As Spirit, we have the ability to have localized consciousness wherever we want, we are everywhere all the time. There is no location of Spirit because Spirit is every place that is. So you, as a spiritual being, are everywhere. The question becomes: Where do you want your consciousness to be? Your consciousness can be in the future, in the past, on the astral level, dream state, in a past life or many other places. Your consciousness can be shopping or doing your banking or visiting your parents, it is possible to have a whole life on this earth that happens on an energy level, away from your body. Or your consciousness can be right with your body, the physical body that is manifest right now.
Thus, we can look at the concept of centering as deciding where we want our consciousness to be. If we want to have a deeply real human experience, the best place for our consciousness to be is in the physical body.
It does take practice to get used to staying conscious in our bodies. It is so very easy to drift, to think of things and float into other places, other realities: into the future, into the past, into the party that we're going to on Sunday, or into the event of last night. Often we will spend lots of time in these other places. When we are in those places, we are not centered. We are not in our bodies, and we are missing the experience of whatever the body is doing at that moment.
If you want to bring your consciousness into body in order to have a full body experience of Spirit, then the next question is: Where would you like to center your consciousness in your body? Where would you like to locate it? It is possible to center anywhere in the human body. The body has seven different energy centers or "chakras" that run up the front of the body. Each chakra is responsible for a different aspect of your reality, and depending on which chakra you choose to center in, you will have a different experience.
The first chakra, having to do with survival in a body, is located between the ovaries in a female body and the prostate area in a male body. So, if your consciousness is in the first chakra, if you are centered in the first chakra, every aspect of your reality will be about survival. How do you keep a body alive on the planet? Every piece of information that comes to you will be filtered through your survival chakra. If you have any issues around survival, then there is energy that is being held in the first chakra that is foreign energy (a blockage) and if it is not cleared and you are centered in the first chakra all that you will experience in your daily life are those survival issues.
The second chakra, having to do with emotionality, sexuality and clear feeling, is found near the naval. Now, if you are centered in the second chakra, then every bit of information, every experience you have will be filtered through how you run your emotions, how you are with your sexuality, how you are with your clear feeling. This makes for a lifetime on an emotional rollercoaster that is out of your control.
The third chakra, located around the solar plexus area, has to do with energy distribution. It is your power center. If you are centered in your third chakra, life is all about power. It is about being aware of the world as a place where power is being played out. All of your information, everything that happens in your life, will be filtered through how that relates to you and your power. We have all met people who are working from this third chakra reality. Who has the power? How do I get the power? How do I have more power? There are, in fact, many spiritual practices that are based on the third power chakra, although this is not, in fact, the highest awareness level.
The fourth chakra is right in the center of the chest cavity and has to do with affinity with self and affinity with others. It is sometimes called the "heart" or "love" chakra. If you are centered in your fourth chakra, everything is about the emotion of love. Everything is about that affinity with others, that affinity with self. It sounds rather nice, although if you have any issues around love, then those will be affecting your experience as well. Your awareness of what is going on around you will be limited because everything has to do with affinity for self and others. There are also many spiritual practices that use the fourth chakra as a place to center, practices that are based on affinity, based on loving others and loving self. Many spiritual practices have this aspect to them, but by choosing a higher chakra to center in you can be aware of the fourth chakra and also have a higher awareness at the same time.
The fifth chakra is located at the base of the throat and has to do with communication with self and communication with others. If centered here, your level of clarity with respect to communication will determine your reality and how aware you will be. People who are centered in the fifth chakra are great communicators but often can get lost in the process. The communication becomes a vehicle or an end in itself.
The sixth chakra, located at the forehead, is about clairvoyance, the ability to see clearly. If you're centered in the sixth chakra, then your reality is clear seeing. It is seeing things for what they are, not judging - good or bad, right or wrong. Again, if there are some issues around the sixth chakra, those will affect how you center there. The process of centering in the sixth chakra is the process of seeing. There are many spiritual paths that are about seeing clearly. The idea is that if you can truly see what is going on around you, you have a greater ability to create what you want. There can be great awareness with the sixth chakra. Since Lightwork is a seeing path, the Lightwork practice is designed to have the participant center right in the middle of the sixth chakra. This is the physical center of the head. When we refer to being centered this is the place that we are referring to.
The seventh chakra, at the crown of the head, is about knowingness - being able to know what is - and having a connection with Source, that is, your higher self. Being centered in the seventh chakra is being able to have high levels of knowing, being able to touch in and just know what is without even having to think. Thinking is an analytical process, not a knowing process. So being centered in the seventh chakra is living in a place of knowing. While being centered in the seventh chakra is to be in a high state of knowing, there can be
disconnection from the body because the practitioner is not in the center of his/her head, which has a great connection to clairvoyance. It is hard for one to balance their knowingness and at the same time see what is happening around them. For people centered in their seventh, this can appear as a "spaced out" quality. What they are saying is very high information but it may have no relevance to the situation or what is going on around them.
When sitting in the center of the head, we have access to our knowingness, our clairvoyance and our analyzer (the thinking part of our system). We can balance them to present a clear concept and understanding that is relevant to the situation at hand. This state is where all the great innovations, inspirations and transcendent ideas come from.
Having these choices of where to center in the human energy system, which would you choose? I have played with centering in all the different areas, and from my experience, I recommend the sixth chakra. The sixth chakra is located in the center of the forehead; it is shaped like a cylinder that goes through to the back of the head. Right in the center of the head, in the center of the sixth chakra, is a place where you can have your most spiritual clarity, your most awareness. You can see what is. Furthermore, when you are sitting in the sixth chakra, you have the ability to touch into your knowingness, with sight.
When you are in "the center of your head" in the sixth chakra, you can have not only awareness and clarity of what is going on, but also be able to touch into the seventh chakra and know exactly what is. This combination of seeing and knowing is a very powerful one. We call this being centered.
When I first begin to work with new students, I ask them to go to the center of their heads, and then to other places, to know what it is to not be centered as well as to be centered. I ask them to move their consciousness up above their head, as well as behind and in front of their body. I also ask them to go into the analyzer, which is right between the brow area. The analyzer is the area for processing information, which is not a spiritual phenomenon, but rather a body phenomenon. Many people spend much of their time in their analyzer. We are an analyzer-obsessed culture.
When you are in the center of your head, you can use your analyzer for processing information, but you also have the ability to remain neutral and to have your knowingness. If you move into the analyzer, located in the brow area, then you have become the analyzer, and you have lost your spiritual self. This presents a problem because the analyzer puts everything into a yes or no category. It is a state of judgment; it is not neutral but rather very limited spiritually and not a comfortable place to live. You cannot access your higher information from your analyzer. I do not recommend living in the analyzer, although many people do.
The more centered you are, the more present you are, the greater the ability you have to experience your reality and what is going on around you. Things in the material world become more and more clear when you are centered, when you are fully in your physical body, experiencing present time. Even just looking at a tree becomes rich if you are centered, you can experience it from that place of simply seeing it without judging it, without losing the clarity or losing the moment.
When you are centered, you have more of your power, are less easily led astray, and are more present with what is going on around you. You are more real. Instead of reacting to things, you act. You make your choices as a Spiritual Warrior. You choose your reality rather than having a reality created through you.
When you become more centered, you are putting yourself into the seat of control of your body. From the center of the head, you can operate the body efficiently. You are sitting in the driver's seat. Your body will respond, although it may be a little resistant, at first, to giving up control.
When you are not centered, or out of your body, or maybe in your analyzer, there is no one at the wheel. Your body will start driving itself. We call this state body-seniority. When the body is senior, it will always seek out things that are comfortable for it. It is not generally interested in change or healing because it is holding on to old ways and searching for comfort. All choices are made from a state of body as opposed to a state of Spirit.
Centering is not only the first step to meditation, but also a way of being. You can be centered walking down the street, doing your job, whatever. We practice it in meditation, but then we take it out into our lives to live it more. When you become more centered, more used to being in the center of your head, your body gradually gives up its hold and fights less to be in charge.
I often compare this process to dealing with children. Little ones will often want to try and get control of the situation. They want to be in charge. But if they are ever able to take over what is happening, then they do not know what to do next. They simply do not have the experience. They do not have the ability to really be in charge. When the parent lets the child know that they respect them but that they are not meant to be in charge, they may complain a little bit, but ultimately they are very relieved. Now they can relax and learn by example from the parent about what it is to be responsible, to lead, to be in charge.
This analogy explains how the body feels when we are working with centering. It fights to maintain control but really, once you become centered, once you, as a spiritual being, take charge of the center of your head and take charge of what is going on for your body, your body will begin to relax and loosen its hold. It really does want you, the authority, the spiritual being, to be in charge and to look after it with love and compassion.
The body was never meant to be in charge of itself. It was meant to be a vehicle in which a spiritual being can experience manifestation, the world through a body. When the being is in charge and fully present or centered in the body, the body is calmed because it knows that is the way it was designed to be.
When you are centered it is a place of more clarity, simplicity, non-judgment and neutrality. This is the first step in getting control of your energy system. Thus, centering is one of the first step to becoming more powerful as a spiritual being, more aware of what you are doing in manifestation on this planet.
