Practice: Trust the space
A 10-second glimpse at the overlooked
Chances are you’re in a room right now. Look up.
Most of what’s in front of you isn’t stuff. It’s the space between. The gap from the lamp to the wall. The air above the desk.
As ever-present as it is, you rarely if ever focus on it. It’s what your eyes slide across on the way to the things that “matter.”
Try this:
Stop where you are. You don’t necessarily have to sit. Don’t close your eyes.
Pick two things in the room. The the mug and the window, for example.
Soft-focus on what’s between them. Not the objects; the nothing in the middle. Keep your eyes relaxed, you’re not trying to lock onto anything.
Stay here for a slow count of ten.
That’s it.
Notice what happened while you weren’t managing anything. Maybe the room got more spacious. Maybe your shoulders dropped a little. Something in you let go without you telling it to.
The space didn’t change. It’s being exactly what it was a minute ago and a million years before that. The only thing that shifted is your attention.
In the same way, the freedom you seek isn’t a state you build. It’s the thing you keep skipping over on the way to more pressing matters.
Trust it. It’s never once not been here.