You Never Lost Your Center, It's Just Tired of Competing With Your To-Do List
A grounded practice for those days when everything feels sideways.
There’s a funny thing about being human. We start out knowing exactly where the center of the universe is. A baby doesn’t question it. They cry and someone appears. They wiggle and someone smiles. They drift off and the whole room adjusts to their orbit. Life answers them like gravity.
This early confidence isn’t entitlement. It’s instinct. We’re born wired to know we belong. Our needs matter. We’re held by something steady and close.
Then we grow up.
Bit by bit we’re taught how to step away from that natural center. We learn to share, wait, tone ourselves down, keep the peace, please others, and fit into shapes that don’t always match who we are. Over time we start looking outward for safety and approval. We forget the quiet home we carried inside all along.
That’s when life begins to wobble.
We chase success. We compare. We reach for whatever looks shiny or socially impressive. We try to rebuild our sense of center with achievements or outside markers, thinking that if we can catch up with the world we’ll feel grounded again.
But the real center was never out there. It’s always here, even when we feel we’ve lost it. It’s waiting for you to reconnect.
Across many spiritual and cultural traditions, there’s a shared concept called axis mundi, the central point of the world where the divine and the ordinary meet. It symbolizes cosmic order and the path between the human realm and the greater whole. It shows up everywhere in global myth. Mount Kailash, the World Tree, the sacred pillar. The cosmic mountain that links the stars to the soil. Every culture found its own way to describe the place where everything connects.
We can understand this on a personal level too. We each have our own axis. A steady inner point where the outer world and our inner wisdom meet.
As babies we lived from that center without effort. As adults, we often lose sight of it and assume we need to relocate it through striving or self-improvement. But the center hasn’t disappeared. We’ve just been distracted. It waits beneath the noise, intact and steady.
And we can return to it.
Axis mundi doesn’t require ceremony or special equipment. It only needs presence.
Give this a try:
Feel your feet, connected to the earth below.
Feel the length of the spine and the top of your head reaching for the stars.
Let a quiet energy gather in the middle of the body.
Sense the thread of energy that connects the stars above and the ground below.
Widen your awareness. Look gently to the left, the right, ahead, and behind. Let the eyes find the natural edges of the space you’re in. Notice where the walls are, where the room opens, or where the horizon touches the sky. Feel yourself at the center of this space, held within steady boundaries. This simple act helps the nervous system orient itself and softens the scattered feeling that comes with modern life.
You can do this anytime you feel off balance or dysregulated. When you know where your center is you naturally move with more presence. Your boundaries feel clearer. Your choices become cleaner. Your energy stops scattering.
Life steadies when we return to the quiet center that has been holding us all along.
Something interesting happens as we get older too. There comes a point where we drift back toward our center without trying. We take less nonsense from the world. We stop bending ourselves into shapes that never suited us. We turn toward what feels honest and away from what pulls us off balance. We recognize the wisdom of our own instincts. The axis becomes familiar again, like a friend we once knew by heart.
When we pause and reconnect with this center, we also reconnect with the truth that our lives are not meant to be lived from the edges. We’re meant to stand inside our own experience, grounded and aware, connected to the thread that runs through us every day. Even on the tough days. Even when we feel miles from ourselves.
Below, I’ve offered a little food for thought and practices to try. Allow yourself to pause a moment to see what resonates for you.
Five Questions to Ask When You Feel Misaligned
What part of me feels off-kilter, and what is it reacting to?
Where am I saying yes when my whole body wants to say no?
What story am I listening to that pulls me away from my own truth?
What would feel steadier if I paused for a moment for a check-in?
What have I forgotten about my strength that would help me right now?
Five Micro Practices to Return to Center
Spine check. Imagine a gentle line from the stars to the earth running through your body. Feel the connection. Celebrate it. You’re home.
Spatial awareness sweep. Take a moment to look left, right, forward, and behind. Notice your surroundings, the walls, corners, the horizon. Knowing you are at the center of everything around you.
The three-point pause. Notice your feet, your hands, and your belly. These three points can settle the system fast.
Quietly say, “I’m here.” Simple and steady.
- Gather your energy. Picture your scattered attention returning to your center like puzzle pieces clicking back into place.
How did this story resonate with you? Did you find the connection with your center? I’d love to hear your thoughts.