The Element Space

Everyone is fascinated by space. To gaze at the stars creates a reverse phenomenon. The tiny stars make us feel tiny. We can feel the distance in space and know that these tiny bright bits we see in the vastness of space are, in reality, huge.

Space is limitless and yet it acts as a container for everything we know. It holds the earth, the solar system, the galaxies and beyond. It is a mystery that physicists are still seeking to understand and define.

Physicists argue over whether space is absolute or relative. Newton believed that space was absolute, its own separate entity. Einstein's theory of relativity describes space and time as being woven together and affected equally by gravity. Petr Horava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, is now questioning Einstein's theory and proposing that space and time are not equivalent at very high energies, but are equivalent at lower energies.

Humans keep exploring space from satellites, by sending men into orbit and from high-powered telescopes. Fictional movies based on space like Star Wars, Star Trek and 2001 A Space Odyssey were enormously popular and continue to keep their appeal years after they were filmed.

Space is something that separates us and unites us at the same time. People tend to want their own space, yet their is an intrinsic need to feel connected to others as well. Space invites us to explore more possibilities than can be conceived by the naked eye and even beyond what our technologies have shown us. It invites our imaginations to go wild.

When we sit to begin our yoga practice we open with the idea that we are unlimited in our goodness and capabilities to give and receive love. We can open to the concept that we are supported by something so vast, mysterious and powerful that we can release our limiting ideas of ourselves and the world we live in. To begin our practice in this way releases tension and fills us with energy. Marianne Williamson states it beautifully when she says. "We learn to trust the power that holds galaxies together can handle the circumstances of our relatively little lives". Throughout our practice it is important to come back to this concept of opening to grace. We can bring the expansiveness of the space around us inward. Magnification creates a new perspective on what is inside each of us. We can use that perspective to perceive our inner bodies as magnificent as the infinite space outside of us.

When you look up at the stars and out into space. allow your imagination to keep soaring. Allow your heart to become as bright as the stars. Let your mind believe in endless possibilities.