Health, wellness, and balance are not about staying in a fixed, central position, but rather about having an awareness of where you are in relation to your center. This means being aware of when you’re squarely in it, being aware when you’re nowhere near it, and being aware when center has shifted, even when you don’t know where the heck it went.
Then it’s about finding a sense of ease and surrender in the natural ebbs and flows of balance and imbalance, and the ever-present undercurrent of connection and peace. That sense of peace comes from being in tune with and connected to your personal, internal compass so that you are able to locate and eventually navigate your way back to center.
We may not have been supplied a roadmap, or the updated version — GPS or google maps, giving explicit step by step directions (Wouldn’t that be nice?! Turn left here. Proceed one mile. Exit right.) with warnings about heavy traffic and road closures ahead, but we each have a custom compass which guides us in the direction of our unique truth.
Navigating through life in this way requires habitual checking in and frequent recalibration. It’s not like, okay I’ve found center and achieved balance, my work is done. Sometimes center shifts (as it’s not a fixed point) and certainly what it looks like evolves in a lifetime, and so we are constantly reconfiguring.
You can play with this concept of center right now. Think of something that happened in the past. It could be 30 seconds ago, or it could be 30 years ago. Then think of something you expect/fear/hope will/might happen in the future. It could be 30 seconds from now, or it could be 30 years from now. Now come right back to center in this present moment, with this exact body — whatever shape it takes in space, with this air — whatever its temperature, whatever smells and sounds it carries, with this heart and mind — whatever feelings it feels and thoughts it hosts.
You can bring this exploration of center onto your mat, into your yoga asana practice, as well. Play with being off-center, and then returning to center. Play with a shifting center. Play with center staying stationary and movement happening around it or expanding from and contracting back into it. I encourage you to turn in (this may mean closing your eyes frequently) to notice from within how it feels to be centered as opposed to mimicking what it looks like on someone else’s body.
Krystal Barschig 