our inner wisdom may be connected to our increased capacity to create space around life experiences just as they are.

In-joy Space