Soul Space

It’s a perfect 72 degrees and sunny, and there is a light breeze…one which I am generating. I am the embodiment of seamless: body – bike – ground. And as such I am filled with a great sense of joy and freedom as I glide along the road.

While it’s always enjoyable to ride with others, my preference is to ride alone. I set my own pace, I determine the distance I want to travel, and honestly the solitude of space feeds my soul as I live in the synchronicity of moment, movement, and motion. Some people refer to this space as “the zone”, others as the “sweet spot”, and others describe it as a “high”.

I resonate with all of those descriptions. Yet my experience is most akin to the wisdom, “You must lose yourself to find yourself.” All of my usual demands, dilemmas and desires disappear creating space only for that which is the present moment.

For when we “lose ourselves” we empty all that holds us back or limits us, creating a space only for the present moment. Mystics and contemplatives have embraced this practice of self emptying – creating space for centuries – as a way, friend and theologian John Philip Newell describes, “to only hear the heartbeat of our souls.”

I think Jesus puts the finest point, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” MT 16: 25-26.

Cycling, running, writing, creating music or art, dancing, cooking, getting our hands deep in the soil – these and a myriad of other possibilities are opportunities to “lose ourself” and self empty – create space to hear the heartbeat of our souls…to “find our true selves.”