Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.Hermann Hesse
When the storms of life come, it’s easy to feel beaten down and defeated. Failed expectations, broken hearts, financial troubles. Perhaps you're dealing with something now, as you read this, that you're having a hard time with.
I know how disheartening the storms of life can be. The feelings of insecurity and worry, the fear. I was once like a boat on the ocean – happy and content with sunny skies and still waters. But whenever the storms came, my peace and joy would go overboard. My sense of self was completely tied to the stories my circumstances, and I didn’t know how to weather serious storms.
So when they did come, I'd just retreat into despair, depression and loneliness.
Now, when the storms are at my door, I go to that place called center. Like the eye of the storm, center is that place of stillness around which everything revolves. Perfect stillness is central to all that is.
So how do you get there?
I find center through a process of 2 simple steps:
1. Slow, deep breathing. Usually, 6 breath cycles is where the magic happens. The key is breathing slowly and deeply.
2. Focusing on “I Am”. I meditate on this statement, I breathe with it, and I let it evoke in me a sense of stillness and being. It brings me back to the still center of pure being.
Does this make my challenges go away? No, and that's really not its purpose. My challenges remain, for the most part, for me to work through and grow from. Finding center just allows me to navigate my challenges with a clarity of heart and mind.
And this is the wisdom: Finding center isn’t about making everything work out the way we want it to. It’s not about a plan coming together or a solution appearing. It's not about the past or the future – it’s about the now. And right now, you are. It’s as simple as that. You are.
So what are you, exactly?
OK, that’s a trick question. Because you’re many things, aren’t you? On the surface, yes. Yet your center, your core truth, is simply being. I Am. Nothing more, nothing less.
So finding center is really just about taking off those layers of thoughtforms that you are momentarily identifying with, and simply revelling in the nakedness of what you always, ultimately, essentially are – which is I Am. And in this space, there is peace.
So let peace unfold in your experience, even if it seems to be trespassing on grounds where it doesn't belong. Because where peace unfolds, there is joy. Higher perspective is there, too. Center is a space where inner wisdom and higher self dialogue can take place, and this is immensely helpful in navigating the challenges you are facing.
And if you find yourself looking to external sources to validate your being, and depending upon them to maintain your sense of worth, finding center will bring you back to the truth of who you are.
It is up to you to do the journey work of rooting your sense of self strongly in the I Am, rather than in the stories and thoughtforms built up around your circumstances. And finding and communing with your I Am center – on a regular, ongoing basis – is an excellent place to start this work.
Peace and joy in your journey.