...are the kinds of physical exercise which you can do to center yourself.

Here I must admit that I have very little faith in western systems of exercise.  When you work out at any type of western exercise, such as jogging or using some kind of mechanical contraption, it's true that your muscles do get strengthened.  However, something else also happens.  Your energy starts spewing out in every direction.  You don't end up with any kind of balance or centeredness--you just end up with jittery nerves and scattered sensibilities.  What people need to do when they exercise is move their body in a balanced fashion, not only between between polarities like left and right, but also with a sense of mind/body unity.  Wasting your time at the great American health club isn't going to leave you with a sensation of centeredness.  It will only serve to divorce your mind from your body.

Which in my opinion is the single most underappreciated health problem around today.  And it is, alas, how most of us live out our lives.  We exist today in a computerized world where what goes on above the neck is about the only thing that matters in a successful life.  The physical processes of the rest of our body are never appreciated or noticed.  This is especially true of those intellectual types who live in a world of words.  The head is alive, all those thoughts and words and concepts are very much real, but what's happening in the rest of the body never quite registers.

However, if you want to live from your center, you need to know how to live holistically, with mind and body fully integrated into one unity.  Of course, getting our mind to work in harmony with our physical being isn't the easiest thing in the world to accomplish.  The mind is just an intangible and invisible something, which cannot be located in time or space.  The body, on the other hand, seems to be something solid, material, and very much a part of physical reality.  Bringing mind and body together seems to be about as easy as gluing a cloud to a granite block.

But it can be done.  All you need to do is make sure that your mind is actually where your body is.  This is a statement that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, at least not initially. But think for a moment about your body.  Where is it right now?  Where is it always going to be? Simple.  Your body is always in the present moment, in the present space.  As a part of three-dimensional physical reality, it will never be able to move into a different time or a different space.  It is always right here, right now, existing precisely in the living present. Elementary common sense.

But where is your mind?  Your mind can be anywhere. As a matter of fact, it usually is anywhere, or everywhere, scattering about in fantasies or regrets, daydreaming about the future or reliving the past, rehashing last night's drama or planning a new vacation.  The only limit to the mind is the sky, which means that your mind is only rarely where your body always is, right here and right now.  Your mind can go anywhere it pleases, but the body can never escape from the physical reality of the present moment.  So unless your mind is securely rooted in what is happening during the present moment, it will always be somehow disjointed from your body. To truly function as a whole harmonious human being, with mind and body integrated, your mind needs to be exist fully in the here and now.  Where poets, artists, visionaries, and mystics of any sort always are--right where they are.

There are numerous eastern systems of exercise which have been around for millennia and which promote the kind of unity I am talking about.  My favorite is Hatha Yoga, which I took up as a teenager and which was one of the very few intelligent things I did during the days of my misbegotten youth.  There is lots of information on the web about many other centering physical exercises, including:

• Taijiquan
• Shibashi
• Qigong

So if you want to achieve a sense of centering, you need some kind of daily physical practice which not only joins your mind to your body, but helps to balance you out.  Even just a few minutes a day sitting in the lotus position, which is of itself a kind of centering, will help.

But there is more to be said about centering our physical being.  We now need to discuss... next

Centering   •   M.C. Richards   •   Tea   •   Stones   •   Exercises   •   Meditations   •   Breath   •   Chakras  •  
Four Elements  •   Daoist Scriptures   •   Cult of Tranquility   •   Etc.