As we practice centering on a regular basis, we might contemplate being centered all the time. If we work to be centered all the time, we will be, except when we are not! (Even the masters lose center; they just regain it far more quickly!)

Pause the action. Focus on your breath. Locate your center along length (your full height), width, (open through your sides), and depth (your front and back.) Placing one hand just below your navel can help. Drop your breath and your awareness, and let go of muscular holding and tension.

How many times you can regain center today?

“You must do the things you think you cannot do…”

 Eleanor Roosevelt

 What is courage, if not the ability to act as our spirits lead?

I often hear struggle ensue when our inner knowing provides a clear path forward – but not an easy one.  We sometimes then wrestle mightily to honor that inner wisdom – our intuition or our body knowing – often for longer than we care to admit!    Yet, to not act on these knowings means we risk losing ourselves, and over time the costs become clear.

Thus, these moments come, as Denise Levertov describes below, where struggle gives way to courage, opening our hearts to own strength, and to faith in Spirit’s leading – even when this means swimming upstream of others’ expectations.  

In these moments, it is as if we are touched by a far greater force.  We find that we can do “the things (we) think (we)  cannot do.”

 Where is your inner wisdom leading you?

What is the “the thing you think you cannot do?’

Where is the place to put your attention that will help you live your courage?

Variation On A Theme By Rilke

(The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem 1, Stanza 1)

 A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me — a sky, air, light:

a being. And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task. The day’s blow

rang out, metallic — or it was I, a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.

 ~ Denise Levertov ~

Take just a moment to access your center, and notice the sensations that you feel. Now sink your attention even more deeply, and see what emerges. Let yourself linger in this awareness.

What helps us to be self-loving, self-gentle, and self-forgiving, so that we are able to offer the same to others from a deeply authentic place?

Years ago, one misty Minnesota morning, an older and wonderfully wise Outward Bound student, having completely missed the bar on his own expectations for himself on the ropes course the day before, greeted the rest of us with these words:

“Today is a new day.”

Simple words, yet inspiring to all of us.  Bob spoke gently and firmly, with bright eyes and open strength.

He was giving himself a fresh start, a chance to begin anew, better aligning his expectations for the future with the lessons of the past.  He was taking response-ability for doing and being his best, while also being gentle by leaving yesterday’s experience of failure  behind.

That chilly August dawn, these adult students were preparing themselves, both inwardly and outwardly, for the final challenge of the course: miles of paddling, portaging, and running that would eventually lead back to Homeplace, the base camp we were starting from.  They would begin paddling and portaging in teams, then would do the final running leg solo, each to the best of their ability.

My staff role that day was starter and finisher; to send them off with inspiration, and to help them celebrate their success when they crossed the finish line.

I smile as I type now, 20 years later, still remembering Bob’s radiant presence as he crossed the finish line, body weary, and spirit triumphant.  It was not that he was first, or even fast; it was that he had given his whole heart. He had run without the weight of “yesterday” on his shoulders; he had run freely, carrying only his hopes and aspirations for today.

Best of all, for the remainder of our time together, Bob was a bright light in our group; his self-love and self-forgiveness, and resulting self-triumph, radiated a warmth and love to the rest of our circle such that more was possible for all of us.

What of yesterday do you need to lay down in order to be fully free today?

Where in your life could you declare,  “Today is a new day”?

For me, today I begin immersion in 6 days of Nia white belt training.  My “new day” declaration is to let go from most all of my computer time and inflows so that I can fully immerse in my Nia practice, in “the body’s way,” in order to absorb all the learning and healing I can.  Like most of us, I spend too much time at the keyboard and not enough time being fully alive.  This is my way to let yesterday be in the past, so that today, and tomorrow, are free to unfold.

It is my way to be self-loving, self-gentle, and self-forgiving, so that I can offer the same to others from a deeply authentic place.

What is yours?