Huff Post: by Larry Yang.

The breadth of our life has the capacity to tend and care for all of the multiple joys and sorrows that come our way. Part of mindfulness is remembering that spacious quality of not just our minds and hearts but that it can pervade all our lives. In that boundless quality of our Life, is the possibility of more freedom and greater peace.

Whether it is the internal or external sense of being “maxed out,” what is often helpful is to seek a larger landscape in which to hold one’s experience. This is not only a skillful means of coping with difficulty, but it is also an aspect of mindfulness and awareness — not to forget that our lives are always more expansive that we think them to be, especially when we are unable to move beyond a specific problem. A spacious mindfulness practice can benefit a sense of larger perspective, a bigger picture, an openness that often can soothe the mind and calm the heart. And even if the practice does not completely do this every single time, it may do it enough so that we can be present one more moment, one more hour, one more day — to allow the boundless qualities of Life to arise and remind us that a clear mind and open heart are possible even in the most difficult circumstances.

One aspiration of a mindfulness meditation practice is to create spaciousness and openness in our everyday lives. Many times, our lives can feel beyond its capacity to hold one more thing that inevitably comes along, pulling for our limited attention and energies. Not only can multiple demands on our life lead to a sense of stress and overwhelm physically, but it can also feel unsustainable and hopeless emotionally. We are all human, so we all share the possible distress of death or separation of a loved one, unexpected trauma or injury, inequities and injustices of our larger society, and losses through aging, illness or disability — all on top of the formidable tasks of educating ourselves, making a living, raising a family and creating some sense of purpose for our lives.

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