Centering Oneself
We live on a dualistic planet where the tides push and pull at us. We live in this reality of up and down, and we know this intrinsically, but we falter emotionally because of it. Earth pushes at us and asks us to center. But how? How, when the energy continues to tip, are we supposed to land on our own two feet and just be?
This is what I have learned as a Reiki practitioner: Earth moves. Because Earth moves, we move. Earth tips. We tip. The idea of balance is there, we understand this, but we think that balance means we should become or adopt the opposition. If, say, we are feeling unattractive, we might buy a new bottle of makeup. We react to this feeling and buy something to remedy it. We dislike our job so we react and look for a new one. We have an argument with our partner, and when we are finished arguing (the reaction), and still feeling angry, we walk out the door.
Motion is not fluid on Earth. It is an either/or solution. Thus, we polarize emotion to be good or bad. Earth accepts us as her inhabitants, yet we can’t quite accept that we are here. We know intellectually that we are part of an eco-system, playing our part to take care of and at the same time disrupt this planet, but this is something else I am learning: We can no longer live in opposition. We must live with the flow of energies as they move from hot to cold, up to down. Flow is the key to centering.
Getting to the center is not about the journey to something better, it is about the journey to something balanced.
I have come to respect that this centering point is different for each of us. I respect that my center, or point of balance, doesn’t come about as a result of buying new makeup when I am feeling unattractive. I might react emotionally to this feeling of being unattractive, and get frustrated by it, but this is because I am still learning to balance. Taking note that new makeup becomes a temporary fix to the problem of feeling unattractive, I know not to engage in this particular pattern of act and react.
This, too, is from experience: I have noticed that buying anything when feeling down isn’t the answer. Going outside, taking a deep breath, meditating, or walking it off is the better solution. Feeling disappointed, angry, frustrated, or lonely is real. These feelings exist. But rather than try and fix these feelings with temporary solutions (the reaction), I am learning that centering is key. Going to the solution is short-lived. Centering has long-term rewards.
To center oneself on a planet that tips first one way and then the other is about putting two balancing feet onto the ground (a metaphor in many ways), and then visualizing the self in balance. We don’t want to visualize ourselves in opposition. We are not transporting ourselves across a threshold from one feeling immediately to another. No. We want to stand firm knowing that opposition exists. Learning how to accept opposition is the beginning exercise. From there, we can learn that opposition isn’t an either/or experience by learning to flow through polarity.
I offer a series of annotated meditations that work on all emotional/energetic levels of the body to help with centering. The meditations are FREE and available on my website @ aliciacahalanelewis.com
Thanks for reading!
