Why Spaciousness Is the Key to Freedom
Let’s talk about space. Not the final frontier, not the thing your overpaid yoga mat influencer is banging on about when they tell you to “hold space” without explaining what that actually means. I’m talking about the space that exists within you, the space you’re probably not using because life has you jammed in tighter than a Friday-night queue at the chippy.
We’re a society addicted to filling up. Our schedules, our homes, our minds – all crammed with more than they can hold. More noise, more opinions, more distractions, more comparison. And yet, here’s the paradox – the more we pile in, the less we actually have. The less energy, the less clarity, the less connection to what really matters.
Yoga doesn’t work by adding more on top of an already overloaded system. It works by stripping away the unnecessary, by creating space – real, tangible, usable space – in your body, your breath, and your mind. Because in that space, something magic happens: you get to see clearly, move freely, and finally, bloody breathe.
The Misconception of Spaciousness
Let’s get something straight. Spaciousness isn’t about escaping or checking out. It’s not about ditching your responsibilities, running off to Bali (hmm 🙄), or sitting on your arse waiting for enlightenment to arrive like a takeaway delivery. Spaciousness is cultivated. It’s intentional. It’s an active process of making room for what matters and getting rid of what doesn’t.
And that starts with awareness. You can’t create space if you don’t first notice where you’re suffocating yourself. Are you constantly on your phone, scrolling your way into a black hole of distraction? Are you so busy saying yes to everything that you don’t even know what you actually want? Are you carrying tension in your body like a human pressure cooker?
Yoga gives you the tools to clear out the clutter. The breath work, the postures, the meditation – they’re all designed to open you up, to create more ease, more energy, more you.
The Breath: Your Key to Inner Spaciousness
Breath is life. It’s the first thing you do when you arrive and the last thing you do when you leave. But between those two points? Most of us breathe like we’re rationing oxygen. Shallow, tight, unconscious. And when the breath is small, everything else follows.
In Hatha Yoga, we use the breath to expand. Deep inhales stretch us open from the inside out. Slow, steady exhales empty us of all the excess tension we’ve been hoarding like some kind of emotional dragon. When you learn to breathe fully, you learn to take up space in the right way – not in an ego-driven, look-at-me kind of way, but in a way that says, “I belong here.”
Try this: Right now, take the deepest breath you’ve taken all day. No, really. Breathe in, all the way down to your belly. Pause. Now, exhale, slow and steady. Feel that? That’s space. And you didn’t have to buy a plane ticket to find it.
Spaciousness in the Body
Ever noticed how tension makes you feel smaller? Hunched shoulders, clenched jaw, a spine that’s folding in on itself? The body literally contracts when it’s stressed. And guess what? Your mind follows.
A yoga practice that prioritises spaciousness will focus on opening – the hips, the spine, the heart centre. Not just for the sake of it, but because when the body opens, the mind does too. Suddenly, you have options. You’re not reacting from a place of constriction, but responding from a place of possibility.
This is why we practice poses like heart openers and deep twists – not just to look good on Instagram (please, spare me), but to reclaim the space we’ve lost. To move in a way that reminds us what freedom actually feels like.
Creating Space in the Mind
And then there’s the mind – the noisiest, most overcrowded room in the whole bloody house. If you’ve ever tried to sit in silence and immediately been hit with a to-do list that rivals War and Peace, you know what I mean.
Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts (good luck with that). It’s about stepping back enough to realise you don’t have to engage with every single one. Spaciousness in the mind means you get to choose where your energy goes. It means you can sit with discomfort without immediately trying to fix, numb, or distract yourself. It means clarity, perspective, and the ability to actually hear your own intuition instead of drowning it out with noise.
Where Are You Crowding Yourself Out?
Ask yourself this: Where in your life do you feel most constricted? Where is there no room to breathe, no room to move, no room to just be? That’s where your work is.
Start small. Create space in your schedule by cutting out the unnecessary. Create space in your body by moving with intention. Create space in your breath by actually using your lungs properly. You don’t need to overhaul your entire life overnight – just start where you are, with what you have.
And if you need a little help? That’s where we come in. The Yoga Local App is your pocket-sized yoga studio, giving you access to practices designed to help you find the space you need, whenever and wherever you need it. So if you’re ready to stop feeling trapped and start feeling free, download the app and let’s get started.
Spaciousness isn’t something you find. It’s something you create. The question is, are you ready to make room for it?
J X
