Embrace the Space

A Guide to Walking into the Unknown

We hear it all of the time, put down the phone, take a moment of pause but instead we keep running forward with all the doing and thinking. Life flows with a certain momentum and we continue to do the same things day in day out. Where does it stop?

NOW - if you want it to!

At my last writing, we had come to the end. If you listened, you did the work to Tend to the End. Now, we are in.... The Space and it's time to Embrace the Space! The pause doesn't have to be an epic break unless that is what the moment calls for. More realistically it is the small pauses that have the most profound results.

Consider: You work hard and plan that epic destination vacation. It feels so good to get away, put down the phone and drop the responsibilities of daily life for an adventurous excursion away. You vow to live your life differently.

YET - there is the inevitable return.

There is always a returning to what was, unless you make a break for it. Some moments in life call for the big break that changes everything in big ways. Even if the reason for the break is challenging there is something that is provoking the shift that feels big enough to pierce through the mundane and motivate change.

The small breaks are generally the ones that are most skipped. Thinking, "I have too much to do" or "I will rest when this or that is done". When the time comes to rest, you find yourself exhausted and turning to scrolling or "vegging out" mindlessly. At some point, a pause is inevitable and you get to be the one to CHOOSE to take it.

The pause is simple. It is avoided however because what opens up with the pause is space. Most of us feel uncomfortable with space. We crush the moments of our life together and there is no room to breathe.

The Breath

Between each breath there is a pause. At the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale before the next breath there is an opportunity to pause before diving forward. Always doing.

How is that serving you?

Sure, it may be offering productivity or some other fulfillment. An endless stream of productivity leaves no time to integrate or digest—like eating nonstop without allowing the body to receive nourishment.

Years ago at a meditation class a Buddhist Monk shared that eating a donut may taste good. One then grasps at that good feeling and eats another one. Then another one. After a few repetitions, it is no longer tasting good and one starts to feel miserable from eating so many donuts. What in one moment served as good becomes the source of suffering.

What are you clinging to that once served you well however no longer does?

Are you giving yourself time to pause and digest?

This can be applied to both the macro and the microcosm of life experiences. We all need moments to pause. It's not as hard as you may think to take the pauses. It doesn't require a lot of time, in fact the most profound pauses are the ones that you find at key junctures and are accessible within the flow of the day.

Scenario: You are rushing to work thinking about all that you need to do while listening to a PodCast in the car on the way there. You get there, turn off the car run into work and are off to the races. You work through your breaks or maybe take a break to check your social media account to see what is going on. At the end of the day on the drive home you are met with traffic while thinking about the annoying coworker and what you are going to eat for dinner while feeling exhausted so decide to get take out food. Get home, turn off the car go in the house, plop down to eat, turn on the TV and pick up your phone to do more scrolling. Then you get tired go to bed and the next day looks the same.

In this scenario there are many opportunities to pause. Where are they?

1. When you get to work, how detrimental would it be to turn off the car and stop, close your eyes and take three conscious breaths before getting out of your car?

2. Perhaps you could turn off the PodCast on the drive and just be present.

3. Or maybe when eating dinner instead of multitasking you could focus on the food you are eating.

These are simple ways to introduce a pause where you normally just go.

At first it may feel a little risky. With time, however you will see that the one minute it took to take three conscious breaths did not cause catastrophic issues with the work you needed to get done and no one noticed that you were one minute late. Yet, you feel immensely better.

This may be all it takes for you. The space however beckons you to keep diving in. Perhaps you consider all that you are doing and begin setting down what doesn't serve you. Perhaps, however this leads you into an even deeper more profound inward journey.

The Last 33 Days...What follows is a lived example of what becomes possible when space is honored.

From September 2025 to the last day of December 2025, I held myself through the fire. There were several HUGE projects that I had decided were the projects that would support my spiritual evolution. This process took every bit of focus and time I had. For months, I spent the day coaching clients and the evening until the middle of the night working on these visions. Those moments did not allow me time for my fitness routine, social activities, mini adventures; it was 100% focus, perseverance and dedication.

Mid to late December I was feeling the effects of months of focused creative work. An opportunity came across my field to attend a New Years Eve Sound Bath at a Yoga Studio. I decided to go. After months of sedentary creative work (not my usual) and years of resistance to Yoga from burn out (another story), I thought a sound bath sounded wonderful. Upon going prepared to lay down and be guided on a soothing sound journey, I was met with a hot power yoga class. I felt tricked by the universe, annoyed and irritated. I was way out of Yoga shape and hadn't been around people for months. I wanted to leave....

But I stayed. After the class I noticed that there was a New Years Day class as well. It was part of an end the 9 year close out and a begin the 1 year new beginning package. I decided I would to go the New Years Day class so I signed up, went home and began writing my end of the year Blog post - Tend to the End.

At some point while I was writing, I felt this deep internal shift within me. It was like if you imagine being able to feel the plates of the earth shift. It was deep and subtle. From that rippled a sense of deep peace and presence. I found myself taking a moment of pause. It just came over me. There was no doing, thinking about this or that, figuring out, concern of anything, it just felt spacious, silent and peaceful. I sat in this space. Aware. Observing. I felt outside of time and space yet very present and embodied. I felt complete. My shoulders dropped. It just was without anything to fill in the space. A few moments passed and I then heard the fireworks outside, people cheering and I knew that people in the neighborhood around me were celebrating the shift to the new year. I continued to sit. Present. As phenomena moved around me, I did not follow what I observed. It swelled up and it died down. I was aware of an immense amount of "data" in that moment. It felt so simple yet so vast and profound. While some slept and others partied I felt present within the pause. I made a conscious intentional choice from a fully embodied presence in that moment to pause and embrace the space. I sat present the energy shifted and I finished writing the Blog Post. The End.

Precedes the Beginning.

New Years Day I went to the class prepared to do Yoga to discover it was not a Yoga Class it was a Sound Bath. Pleasantly surprised, it was so deeply nourishing. As I leave the sound bath, I notice that the Yoga Studio was doing a 40 Day Reset which was 40 Days of Unlimited Yoga. I signed up.

At first, I committed to do the Yin Yoga classes, which was the take it easy process. I was feeling negative and critical of Power Yoga (also another story) but I committed to do one class every day. Upon looking at the schedule and comparing it to what worked with mine, I realized the best time for me to go to Yoga was at 9:30am which was a Power Yoga Class. There were some days I could make the evening class, however not consistently. It became obvious that in order to follow through, I would need to embrace the Power Yoga. I told myself I could get through 40 days of Power Yoga.

The first week I was in full comparison. The last Yoga community I had connected with was a potent long experience working with my Yoga Teacher for 8 years of continuous deep connection that was life changing. It brought up a lot of grief around not having been connected to that community since completing my Yoga Teaching Intensive over that 8 years. Even the smell of my Yoga matt brought back this flow of memories. I have had this Yoga matt for 26 yeas of my 35 year Yoga practice. I stayed with the grief.

Something changed. I woke up one morning before the sun rose. My bed was comfortable and warm. I felt so happy and good to be in that soothing place. Then I had the thought, I could go up to the roof and watch the sun rise. It was cold. That thought was not pleasing. Yet, I jumped out of bed threw on clothes and a sweatshirt, boiled a cup of hot water, put on ear muffs and went out into the cold pre sun time up to the roof top garden. I sat and meditated with the sun rise on a very cold brisk morning. Each day after that, the Sun continued to call me to the roof and I have continued to listen.

After going into the cold, I would come down to my sacred altar space where I usually begin most days. Except, now for some reason, it felt like there was an immense amount of empty space there. I had an hour to an hour and 30 minutes before needing to leave for the 9:30am yoga class. At first, I found this space to be irritating. I was fidgety, restless and wanting to avoid just being in it. I wanted to fill the space with activities. I kept thinking, "what do I want to do?" I could read, do a ceremony, grid, journal, do a reading, draw and so on and on and on. Yet, nothing really felt aligned. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of that as it is all part of my regular practices, however there was this underlying sense of just being in the space without doing. To be ok with less. To keep it simple and just sit. To be ok with the space being empty and unfilled. No podcasts, no music, no thinking just being present in the space. This has NOT been easy nor comfortable.

I grew to love the 9:30am sweaty hot infrared sauna and red light therapy yoga class, as well as the community connection. It has been 33 days and I have done 60 yoga classes, 25 or so sunrises and a lot of embracing the space - whatever the space may be.

The key point that I am making here is that at its heart, Embracing the Space is about reclaiming the power of conscious pause. Most suffering, exhaustion, and stagnation comes not from doing too much, but from never allowing space to digest, integrate, and listen. Small, intentional pauses—rather than dramatic life changes—create openings where clarity, presence, and true transformation emerge. Walking into the unknown is not about escaping life, but about choosing space within it and trusting what reveals itself there.

A Guide to Walking into the Unknown

You do not need to know where you are going to begin. You only need to be willing to stop long enough to notice where you are. Because the truth is, the end has ended and the beginning has begun yet between them is Space. When we bypass the space, we miss important wisdom that lives there. Eventually, at some point whether by choice or challenge life calls you in to go where you had been in resistance.

This guides you to Choose simple ways to Embrace the Space without turning over the tables of your life.

Step One: Choose a Threshold

Identify one moment in your day that already exists as a transition—turning off the car, waking up, sitting down to eat, closing your laptop, lying down to sleep. Do not add a new habit. Enter through a doorway that is already there.

Step Two: Pause the Momentum

When you arrive at this threshold, stop for one minute. Close your eyes or soften your gaze. Take three slow, conscious breaths. Do not try to relax. Do not try to fix anything. Simply interrupt the forward rush.

Step Three: Allow the Space

Notice what arises in the pause. Restlessness, discomfort, peace, boredom, emotion—let it all be welcome. Resist the urge to fill the space with thought, phone, or distraction. This is the unknown. Stay.

Step Four: Listen Without Interpreting

Do not look for answers. Do not make meaning. Just notice what feels true in the body. What feels heavy? What feels complete? What no longer needs to be carried?

Step Five: Return Gently

When the minute is complete, continue your day. Do not rush to apply what you noticed. Integration happens on its own when space is allowed.

Practice this once a day. Then twice. Then in moments when life feels full, loud, or overwhelming.

Embracing the unknown develops courage and asks of you your presence. Presence begins in the pause.

To support you on this journey, the Courage Builds Confidence Journal will offer you a safe sacred space to face your fear of the unknown.

Thank you Kindly for your support!

Sequoia