The Space Between: Where Freedom Lives
Clear the monkey mind. Tame the tiger. Find your sacred pause.
Viktor Frankl called it "the space." That gap between what happens to you and how you respond. Ram Dass put it another way: "The quieter you become, the more you can hear." That space—that quiet—is the empty space. And finding it changed everything for me.
I spent years reacting—to the chaos of growing up in a crazy home, to feelings I didn't know how to handle, to a mind that wouldn't stop racing. The monkey mind had me. Every thought felt urgent. Every emotion demanded immediate action. There was no pause, no space, no freedom.
Then I learned to find the gap. Twelve years ago, I started sitting. Just sitting. Watching thoughts arise and pass like clouds. Learning that I am not my thoughts. That feelings are visitors, not permanent residents. That between the trigger and my reaction, there's a moment of choice—if I can slow down enough to find it.
Thousands of hours on the cushion later, I trained with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through the Banyan program. Got my 200-hour yoga certification with Sandee Lawless at Burning Spirits Yoga in Portland—studied there, then taught classes. Studied sound healing because sometimes vibration reaches places words can't. All of it pointing to the same truth: the sacred pause is where transformation happens.
Now I help others find their empty space. That moment between the email that triggers you and the response you'll regret. Between the craving and the action. Between the old pattern and the new choice. It's always there, waiting. You just need someone to show you where to look.
Clear the monkey mind. That endless chatter quiets when you stop believing every thought is true. Tame the tiger. Those fierce emotions become manageable when you create space around them. The practice isn't about becoming someone else—it's about finding the freedom that's been there all along.
What would you put in your empty space? Peace? Clarity? A moment to choose differently? That's what we work on together. No judgment, no perfection required. Just the willingness to pause.
