Your Power Center

Navel Gazing

Part of my job as a coach is to ask the deep questions. Why do you want that? What purpose does that serve? What difference will it make? And what does that mean to you?

These questions cut to the underlying motivation of the desired change. If that fundamental “why” is not identified, then we can talk strategies, tips, and techniques forever but the improvement, whether personal or professional, won’t be sustained.

The answers aren’t always apparent and considering them may take a little time. There can be a degree of discomfort at the realization of a gap or incongruence in your life. Sometimes I’ll hear, “I don’t like that navel-gazing stuff,” and there is an attempt to dismiss the exploration as esoteric. Barbara, a market research executive, confessed she felt a bit self-conscious about “the luxury” of navel-gazing when others in the world are barely surviving.

So the question remains: Is it worth the effort to go deep?

With the Strength of Your Core

To those who think that pondering the deep questions is just navel-gazing, I say: Yes, but that’s your power center! Ask any chiropractor, acupuncturist, or other energy workers in the healing arts and they’ll tell you about the core chakra. It’s the energy center in your body that represents your personal power, vitality, and self-esteem.

Likewise, those who teach martial arts, yoga, and Pilates all emphasize the importance of moving with the strength of your core. In researching why core strength is important, I found articles written by weight lifters, runners, cyclists, dancers, gymnasts, professional athletes, as well as medical experts from Mayo Clinic and Harvard. Your core – the body’s center of gravity – is a key factor in your stability, flexibility, and overall strength and power.

On a physical level, every time you stand up, reach for something, or walk across the room, the movement originates from your core, your power center. In the same way, when you allow a sense of purpose to guide your actions each day, you are operating – moving, working, living – from the strength of your core.

Navel Acting

The reason people poke fun at navel-gazing is that it can’t end there. Just as acting without consideration can result in wheel spinning and frustration, it’s also true that pondering without acting is letting insight evaporate into thin air. Navel Gazing must lead to Navel Acting: moving with purpose and intention, from the power and strength of your core.

Perhaps even more than a luxury, it is an inestimable freedom to be able to navel-gaze and consider your purpose in life. If that’s the case, it makes the responsibility to do it even greater. Connect with your core, then move.

This Week’s Call To Action:

• Don’t stop yourself from asking the deep questions, from peering into your whys. After pondering the interior, take action in the exterior physical world.
• What’s one way you will connect with your power center?

All movement starts from the core.

Notes:
I never knew there was a word for navel-gazing: omphaloskepsis. And here are four antique statues depicting this activity!