Spaciousness in energy
The same emotion, held in spaciousness instead of in a fixed frame, behaves differently. This lesson is mostly silence — five timed segments. Plan for about ten minutes.
What spaciousness does
When you see an object simply as good, every "good thing" becomes interchangeable, regardless of context. This collapses the aliveness of the object — the particular ways you might want it, the particular things you might do with it. When you see a person as annoying, they become like every other annoying person.
Spaciousness is the experience of open possibility across embodiment, vision, and attitude. It arises when you release the limited ways you were seeing the moment. Things become free to unfold in many different ways.
In this exercise we'll establish a base in Opening Awareness, then dip into the energy of the memory you've been working with — this time without the fixed framing — and see what happens.
The memory you'll use
If the memory from the last lesson felt alive, use it again. If it didn't feel alive, here are three alternatives — pick whichever has the most charge right now:
- Remember the last time you needed a bathroom and couldn't get to one. Stuck in a meeting, or driving.
- Remember the last time you were running late for something where the lateness would be noticed.
- If you still feel stuck, see if you can find the aliveness of the stuckness itself. How does it feel to consider that you might totally miss out on the value of this exercise? Connect with that.
Hold whichever is most available. You'll be cued when to bring it in.
The sequence
Five segments. Press play on each timer when you're ready. There's a bell at the end of each.
Segment 1 — Opening Awareness, two minutes
Relax into an open and awake posture. Intend to remain uninvolved with whatever arises. Don't pay attention to any specific sensation, and don't ignore anything. Let everything be included. We're establishing the base.
Segment 2 — Inhabit the memory, one minute
From the foundation of Opening Awareness, bring the memory in. Don't analyze it; inhabit it. See the sights as if for the first time. Hear the sounds. Let the feelings come over you. Embody the energetic sensations as fully as you can — let them move you, even more strongly than they did at the time. Find what's interesting in the texture, even to the point that you might begin to enjoy it.
Segment 3 — Opening Awareness, two minutes
Let the texture of the memory fall away and mingle with everything else you're experiencing. Rest in simple Opening Awareness again. Don't focus on anything, don't ignore anything. Include whatever's there.
Segment 4 — Walk, two minutes
Stand up. Take a short walk around your space. See if you can stay in touch with the energetic texture you were exploring — now with your body in motion. The bell will call you back.
Bring your phone or keep your laptop volume up so you can hear the bell from the next room.
Segment 5 — Opening Awareness, two minutes
Return to your meditation posture. Notice how things may have changed as a result of the walk. Two final minutes of Opening Awareness without involvement.
Coming back
With spaciousness, even unwelcome energies become potentially useful — sometimes beautiful, sometimes simply distinct. The same memory ran through a different channel and came out differently. That's not a trick or a reframe; it's what energy does when it isn't being held in a tight grip.
Where this is going
The next lesson takes this further. We'll move through five intense emotions in turn — boredom, fear, anger, obsession, shame — and see what they become when they're met instead of managed.