HOW TO GET CENTERED IN YOUR CORE

Are you a highly sensitive person and/or an empath who gets easily impacted by the external environment (including other people’s moods and cosmic energy shifts)? Do you often find yourself thrown off balance by seemingly minuscule triggers and have difficulty discerning between your own emotions and those of others? Are you struggling with maintaining boundaries and honoring your own needs and desires?

If you relate to the above, the practice of centering might be a life-changing solution for you. Before I explain what it is and how to use it, let me mention that this practice emerged through trial and error. As a highly sensitive person myself, I found it hard to create balance between feeding my Soul with new impressions vs nourishing my system with downtime to process the input.

Having to dynamically negotiate between my own two polarities (nomadic inclinations vs hermit tendencies), I experimented with various energy management techniques. Through sensing into myself deeply and implementing several tweaks to the ways in which I work with energy, I have come to learn that BEING CENTERED IN MY CORE is the energetical adjustment that makes all the difference, at least in my case.

Centering: a definition

Centering means: a homecoming to YOU.

A return — and anchoring into — your body as the physical mundane vessel for your non-material spirit (Soul, higher self, you name it).

To me this “core” it is my entire body, not only my heart and/or womb. Being centered actually covers the whole of me: the physical body, all the major chakras plus the Earth Star chakra under my feet (for grounding) and the Soul Star chakra above my head (for cosmic connection). It’s like I’m fully installed into my own energetical blueprint. I’m HOME in my Temple. I’m the Queen of my energy field. I’m the driver of the incredible machine called human body. To me it feels like having full-on presence and overview, from a place of steadiness and stability.

Being centered is different from being grounded in the sense that being centered includes grounding and goes beyond it, in my definition. Grounding is a downwards oriented movement of energy — it helps us get more present on the earthly plane and feel safe in the material world.

Centering is a more holistic practice, in my understanding. Not only does it take into account the need to have our feet planted firmly on the ground, but it also includes being open to higher realms of guide, all the while staying present right there where you are. So, centering is about cultivating the ability to be both: intuitively open and steadfast, spiritually connected and fully embodied. Centering is what emerges when BOTH polarities — the above and the below, the inner and the outer — get embraced in equal measure. Centering is the very act of holding, having, honoring ALL of ourselves.

Centering is the bridge between the realms, an invitation to dive deeper into our humanness as the one and only possible vessel for experiencing our divinity.

Therefore, centering is sacred and alchemical. It incorporates all directions, all elements. It is inclusive and balanced, comprehensive and real. So, with the principle of centering we no longer need to divorce the material plane in order to experience the spiritual; and similarly, we no longer have to forego the ethereal transcendence of the invisible realms so that we can feel solid and stable in the domain of matter. Centering opens the door to having both, and being fully truly YOU in the process.

Ultimately, being centered is an invitation into a full-bodied experience of your essence as an infinitely powerful, creative, spiritual being.

The question is: how much of your own divinity are you willing to experience? A tip: there really is no limit!

Centering: the practice

If the above makes sense to you, give centering a try. A word of caution: everyone’s energy system is unique, so the practice below are just a rough outline of what works. You have to find your own way, so if any of my suggestions don’t feel right to you, please feel free to tweak them as you see fit. I do encourage you, however, to first master the underlying principles of the practice and give it a go exactly as it is written out. On the basis of having gotten the principles, you can adapt the practice to suit your needs.

Step 1: Create the distinction between the inner and the outer.

Here, you are coming back to your own energy, your own field, and creating a safe space around you that allows you to dwell in yourself and let go of the entanglements with others. So, find a moment to get really quiet and still, disconnect from the external world, and become present to your physical body. If you so wish, visualize a ceremonial circle of protection all around you, like a translucent shiny bubble covering your entire field.

Notice what is moving and unfolding within you. Observe your breathing, and take a moment to honor your current emotional and mental state. Take all the time you need to just BE WITH yourself, not needing to do anything or change anything about the way you are showing up at that moment.

Step 2: Establish the energetical grid and the pillar of your interdimensional connection to the spaces above and below you.

By defining your energy through visualization and/or sensing into it, you become more aware of it, and therefore, more in control.

Connect:

a) upwards with Heaven (breathing through the top of your head and visualizing a cosmic stream of energy descending down onto you, like a shower, can support with that) and

b) downwards with Earth (breathing through your feet and lower chakras/pelvic floor can help).

Now you have an energetical stream of light running through your entire system, from feet to crown, plus a sphere of protection surrounding you. You are ready to go all the way, deeper into yourself, into your core.

Step 3: Come into being the fullness of you.

This is the most important step in this centering practice, the one that makes all the difference. Whenever you are ready, start feeling your own presence. Notice who you are being within this energetical grid you have just defined. You INHABIT it. Within it, you truly are INCARNATED. Can you be the fullness of you within that space? Can you feel ALL of you come alive? Can you hold the intensity of your own divinity in its human form? Keep breathing and opening and anchoring deeper into the totality of you.

If it helps, find a place within your body that feels safe and feels like the very core of you. Breathe into that space and let yourself dwell there for a while. In that space, you may ask for guidance, or just observe what comes up.

Step 4: Emerge embodied and activated.

When you feel complete and ready to engage with the world again, let yourself resurface and become present to your surroundings. Important is that you do all this without losing the totality of your presence. So, stay anchored in your core and connected upwards and downwards, and from that place of being centered within your own Holy Grail of Self, come out of the practice and shine.

NB: all of these steps don’t have to take longer than 5–10 minutes to perform. You can practice a longer version of centering through combining these steps with meditation, or dwelling in Step 3 longer. However, you can quickly go through these steps as a 2-minute energetical tune-up anytime, anywhere, as often as needed, even multiple times throughout the day. In fact, it can be very helpful — centering before going out of the house or prior to taking a client call supports your self-confidence and your connection with your own wisdom.

I have recorded a 7-minute guided version of this practice:

The impact of centering

If you are serious about living from being centered in your core (read: unapologetically embodying your Soul in your human body), you will notice that this practice, when done consistently, leaves no space for bullshit. You cannot call your very Soul back home into your body and NOT feel the difference! The impact may include such occurrences as:

- being no longer able and willing to tolerate anything that is less than 100% aligned with your essence,

- finding it easier to say “no” and mean it,

- having your “yes” be more whole-hearted and real,

- feeling more at home in your body and comfortable with your sexuality,

- receiving guidance and intuitive hits on an ongoing basis.

Centering is an ever-unfolding movement of coming to know yourself as embodied and real.

The more you practice it, the more it becomes your second nature — so things that used to get you out of whack have no power over you anymore.

To maintain your centered experience, keep living with the following questions.

Exploration question (just be with it, no need to answer right away): Who am I in my core?

Presencing question (ask yourself regularly): Am I fully present in my core?

Creation question (let it expand your mind to new possibilities, it is about stretching into the unknown not answering): How do I show up from being centered in my core?

Additionally, practice noticing when and how you get off your center. Are you getting too spaced out, drifting in the clouds? Or are you feeling heavy, immobile and sluggish? Or maybe you notice that you get easily thrown off by other people’s emotions, and hence find yourself “outside” of your own energy? Notice the movements, and remember to pull yourself back. To you. To the Temple of your own knowing, where your infinite Soul dwells in a mortal human body. Can you see the perfection in this alchemical union?

Above all else: keep discovering who you are, and what you need in order to bring the essence of you to its most natural harmonious expression. Your energetical makeup is unique. Nobody is wired the way you are. So — keep practicing what works. You are so worth it!

Photo by Jorigė Kuzmaitė on Unsplash