Created by David Weinstock

Centering is a way to be more congruent with ourselves and our communication, otherwise we often give double messages

When we change our body, we change our mind we change our energetic quality

3 part center

Head -is the place perception – when connected to belly and is freed up this leads to wisdom of understanding of the situation – when not connected it overcompensates trying to be strong. The body is great at compensating. –
Heart – feeling -compassion -emotion If not connected to the belly, the heart needs to be tough and overworks and becomes exhausted instead of soft and able to feel

Belly -a place of confidence and knowing

Belly is the seat of spiritual confidence. When activated we have a sense of center, presence and settledness when this is activated it allows the other centers to work fully

Normally in our culture the belly is disconnected as part of our education and so the head or the heart centers try to be confident. So the heart becomes tough instead of soft and feeling and the head tries to be smart and confident. We become righteous and try to be strong and have a hard time with perception.

Aligning these centers helps us to become more effective

4 Part Centering- allow us a self to come back to

1. Breath
Take long fairly slow breaths in and then let it out in a relaxed “ahhhh sound”
Do this about 3 times

Here is a breathing suggestion that couples with imagination:
Breathe down into your belly and imagine it spiraling downward into the earth. Imagine it as a tap root resourcing the earth below.
Breathe in from the earth and through you as it spirals up like a shoot growing and as it fills you and becomes stronger and upright imagine it branching outward as your field expands.
Exercise- Take note of how we shift by first inhaling –with 3 sharp inhales. Our body goes into a state of alarm and our sympathetic NS kicks in. Do this a few times and note your sensations.
Now exhale with a long breath out. You can accompany this with a long ahhhhh sound. This activates the para-sympathetic NS to settle and calm us down so we come back to our self.

2. Balance energy field
Heat that emanates from our bodies. Bring attention to it. Electromagnetic waves.

Use your imagination and inquire within. Ask yourself is my attention/sense of my field/spaced to my back the same asto my front front, left and right, above and below- You can think of it as a texture, color light. Let yourself wonder
Field brings us a sense of aliveness Ki

3. Gravity—Let the jaw and shoulders drop, relax them. Let your skeleton hold you up- If it is difficult to relax them ask yourself. How would it feel if my jaw/shoulders were a little less tense? Wait for the body to respond. The body hates to not know and will answer somehow.- inquiry will help to soften
Lighten up and be stronger
More buoyancy especially as we get older is a good thing. Like the children walking.
4. Quality
Bring a quality into our mind/body
AsK yourself: what would it be like of I had more——-calm, patience, dignity, joy, presence, etc?
Inquiry –we wait and see what will happen-
We learn to work with a state of not knowing. This is an important part of this practice and a doorway to creativity and intuition.
Most of us give ourselves grief for not knowing. Here we learn to tolerate this state and let inner wisdom arise. If we try to shift too much too soon into these qualities, our system may have a hard time tolerating this state.
Imagination is important to this work in order to keep our attention and make it interesting.
Ex.
Connect to Breath as universal energy
Gravity as our connection to earth
Important to make this work interesting for yourself, it must be compelling enough to draw you back from the drama of your life.

These practices can take 20 seconds. Less then a commercial break.
Do it several times in a day.
Imagine yourself taking a commercial break and have a word from your sponsor

Exercise
ASK
What do you love about yourself?

What don’t you love about yourself?

Center

Notice what you experience Share it. Tolerate not knowing.

Exercise
Groups of 3
One coach
Person A gives a statement to B that lands hard.
Person B: Take it personally and notice sensations.

Person A: do it again
Person B: Now give it space by breathing and stepping away if necessaryand then center yourself.
Coach notice somatically and offer
Do it again

Past habits show up for old criticisms on the way to healing.

Exercise
2 people
Both center
A walks to B 4 times
3 responses.
A goes to B
1. connect with him , maybe take hands
2 turn away
3 turn and walk together
Watch personality and how it wants to come out and wants to know outcome. We think that is good, center is better.

Engage all three centerstakcs some rehabilitation.

Exercise Shake hands and notice what is disengaged.

Playful hearing, Keep a sense of humor
Its better to be centered than to be right

I notice my eyes always leaving

Even if I am right I can cause a lot of suffering