Centering Practice

A practice to reconnect with the centeredness of your center.

Show Notes

Getting or being 'centered', is not about inhabiting any particular form or state of mind. It is isn't a location or a destination. And at the same time, it includes all of these things. This short practice invites you to lightly investigate the boundaries of your center. 

What is Open to What Is?

This isn’t the podcast I was supposed to create.

I had something polished and impressive in mind.

This is more interesting.

You should listen to it.

A bit of background:
I’d already committed to publishing a daily podcast when I got (very, very, very) sick with Long (very, very, very long) COVID.

So, I had a choice:
I could give up, or I could keep my commitment and include my constant exhaustion, fever, foggy-brain, relentless cough —and do my best.

I chose the latter.

My “best” varies quite a bit according to how well or poorly I feel on a given day.

The episodes are raw, out of order, unedited, with uneven audio quality, You’ll often hear my Pekingese, Bija barking in the background.

Sometimes I talk to myself, sometimes I talk to you. Sometimes I have no idea who I’m talking to. It’s a true potpourri.

And it’s not just overhearing me wax poetic through a stuffy nose about new insights and the insufferable discomfort of upended plans. There’s more!

In between the fragments of thought, feeling, and utter nonsense, is a timely and universal story about expectations, meaning making, dropping all agendas, and discovering what’s possible when we Open to What Is.

Tune in.
Sample a few episodes.

See if you can drop all expectations and allow yourself to be surprised and delighted by something you didn’t know you were looking for.

Okay, hello, hello. Just got the whole thing up and running here all right. So I'm gonna do a little bit of a short centering practice today. It's a great way to ground, calibrate, and create or return to that feeling of home.

And so start by just thinking about what does it mean to you to feel centered? When you think of the word 'centered' - coming to the center, centering, what images come to mind? Think about the center of your body: Where do you locate your center? Your answer doesn't need to be literal. Just notice what's alive in you.

And if it makes sense for you take a seat and notice your posture.

It isn't about being in any particular form. But notice, if we're sitting on something that's hard Can you feel your sit bones? Can you feel if your center of gravity is pitching you forward or back to one side or to the other?

And if you're pitched forward for example, does that at all reflect the way you behave?
Are you you always kind of jumping into the future? Thinking ahead, rushing to the next thing? It's not a bad thing. If you're kind of leaning back do you have a tendency to hold back? Or to feel nostalgic for the past?

If you notice you're at one extreme or the other just see how it feels to go to the other extreme. If you notice that you're well centered, play with the edges of the circle - go to the left. Back to the right. Go forward. Just sense in to your space - let yourself take up space.

And just feel where you're supported by the chair. Notice where your feet are supported by the floor, where your body is making contact.. Does this all the time? Oops. Where? What that is? It's weird. Just heard my voice.

So when you fall off center like we just did - like I just did, it's a perfect opportunity to come back. Because the idea of centering practice is not to be rigid. it's not to claim this perfect static posture, and stay there like a statue. it's it's actually to invite in fluidity, receptivity, gentleness

I don't know that I have much more to say on that right now. So thanks for that.