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Here is a centering practice I love to do every day, especially before I start any period of deep focus. It’s a little ritual I learned many years ago from a book by E. Partaker and it only takes a minute.
This sequence of twelve deep breaths is one of the most reliable and easy ways I’ve found to practice being present:
⊹ First, take three breaths to relax.
Drop your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. Let your body release whatever tension it’s holding. Drop everything and simply fall into being.
⊹ Then take three breaths to let go of the past.
Whatever you’re still replaying in your head, the conversation, the project, the mistake: Let them go. You’re not there anymore.
⊹ Then take three breaths to let go of the future.
The launch. The reception. The judgment. Stop rehearsing what hasn’t happened yet. Worrying solves nothing. Just be here, now.
⊹ Lastly, take three breaths to remind yourself how easy it is to take a vacation in the present.
You don’t need to be anywhere or do anything other than what you’re doing in this moment. Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.
Then gently open your eyes to the task at hand, and choose to start for just five minutes.
When I first learned this, my monkey mind would sprint back into the past or leap ahead into the future almost immediately. It’s much easier now, but it does take some rewiring of your brain. And if you stick with it, it works.
Here’s why I think it’s important: Resistance, the force that keeps us from doing the thing we know we should do, lives in the past and in the future. In the past, it whispers: you’ve tried before, you’ve failed before. In the future, it warns: what if it’s not good enough, what if no one cares. But Resistance can’t survive in the Present. If you’re fully present, there is no thinking, only flow.
Those twelve breaths can become a complete reset. Remeber that you already have everything you need. Just get started.
Have a wonderful week!
H
I’m writing a book to help as many people as possible. It’s called Stop Postponing Yourself: Do The Thing. A Modern Maker Manifesto and is now available for pre-ordering. There are still a few spots left for the Early Bird Offer that comes with special perks and helps me build this.
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