When centred in our body, mind and emotions, we are in a state where we can choose our actions and responses. Otherwise we are off-centre, and our reactions tend to respond emotionally, chosen for us by our nervous system.
Practice
Sit comfortably on a chair with your spine, erect, and well rested. Place your palms comfortably on your thighs.
Let your feet rest flat on the ground with a distance of about a foot. Or, if you wish, you may stand, with your feet slightly apart and parallel to each other.
Let your shoulders be straight and not stupid.
Let your knees be slightly bent, and keep your spine and neck straight.
Your eyes can be open or closed. Closing your eyes can help you concentrate better.
Begin by observing your breath.
Let your attention follow the path of the oxygen entering your nostrils. As you breathe in, imagine your lungs feeling up like a balloon as the oxygen enters them. And as you breathe out, imagine your lungs deflating. This will help you to take fuller and deeper breaths.
Continue with this for a couple of minutes.
Notice every time, your mind wonders, gently bring your attention back to your breathing without any judgement.
With practice, the wandering of the mind will reduce.
Now take your attention slowly to these five points in your body.
POINT 1 – FOREHEAD
Notice if you are holding any tension in your forehead and eyebrows, and ease them out. Following the eyebrows is a way of signalling the brain that there is tension and anxiety, and a person with furrowed eyebrows generally emits negative emotions. Relaxing your forehead will help reducing the feeling of anxiety and stress.
POINT 2 – EYES
Soften your gays if your eyes are open. If your eyes are closed, just feel them relax. Since the optic nerve is connected to your brain, relaxing your eyes will help ease the mind and diminish anxiety.
Don’t be in a hurry, give adequate time to each of these five points. As you pass your attention from one point to the other, don’t judge or evaluate, only notice the amount of tension, stress in each of these parts and very gently relax them, as if you are gently stroking and caressing each cell to ease the tension.
POINT 3 – JAWS
Pass your lips slightly such that your jaws do not touch each other. Let your tongue hang loose in your mouth. The moment you do that you will notice your breath drop. This can enable you to be more open and receptive in moments of stress.
POINT 4 – SHOULDERS
Move your attention to your shoulders and feel each cell relax. We tend to carry stress and tension on our shoulders and often we are not aware but shoulders are held rigidly. This rigidity further increases the stress.
POINT 5 – BELLY
With awareness ease your belly muscles. Let your tummy protrude out. A lot of us tend to bunch of belly muscles together to increase or a static value and this way of carrying a body can become subconscious. You may not even be aware that you are holding up your belly muscles. When you eat your belly muscles, it will help ease out the stress you may be carrying around your centre.
Now place, one palm on your centre of gravity about 2 inches below your navel and take a deep breath. Let the breath be deep enough to reach your centre and enable your palm to be pushed ahead. Continue this for a couple of minutes. This form of deep breathing increases the blood flow in your body, which intern increases energy and stamina in the body.
Now gently, and slowly ease your breath, let it become norma whenever you are ready, gently rub your palms together, placed them on your eyes, feel the warmth on your eyes and stay that way, as long as you wish before opening your eyes slowly.
Now What?
When centring, we attain complete balance and can focus on the here and now regardless of our situation. For example:
Our mind is alert, we are connected to what we care about and are free from mental chatter.
Our mood is calm and open to what’s happening around us.
Our physical state is relaxed, alert, and balanced around our centre of gravity. We feel comfortable and ready for whatever is required of us.