Quick Centering Practice – Written

Centering Practice

One way to make the shift from personality to center is to start by working with the breath and posture.

  • Use your inhale to uplift your posture and lengthen your spine.
  • Next breathe your exhale downwards toward the earth softening your chest and settling into the earth.
  • You can also put the two together using an image from a French press coffee maker.  As the plunger slowly presses down, the drinkable coffee rises up.
  • So as we exhale down we have a sense of rising or uplifting.
  • Using the fingers, reach out toward the far wall until the arms are straight instead of bent. Continue extending and put your attention on the space behind and to the left and right.
  • As you drop your arms keep the sense of expansion as if you were still reaching out. Let gravity soften your shoulders and ask yourself,
  • “What would it be like if there was a little more ease in my body?”
  • Remember that every atom and cell in your body is primarily space, sense how the openness in your body connects with the openness around you.
  • You can imagine that the space is buoyant and supportive.  Consider the space as a shock absorber.
  • Words, thoughts and feelings can land in the space around you and can be examined with interest and detachment.

(This takes about 15 to 30 seconds)

Once you have a distinct experience of the centered state you can streamline your practice and coach your self into the state with the words:

“posture”, “expand” and “relax”.

(This takes 3 to 5 seconds)