Center Yourself Anytime and Anywhere

We all know that when we center we feel good. When you are centered, you are grounded. You bring your energy back into  your body out of your head and out of projecting into the world. You are more able to respond to life instead of react since you are more present and aware.

In Huna, the fourth principle is Manawa – now is the moment of power. When you are centered, you are more confident and free because you have more choices. You are running your life instead of being on auto-pilot because you are more in the now moment in your heart instead of reacting to every thought that flies through your head. You feel peaceful and stress diminishes. Your perspective changes and is more open. You feel more loving and more loved since your are more in harmony with yourself and the world.

Nice! But how to get there, especially in these hectic, instant communication, overwhelming information, demanding days we currently live in?

For me, I turn once again to Huna. Huna is a modern term for a very ancient system of healing and spiritual development. It is believed to be over 35,000 years old and part of the original teachings of the earth centered in the Pacific. It is very pure and very powerful since the teachings have been virtually untouched by dogma since they were hidden for thousands of years. Huna literally means ‘secret’.

A Huna technique that will center you quickly is called piko-piko breathing. Piko means center, so piko-piko means center-to-center. To do piko-piko breathing you take a deep, satisfying breath and put your attention as you inhale on the top of your head, your crown chakra. As you exhale you put your attention on your navel area, called the dan tien in martial arts. You don’t have to do anything special, just gently focus your attention on those areas as you breathe.

You can do this breathing technique no matter where you are and no matter what you are doing. It is very useful in stressful situations, when you need to feel more like Who you are, when you want to feel peace, and I’ve found it to be very effective in helping me get to sleep at night or back to sleep if I wake up full of thoughts. You will find that the more you do it, the more quickly you become centered and the more deeply centered you become.