Find your quiet centre
Find your quiet centre
No matter how hard we try to control them, our emotions can be overwhelming. Sometimes they take over the whole of you, leaving no space for other thoughts and making you feel as if you have no control. You can train your mind not to let that happen by doing a simple meditation exercise like the one in the orange box.
- Close your eyes.
- Feel your body resting on the earth. Breathe in, drawing the strength and solidity of the earth into yourself. Breathe out, letting your tension and anxiety flow out with the breath. Do that a number of times. Strength and support in, tension and anxiety out. Strength and support in, tension and anxiety out.
- Then simply focus on your breath. In, out. In, out. You may become aware of your heartbeat in the little pause before the in-breath. In, out.
- Accept where and who you are in this moment. Do not fight it. Do not fight any thoughts. Let them be. In, out. Heartbeat. In, out.
- If your thoughts return to whatever is worrying you, don’t fight it. Instead, imagine that you yourself are the centre of a big wheel and the issue worrying you is out there on the rim. You can see it, you know exactly what it is, you will get back to it, but in this moment, it does not take over the quiet centre. Let it go.
- Return your attention to your breath. In, out. A heartbeat. In, out. You are the centre of the wheel, the quiet centre. Everything else is out there on the rim. In, out. In, out.
When you have read the meditation exercise through a few times, you may want to record it on your phone so that you can listen to it when your eyes are closed. Leave pauses to give you time to repeat the breathing exercise. Follow the description above until you know the exercise, then let it go and trust your own process.
If you practise this regularly, it will become easy to calm yourself down when something stressful happens. Close your eyes, breathe. Withdraw in your mind to your quiet centre, even if it’s just for a few seconds. It can work wonders.
