“The act of meditation is spaciousness” – Sogyal Rinpoche
I wanted to share with you how someone explained “spaciousness within us” to me. Imagine you have a hook, in order for this hook to attach deeply into something, you need it to be dense and heavy.
Imagine this hook is people’s emotional heaviness, their pain, their anger, their fear. In order for them to hook into you strongly, they need dense heavy emotional pain in you also, they cannot attach this hook into spaciousness, they cannot hook their pain into you, if you do not have this energy within you.
So now imagine the hook trying to attach itself into a spacious energy. One that is light and filled with emotions like love, peace and compassion, this emotional energy is spacious and is not something the hook can attach to and so they do not try.
We create spaciousness within us through letting go of our heavy emotional pain that sometimes is locked deep within from our past. This pain, whether it be from unforgiveness, hurt, rejection or sickness makes us heavy and dense, and this is how people who are also heavy and dense are attracted to us and hook in.
The more we let go, the more we lighten our emotional load and are more likely to attract positive people and good experiences into our life.
“Slowly you begin to understand that both hope and fear are enemies of your peace of mind; hopes deceive you, and leave you empty and disappointed, and fears paralyze you in the narrow cell of your false identity and this makes us feel heavy.” – Sogyal Rinpoche
Below are a few ways I help create spaciousness in myself:
* Forgiveness
* Yoga/Breathing Techniques
* Meditation
* Positive thoughts and affirmations
* Letting past hurts go
* Daily choices to create peace and love in all my experiences
It is not to say we are free from being around heavy energy, we are just less likely to attract it in when we are light and spacious.
“In the space of freedom opened up by meditation, when you are momentarily released from grasping, you glimpse the exhilarating spaciousness of your true nature.” – Sogyal Rinpoche
How do you create space in your life?
LIVING IN THIS MOMENT 
Love this post Karen!
“The more we let go, the more we lighten our emotional load.” So true!
When I am stretching and warming up my body I imagine creating space between my ribs, around my waist, in between the creaky joints and I imagine filling it with my breath and life energy. It opens up and releases my body and mind 🙂
Val x
Thankyou Val, a great description of expanding your space through yoga.
Karen
Karen, the visual you use is really helpful in this post in understanding what you are trying to tell us. Thanks for articulating it so well. ❤
Diana xo
Thankyou Diana, sometimes metaphors can be really hard to understand, so I am glad it made sense!
Karen
Attempting to stay connected to the Now is how I create space, along with a number of other things some of which you mentioned in your post. Thank you for a thoughtful piece.
Staying present is a great way to create space, so true. Thankyou for your comment.
Karen
I agree with Val!!! You know, for me writing poetry is a kind of meditation, of course, I think it is not quite orthodox meditation, but to me, it is a very special and “relaxing” concentration. Thank you for this post, so interesting, as always (I love your quotes!)
Thankyou Frederic. Your poetry creates space for us too! Writing is a beautiful form of meditation and release and this definitely creates spaciousness.
Karen
Simply lovely…
Thankyou Vicki.
I started doing yoga a few years ago…and felt the same sense as you describe above. Perhaps the most uplifting and unexpected is what you mention at the end “The more we let go, the more we lighten our emotional load and are more likely to attract positive people and good experiences into our life.”
Thankyou for your comment and I agree, as Yoga lightens my emotional load and allows spaciousness for me to give and receive more easily.
Karen
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since you posted it. It’s on my mind because I’m reading Eckhart Tolle, who also talks about space and Presence and being in the Now. I find it challenging to create spaciousness within, and be present. My current exercise that seems to help, is to be aware of my breath and my body. It’s what Tolle recommends, and indeed it’s hard not to be here now when I do this. And … I happen to also be reading a book about creative writing on scene building, and what a coincidence — that book also proposes that anchoring the reader in the book’s “now” is accomplished by the writer’s careful construction of time and place.
Great comment MK, I love Eckhart as he also has taught me so much about being present and using the breath to connect. What is so interesting is that when I am practising “presence” I often have signs to remind me to stay present and be aware, like in the book you are reading now!
I’m a few years late to this post, Karen, but you know what they say: ‘Better late than never!’ I’m so pleased to have found it today as it is tremendous!
It’s lovely to have you here Marie! 💕💚