“Space. The Final Frontier.” We often think of space as the universe – the emptiness between celestial bodies. But the concept of space is broader – and also much smaller – than the universe. As living beings, we embody space down to our very cells. And we are surrounded by space: between people, cars, houses, towns, countries. Space is an integral part of our communications with ourselves and with others – it lies between and around words – in print, speech, and thought.

“Space,” has been much on my mind lately because the concept keeps coming up in yoga class – both when I practice and when I teach. Space is present during yoga as body and breath link to create various ways of holding and moving our bodies: “postures” or “poses.” Each posture is a way of being in the present moment. During our movements from pose to pose, there are a number of ways that space is experienced:

Breath: The breath acts as a guide through movement, and each breath contains space – a pause at the top of an inhalation, and at the bottom of an exhalation. Here, space is an interlude before transition – before moving away from one way of being (full) toward another (empty) and vice versa. When we focus on breath and linger in the pauses, greater presence is found. Each pause offers a moment of rest. Each breath cycle is a beginning until our very last exhale.  

Movement: We also work within space to create postures. In other words, we navigate the room we are in, the people around us, and our own mats. More importantly, each posture contains space within it – and much of what we strive for in our postures is a feeling of spaciousness, which is sensed by and through the breath. Even in our deepest twists, we still seek the space to breathe with ease and simplicity.   Yet we are often unaware that this is what we seek. We just know that when we find that openness, that freedom – that bit of room – we feel glorious!

Thought: There is also space between our thoughts and our reactions to them. Many a time, when holding a posture that brings up effort or agitation, our minds scream, “get out!” Of course, if there is pain, that is a directive to be followed. But often, we are simply uncomfortable. We want to move away from discomfort because that is what we do. When I began to practice yoga one pose in particular – pigeon – brought up an almost overwhelming amount of agitation. I would hunch over my front shin and internally bitch: “This teacher is too hard.” “My hips are too tight.” “I HATE THIS POSE!!!!!” “I AM NEVER COMING BACK!!!!” And often I would complain to my teacher. Her answer? “The poses we hate the most are the ones we need to do the most.” She would encourage me to stay just a little longer, to focus on something other than the thoughts racing around in my head. Over time, this pose has become one of my favorites. I was able, eventually, to use the breath (with its innate spaciousness) to discover space between thought and reaction, so that I could find more space in the posture.

As students, we often think that yoga is about the final “getting there” of grabbing the toe, stretching the leg, reaching the pinnacle. Look how strong and bendy I am! But the pinnacle is found not in that “perfect” pose, but rather in the space we find in and through our bodies. This ability to feel open – not constricted or forced – does not mean we don’t feel effort. It means within the effort of moving and holding our bodies, there is space. And in that space is liberation.