
People have asked me how I came up with the Four Steps to Center™ process that I use in many of my guided imagery meditation CDs and mp3s. It evolved out of my belief of who we really are; not just physical beings, but beings of multiple levels, of heart and mind and spirit as well as body. I try to incorporate this understanding into all aspects of my life and my work, though of course, like everyone else, I frequently forget!
I call my blog and my newsletter “Living in Your Body” because I think that’s what we are really here to do; to learn how – as limitless beings of spirit – to live in the confines and confusions and endless possibilities of a physical body. So I developed the Four Steps process as two things.
First, it is a simple meditation technique that guides you – through the 4 steps – into a meditative state. As a guided meditation process, it is easy for beginner meditators to follow along and experience what it feels like to move into meditation. Then it is simple to use the Four Steps on your own to meditate. Experienced meditators can incorporate the process into their own meditation practice.
But it is more than that. It is also a way to conceptualize the four levels of our being; body, heart, mind and spirit. And with that perspective, we can access more complete and profound healing and peacefulness.
So in the Four Steps to Center™ process, the first step is always in the body. Here we are, in this physical form, with it’s sensations and tensions and pains and hiccups. And we are also something so much more than our sensations, we are also a glorious stream of physical vitality and life force, growth and movement, touch and dancing.
The next step is the heart, the place of feelings and connections. And while our feelings can be difficult or confusing, our relationships painful and scary, there is also a higher energy here, one of unconditional love and safety and a deep sense of peace waiting to enfold us and heal us.
Then, of course, there’s the mind… with all it’s thoughts and worries and mental chatter… sometimes quite an intense place! It can so easily convince our fight or flight system that danger is imminent, keeping us in a state of stress and fear. But our minds are also so much more – an amazing place of wisdom, ideas, insight, creativity and manifestation.
The fourth step is the place of Spirit, of our higher, deeper Self. This is the place where we are connected to our full being, where we can bask in the light and love and safety and peacefulness of who we really are. The place of our center.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the sensations and stresses and demands of the physical. Living in a body requires not only learning how it works and how to care for it, but also remembering that while we have bodies, we are also something so much greater…
For the Four Steps to Center mp3 click here. If you’d like to have a private, personalized “Four Steps to Center” session with me, by phone or in my office call 845-657-7545
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