Feel Like You Need Space?

Remember you’re stardust.

I’ve meant to write, wanted to write, promised myself I’d write, but still didn’t make the space for it. Do you ever feel like you have no room to breathe? No time? No space? Does the world feel crowded, like there’s no place to just be?

As a little girl blowing out birthday candles, I would wish year after year for world peace. I wanted wars to stop and suffering to be over. As an adult, my focus shifted from wishing to taking action. I worked with children, volunteered with my communities, and spent hours giving away content online. Looking back over those years of desperately wanting to make an impact, left me feeling like there was no space for myself.

As an astrologer, the topic of space is always circling through my mentality. I am constantly looking upwards and inwards, wanting to make sense of the Universe while appreciating the magic of this indescribable thing called life. Why try to fill every silent space with noise? Why try to follow every question with an answer? When the void, this openness is who we are.

Humans are 99% empty space.

No one ever told me I was just a cluster of molecules coming together to take up space. No one ever said it was okay to be empty and let others be in return. I was taught to fill in the gaps and deliver the value, but now I know the power of letting myself be what I am: space.

How would the world change if we saw ourselves as a vessel? Something waiting to be filled, not solid or set in stone. What if we knew life was meant to move through us; we were not meant to move through life. What if we rekindled a relationship to the space that we are?

We are 99% empty space. As Ali Sundermier explains,

Some days, you might feel like a pretty substantial person. Maybe you have a lot of friends, or an important job, or a really big car. But it might humble you to know that all of those things — your friends, your office, your really big car, you yourself, and even everything in this incredible, vast Universe — are almost entirely 99.9999999 percent empty space.

Physically we are flowing through the ethers, so why try to grasp and crawl along with the Earth? Yes, we are our organs, skin, and the other beautiful parts we can see. But taking a glance beneath our solid surface, we sense a symphony of mechanics collaborating to keep us alive. Like the silence of an isolated space in nature, we might not appreciate it unless we knew the stress of crowded city streets. A lot is going on within our physical forms, still it’s mostly just space.

We’re made of stardust.

When we look up to outer space, we see a reflection of our cosmic selves because we are made of stardust. How many times a day do we remind ourselves of this? Do you walk through the grocery store remembering you are just as brilliant as that Full Moon? You are an extension of the milky way and the striking beauty of a nebula. You are the divine power that sustains planetary orbits. You are the ever-creative nature of our Universe. When you feel crowded or burnt out, remember what’s created by massive explosions. Maybe you are just on your way to a new existence.

The space that we are, extends beyond our physical bodies. Our heart’s electromagnetic field is powerful. Life moves through us, and we move out through the world; the energy field of our hearts impacts our surroundings. Even if we haven’t studied the science behind this fact, we’ve felt it. The impact of a smile from a stranger. A good hug from someone we love. Reading an article, the writer has poured their heart into. Walking into a home that’s full of loving people. Our hearts read the spaces around us. We emit energy that creates a palpable aura around us. It’s another level of understanding that we are space.

We are empty space.

We are a void waiting to be experienced. We don’t need to rush out and fill it. In a world that sells us on filling up our bank accounts, shopping carts, and resumes, what if we just said no? What if we chose to simply be the magic that we are; space. What if we let ourselves not know? What if our lives and the future could be an open-ended question, unfolding in its own time.

This doesn’t mean we ignore the future, and we can’t kid ourselves into thinking we don’t need to take action. But this allows us to come back to the beginning. First let’s understand the nature of our bodies and what it means to be human. As we empty ourselves out, we can move with grace through the world, letting the natural wonders can commence.

As Osho says, be like bamboo:

A bamboo: inside entirely hollow. When you rest, you just feel that you are like a bamboo: inside completely hollow and empty. And in fact, this is the case: your body is just like a bamboo, and inside it is hollow. Your skin, your bones, your blood, are all part of the bamboo, and inside there is space, hollowness. When you are sitting with a completely silent mouth, inactive, tongue touching the roof and silent, not quivering with thoughts, the mind watching passively, not waiting for anything, in particular, feel like a hollow bamboo. Suddenly, infinite energy starts pouring within you. You are filled with the unknown, with the mysterious, with the divine. A hollow bamboo becomes a flute, and the divine starts playing it. Once you are empty then there is no barrier for the divine to enter in you.

In my life, the space I occupy creates boundaries between myself and others. I’m no longer the saviour who needs to rush to everyone’s rescue, and I am no longer the police pointing fingers at others. Instead, I live through example, being someone I am proud of and letting others be who they choose. This doesn’t mean I will interact with them. When someone shows you who they are, that’s a gift because you can then discern whether you allow them to enter your orbit. I used to think it was my responsibility to change people, but now I am set on changing myself.

Do you feel like you need some space? Remember, you are it. Be it.

When someone demands my help, I still feel guilty saying no. When someone says something ignorant, it’s hard ignoring them. When I see an article title that triggers me, I usually click it. But I’m taking the time to remind myself that by engaging, I am allowing those people to hang a flyer on my wall. I’m letting my windows be plastered with advertisements like the storefront of a shop generous enough to lend space to the community. I’m letting them into my room and covering the windows of my eyes. Denying myself a clear view of reality.

When my view becomes crowded, I pause and reflect on the fact that I am stardust; I am bigger than anything my mind or someone else’s words can convey. I have absolutely no idea why I am here, and neither does anyone else.