Embodying Emptiness

Exploring emptiness is a rare luxury in our busy modern lives…although we have an opportunity for it with every breath we take, and the capacity to consciously work with it, it’s something that can be undervalued. When we begin bringing awareness to its presence in our lives though, emptiness can be a precious and deeply life[1]enhancing reminder that we are full of possibility.

Emptiness is there at the end of every exhalation, it’s there at times when space opens up in our lives, either physically or mentally; emptiness naturally follows endings of all kinds.

The times in our lives when we experience the space between endings and new beginnings is a rich space which carries all possibility. It carries the excitement and anticipation of the next phase. The experience of emptiness is there in the space between every exhale and the inhale that follows. While we may experience fleeting moments of emptiness in our lives, consciously cultivating or savouring emptiness isn’t something most of us do willingly.

We are conditioned to value possessions, power, status, and achievement and so being active, doing, buying, and accumulating become our focus. In the process, our perspective shifts and we overlook what else exists for us. We may touch the sides on emptying ourselves when we begin to really value rest, when we carve out time for yoga practice or experience wellbeing treatments. But often rest is either forced or taken as a necessity because we’re exhausted, or injured, or as a prescriptive exercise, part of a ‘self-care’ regime. Rest, in these circumstances, at its heart remains either frustrating or uncomfortable for us, as we await the return of our usual busy full pace.

This discomfort is an important signpost on our inner journey though. When we rest, we begin the process of emptying ourselves. We begin to let go of our physical weight; we allow ourselves to be held by the support of the earth. In rest, we begin the process of reintegrating the breath, essentially allowing the breath to move without restriction, which is often easier said than done. As we rest, we may find we fall asleep, or find our minds becoming very active or even invasive. It’s often the discomfort of an active mind that leads us to move again. Many of us won’t get past being triggered by to-do lists, or the guilt associated with rest, and we feel the relief of filling our time once again finding value in a full day. When we see productivity as something tangible and measurable, rather than something more subtle, we overlook the value of empty spaces.

It's in the subtle realm though, that the power of emptiness exists and an alternative way of being is offered to us. As we drop through the layers of our being, the constructs of our minds, the habits, and patterns of being that shape us, our to-do lists, and the draw of the external world, we begin to meet what is less tangible within us. We come up against the discomfort of the unknown. We face the fear of uncertainty. We have to grapple with letting go of control in order to meet our most spacious selves, to meet emptiness. The groundless vacuum of nothingness, in which everything exists. It’s a place in which we are so empty we realise the fullness of being. A fullness which is void of attachment or possession. A fullness which is in and of itself valuable, yet also immeasurable.