How to Survive in this Crazy World

How to Survive in this Crazy World

 Life is full of pressure. Worries about your health, terrorist threats on the news, financial troubles, conflicts at work and family concerns. Without a center in your life, those pressures are likely to push you around. I’ve found taking time to center myself every day gives me the strength to do my best.

Centering is often seen as a religious or spiritual activity. Centering yourself around spiritual beliefs or rituals is perfectly¹ fine. But if you aren’t a particularly religious person, or situations have caused you to change your faith, you might find it hard to center yourself.

I’m not a religious person, but I still find time to center myself every day. Here are a few of the things worth centering on:

The Now. Focusing yourself on what you have instead of what you don’t have. Focusing on present actions instead of future worries and past regrets. Focusing on what is.

Your Dreams. Center yourself on the direction you want to take your life. Re-reading any goals I’ve written down helps me reaffirm what I want from life instead of responding to cynicism and frustration².

Family. Center around the people you love. This may be harder to center on if you’re having conflicts with your family. But by focusing on the best part of your relationships you can center yourself on what is important to you.

Your Passions. Center around the work you love doing. Focus on your ability to create.

By centering your thoughts on one of these points, you can anchor yourself in stressful times. Even if your life is great, a centering activity can keep you stable, instead of letting enthusiasm push you away from what is really important to you.

Ways to Center Yourself

Centering is an exercise in focus. It can’t be multitasked with answering your e-mails or watching television. Set aside at least fifteen minutes each day to center yourself. The busier you are, the more you need to center. Without centering, you’ll burn yourself out before you start.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to center myself in this crazy world we all live in:

Breathe. Close your eyes and focus entirely³ on your breathing. Count between breaths and control the time that passes. If a thought enters your mind, let it pass. With a mind like water you can center on the present.

Go on a Thought Walk. Go for a walk and just think. If you find yourself getting onto negative, un-centered thoughts too often, try listening to brighter music at the same time. Another variant⁴ of this is to get an audio tape from a speakerlike Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins. Center yourself on the things you already know, but sometimes forget.

Read. Get complete silence and read one of your favorite books. Read something that will inspire you and center you on what is important in your life. Reading is a skill that requires focus, so it is naturally suited for being a centering activity.

Zen and Cooking. Prepare a meal in complete silence and eat it slowly. I like to focus on the taste of the food I’m eating. Eat the meal as if you were tasting food for the first time. This activity is great for getting outside your thoughts and staying focused on the present.

Exercise. The bench press might not seem like a meditative⁵ activity, but exercise is one of my favorite centering activities. With lifting weights, the steady pattern of repetitions, focus and breathing all combine to focus me. When I jog, my body falls into a rhythm of steps. The side-benefit of this is that exercise also improves your body at the same time.

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Write. Keeping a journal also helps me center. Writing gives added control over your thinking, so you can direct it back towards your center. If I want to center around my goals, I’ll simply decide to write about my goals and progress towards them. As the writing starts to flow, my thoughts also center back on that point.

Stretch. Stretch each of your major muscle groups. Stretching gives you more awareness⁶ of your body, helping⁷ to focus on the now. Stretching also improves flexibility⁸ and can help with any unconscious soreness you might have been experiencing.

Quotes. I love a good quote. Entire ideas eloquently⁹ compressed into just a sentence or two. Keeping a list of great quotes can give you pointers when you need to center yourself. A few of my favorites include:

“Security is mostly a superstition¹⁰. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men experience it as a whole. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Helen Keller

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition¹¹ from weak minds.” - Albert Einstein

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what ships were built for.”

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dream. Spend a few minutes and write down the things you want to do, experience and achieve in your life. Don’t worry about what is possible or practical. Just write down the things that fill you with enthusiasm for life. Even if after you put down the pen, you can’t change anything, you’ve centered yourself on what gives your life joy.

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

4 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

5 meditative   

adj.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• A stupid fellow is talkative;a wise man is meditative.蠢人饶舌，智者思虑。
• Music can induce a meditative state in the listener.音乐能够引导倾听者沉思。

6 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

9 eloquently   

adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地)

参考例句：

• I was toasted by him most eloquently at the dinner. 进餐时他口若悬河地向我祝酒。
• The poet eloquently expresses the sense of lost innocence. 诗人动人地表达了失去天真的感觉。

10 superstition   

n.迷信，迷信行为

参考例句：

• It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
• Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。

11 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。