I've spent the last three weeks mostly isolated in the redwood forests of Northern California working on a farm, touching plants for 8-12 hours a day, every day. This solitude and time with the plants has provided me a lot of space to be with myself, my thoughts, and my feelings. It's given me the much needed distance from worldly distractions to introspect and reflect on where I'm at in my life and where I want to go from here.
This morning in meditation I had an insight that I wanted to share with anyone ready to hear the message. This concept is something I've realized before, but today it all came to me in a form that really resonated with my current situation.
Here's what I wrote in my journal today after my meditation:
"People are scared of space-- physical, mental, and emotional. As soon as we sense this opening, we do whatever we can to fill it."
Have a blank wall in a room? Let's add a painting and some shelves. Now let's get a bunch of stuff to put on the shelf so that it looks full. Don't have anything to occupy our mind today? Let's scroll mindlessly through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Feeling a space within emotionally? Let's distract ourselves from it through addictions or unnecessary energy dramas that we create for ourselves (aka 'problems').
When we move away from the noise and into the silence of no-thing-ness, we first find ourselves facing the parts of ourselves that we have been trying to avoid-- the shadow aspects of ourselves that we consciously and unconsciously try to hide away from the world.
This is where the discomfort that we associate with the space comes from. We haven't been taught how to handle the no-thing-ness, whether it be in physical form or energetically, so we automatically do what we can to make ourselves feel full again through our addictions.
Anything can become an addiction when we are using it to fill the uncomfortable, seemingly empty space that we are experiencing. Shopping, social media, food, drugs, sex, relationships, work, even our "life mission" can become a source of distraction if we are unconsciously using it to make ourselves "feel" more whole.
The space is where we meet our wholeness. The opening is where we have the opportunity to connect with what we really are and recognize our true potential as humans.
When faced with space, we do what we can and encourage others to fill that space as quickly as possible. This is seen clearly during a separation of a relationship. People tell us to, "get back out there" or "find a new hobby" or the infamous "just get over it."
We don't need to get over it. What we need is to lovingly give ourselves the physical and emotional space to move **through** it.
Our spirits are calling out to us, asking to give ourselves permission to fully experience, process, and transmute our shadow and pain into something more constructive. When we do this, we transform our experience and move from the role of the helpless victim to the empowered co-creator.
When we allow ourselves the space we need to witness whatever is coming up, we begin to tap into the source of our creativity, inspiration, and intuition.
We see the bigger picture, we understand more, we feel deeper.
Every time we commit to moving through our darkness with gentleness and compassion, we shed a layer of our past that has been weighing us down, keeping us from achieving our true potential on this planet, both individually and collectively. We expand our awareness about what we are capable of creating and experiencing.
