Monday, August 25

Where’s your Center?

It’s kind of like the question “What’s in your wallet?” It’s personal and has great impact on your life.

So, what do I mean…”Where’s your center?” What is a person’s center? And why does it matter where mine is?

We live in a world today where the faster you go, the better you are supposed to be. We reward the people that overload themselves with work, almost, regardless of the quality that they churn out. We are always building faster and faster things. 0-60 in 4 seconds?? That’s TOO damn slow! We run “time management” classes in order to teach us how to cram more into the few hours that we have. How to efficiently fill every single second of our time with CRAP!

Yup…I said it. It’s all CRAP! If it’s not a part of your core, or the things that are the most important based on your core, then…and pay attention here…IT IS ALL CRAP! It is manmade and it pulls you from your center.

I’m sure we ALL have been caught up in the overloading of life. Everyone seems to bitch and whine that there isn’t enough time to do everything. But…guess what? There really IS enough time. In fact, you do have all the time you ever need. It’s just a matter of HOW you choose to spend it.

And that’s ALWAYS the kicker.

See…we seem to LOVE to spend our precious time on all sorts of things. Things for other people, things to make more money, things to spend more money, and usually…very little on the things that are the MOST important.

So, here’s the thing. Do you take 15-30 minutes a day and spend them just on yourself? I’m not talking about the 15-30 minutes right before you go to bed! :-) Do you, honestly, take just that little bit of time, just for you? If I were a gambling man…oh wait…right. I’m betting that the answer is “no” you don’t take a small amount of time just for yourself.

So, that’s the first point to understand. YOU need some of your time just for YOU. Not time to take a bath…or read the newspaper…or to DO anything. You need time to just exist, as yourself. A time to find your center.

What happens when you are “off center”? C’mon…we all know what that’s like. Most of us LIVE that way.

So, I guess the better question is…what happens when you are centered? Can you answer that one for yourself?

It’s different for everyone, but there are common qualities to being centered.

• A feeling of peace
• Contentment with life as it is
• Feeling relaxed
• A great lessening of stress

Many of the Eastern philosophies teach methods of centering. They have long understood the benefits of having your life centered and at peace. Let’s look at some of the things they suggest doing to get centered:

• Meditation
• Yoga
• Deep breathing exercises
• Fasting – Not just of food either
• Prayer

All of these things focus you and force you to spend time with yourself. That’s probably the most important part of the centering process. You need to be able to spend time with yourself. If you can’t do that…then you can’t find your center. It’s a process of discovery and understanding, of yourself and your place in life. Too often we try to live outside of ourselves and we bury ourselves with other people’s agendas. Look around you, hell, look AT you. Are you living from your center? Is your life in balance?

Let’s start together and take the next 15-30 minutes to just “be”. Isolate yourself from the distractions of the world around you and turn your thoughts and eyes inside. Let everything slide away and let it all go. There is no need to hold on to it. Believe me…it’ll all be there when you come back to the world.

So…take my hand, let it all go, and let’s enjoy some peace for a few moments. Try it, you just might like it. :-)

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