It’s a Monday, heavy sigh. A day I find it crucial to center myself. Why? Because I don’t want deadlines, to-do lists, or my demanding boss, bringing stress and anxiety into my day. I want my day to be productive and peaceful.
Importance of Being Centered
Many things impact our lives making it difficult for us to remain mentally and spiritually grounded. We’re often thrown off balance; that’s when we experience unpleasant feelings such as sadness, stress, or anxiety. However, we can always focus on being centered.
It’s crucial to have a solid center because it affects how we interact, perceive, and interpret people and the world around us. Our circumstances influence both our actions and reactions. Centering our lives around a series of core principles allows a stable foundation for personal growth.
By principles, I mean the values and beliefs that make up our very core or character (in essence who we are). Unlike other life factors, principles are consistent and don’t depend on the behavior of others or the environment. These should be fundamental truths that are timeless and unchangeable.
For me, holding to my principles is essential because I’m a highly sensitive person. I’m often affected by other people and my surroundings. I’m like a sponge; I’ll soak-up other people’s emotions. In crowds or social situations, I tend to get very anxious and overwhelmed.
It takes high self-awareness and practice to stay calm and centered. By monitoring our thoughts and actions, we can become more conscious of destructive patterns that affect our alignment. Often uncomfortable feelings are a sign of misalignment. During these times, we may want to re-center.
How to Re-Center
I try to focus on how I prefer to feel. Our energy creates our reality.
I create mantras/affirmations that I can recite all day, which is an excellent way of staying centered and in high energy. These statements make me feel good.
These daily affirmations help me remain centered in challenging times. One of the greatest assets of the human mind is imagination. Through it, I can visualize a situation using my affirmation. That is, I see it, feel it, and experience it before it happens. So when I get into an uncomfortable situation, it’s not foreign, because I’ve created an internal comfort zone.
In the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey points to the importance of affirmations in living authentically. Covey explains that the statement should be present, personal, positive, engaging, and emotional to be effective. Many athletes and peak performers partake in this activity. They use affirmations before a game, work, a presentation, or any event/situation.
Affirmations allow me to handle a situation with awareness. I’m visualizing the experience in advance, which forces me to think through my priorities carefully so I can align my behavior with my values.
Here’s an example of an affirmation I use: Today, I choose to focus on all things good. I stay centered within and respond with love in all circumstances.
Such affirmations lead us down a path not driven by the superficial dramas that surround us, but by a script that we’ve created for ourselves — a mission based on our values.
How do you stay centered?