.: Centering Top Related Articles
1). STOP! AND NAME YOUR INTENTION
How often are you confronted with something you want to do, or need to accomplish, but find it hard to stop, focus, and sit down to actually do it? Here’s a technique to help you clear your mind and focus your intention, if you’ll let it.
Article tags: intention, centering, procrastination, productivity, recovery
2). Being the Mountain
As I hiked up the path to the Peaceful Valley Chapel, I relished the quiet of my early morning solitude. After many years as a participant and assistant instructor at Thomas Crum's Journey To Center Program, this beautiful and energizing ten-minute hike had become a personal ritual. Each morning of each Journey to Center week, before our breathing and meditation session at 7, I always hike to the top of this small mountain to be inspired by the view of a much higher mountain range in the distance.
Article tags: peace of mind, hiking, beauty, nature, meditation, solitude, mountains, personal power, energy, centering, perfection, natural world, being, presence, thomas crum
3). Go Where Your Energy is Strong
"Keep your center and you’ll know which way you have to go."
– Terry Dobson, aikidoist and author, Aikido In Everyday Life
I had undertaken a project that I was beginning to feel was beyond my personal resources to accomplish. I had asked a friend and colleague if I might organize a workshop in the New England area that he would teach. After many months of collecting information, I was at the point of choosing and committing to a conference center.
Article tags: saying no, assertiveness, ki, chi, inner voice, intuition, personal energy, energy, peace of mind, aikido, martial arts, gifts, unexpected gifts, personal power, centering, approval, approval-seeking
4). View from Another Planet: Learning to Talk to Our Children
Our goal in conscious communication is not to change the other person . . . Our goal is to establish connection.
Andrew LeCompte, author, Creating Harmonious Relationships
A parent of three attended a workshop I gave on managing conflict. A few days after the workshop, she emailed me to say that she'd had an "opportunity" to practice when her 15-year-old daughter came home an hour after the agreed upon time.
Article tags: talking with children, conflict, active listening, difficult conversations, centering, curiosity, inquiry
5). Centering Defined: What, How and Why?
What is center? How do you choose to be centered, and why? In what ways can you develop a strong center?
As a student and instructor of the Japanese martial art Aikido, and as a professional speaker and trainer, I often present on this topic and, in addition, have made centering a life practice. I say practice, because that is what it takes to access the Center State on purpose.
Article tags: centering, how to center oneself, aikido, managing emotions, anger management, deep breathing, conflict management, communication skills
6). Thank You Very Much – Turning Problems Into Gifts
I am a martial artist and black belt in aikido, a practice that continues to teach me about life, both on and off the mat. For example, at the end of each aikido practice, I express gratitude to my partners by bowing and saying: "Thank you very much." I've found over the years that sometimes I have obvious reasons to say thank you - working with that person was exhilarating and fun.
Article tags: peace of mind, gratitude, attitude, aikido, practice, martial arts, gifts, unexpected gifts, blessings, personal power, centering, being, presence
7). The Greatest Gift
"Go ahead, Judy, talk to your father. What do you want to say?" With these words offered by my favorite Aunt Mimi, I was given the greatest gift—the gift of myself.
Mimi and I had gone on an aunt-niece shopping adventure, and at age 15, I became the proud owner of my first mini-skirt. Upon seeing it, my dad hit the roof, and as usual, I was angry, scared, and tongue-tied.
Article tags: holding difficult conversation, assertiveness, family dynamics, holidays, christmas, gifts, self-awareness, centering, aikido, managing emotions, anger management, conflict management, communication skills
8). Conflict and Change: Managing Emotional Energy
The beginning of a new year, like the beginning of anything, brings with it thoughts of change, rejuvenation, new life, and resolutions about how to accomplish these changes. Life offers possibilities of a fresh start for our relationships. But we don't always carry through on our resolutions.
There's a great difference between wanting to change and actually doing it.
Article tags: centering, emotion management, ability to change, new year's resolutions, emotional intelligence, awareness, changing habits
9). Living on Purpose: One Rock at a Time
I just got back from Colorado where I spent a week relaxing, re-energizing and revisiting the key values in my life. The lodge where I stayed is called Peaceful Valley, and it has a chapel on the premises. I’ve been to Peaceful Valley and to this chapel many times over the years. The chapel is at the end of a steep ten-minute hike, which has become a ritual for me.
Article tags: centering, meditation, awareness, life energy, hurry hiking, time management, priorities, power of presence, being in the moment, personal power, presence, taking charge of your life, purpose, values, living on purpose
10). Breathing: The Way Back to Balance
“If you don’t like what’s happening in your life, change your mind.”
This brief quotation from the Dalai Lama reminds me that my experience of life changes as I do. As I change, I change the way I influence - and am influenced by - my surroundings.
How are you inventing your life today? How does the way you think affect your actions? And how might you become more aware of the process?
A centering breath is a place to start.
Article tags: deep breathing, centering, aikido, managing emotions, anger management, conflict management, communication skills, life skills
11). Holiday "Ki" Moments: Choosing Your Best Self
"I like to think of myself as an artist, and my life is my greatest work of art. Every moment is a moment of creation, and each moment of creation contains infinite possibilities. I can do things the way I've always done them, or I can look at all the different alternatives, and try something new and different and potentially more rewarding. Every moment presents a new opportunity and a new decision.
Article tags: holidays, christmas, gifts, self-awareness, centering, aikido, managing emotions, anger management, deep breathing, conflict management, communication skills
12). Knowing When I'm Not: 4 Suggestions for Developing a Strong Center
The more I practice centering, the more I realize that as important as it is to be able to identify and access the centered state, it is equally important to be able to know when I'm NOT centered. Otherwise, how do I choose?
When I'm centered I'm in control of my behavior. Centered action is on purpose and by choice. Uncentered action is reactive and out of control, and I end up looking back with regret.
Article tags: centering, the centered state, how to center oneself, aikido, self-awareness, managing emotions, anger management, deep breathing, conflict management, communication skills
13). Brief Grounding of an Idea: A Guided Meditation for You
Copyright 2006 Marshall House
Purpose of this Meditation
The purpose of this guided meditation is to help you to ground an idea. That is, to help an idea of your choosing to manifest. In my view, it is easy to have an idea, even a brilliant idea; it is not so easy to manifest it if our contradictory thoughts get in the way.
Instructions
Find a comfortable place, sitting or lying down, where you can be fully relaxed and open to the ideas and energy of this guided meditation.
Article tags: guided meditation, empowerment, empowering practice, grounding, centering, manifestation, manifesting an idea, creation, creating
14). How Are You Inventing Your Life Today?
"Organisms do not experience environments, they create them."
-- From A Simpler Way, by Margaret Wheatley
Walking down Lincoln Avenue in Portsmouth, I am struck by the beauty of the day – forsythia, tulips and daffodils, bright sun, warm breeze – and the freedom and privilege I have to walk in a healthy body, through a friendly neighborhood, of my own volition.
Article tags: insight, centering, inspiration, acknowledge, emotions, happiness