What your body tells you
"Centering® is about the journey of discovery in our bodies, our relationships, our lives and our souls. Centering® is about learning to discover who we are, how we function in relation to others and what we come here to do."
It sometimes happens that a client comes to therapy and I ask him/her to lie on the massage table for a while. Then I feel with both my hands the soles of the feet (connection with the bones), the ankles, knees, quadriceps, the abdomen, sternum, shoulders, skull… Depending on what I observe, I then ask questions to the customer. Then I will observe in more detail at the level of the different parts of the body. Links are made with the client’s story and the parts of the body that require attention.
The body tells a lot… We are not aware of that. But you probably already know that everything you experience is stored in the cell memory of the body? Not only does our brain have a memory, but also our heart, muscles, skin,… Both physical pains and emotional injuries are remembered by the body. Even to the extent that the body starts to react when the pain, trauma, injury,… is endured for too long and takes on a life of its own in the body. All kinds of physical complaints then arise. It is not so clear to most people that everything is interconnected and that one affects the other.
A Centering practitioner will then draw attention to this part of the body with his hands, and in conversation with the client look for connections, provide insight into the current situation why he or she is experiencing this or that or feels this way. By giving focused attention, something can also relax in this region or energy or space can be freed up.
Emotions and the body
For many, it is not that difficult to describe an experienced emotion precisely. But if you ask a customer where those emotions come from, how they came about, and, more importantly, what they all do to us, they often don’t know how to answer. For most, emotions are a kind of fog that swirls through the entire body.
Scientific studies in recent years show more clearly that feelings are linked to rock-hard biochemistry. They not only influence the onset and course of diseases, but also determine health and even our lifespan.
Books and extensive studies explain in an astonishingly clear way how feelings drive our health and how we can influence this, which can improve our quality of life ourselves… Our whole body adapts to our emotions, we have our ingenious techniques for that, such as the fascias. Fascias have the power to adapt, they can give and take, release some tension and build tension. People with the power of the fascies can adapt strongly, not so much to lose themselves and give away, but rather to maintain connectedness, and yet also to create their own space. When their emotions at the organ level are set in motion and released, the fascias start to seek a new balance.
Everything is connected
It is now becoming clearer that our emotions are very strongly connected to our body. But also our thoughts. And our energy will be guided by the interplay of all these factors. And our body will also react to the interaction of others, their emotions, manipulations, behaviors, habits,… all things that also influence my emotions and… So also my body and thoughts, my life.
And just like that, society has an influence on my whole constitution. And so it becomes clear that it is important to approach a customer from a holistic approach. Everything is connected together and one affects the other.
So what is Centering?
Centering® is a way of working from a holistic perspective. The world and man are seen as a whole in which different aspects together contribute to what is. There is not just one thing that makes me who I am or what society is. Nothing can be viewed separately, but there is an influence from the physical, the emotional, mental and energetic, the relationships with which I am connected and the society in which I live. Because we tend to look at and experience everything fragmentarily, as particles loose in themselves, without seeing the connections between what is, isolation and separation arise.
Centering on the other hand is looking for connection. By making contact with the total package of my personal system, the influence of my relationships and the impact of the environment on my life, the fragmented particles are connected. We see connections, we connect with blind spots and allow what should not be or is unknown. We are realising more and more that everything is circular, interconnected. In other words, no more causal effect. My headache is more than the physically throbbing feeling in my head, but may have to do with the long-term accumulated stress that the body has never felt or the displeasure I feel emotionally in my relationship. Perhaps obvious, but we usually don’t look at it that way. We experience a problem and look for the most obvious solution to relieve my headache: medication. In this way we soothe ourselves not to have to look at the deeper problem in which I may also have a share…
Nothing can really be viewed separately. Through centering® you look at the person/organization connected to what really is, so new possibilities can arise.
The structure of the centering® model
The 4 levels
In the Centering® model, we work with 4 different levels: personal, relational, earth and universal level. Each level can be imagined as a circle, a wheel.
- Each person is interwoven in a relational context (parents, partner, children, work colleagues, municipality, groups, country, etc.).
- This relational field takes place at the earth level and is also influenced by it. Conversely, the earth is also influenced by each individual and the relational fields.
- All of this is subject to the universal level… All these levels are inextricably linked and it is clear that they also influence each other continuously.
1st level: personal level (inner circle)
This level relates to who you are. You are a whole of physical characteristics, morphology, character structure, shadow sides, emotions, thoughts, qualities, self-images, dreams, talents, etc…
2nd level: relational level (2nd circle)
The relational level takes place at the level of relationships. In a relationship there is connection, there is interaction, communication, dynamics, energy exchange, there is separation or loss,… This does not only take place between two people but also in a group. or society. Social, educational and family factors also have an influence.
3rd level: earth level (3rd circle)
This includes not only all aspects of the earth itself, such as the effect of the biosphere on living organisms (geobiology), radiation of natural or technical origin (geomagnetic), the influences of the earth’s surface (geosphere), the oceans (hydrosphere) and the atmosphere on each other (geophysiology), but also the interaction between the various systems operating in and on the earth. This includes all living beings, matter and natural forces at the earth level.
4th level: universal level (4th or outer circle)
By this we mean the universal laws that have been in use for many years. These laws originate and form the basis of the development of the universe, nature and living beings. It is a wisdom that has been passed on in different cultures for thousands of years. The universal level is researched and studied in fields such as quantum physics, genetics, epigenetics, astronomy, geobiology, etc. Groundbreaking research, studies and discoveries are currently being made here.
