This Christian mindfulness exercise helps you to see the space around you. Not just the furniture, the trees, the clutter … but the space surrounding those things.

Empty space is most of the actual space in the room you are in right now. Perhaps taking time to notice that will help you have the ability to sense the stillness in your inner space, as well as the presence of Lord within and without. Here’s the exercise:

1. Begin by closing your eyes for a few minutes.
2. Pray that you can begin to sense the presence of God in your environment.
3. Open your eyes and look at an object in front of you.
4. Notice the space around that object and focus on it.
5. Shift to other objects and do the same thing, looking at the empty space in front of, behind, on top of and at the bottom of the object.
6. Take a look at a full room or an outdoor space. Shift from observing the objects there to observing the space.
7. Quiet your heart. Ask again for an infilling of God’s presence around you.
8. Listen to your thoughts and look for the spaces between them.