Breaking out of Either/Or living

Have you ever wanted more spaciousness in your day, but your days are full of responsibilities that you can’t ignore. Well, for almost a year now, I have been keeping a morning journal in which I draw and write. Some days, it’s a few scratch marks, along with a simple sentence, while other days I have more time. This practice has allowed me to become more tuned in to myself and to God, and reflect on the choices I am making. So this morning, when the word spaciousness came up, I thought, what’s the message here. How can I relate to my day in a spacious way?

The first thing I did was that I decided to ride my bike to work. I noticed that being in my body and moving can create a sense of spaciousness for me. As I rode along, through the park, and the neighborhoods, with the wind softly caressing my cheeks, I felt a feeling of openness and space.

When I got to work, I realized that I needed to respect my need to be more quiet today, but that didn’t mean that the people around me were my enemies. decided that rather than shut down to the people around me, because I was feeling so crammed inside, I relaxed and stayed open. During my lunch break, I took time to close the library door find a few minutes alone. I also make a conscious effort not to feel like I was rushing through my day.

After work, I forfeited some errands and came right home, taking time to be quiet before my husband came home and we had dinner. By the end of the day, I didn’t feel drained. What I noticed was that I didn’t need to live in an either/or space. I found a way to integrate my need into my day, within the constraints of the situation. The more we can expand in our thinking, in our behavior, and in our framework for our daily lives, the more spaciousness we can experience.

Try this meditation: find a comfortable place to sit, take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, visualize the sky, the big sky, become the sky inside of you, rest there for few moments.