Centering Exercise
The more present and centered you are, the better you can notice what is going on, the better you can pick the best thing to do, the better you can deal with the situation. Any activity is improved the more able you are to be there.
It is somewhat intangible to talk about what it is that needs to be present or centered. It is You, but what is You? We could say that you need to have the maximum number of your awareness units here. That is a convenient way of talking about it, but awareness units is a somewhat fictitious thing. Also, inherently you aren't a thing that is in one place or another. We are going to disregard that somewhat and pretend that you can be here. What we mean is that you are aware of what goes on here, you perceive what is here, and you don't mix your experience here up with experiences elsewhere. You are centering or focusing your awareness and attention HERE.
The component parts of centering are:
- Being in the present, not in the past or the future.
- Being mainly in the current location, not in other locations.
- Being extroverted
- Not having attention on your internal processes
- Being physically and mentally relaxed
- Not having unintended physical reactions
- Being open to what might happen
- Having the intention to be cause
Exercise
- Sit comfortably in a chair with closed eyes. You empty your mind, intend to do nothing but being present, having your attention extroverted. You don't think "Be there" or anything like that, you just relax and do nothing. You can notice the space you are in and the sounds in the room. If thoughts are going through your mind you just let them die out and get back to just being there. You don't try to strain and force yourself to not think, you simply relax into a quiet space of just being there. Likewise with any physical reactions you might have. If you twitch or yawn, just notice that and get your attention to just being there. You should be able to get to the point of doing this for a couple of hours, sitting relaxed without doing anything, but being alert. When you succeed in doing that, it is like time disappears and you can sit relaxed for any amount of time with your attention centered.
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