When you feel unhinged in your life, how do you come back to a place of feeling centered?
If you’ve felt off for awhile, do you recall what it’s like to be centered and grounded?
I view being centered as the experience that comes from being in alignment. It’s when who you truly are matches how you show up in your daily life.
It’s easy to detect when you come across someone who is not aligned or centered – you can feel it. While you can’t always put your finger on what seems off, you may find yourself thinking something like: he doesn’t seem authentic, or she is hard to read, or I’m not sure why, but I don’t trust that person.
If you are the one feeling out of alignment, your inner dialogue might go something like this: I’m overwhelmed, I’m such an idiot, everything feels overly hard, I don’t know who I am anymore, or I feel lost.
Being centered and grounded doesn’t protect us from challenges and hardships in life. But coming back home to your inner truth, creates a deep sense of personal harmony.
Being centered and aligned with who you are, makes traveling through life’s bumps a little less lonely and confusing. It’s like moving through life with your best friend at your side.
If your best friend was going through hard times, you wouldn’t say to her: you’ll never get through this, you should give up, you shouldn’t feel like that, or worse – you’re a loser. You would never think of saying any of those things.
Instead, you’d lift her up and tell her she’s got this and that she is strong. You’d comfort your friend and tell her it’s okay to feel sad, scared, or frustrated. You’d remind her that who she is, is so much more than the experience she’s going through.
Being centered is like this too. It’s about staying connected to your inner wise guide and Bff. It’s about making that relationship more valuable and credible than the voice of the obnoxious roommate in your head – the one who loves to tell you all the reasons why you aren’t good enough, or why things won’t work out for you.
Guiding our daily lives from a place of being centered, won’t extinguish the urge to listen to the obnoxious roommate in our minds. But it does help us feel like we are worthy of being on our human journey. When we know our worth and we stop beating up on ourselves, it’s easier to see all that is good about our lives.
When I feel out of alignment, these are the 3 strategies I use to get back to a place of feeling centered. Next time you feel off your game, give them a try.
1. Draw on Your Sources of Inspiration
Who or what inspires you? Make a list, either on paper or in your mind, of the type of people and experiences that help you feel hopeful and uplifted.
Sometimes the best way to get motivated to get back on your game, is to be moved by someone else’s story of resilience. There are countless stories, from history and in the present, that illustrate the strength and tenacity of the human spirit. More often than not, the person at the heart of the inspiring story, tapped into their beliefs and inner resolve. They turned inward to stay centered and up to the task of moving through what appeared to be unthinkable.
This same human spirit lives within you, and when you feel connected and tethered to her – life instantly feels better.
Draw on your sources of inspiration when you aren’t sure how to find your way back home to yourself.
2. Use Microsteps to Create Momentum
The best way to create habits of thinking and being that actually stick, is to know how you want to feel and then make small steps forward.
I’m a fan of using Microsteps to get on the path of making change. Microsteps are small, realistic steps that are attainable because they meet you where you’re at.
When we feel off our game, there can be a tendency to build evidence and momentum that keeps us feeling stuck. But when we put our focus on what we want, and we decide we want to get centered, Microsteps are the ideal place to start.
Everyone’s steps will look different. The main idea is to personalize the Microsteps and make them attainable in order to experience small wins. These wins help create new momentum toward feeling aligned and in a life we love.
3. Give Yourself a Daily Physical Reset
One way to look at being ‘centered’, is to consider the relationship between our human body and our human spirit. We identify with both, yet we may not give a lot of thought to how our physical health affects the wellness of our being – or our ‘well-being’.
When our human body feels stressed out, burned out, depleted and not cared for – it’s challenging to have the awareness and wherewithal to listen to our inner spirit and wisdom. It’s hard to feel centered and connected to our spirit when our bodies are perpetually tired and worn.
Instead of aiming to overhaul our physical health all at once, use Microsteps to create a daily physical reset. See how it feels to implement ‘one’ small physical reset at a time.
Here are some ideas for boosting your physical health on a daily basis:
- Leave your phone out of your bedroom at night, reduce distraction and aim to get a solid night’s sleep.
- Stay hydrated throughout the day. Set reminders on your phone, or on sticky notes to drink more water.
- Start your morning with a meditation practice.
- End your day with a gratitude practice.
- Be mindful of what you consume for a day. That includes what you eat, what you read and listen to, and what you take in on social media.
- Unplug from your devices and social media for the day.
- Aim to eat whole, live food for a day.
- Get outside and move your body.
- Have dance breaks throughout the day to move your body and ease stress.
- Make a point of laughing throughout the day. Watch something funny or tap into your sources of humor.
- Hug the people you love.
Add to this list, or create your own list of small, attainable ways you can boost your physical health, one step at a time.
When we feel better in our bodies, it’s easier to stay centered and connected to our spirit and truth. When we are connected to our truth, we can’t help but create a life we love.
What about you? What do you most love about your life?
Originally published at emilymadill.com
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