Homeostasis

Staying Centered

“The human system is always searching for and trying to maintain homeostasis or balance.”  C. Clark

We tend to think of homeostasis as physiological balance—keeping the body chemistry at a steady level and within relatively narrow confines in such areas as ph, heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar, body temperature, and kidney and liver function. But homeostasis is also a state of higher consciousness—a balancing of philosophy, values, emotions and spirituality. We sometimes refer to it as “staying centered.”

“Keep your center” is a catch-phrase for our time. We owe that to the addition of Easter ideology to our Western logicality. Yoga, the martial arts of Judo, Aikido, T'ai Chi and Karate, Taoist philosophy, and Buddhism all stress staying centered in one's core. The power of the breath is important in each of them. When one is centered in the core of the body, they are less easily thrown off balance by an opponent. The energy is from the belly, the body's center.

This is also true for emotional and mental grounding—it is staying with one's center. Another way of describing it is, “Know yourself, and be true to yourself.” The knowing of oneself is the tricky part of staying centered. We are possibly the most complex creatures on this planet; we have all sorts of abilities that other living systems do not. One of those abilities involves hiding things from ourselves—things too dark or too painful to bring into the light of day can be deposited in a “repository of hidden things.” Think of it as that secret room in the Harry Potter novels which contained all the old trunks and magical furniture.

The problem with that repository is that it doesn't go away. The stuff we hid in there is just as alive as it ever was, and from time to time, it acts up. We spend a lot of psychic energy, trying to keep the door closed on that hidden room. When someone else tweaks it, accidentally or otherwise, we pounce. And when we pounce, we lose our center, we become reactive and defensive—even aggressive.

Keeping one's center requires cracking open the door on that room, and letting in a little shaft of light. Once we're comfortable peeking in, we might even be able to walk in and take a look around. Open a few windows. Once you get some light in there, you may discover that, truly, it's just old furniture. It has no power over you. In fact you can have the local thrift store bring a truck and haul it away. There's a lot of freedom in getting rid of stuff we no longer need. We feel lighter on our feet, and yet somehow more grounded, more solidly ourselves, more clear-headed and congruent.

Being centered takes work; sometimes, you have to move a lot of furniture. It's good to have some help along the way. Don't be afraid to ask for it.

                                                         In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane