Exercise 7

Centering

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to acquaint you some methods of centering as discussed in the essay on Clearing and Centering. In that essay, I defined centering as the act of putting oneself into a balanced energy state with minimal subjective thoughts and that you can think of it as being in, relatively speaking a neutral space. While this is true, centering also helps one get beyond the ego based rational mind. It is something I do every time I meditate along with grounding and clearing.

Meditation becomes easier, clearer, deeper and more profound when one is grounded, clear of lower energies and centered. We do this for the same reason that one prepares to work on a car by setting up the workspace, gathering the required tools, automotive guides and so on. I highly recommend that you take these steps every time you meditate. Certainly one can meditate without them, though not if one is intent on being effective when working on issues or doing any form of energy work. One’s clarity of thought and objectivity are critical, otherwise you cannot be sure what you are getting is not highly subjective. This can lead one to make choices not in their best interests.

We will look at one method of centering, though there are many others. Even if you already have a method of centering the information in this exercise and the exercise, itself should help you determine if it is effective.

Duration

30 - 40 minutes (this time includes preparation and will decrease as your proficiency improves)

Prerequisites

Readings:

Section 3A: Core Spiritual Elements
- Clearing and Centering

Exercises:

Ex. 6: Clearing Our Energy Field

Background

Centering is important regardless of whether they are working on issues, with energy or exploring the realms of the mind. First, one simply cannot do effective work if they are not in a “good space” and second one cannot get to higher states of awareness if the ego is involved to any significant extent. Most of the deep meditation practices require one to be able to disengage portions of their ego.

The ego interferes with clarity and keeps us firmly in a subjective mode of awareness thereby preventing or severely restricting us from raising our awareness to any significant degree. See ones subjectivity as an anchor provided by our ego. It is harder and indeed impossible to shift our awareness “up” when we remain attached to ego based thoughts and emotional reactions. Grounding and clearing aid us in clearing the emotional based aspects of our ego, clearing is necessary to do the same for our thoughts.

Do not have the expectation that you will master this in a few tries. Learning to center oneself to a high level takes a great deal of practice and both personal growth and spiritual growth. At the same time, when one first starts down this road the level of centering you can attain should be sufficient to begin expanding your awareness and to help you work on some or many of your issues. Do not let inexperience deter you, for as you dig deeper into your emotions and thoughts your skill and confidence will increase.

There are a number of ways to become “centered”. Generally, these involve focusing ones attention through chanting during meditation or the use of symbols of some form. The method I use which is to use ones awareness of their thoughts and emotions so that they may be set aside. This method is the one covered here, though what I convey will be useful no matter which technique you employ.

To become completely centered one must be able to get beyond all emotional attachments of their rational mind. One could describe this as the state of simply “being”, though that isn’t true as one can still “think” when centered, nor should it be confused with tuning to ones higher or inner self. There are many similarities; however, one does not need to strip away their ego to center themselves.

In terms of personal and spiritual growth, one of the greatest benefits of being able to center is that we can, when in a more objective space, explore our issues and use it to help us make decisions. Our desires and wants generally mask what is in our best interests. Emotional attachments to particular outcomes can make it difficult when we need to make choices in our lives.

This exercise helps you develop a skill or awareness; one you can apply many different ways. I do it as a matter of course during my meditation and hence anytime I work with energy of any kind. I also do it when I have to make important decisions. Being centered when making a decision does not ensure we made the perfect choice, as you never know what could have happened had you chosen differently; one can only image what could have been. One cannot go back and know what would have happened had they chosen a different path. What you will have is a knowing that you made a decision clearly, without reduced influence from your programmed rational mind. So long as you are fully aware of the factors that affect your decision and your feelings about it, you will come away comfortable with your choice.

A centered state of mind is very useful when working on ones issues. In this state, we can explore individual issues and the thoughts and emotions connected to them. This is very difficult to do if one is being emotional as they try to work because you can never be sure that your emotions did not affect what you perceived.

Do this exercise during your meditation; though once you have developed some skill at it you will find you can do it without being in a meditative state. The only difference between the two is that more focus is required when one is active and doing things.

Remember the following:

Be as open and objective as you can.
Make sure you have enough time to see the exercise through.
Try not to get sidetracked.

Method

1. Preparation:

Prepare for this exercise in centering by doing a basic meditation, including grounding and clearing. Being in a meditative posture reduces distractions while grounding helps deal with emotional reactions you may have so they do not clutter up your energy field. Clearing your energy enhances both of these because the energy in our aura affects our thoughts and can draw on other energies (thoughts and emotions) with which it shares commonality.

2. Begin Centering Process

When you have finished grounding pause for a moment to perceive where you are in terms of thoughts and emotions. If you have a great number of thoughts, you will need to reduce this until you have little going on in your mind. This can be a challenging transition to make as many who have not meditated a great deal may find that they drift off into a semi-sleep state. This happens because you have not enabled enough of the type of thought forms that sustain your awareness when your rational mind is less active. Doing the exercises on meditation, grounding and clearing will help you develop these. There is no other way to accomplish this, as we must train our rational mind to allow non-rational states of awareness.

At this point, we now turn our attention to centering. The process is not complicated; doing it is the challenging part. You thoughts should be at a minimum and your emotions quiet. Try to not think, just feel yourself, your energy. You will notice it if you do not try to think about it. As you do this, some thoughts and perhaps feelings related to them or to more subtle thoughts you have but are aware of will become apparent. This is where the exercise on honesty will be of benefit. You must be willing to acknowledge that you still have thoughts and feelings otherwise, you will be inclined to overlook them. In addition, we must be asking ourselves if we are in balance, do we feel unencumbered by thoughts and emotions.

3. Perceiving and Clearing Subtle Thoughts and Emotions

The key to centering is sensitivity, which is being able to perceive our state of mind. Hence, as mentioned, consider your state of mind; ask yourself “do I feel centered?” Answer this question by using how you feel about it rather than by using words. Being used to thinking with thoughts, you may not find this easy to do, unfortunately it how to do this is not something that can readily be explained using words. See it more as using a sound, note or vibration, one that embodies the idea that “I am centered” and notice any change in your energy or how this vibration feels. Any reaction at all tells you that you are not there yet. If you were, you would not react.

You are looking for a yes or no type of answer or feeling, not the words. This answer will be perceivable in terms of “it feels right” or “it does not feel right”. If you do feel any negative reaction, regardless of how subtle it is you need to either examine or dismiss the thoughts and feelings you perceive. You are not actually getting rid of them; you are detaching your attention to them, which is entirely different. The degree to which you can do this is entirely dependent on whether you can let them go for the moment or not. Success in this process means you will not have a great deal of active thoughts or emotions. This also makes it easier to isolate what comes to your attention so you can examine it.

You examine the thoughts and emotions that you notice by feeling them and allowing their vibration to “speak to you”, to impress a thought upon you. This is how telepathy works; our awareness “decodes” the vibration into words or something we can understand consciously. We have to learn how to allow it, as people are generally accustomed to expressing themselves through words alone. We do not need to know the words; it is just that we have allowed ourselves to become reliant on them. In this case, we do not want to figure what we feel out, we want to feel or perceive our attachment to them so we can put it aside.

To let these thoughts go I can only suggest that you acknowledge them, grasp what they are and then tell yourself or feel to yourself that you can deal with this matter later. In any event, if one follows this process they will find it enlightening.

Continue to try to stay in a balanced state as you go through this stage. Do not stop even if you find you have too many thoughts or emotional reactions taking your attention. This is where a mantra can come in handy, like focusing on ones breathe. The key is to stick with it. It can take time to get past these mental barriers, for that is what they are.

For example, say you notice that you feel a little uncertain. You may need to explore the uncertainty to determine its source. Do this by letting the feeling of uncertainty be there in you awareness and allow the thoughts associated with it to surface. When they do surface, consider them in turn and then try to set them aside. Again, do so with as little thinking as possible. Try to feel what the issue is that your rational mind is holding onto. Your goal, at least for the moment, is to “de-power” the thought form.

Let us say the uncertainty is about our finances and that we are worried about having the money we need to live. This thought will likely have a number of associated concerns such as fear of losing your home or possessions, a loss of self-esteem or that you cannot pay for something you need. With each associated thought, realize that in this moment you are alive and cannot resolve the money issues now. Feel your fear or anxiety and then tell yourself that you understand this fear and that for the moment it is not important. For this to succeed you must have made your meditation important enough to override other concerns, without this becoming centered is next to impossible.

4. Objectivity Check

When we feel we are as centered as we can be, we can test ourselves to be sure. It is always good practice to do this; otherwise, we may only think we are in this state as our minds can play tricks with us. The way we check is we bring forward a memory that always causes us to react emotionally in some fashion. If you react at all or notice slight tremors, assuming you are clear enough to notice it, then you have not achieved a sufficient degree of centering relative to that issue.

Knowing being centered is a matter of degree (how far removed from your rational mind or ego you get), you should realize that how centered you need to be depends on what you intend to do. If you are working on issues then you need to achieve a degree of centeredness greater than that of your emotional reaction. Otherwise, you cannot be sure of your clarity and objectivity.

5. Enjoy The Moment

The state of mind one has when grounded, cleared and centered is phenomenal and frankly, can be as fun as blissful. Each time you work on centering, you will find yourself able to get deeper into your awareness and further from your rational mind’s influence. From this state, you can begin to explore the vibrant Cosmos around you, do energy work or work on growth issues that you are trying to resolve or move past.

The capabilities of our non-rational mind far exceed those of waking consciousness. Expanding your mental horizons takes time, granted; however, not as long as you might think. We develop our non-rational awareness just as we strengthen our body, by using it. Our body’s strength resides in our muscles; our awareness comes from our thoughts, as we are already capable, just blocked. To unblock it, we retrain the rational mind to allow non-rational states of consciousness, ones where words are not required.

6. Return to Waking Consciousness

Regardless of when you end the meditation, either after centering or after doing some other things, do the Returning to Waking Consciousness step (Part III), as covered in the meditation exercise. Always give yourself some time to come out of meditation; it is better for your mind and your body.

Follow-up

After centering, whether this is all you did or you carried onto other things, be mindful of that feeling you had, of what you felt in that state. One can draw on the memory of that vibration to bring it about in the moment. Remembering it gives us access to the state, how much depends on the degree and power of our attention to it.

One can use this state, and should, to continue to refine their degree of centeredness. All meditative paths to the inner-self include a centered state of mind. It is also extremely useful for making decisions and working on issues where emotional attachments are strong.

For instance, say one is working on an issue and choose to try to get past. To do so they must examine it from as objective a point of view as possible. One can do this in meditation by centering to a level higher than their emotional reactions to it. You use the objectivity test preferable using the issue you are working on, as using another would require that it manifest the same level and type of reaction to it as the one you are working on. The stronger your emotional response to the memory, the easier it is to notice. Therefore the more subtle the issue and emotions manifested by it the greater the degree of sensitivity required.

Whatever your choice may be having learned to center will provide you with many benefits. You may notice you start to act and react differently, that you contemplate more and are more understanding of others and their challenges. Too many people live in constant stress or at least strain by spending too much time thinking and not enough time being. Yes, life can be a challenge, yes we must do what we need to do to survive (within reason), what we do not need to do is spend it stressed out.

Think about this: if we cannot change things, should we also let our thoughts about it increase our burden? This goes hand in hand with that old adage: “accept the things I cannot change, have courage to change the things I can and have the wisdom to know the difference”.