5 Ways to Center Yourself
In my book, Second Sight I recount how I was able to accept and embrace my intuitive abilities. Part of this process was to learn how to center myself. Here are some of the tips that I learned on my personal journey to become whole.
How to Center Yourself
Center Yourself #1. Watch your diet. Notice what foods feel good, which do not. Your body will tell you what it requires. Usually, denser foods-meat, chicken, fish–have more of a grounding effect than grains, vegetables, or fruit. I’m not a big meat eater but if my body announces, “I need a hamburger,” I will devour one. Listen to your body’s signals. Notice how they fluctuate.
Center Yourself #12. Do mundane tasks. Mindfully focusing on everyday chores can bring you back to your body. Grocery shopping, going to the bank, paying bills, washing clothes, taking out the trash, or cleaning the yard can be grounding. These activities anchor you in the here-and-now by drawing on the luminous nature of the ordinary.
Center Yourself #13. Practice Anonymous Service. Do something nice for someone without taking credit for it. Hold the elevator for a little old lady. Let someone go before you in line. Serve food to the homeless. Give a charitable donation. Anything that shifts the focus from you to helping others. No deed is too small. The act of giving–especially when you’re most frazzled–opens your heart, is regenerative.
Center Yourself #14. Spend Time in Nature. As poet William Wordsworth put it, civilization can be “too much with us.” People, cars, the news, telephone cables matting the sky, all can keep us from our bodies, divorce us from what is natural. Regularly take at least a few hours out from your routine. Visit the beach, a forest, a canyon, a river. Choose a spot that moves you. Aboriginals seek out windswept plains for purification. Native Americans go to fresh streams to clarify their inner vision. (Any water source, including a bath or shower, can cleanse and purify.) Tibetan monks pilgrimage to mountaintops. Allow yourself to draw on the earth’s primordial forces. Savor the beauty of a twilight, sunset, or dawn. Let them nourish and restore you.
Center Yourself #15. Meditate. Sitting in meditation is a life-line to your center, to the earth. By calming the mind, you can re-align with your essence. Close your eyes. Focus on your breath. Then gently extend your awareness downward to strata, bedrock, minerals, and soil. From the base of your spine begin to feel a continuity with the earth’s core. Picture having a long tail that roots in that center. Allow the earth’s energy to infuse your body and stabilize you. If you meditate for five minutes or an hour this is sacred time.
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About the Author
Judith Orloff, MD is the New York Times bestselling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People, upon which this article is based. Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist, an empath, and is on the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Faculty. She synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff also specializes in treating empaths and highly sensitive people in her private practice. She is the author of Emotional Freedom, The Power of Surrender, Second Sight, Positive Energy, and Guide to Intuitive Healing. To learn more about empaths and her free empath support newsletter as well as Dr. Orloff’s books and workshop schedule, visit www.drjudithorloff.com
