Finding the Space to Hold it All
Life can be difficult. All the strife, division, and discrimination around us are enough to overload anyone. But, particularly when we want to walk a path of open-heartedness, finding the space within ourselves for all of these big feelings can leave us feeling drained and wondering when we lost touch with ourselves.
Added to this, the number of worthwhile endeavors and must-dos that develop in our desire to be true to ourselves and contribute to the world and our relationships is beyond measure. From cleaning the bathroom, spending time with friends and family, holding down jobs, and responding to emails and texts; everything seems so urgent and unavoidable. We have ideas about who we want to be and what we need to do to ‘fix’ ourselves. Moreover, in the face of all, we want to accomplish, it can feel impossible to know how to take the time to slow down and re-connect to ourselves. For me, navigating all the feelings associated with these both external and self-imposed pressures and failures is a burden. In trying so hard to do what we think is right, we still find we are still not grounded in ourselves, and for me, this is always an awkward and embarrassing revelation.
When we identify with the external concepts of exponential growth, expansion, and progress, we are left with too little time for integrating the experience of our lives. We still have to get up and go to work. We still need to keep showing up for those we love and become de-sensitized to the self-limiting language we use with ourselves. No matter how hard we try, it will never be enough, and we’ve lost ourselves again. But this time, it’s gotten to the point of wanting to give it all up.
Short of actually throwing in the towel, we find ourselves continually trying to modulate our experience of what is. We are quite inventive. From coffee and cigarettes to yoga before bed and traveling the world, we can use it all as means to soften the edges and hide from what we subject ourselves to in our minds and our day-to-day lives.
Eventually, we can recognize how exhausting it is to be always running to and from discomfort. At some point, we owe ourselves a line drawn in the sand and the time to really get curious about ourselves. We need to understand our limits so we can stop going past them. We need to accept what we cannot change so we can stop fighting and hiding from it. Moreover, we need to know what lights us up so we can take that leap instead of running ourselves ragged efforting the wrong places. We need to listen to all the body has to say in response to our lives. We Then, we can experience the space to really be with ourselves even in the midst of our hectic lives.
The answer lies in a simple breath. The breath is your intrinsic link to your aliveness, in it lies a portal to all the different parts of your being, a way to get to know yourself and the world. As the dynamic expression of the mind-body connection, when the breath is allowed to express its intelligence, the spirit is free to express its wise presence. Set aside all that has not yet happened, leave behind what no longer serves you, attune to your own breath, each breath, and arrive in the present moment.
When we approach the breath with a mindful and spacious presence, we see its inherent wisdom and symbolism. The subtle energy that breathes through your body, whether or not you remember to do so, also brings the electrical charge to your nervous system, thought formations in the sea of mind and it perceives through our senses. It organizes and animates our world. When we stop, soften, and tune in to this, we see the space opening up within us and before us with clarity and expansiveness.
Just as after each exhale, eventually you must inhale, so to all of life: wake and sleep, think and feel, create and dream, speak and listen, give and receive, life and death. Just as we have to work hard for what we want, we have to take time to slow down, rest and recharge to have the resources to keep treading along the path. You are not like that freight train of progress, but something more natural like a flower, the breath or yourself. When you don’t know what to do next or you don’t know how to do it all, just stop and breathe.
We owe it to ourselves to pause and breathe into our bodies and ask ourselves ‘How am I really doing?’
When we allow the intelligence of our body and the life force animating it the place of prominence it deserves within our field of our attention, we open ourselves to the innate wisdom that is intrinsically a part of our being. When this happens, our world becomes a very different place. We are dialing down that spinning thinking mind and witnessing that sensing feeling resonance we all contain. We are creating pure time and space within ourselves and our lives. You can live your external life and be contributing member of your community and also return home to the core essence of your being. You can feel at home and at peace with yourself right here in the middle of it all.
