How you can easily come back to your centre when you are caught up in the ‘hamster wheel’, procrastination or others’ demands.
Over the years, the exercise below has proven to be valuable for three types of situations and states:
- When you get caught in ‘the hamster wheel’ and are functioning just to get things done. You don’t even get to think about what you really want to do or who you are, because you are just running around trying to accomplish tasks.
- When you get caught up in what other people are demanding of you. Either you know exactly what you want but feel unable to pursue it, or you might not even be sure anymore what it is that you want.
- When you feel on track with what you want to achieve, but then this and that happen that need your attention – and you get lost in doing other things. Or you just lose yourself in your own mind loops, in your fears or compensations, sabotaging yourself with procrastination patterns. And even though you might know about time management systems and use them, it still happens.
In all these situations, connecting to your own core is comforting and supports your deeper desires – it brings you back on track. ‘Energy Balancing’, with its many centering exercises, reconnects you to ‘the roots’ of who you really are and what you want to achieve from that place.
While there are other ways and methods to bring yourself back to center, ‘Energy Balancing’ is special in two ways. First of all, it doesn’t need a specific setting. While you might have – like me – a daily meditation and yoga practice, as helpful as they are, they require certain circumstances – a quiet place or a yoga mat, special clothing, etc. Also, you need to practice longer to get results.
With ‘Energy Balancing’, you’ll find that the techniques work anywhere and anytime in your life. They don’t need specific circumstances, special clothing or time frames. Also, ‘anytime’ means that you don’t need to practice for long – once you’ve tried them, you can just do them!
This exercise is basically a visualization practice, yet a very powerful one. It is a metaphor dating back into antiquity that helps one to open the deeper core of one’s self. Though this appears to be just a visual metaphor, it is much more than that – it is describing a real energetic state.
This type of centering doesn’t only bring you to calmness and peace – it can also feel very dynamic and very energetic, and it can lead you to amazing experiences of joy!
The image is of a tree. Some other energy (healing) methodologies also work with a tree image and there is a yoga pose called ‘The Tree’. While there are certain similarities in connecting you with your core, ‘Energy Balancing’ uses it in a specific way.
The human energy system is like a tree with roots, a trunk and branches. Here is a quote from our book about “The Tree” and its exercise:
“The tree has its roots deep into the earth where it is grounded and draws from the earth’s nutrients. The trunk rises above the ground vertically and high into the sky. At the top of the tree is a broad canopy of foliage and flowers that opens the tree to the infinite sky above, and through which it absorbs the life-giving rays of the Sun.
We can’t say enough about the energy truths hidden behind this image, and the value you will derive through working with it. Ideally, if you can do this exercise once a day for ten minutes, it will transform your life. Even done on an irregular basis, the ‘tree exercise’ is powerful beyond measure.”
The Tree Exercise (an easy variation):
You can do this exercise as long as you like – in an extended version like a meditation, or just take a few breaths for each section.
1. The Roots
- If possible, take your shoes off, stand firmly with both feet on the floor, feet shoulder width apart.
- Breathe into the lower part of your body, into your legs and feet.
- Tune to your soles on the ground.
- Now imagine having roots growing out of your feet into the ground.
- Let these roots be as deep or as wide as you feel comfortable.
2. The Trunk – and Upwards Stream
- Imagine energy streaming through your feet upwards into your legs and an imaginary trunk.
- Support the upward stream with your in-breath, imagining you are sucking the earth’s energy up.
- Let the energy stream further upwards through your torso to the top of your head (or, if you’re familiar with them – upwards through your chakras).
- Feel how the energy is flowing through the center of yourself (your core channel).
3. The Crown
- Now imagine this trunk opening up into various branches above your shoulders, around your head.
- Above your head, the crown becomes even more branched out, reaching up to the sky and spreading out into all directions.
- See and feel energy streaming up and out into all directions.
- You can use your hands all around your head in an upwards-sweeping movement to help the energies open here.
4. Downwards Flow
- After focusing on reaching up to the sky, soak in the sunlight and energies from the universe, receiving them through all the imaginary leaves and through the branches, back downwards into the trunk.
- Let this energy and light flow downwards through your trunk (your core channel) and back into your roots, into the ground.
- You can support this downwards visualization by focusing on the exhale.
This exercise definitely centers you, helps you come back to yourself and enables you to be the ‘calm eye of the storm’ in the middle of your (maybe crazy) day.
Of course, it also grounds you so that you can function clearly and efficiently in everything you do. And it supports you in letting the universal energies stream into you. This also means that your soul energy comes down into you and grounds itself in you and through you.
This will help you incredibly in the process of living a life of your True Self, of being more authentically YOU, and thus contributing in a meaningful way and living a truly happy life.
You will find a lot more about centering and how to be more of yourself in the middle of a busy day in our book Your Energy in Action! ‘