Centering

Welcome to the August 2024 Total 360 blog, and we will discuss centering, its importance, and how it balances. 

Nearly everyone who has gone to a yoga class has had that moment when the instructor asks you to close your eyes and focus on breathing or sound.  When I started yoga, I never understood why it was important.

Moving through my training, I realized this was the first step in achieving a balanced practice.  The idea that transformed me over the years was that centering helped me have a more complete class.  Centering can be accomplished by allowing us to be present in the practice.  

Yoga centers on listening to your body, without centering we lose this connection.  Centering brings in the ideas of mindfulness, meditation, and breathing work.   A centering session can be sixty seconds or more than five minutes.  Each class builds centering on what the objectives are for the class.   

Each centering session is unique due to the constant need to listen to our bodies.  The instructor may give you guidelines, but each time is different.   You might sit differently, have different holdings that day or a high level of stress can affect your ability to center. 

Centering brings you into the view of what you are going to do.  Centering is used by elite athletes to stay in the moment, most recently in the 2024 Olympic games

There are many variations of centering.  You can center by focusing on your breathing in and out.  You can center by finding sounds and staying with them.   Another method of centering is body scanning.  Search for a place of holding within your body.  Allowing yourself to follow the area with a body scan where there is holding and releasing.

As you continue to practice centering, you may find it easier or faster to calm the mind to a point where you can be present.  The more you practice, the easier centering becomes.  Build a practice that supports you and what you need.  

Let's take a moment to find our center.  You may choose to close your eyes or soften your gaze.  Begin to turn inward. Namaste.