This week is the beginning of a new book group and we’re reading Michael Neill’s “The Space Within”. Follow along with the blogs here which will align with the chapter(s) we’re reading that week. For this first week we’re reading chapters 1 and 2.
“Think of ‘quiet’ not as an absence of thought but as the space inside which the noise of your thinking arises” Michael Neill
That space.
“Purity of Self” were the words one of the current Transformation Space group members shared. “A pure, sparkly, unperturbed river” a client has said. Peace. Contentment. OK-ness. Calm.
That’s what you’re looking for.
With everything you ‘do’ in life, you’re actually looking for the feeling of this space within. Once you rediscover where it actually comes from (rather than believing people and things ‘give’ it to you) you don’t stop doing (we seem designed to do and create) instead the ‘doing’ gets done with so much more ease and joy! Which also seems to be what you’re designed for!
There is so much within chapters 1 and 2 of The Space Within that I could have shared today, and which I’m looking forward to getting into with the group on Thursday, but I thought a beautiful place to begin would be with this strong foundation of ‘the space’.
Michael talks about it in chapter 1 — how a successful mountain climbing mission must have a soundly constructed and well-stocked base camp if the climb is to be a success, and the climbers are to survive!
This base camp for us is knowing this space as our essential nature. It’s a permanent, unwavering foundation — unaffected by any of the external experiences of life. Unruffled by any of the content. Including any busy or scary thinking that might pop up within it. Including any physical experiences we endure. Including any financial difficulties we encounter.
Indeed some of my clients have marveled at their experience of being in this space of calm OK-ness while they sat in a basic living situation, with debts, no work, a divorce to navigate, physical pain… all the ‘things’ that we think will ‘cause’ us problems and upset. And yet, peace and contentment was right there.
This is the sign that these ‘things’ (money, possessions, relationships, physical health) are not causal to how we feel. That this space within is here, right now, and always.
It’s the white between the words on this page, the gaps between thoughts, the space between objects — and it is all the words, all the thoughts and all the objects too.
No thing is not it.
So sink in. The space within loves to be remembered.
With love, Helen
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I coach and guide smart, passionate, curious people who care about improving the lives of those around them. Often coaches and leaders, they’ve worked hard all their lives to be the ‘best’ them and it doesn’t seem to have delivered the happiness, security or freedom they expected. Now they’re wondering what else is available. I guide you back, prior to stories, to remember the real you because that’s what you, me and the whole world really wants! Find out more here.