What is Centering?

Note: This is an excerpt from the book “Finding Your Center.”

Today we will talk about Centering. What is it, how to use it and why it is essential in all our lives. It will give you simple tools you can use to control your mind and body at an elemental level.
Centering is a fundamental property of everyone and I all use it even if most are not aware that they are. It is as essential as breathing. In fact, it can be directly accessed by breathing if breathing is performed in a proper way.

Many know Centering as mindfulness although I will not describe it as such because the mindfulness term is overused and often describes a multitude of things in ambiguous ways. The myriad descriptions often cause more confusion than they do clarity. I adopted the term Centering many years ago to describe a fundamental property of the body that is so much a part of all of us that we often disregard it. However, it does without a doubt govern almost every aspect of our mind and body and has profound implications on our progress through life.
In one of my other books ‘Physical Intelligence, I discuss non-cognitive mental patterns and how these govern our thinking and our lives. Cognitive thinking is made up of images and concepts on a timeline. It occupies most of our conscious attention and too many people this the only thing they consider important. In fact, in writing Physical Intelligence it was challenging to find terms to describe mental processes that are not cognitive in nature. To most people, thinking only refers to cognitive thought and every other aspect of thinking is conveniently placed in a category of the subconscious. Most assume they have no control over this aspect of thought so it is ignored.
In ignoring these other aspects of the mind, they assume they do not have much bearing over their lives. This is the furthest thing from the truth. Other mental patterns such as emotional and physiological patterns have a great impact on our thinking and how we live our lives. It is not that other mental patterns they are inaccessible, but rather most try to access them in the wrong way. I can say with confidence in my personal experience and that of my many students and clients, this is certainly not the case. Access to these other aspects of thinking is not only possible but also not all that difficult.
In order to do it, you must first use the right tools. These mental patterns are not cognitive in nature so cognitive thinking will not work all that well. Read the last sentence over again. Understanding this is the key to understanding why most struggle with making lasting life changes.

Clarity exists in Centering. It is actually the natural state of being. Confusion and uncertainty arise when you are off your Center. The artificial state that most people spend most of their lives in is some form of unbalance.
Most people get thrown off their center all the time. Most people do not have a good sense of what the Center is.

• Quite often people will sometimes have good concentration and sometimes pour concentration. Usually, they have no idea why.

• Quite often people will find themselves being motivated or lethargic and having no idea why.

• Quite often people will find themselves with lots of energy or a lack of it and have no idea why.

And they have even less idea how to change any of this.
The solution for many is to drink more coffee. But simulants will not change the underlying patterns of the brain. It is sort of like putting high octane gas in a car that needs maintenance. At some point, you will pay for it.

How can something like Centering empower me?

Have you ever thought about how things happen in life? It is my experience in talking to thousands of people is that most don’t really give this fundamental concept much thought. I know, before I set out upon this path the idea never entered my mind. Like most good intellectuals, I kept extensive volumes of information on how things work; what was good and what was bad; what I was supposed to do and what I was not supposed to do. This gave me the illusion that I was in control of my life.

Your clarity of mind is the most powerful tool you really have. Luckily for you increasing your clarity is one core set of skills Finding Your Center teaches. Although life change through Finding Your Center contains a wealth of information to assist you in becoming more effective in processing information, it is the core skills that are the most powerful and will assist you in almost any situation. So that is one way Finding Your Center will assist you in making your life more effective. It will enable you to take more of the correct actions that will lead you towards the life you want. Finding Your Center is not a doctrine or a religion, it’s merely at the active tool of self-reflection. All of us in life whether we like it or not are on a journey of self-discovery. There is not really anything religious about this. The better we understand ourselves in the world around us, the less pain and more pleasure we are likely to have. The same rules apply to everyone in life even the panhandler on Market Street. Whether you continue Finding Your Center or not you’ll still be driven to come up with some system to assist you. Finding Your Center and Quality of Thinking Series is a very real form of cross-training for your life.