Be the Center of Your Universe

We can all relate the turmoil that is currently going on in the world. Everyone is touched by it. This article is an invitation to embrace and perhaps shift your perspective in order to create peace in your life, even if in the middle of a storm. I have personally gone through immense adversity during a time in my life and my hope is to share techniques that have worked for me so that you may find peace, in difficult moments too.  

Imagine a violent hurricane as symbolic of the chaos and turmoil that can happen in life. While the outer parts of the swirling storm are quite violent and chaotic, there is a calm that you can find in the center of your being. First there is a calming based perspective of literally being the “center”.  When this experience is reached, there is a feeling that we are one with the Universe. You are the center of the Universe. And from this center you have: 

  • Alignment with Truth
  • Continuous Life Guidance
  • Feelings of Wholeness
  • Sense of Wellness
  • Connection with all Life
  • Trust in self
  • Connecting with Your Inner Core

In the early 2000’s I had been recovering from a long period of life-threatening depression and anxiety.  At that time, I got introduced more deeply to this entity or being I called “the Source”. It was a place where one could be in immense imminent despair and depression and then suddenly out of nowhere be smiling with absolute joy and ecstasy for no explicable reason. This connection to “the Source” was the start of deep reflection and guidance in my life.

Then in 2010 I started to not just feel “the Source” but heard its voice to me. I was working for a very supportive company and then an economic recession hit and I was told I was being let go.  I remember feeling for the first time like I was on death row just preparing to die. And then I collapsed and cried and started hearing this voice telling me how proud they were of me to keep showing up despite how scary it was.  I asked that voice with skepticism “why would you be proud of me since I am failing to meet the challenge of getting a new job”.  And I was stunned when that voice said that it was especially because I was failing they were so proud of me.  

That voice explained that it’s all well, easy and convenient to talk about being proud of successes and achievements, but the real truth of character and miracle is the courage to keep showing up in times of failure. That was one of my most powerful experiences of Divine energy and truth to be able to transform what should seem to be “failure” into a miraculous shift into strength and ease.  Within a few days all the tension and desperation around landing the perfect job interview lifted and I just enjoyed my interview and suddenly two job offers were on their way with one of them coming from a position I never interviewed for.  So, I started to learn that connection to this “the Source” was a perennial place of center.

That same voice directed me to join a 4-year program to become a professionally certified energy healer from one of the most esteemed healing schools in the world.  Much of the training of the school centered around a technique known as “holding Hara.” This was a technique founded on Chinese Chi Gong and Tai Chi principles of standing like a tree and rooting deep into the ground. The school’s founder, Barbara Brennan, extended the concept further as a key foundation to center and ground the school, teachers and healers. Holding Hara became a mainstay technique for me towards centering in times of turmoil, fear and chaos.

Of all the techniques for centering I have found the Hara technique the most teachable, learnable and effective means of centering. It is founded on age-old traditions of thousands of years. It’s easier than Yoga in that you don’t need any flexibility.  It’s easier than most meditation in that it’s rather OK if your mind wanders because the technique tends to increase attention, focus and awareness with increasing time.

The basics of holding Hara are:

  1. Standing with legs slightly bent as if you are sitting on an imaginary stool
  2. Imagining a “Hara Line” going from the top of your head, straight through the middle of the body and straight down to the middle of Earth
  3. The soft gaze of eyes slightly downward with the only thought of “I just am” or “I just exist”. No emotions and no memories.  You just exist.
  4. Hold this position for a long time.  Your leg muscles will start to struggle to hold you up and you’ll want to straighten out your legs.  And so this is the challenge, lesson and transformation that comes from holding Hara.  

Watch this video of me leading you through a 2-minute Hara stance.

Then start a regular practice of holding Hara 1x a week.  Try initially to work your way to holding for 5 minutes.  Then start to work your way up to 15 minutes. Once you do this you will establish a foundation of being centered that is the same kind that martial arts masters have used for many hundreds of years.