the space between

September 3, 2012liz lamoreux

At the beginning of each month, Kelly and I are sharing our own brief responses to the month's theme over at Chickadee Road. My response to September's theme, "This sacred life," talked about how I find the sacred in the space between each breath.

When I close my eyes and find my breath, I try to notice how my body feels when I inhale and exhale, and then I see if I can find the spaces, the pauses, that also rest inside each breath.

What does it mean to find the breath? I mean bringing an awareness to your breathing. Noticing: How your body moves with each breath cycle. How your chest opens and your spine lengthens as you inhale. How your body settles into itself again as your exhale.

Try it.

Close your eyes and let your mind find your breath. Now let your body feel your breathing. Notice how your body moves. Notice your mind. Find the rhythm of your breath cycles.

Then after 5-10 breath cycles, see if you can find that pause between each inhale and exhale.

And just notice...

What do you find there?

Inside this space, this pause, this observed stillness, I am able to listen even closer for the wisdom that I most need.

Today, while in the bathroom (where so often wisdom and ideas present themselves for some reason...probably because every now and then I find myself alone in there), I found the name of a new Etsy shop I'm going to open. It was waiting for me at the end of an exhale. Just waiting. And when I heard it, I inhaled and smiled and immediately grabbed a marker and wrote it on the mirror.

Last week when I was sitting in my new studio, I took a few deep breaths just being really present to the possibility that seems to rest in every corner right now, and in the space between I found a new layer of understanding when it comes to a relationship in my life.

Perhaps there is magic in that space, that pause, that stillness. Perhaps it is grace. Perhaps it is trust. Maybe it is all of these and more. But I think the sacred waiting there seldom appears out of thin air. It might feel like it does. But I believe that we have to be open to seeking that space. We have to be active participants. We have to look for it. We have to practice finding it and bringing intentional awareness to it.

When people say that you should listen to your wisdom or you read a quote on Pinterest about listening to your heart and you think, I have no idea how to do that or I have no energy for that today...when this happens, come back to your breath. Come back to noticing the inhalations and exhalations. Come back to the presence found in that space.

And begin to listen.

Just start right here.

***

If you want to continue to have conversations about this type of exercise and how it relates to living a creative life, I invite you to join Kelly and me for the Chickadee Road::Studio Sessions. As part of our curriculum, each week I will be sharing a story that illustrates the ways meditation and yoga have become part of my creative practice.