After last week’s article, “Finding your center,” I was asked to give some detail about my own personal tools for connecting with my center, my higher self. First of all, anything I say here is strictly (as always) my opinion. In things of the spirit, the reader/individual is always the one who knows what’s truth for them.
Over time, I have put together a collection, a practice that helps me be healthier, happier, and generally a better person than I would otherwise be. I gladly share my history and centering activities, but must say that though some of these very same activities may be of great help to you, there is no inherent value in any of them, except that they are “the right key for my lock.”
Unless you prefer trial and error, the first step is to spend some time in introspection, becoming familiar with your core nature—the essence of your consistent needs and motivations. This self-discovery may always have been as natural to you as breathing, may come by an intense period of independent study (some sudden, driving need—a dark night of the soul) or by structured study (an established religion, method, or teacher), or it may sift slowly into your consciousness over years without even a conscious intention or your awareness. However it comes, each activity or item must be verified as being something that matches your personal nature— an experience that makes you feel more complete, content, and at peace. In identifying these tools, you are already performing a process of centering.
We are always getting hints concerning our keys—our strongest connection to Spirit—sometimes from the most unorthodox sources. It’s easy to miss the hints, especially when some of the points of connection to your interior can be things that may seem completely foreign to you. The strongest points of union cannot always be logically anticipated via your empirical experience, background or training. Sometimes the most remarkable insight is delivered to me via the most unlikely sources.
“You’re quoting Snoopy the dog, I believe?”
“I’ll quote the truth wherever I find it, thank you.”
Richard Bach, “Illusions ”
Of the personal points of connection that I have found, many were initially a surprise to me, being contrary to my immediate background or experience. But every one identified has proven itself to be an intrinsic part of me. In fact, in “retrieving” these connection points to my center—these things that I never knew that I had lost/forgotten—I was doing a form of “soul retrieval,” recovering splintered aspects of myself—making myself more whole.
Now, let me give you some idea how I made my way to my own personal methods of centering.
I was raised on a work-ethic obsessed family farm that—from my personal perspective—had little spiritual awareness (or need of such a thing), except indirectly, via the experience of the animals and the land. Gaia is—without question—a very spiritual vehicle, but you can make the journey without ever becoming aware of the connection. Anyhow, because of the farm experience, I have always had an acute connection with nature. It remains one of my strongest bonds with myself.
As a very young child, I loved books and stories, and would listen as long as someone would read. Later on, I—very unintentionally as far as I can remember—found out that I could allow a story to flow from me and in doing so would stumble upon the most remarkable place of inner connection and wisdom. The only problem was the initial information that I accessed was not compatible to my life environment at the time. As a result of initial unfavorable responses, that connection was put away and ignored for very many years…long after the incompatible environment was no longer the limiting factor.
As a teenager, TV delivered one of those seemingly unlikely tools of awakening while I was in high school. The show, titled Kung Fu , was about a wandering Shoalin priest exercising his remarkable philosophical and the martial skills through the 19th century Wild West (US). Most of my friends were captured by the previously unimaginable possibilities of physical power. I was completely spellbound by the periodic vignettes of Kwai Chang Caine’s metaphysical training by the Taoist monks.
The picture of reality that these little bits of philosophy introduced was unbelievably different from anything imagined by anyone I knew of. Yet it seemed perfectly “correct” to me. “That’s the school, I want,” I thought over and over. But being a teenager without any real tools of focus, girls and general confusion managed to take precedence.
My first real venture off the farm came when I enrolled in college. I stumbled onto a group that was teaching Transcendental Meditation. This experience took me right back to the fascination for internal exploration that the Kung Fu show suggested as a possibility.
In time, I started variations on the initial “mantra-based” form of meditation I was taught. First I realized that any word possessing a suitable rhythm—so long as one’s association with the word did not distract—could be used as mantra. Next, knowing that words have power, I collected a string of words that formed a beneficial cadence and delivered—I suspected—a subliminal message toward desired goals. I started each meditation with a slow, constant mental repetition of this string of words. As I became more and more relaxed during a sitting, I noticed the pace of my mantra would become slower and slower. Over the years, the various repeated mantras began to stop whenever I came to a particularly deep stage of my meditation.
Now, the mantra is only used whenever I find that my thoughts do not otherwise subside. My meditation is currently whatever experience arises during a time of just sitting. I usually start by psychically sending my energy into the earth and into the Universe (connecting myself to Mother Earth and the Tao). After that, as long as I feel an increasing sense of connection to my core, increased peacefulness and wholeness, I do not consciously direct the experience. During the course of a session, there is frequently a sense of drawing to my center, the occasional imagery, perceptions of my sense of self expanding like energy, energy arising from a psychic center, etc.
As beneficial and central to my centering as my mediation is to me, I have to say that meditation alone would not bring me to the sense of center that I have come accustomed to. Though any list can never be all-inclusive, these additional ‘keys’ are also vital and dear to me.
Minor things I make a point to do just about every day:
—Consistent small rituals can be beneficial for relaxation and centering by the activity itself, as well as the calming effect of a regular ceremony signaling body and mind that at this time ‘we are coming to center.’
A few of mine are:
- Tea and toast, definitely first thing in the morning, but other times as needed
- Feeding the birds—medical science has proven repeatedly that interaction with animals is meditative, healthy for people. For most people this benefit comes through interaction with pets. For me, it’s caring for the wild animals, particularly songbirds.
- Time sitting with Kathy at the end of the day—the value of being in a healthy relationship or experiencing human companionship has been identified as providing health benefits and increasing longevity.
- Red wine and dark chocolate at the end of the day—both having proven health benefits
Items that have proven to be a great benefit periodically:
—These are things that I don’t always practice or use as often as I know I should—time constraints, etc—but I have found them, and each time I return to visit them I am guaranteed immediate benefits.
- Tao Te Ching – for me, this little book says all that really needs be said. The rest is elaboration or just for entertainment.
- Tai Chi
Less obvious forms of centering that I do as often as possible:
- Watching uplifting, romantic, affirming movies—it just happens to be my nature, and sharing them with Kathy is an added benefit
- Reading books of the same character
- Music of the Classical period or older (Mozart, Johann Christian Bach, Joseph Hayden, Boccherini)—this was initially very surprising. My environment, studies, and life could not justify this connection when I first noticed my instant attachment.
- Singer song-writer music, blues
- Current movie productions of the works of Shakespeare’s plays—another thing that had no empirical justification in my life, but was immediately familiar to me and very much needed.
- Walking the mountain, especially for a number of hours—medical science agrees that interaction with nature is beneficial physically and psychologically. A study by Duke University concluded that regular exercise did more for maintaining positive emotions than drugs like Prozac.
Exercise is also vital to the spirit. Through the body, we experience the Spirit. That is the nature of human life.
- Being in nature, in general
- Writing, especially poetry and fiction—journaling is often suggested as a process of self-development. My journaling just happens to be fiction—then Robert A. Johnson points out (in Inner Work ) that nothing is made up. Fantasy is merely the way of the subconscious communicating.
I wish you all good fortune in finding the keys to connecting with your deepest nature. For some it may seem a strange experience initially, but you will soon find out that you are satisfying a need that you were not even aware you had, healing an ailment that you had not even realized you were afflicted with. Based on the experience of myself and many others that I know about, merely re-inviting these ignored or forgotten aspects of yourself—the fuller definition of yourself—back into an active place in your life will bring you immeasurable joy and benefit.
Peace and centering,
CG
Copyright 2007 CG Walters
C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the mystical, metaphysical, and mythical insight that we all possess. His current novel, Sacred Vow is first and foremost a metaphysical love story, a tale of soul mates—twin flames—a journey toward our one true love…in its infinite expressions…bringing together two individuals from disparate realities—but one spirit—to heal the rift in the Collective Consciousness.
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