Centered By Nature 101: Eye of the Storm

This moment in time is alarming. It

is volatile, violent, chaotic and insane; horrific, intense and deeply disturbing. Or, as my friend Rex says in his signature simple way, “It’s heating up out there.” 

Unlike when I was a child, or even a young adult with three network channels, news at 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock, and a once-daily newspaper we paid a paper boy to deliver, we now receive our dose of news in constant horsepills, too big to swallow. Instead of our local events and concerns, the entire world is on display. With the addition of bystander and participant iPhone videos and social media, we get everything, all the time. While the media is now more public-sourced, it is still sensationalized; more shocking equals more hits and “likes”. Add to that the daily responsibilities of a full-time job, a family, a business, a home. As a culture, we are living on a diet of adrenaline, suffering from trauma in epidemic proportions, and most of us lack basic skills training on how to navigate escalating, ongoing global crises. It’s a wonder we’re here at all.

In these times, it is normal to feel lost, alone, isolated and helpless, to have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Those of us burdened with chronic physical or mental illness, immunity-compromising syndromes, a personal history of trauma, abuse, and/or PTSD, may dissociate, become manic or depressive, dive into denial and/or addictions, or simply collapse under what feels like the weight of the world. This too is normal. 

What may look like, or be judged as, apathy may not be our lack of care. It is our lack of capacity. We want to help, to be a beneficial presence, to make a difference, to co-create a world where we and all of our children feel safe and have hope. But we’re frozen, numb, hijacked, depleted or in shock. Or just tired.

I can say “we”. I am one of the “we” who carries multiple lifelong physical and mental diagnoses arising from trauma. I know I am not the only one. We are in this together, so I'd like to share with you what has helped me since I was a child, continues to help me want to live, and is essential in these times of insanity. I will do so in multiple posts (God and ADHD willing), beginning with the first enjoyable therapy I learned, my favorite medicine since childhood, and still my favorite.

Go outside. If you cannot literally get outdoors, do so in your imagination. Or, look at a fish tank. Tend a plant. Look out a window.

I (and Slinky!) find it essential to look to Nature for solace and connection, for reality and beauty and for clues to solve the problems of living. Nature is harmony. Nature is interdependence. Nature is our teacher. For every human problem, there is in Nature a blueprint for navigating our way through. 

She provides hints for us in animals, plants, elements—and weather. In the midst of Her storms, there is peace. In the eye of the hurricane, it is still and calm. As evolved and complex as we humans are, able to manufacture tools, create art and music, feel compassion and love, and consciously participate in our own and the Earth’s evolution, we must have innate wherewithal to be able to find stillness and calm. We must be able to do what a hurricane can do. I use the word “must” in both senses of the word: it makes sense that we would have stillness in our center; and, it is essential that we do. 

Stillness, calm and sanctuary are in you. I promise. 

The question is, “How do we find our center; how do we find that safe place inside where stillness and calm reside and can provide us with sanctuary and respite in the midst of insanity and chaos; how do we find the eye of our own storm?” 

First, we have to want it. Remember John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s global campaign in the 1970s, “WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT”?

(Oops, that’s a whole other post!) 

To begin, and to keep things as simple as we can today, let’s try a basic, ancient and effective practice for calming the nervous system. It’s something you already do, most of the time without awareness. The practice is to become aware while you are doing it. By placing your attention on what you are doing, and choosing to do so, you send your nervous system an important message: “I have a choice. I have power. I can do something about this, right now.”

The action could be any simple task: walking, eating, humming. For now, I recommend that you begin with conscious breathing. Great mystical teachers have spent their entire lives practicing conscious breathing as a form of meditation. It is lifelong, never ending, and scientific studies have proven that, when practiced regularly, literally changes our brain. And, a child can do it. If you have difficulty, you might try imagining you are a child, open to trying new things. Below is a step by step guide.:

1. Find a quiet place if possible, a place where you feel safe and will not be disturbed for a few minutes. E.g., on your bed, in a chair, under a tree, in a bathroom stall, anywhere where you’ll feel safe closing your eyes and can place all of your attention on your own sensations. If you are in public, imagine you are in the eye of a hurricane: while movement happens around you, you remain still. 

2. Get comfortable, or as comfortable as you can. 

3. Close your eyes. (As you gain experience, this step may become optional; for now, let’s make it as easy and enjoyable as we can. I suggest it based on the fact that 80% of our external stimuli are visual; closing the eyes can make it easier for us to feel sensations without being distracted.)

4. Notice one place in your body where you feel your breath. e.g., your belly, your chest, your nose, mouth, throat, shoulders. You may want to place a hand on your chest, a hand on your belly, or one hand on each to increase your awareness of your breathing. No need to change the breath (though it may change while you’re noticing). Simply notice.

Do this for a few minutes. I find it helpful to set a timer, as I become “timeless” and I like how setting a timer frees me to enjoy the moment without worrying about missing the next “to-do item”.

Optional next steps/variations:

5.a. Become curious about your breathing. Is it slow or fast, light or deep, comfortable or uncomfortable, even or uneven? Is the air cool, warm, still or windy? Do you notice any smells? 

b. Experiment with longer and shorter breaths, momentary holds at the top and bottom of the breath.

c. Add an intention, e.g., “Breathing in, I am love; breathing out, I am peace,” or, “Breathing in, I inhale peace; breathing out, I exhale anger.”

That’s the essential form of the practice, simply noticing. Becoming conscious of breathing, that we ARE breathing! It can be profound, a realization that we are powerless over the most important need we have: to breathe. We can moderate our style of breathing, but we cannot make ourselves stop breathing and still live, or start breathing once the body has stopped. Life is breathing us. And Life is doing so in the midst of beauty, sanctuary, peace, love and joy; and also in the midst of the hurricane, of all hurricanes, including the one you are facing. Allow the natural world to lead you to your center. Get to know that space. It’s yours. It’s your sanctuary in the storm. And it’s your nature.