Getting Centered

UNIFY MIND AND BODY

GOT STRESS?

Traffic jams, technology change, information overload, time-crunch, conflicts, relationship struggles, and other stresses can jeopardize your vitality, creativity, productivity, and joy. Stress costs the workplace about $300 billion a year; 80 percent of doctor visits are stress-related. Unmanaged stress can lead to heart attacks and strokes, gastro-intestinal problems, diabetes, insomnia, headaches and depression.

THREE TRUTHS ABOUT STRESS

1. There will be stress. Stress occurs when change happens to the mind, body, spirit, or environment. It could have a positive or negative source – going on a vacation or having a fight with a colleague, buying a new home, or being late for an appointment.
2. Stress can be beneficial. Stress is one of your best opportunities to become wiser, stronger, and more flexible. Every athlete knows that he or she must put stress on the body, training it to grow stronger and more adaptable.
3. Stress is not the problem. The culprit is being under chronic stress with no recovery time.

A BALANCING ACT

The autonomic nervous system governs heart rate, breathing, perspiration, dilation of pupils, digestive system, etc. There are two systems: the sympathetic is the “red alert” or “fight or flight” system. The parasympathetic is the “green system,” or “rest and digest.” When one is on, the other is off.

But when you are sitting in rush-hour traffic already 10 minutes late for a meeting, you think, “I’ve got to get there!” Your red alert lever is pumping hundreds of chemicals and hormones into your system so that you can fight or flee.

Some people are on red alert 24/7. So, the stress response / recovery ratio is off kilter and causing suffering to the body, mind, and spirit.

WHAT TO DO?

Centering practices directly bring balance, unifying the mind and body and increasing our ability to be calm with relaxed power and clarity. One essential centering practice that you can practice every day is the centering breath. Whether you are sitting or standing, let your body become symmetrical and aligned, feet flat on the ground, and upper body erect. Visualize gravity flowing through you, the weight settling underneath your feet, leaving you weightless, yet grounded.

Exhale completely to relax the body and empty the lungs of air. It will support you to place your hands on your abdomen, to be aware that the breathing originates at the belly or center of the body. Simply focus on the breath and notice how it happens effortlessly. Inhale naturally through your nose and exhale through the nose or mouth. Give this breathing your centered attention. After a few minutes, you can intend for that breath to get slower, deeper, quieter, and more regular.

WHEN TO DO THIS?

You can do this powerful practice anytime and anywhere you have a few minutes: sitting in traffic or waiting in line. Deep abdominal, centered breathing will give you up to seven times more oxygen than shallow chest breathing, providing great vitality to the entire system. And since your brain uses at least 20 percent of the oxygen you breathe, increased clarity and focus and creativity will be yours. Why wait? Do it now!

~ By Thomas Crum – an author and creator of the Magic of Conflict programs and StressBusters Workshop

 

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