Creating Space
Sometimes it feels like we never have enough time in the day. Our schedules get fuller and fuller, yet our days never get any longer. When we get busy, the hours seemingly drain away and we are left asking, “where did the time go?” We have all experienced this in one form or another – maybe in a demanding job, or trying to juggle work and school, or work and kids. Regardless of the circumstances, when we get busy, it becomes a challenge to simply carve out any time for ourselves. Yet if we aren’t giving ourselves proper time to center, recharge, and simply be outside of the hustle and bustle of modern living, how are we supposed to give ourselves over fully to the task at hand? It’s good to live with zeal – a passionate dedication to life is the secret to keeping a healthy mindset. So how do we get back to living with zeal if it feels like we are already running on empty? This is where the concept of creating space comes into play. As far as I know, we haven’t yet discovered how to stop the clock. But when we are able to create a sense of space in our daily life, we can recharge, and on an energetic level, get some time – or the feeling of having more time, of calmness – back into our lives.
Yoga often acts as a teacher for our lives beyond the mat. We learn lessons in the hot room that we apply in daily life. So our practice on the mat is a good place to begin learning how to create space. We hear yoga teachers all the time instructing us to pay attention to the breath, to link our movement with the breath. We should do this for a few reasons. First, when we move with conscious awareness, we experience Dharana (featured in our last blog on the Eight Limbs of Yoga), which is a meditative concentration on a single object. Here we are able to allow everything outside this moment to fall away. We experience what it is to be truly present. Focusing on the breath is a simple way to train the mind. We learn how to control and calm the mind by giving it a focal point, much like a pacifier.
On a physical level, when we move with the breath we aren’t moving out of habit, so we create a safe practice and tune into body awareness, actually feeling when to back off or when our body is ready for the next level. We begin to honor the body through establishing a more intimate connection to it. Finally, as we hone this skill of mindful awareness – fully conscious in the present moment – we expand this practice into our daily lives.
As we begin to cultivate this practice, we find ourselves activating its power on the mat but also beyond it. Breathing through stressful situations or times that we feel rushed, we immediately give ourselves permission to relax, to introduce some effortlessness into our effort. Finding this balance of steadiness and ease, we create the space to move with presence and awareness within each pose and throughout our days. Imagine the space we can cultivate for ourselves through this simple practice of staying with the breath. Allow the breath to be your meditation – allow it to be your guide, leading you ever deeper and fuller into your practice and your life, one inhale and one exhale at a time. We haven’t added any hours to the day, but we have certainly added a few layers of insulation between ourselves and the feeling that we don’t have enough time.
Ashton Schwarz
