Big toes

"Pranic energy only spreads along the open spaces," the endearingly awkward-sounding Pakistani yogi addressed her stretching audience. It reminded me of a book that I've recently read, and how energy seems to spread both through our bodies and outside them while we're reading something that makes us feel a surreal bond with others. I knew that she could: vibes are always running through the ether. As we create more space they flow more freely. And I have felt the same with this book, as I cannot help but speak up when I see someone the same energy from someone reading it. To the extent that I needed that estranged lover in the bar there to share my enlightenment, she was.

Moving through self-growth like the author, I recognized that to be content I have to come to terms with the past, those things that for our small brains are so difficult to face head on. At one point the author seeks the attention of the man who had both loved her but could not live with her, through meditation. “Hi sweetie.” She was, in reality, summoning herself to address the doubts that she held about the man. At the same time that she was communicating through open space-there was literally nothing that she was speaking to-she was at the same time allowing space to flourish in her own mind. The equivalent of those simple words has been uttered by so many in the search for closure after a relationship fissures or completely breaks apart.

When there is a disaster, though, what is often needed is space to organize things and get them back in order. Yoga practitioners constantly try to cultivate space, both in the world immediately around them and within their body. "Narrowing of space is synonymous with degeneration, and opening up of space is synonymous with life, health and vigour," the yoga instructor continued. Take time to rejuvenate. An acquaintance of mine once invested greatly in a project, both emotionally and monetarily, and needed space to recover when the endeavor failed. After he painted stars on his daughter’s bicycle as a way to pass time, word spread quickly. Soon other kids showed up wishing for the same embellishment. Once he had painted most of the bikes in the neighborhood fleet, a great enthusiasm for his work returned. He had painted a universe that he could work with; he could see that there were many reasons to reach for stars.

"The tone of the muscles in the big toe," she told her students, "would be the best indicator of one's ability to cultivate open space among the body." The big toe is the symbolic and practical connection to the earth, she continued, and without strength in this toe we won't be able to lift ourselves up. Do we have muscles in our toes? Not any tone, certainly, in mine. But I am happy to be conscious of it, to recognize that such a small an seemingly insignificant extremity of my body creates space and thus allows prana—the energy of life—to flow. Ironically enough, as her students lay on the ground, just as their big toes pointed toward the ceiling, she instructed them, "with the space you've created during practice . . . lift up."