Mindfulness programs and practices frequently describe a process of
locating your "center." One's center may be conceived as a focus of
energy, both spiritual and physical, by which all activities may be
grounded and from which all activities flow. Similarly, ballet teachers
and gymnastics instructors enjoin their pupils to "work from your
center," meaning that the student's spins, leaps, kicks, and other
choreographed movements should emanate from a central region of power.
As well, coaches of many sports disciplines, including baseball,
football, and basketball, encourage their athletes to "stay focused" and
"see the ball going through the net." All of these injunctions are
designed to remind players to reconnect to their center -- their focus
of disciplined strength, quickness, and coordinated activity.
But you don't have to be a highly trained athlete or a master of
meditation to be able to derive power, strength, and grace from your
personal center. Each one of us has these capabilities. The first
requirement for demonstrating and enhancing these qualities is having
awareness and focusing attention on your center itself. One person may
locate his center in his heart. Others may locate their centers in their
spine or in their solar plexus, that is, the lower abdominal region.
One's core musculature may also be identified as one's center. The key
is not so much the perceived anatomical location of one's center, but
rather maintaining the concept of, the focus on, the center.
The metaphor of a center may be extended to include a center for
health. From a chiropractic perspective, your center for health is your
nerve system and spinal column. The nerve system, the body's master
system, transits information regarding healthy functioning from the
brain to all the cells of the entire rest of the body. This information
coordinates activities of the body's tissues and organ systems, and the
free flow of information from the brain to the body and back again
results in good health. The spinal column houses and protects the spinal
cord and the roots of the spinal nerves, the main nerve trunks that
send nerve branches to your arms, legs, hands, feet, and every other
physical location.
Regular chiropractic care helps support your body's center for health
by detecting and correcting sources of nerve irritation and by helping
to maintain the durability and flexibility of your spinal column. In
this way, regular chiropractic care helps ensure the ongoing health and
well-being of everyone, including individuals, families, and
communities.
- Demarzo MM, et al: The Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Interventions
in Primary Care: A Meta-Analytic Review. Ann Fam Med 13(6):573-582, 2015
- Marusak HA, et al: Mindfulness and dynamic functional neural
connectivity in children and adolescents. Behav Brain Res 336:211-218,
2018 doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.09.010. Epub 2017 Sep 5
- Christensen JF, et al: I can feel my heartbeat: Dancers have
increased interoceptive accuracy. Psychophysiology. 2017 Sep 21. doi:
10.1111/psyp.13008. [Epub ahead of print]