How to Stay Centered During Times of Rapid Change

Have you noticed yourself reacting more emotionally than usual to everyday situations? Perhaps small frustrations feel bigger, or you find yourself absorbing the stress and anxiety of people around you. You’re not alone, and you’re not imagining it.

Think of yourself as a radio receiver. Just as a radio picks up signals from stations broadcasting in the air, your body and mind naturally pick up emotional signals from the people in your life—and even from the collective mood of society. This isn’t mystical; it’s the reality of being human and interconnected. When combined with your own thoughts and feelings, you’re experiencing quite a symphony of emotional frequencies.

Understanding the Stress Feedback Loop

These emotional signals—from others and from your own reactions—can create what I call a stress feedback loop. Here’s how it works:

Your energy field (the invisible atmosphere around your body) becomes filled with nervous patterns—both yours and those you’ve absorbed from others. Your body senses this tension and sends alarm signals to your mind. Your mind interprets these signals as danger and generates worried thoughts. These worried thoughts make your body tense up even more. This tension gets picked up by your energy field, and the cycle continues, round and round.

It’s like living in a house where the smoke detector keeps going off—not because there’s a fire, but because the detector is too sensitive and keeps triggering itself. The good news? You can reset the system.

Your Inner Stability Center: A Natural Resource You Already Have

Imagine your body as a snow globe. When someone shakes it, all the glitter and snow swirl around chaotically—that’s like the nervous energy from the outside world. But deep at the bottom of the snow globe, there’s a quiet, still base that never moves. You have this same quiet center deep within you.

This peaceful center holds a calm, balanced signal that’s always broadcasting—but it’s quieter and more subtle than the noisy worry signals. Unless you’re tuning in deliberately, it gets drowned out. The key is learning to tune your inner radio to this calmer frequency.

PRACTICE #1: Finding Your Inner Calm (2 Minutes)

Try this right now:

1. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly.
2. Close your eyes if comfortable, or soften your gaze downward.
3. Take three slow breaths, feeling your hands rise and fall.
4. Now imagine dropping your attention like an anchor, down through your chest, past your stomach, settling deep in the center of your belly.
5. Notice: What does it feel like there? Warmth? Stillness? Emptiness? There’s no wrong answer.
6. If you notice your mind chattering with thoughts, that’s perfectly normal. Just gently return your attention to that deep center point.

At first, this might feel like you’re just imagining it—and that’s okay. Imagination is actually the bridge that connects where you are now to where you want to be. Think of it like learning to ride a bike: you start by imagining yourself balanced, and eventually, the imagination becomes reality.

The Power of Noticing Without Judging

Here’s a profound insight that can change everything: you can notice something without judging it as good or bad. This is like being a scientist observing clouds—you don’t call them ‘wrong’ for being gray instead of white. You simply observe what is.

When you practice noticing your internal chatter (that running commentary your mind creates) without getting hooked by it, something remarkable happens. The chatter begins to lose its grip on you. It’s still there, but you’re no longer caught in its current.

PRACTICE #2: The Witness Practice (Throughout Your Day)

Try this during routine activities like washing dishes, walking, or waiting in line:

1. Notice your internal dialogue—the voice commenting on everything.
2. Mentally say, “I notice I’m thinking about…” (whatever thought is present).
3. Don’t try to stop the thought. Just label it gently, like tagging a photo: “Oh, there’s a worry thought,” or “There’s a planning thought,” or “There’s a judging thought.”
4. After labeling, bring your attention to one physical sensation—your feet on the ground, your breath, sounds around you.

This creates space between you and your thoughts. You begin to realize: “I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.”

Creating a Healthy Inner Pattern

As you learn to tune into that deeper calm within you, something beautiful happens naturally. Your mind starts to quiet down. Your internal dialogue shifts from worried chatter to something more harmonious. Think of it like tuning a guitar—as you adjust to the right pitch, the whole instrument sounds better.

This creates what I call a healthy feedback loop—the opposite of the stress cycle we talked about earlier. When your attention rests in your calm center, your mind becomes more peaceful. Your peaceful mind sends signals of safety to your body. Your relaxed body radiates a calmer energy. This calmer energy reinforces the sense of peace, and the positive cycle continues.

You begin to feel integrated—like all the parts of you (your body, your emotions, your mind, your deeper wisdom) are finally on the same team, working together.

PRACTICE #3: The Integration Check-In (5 Minutes Daily)

Find a quiet moment each day—perhaps morning or before bed:

1. Sit comfortably and close your eyes.
2. Scan your body from head to toe, noticing areas of tension or ease. Just notice, don’t judge.
3. Notice your emotions. Name what you feel: “anxious,” “calm,” “tired,” “hopeful.” Again, just notice.
4. Notice your thoughts. What’s your mind focused on? Don’t engage with the thoughts, just observe them passing by.
5. Now drop your attention to that deep center in your belly or heart. Ask yourself: “What does my deepest wisdom know right now?” Listen for a feeling, a knowing, an image, or simply rest in the quiet.
6. Take three deep breaths, imagining you’re breathing this deep wisdom up through your entire body, connecting all the parts of yourself.

This practice helps you experience your inner world as an ecosystem—everything connected and communicating.

Be Patient With Your Process

When you first start exploring these practices, you might notice only the chaos—the worried thoughts, the tense feelings, the mental noise. That’s completely natural and actually a good sign. It means you’re becoming aware.

Remember: the deep peace is quieter and more subtle than the chaos. It’s like trying to hear a whisper in a crowded room—you have to listen carefully. Don’t judge yourself when you can’t find it right away. This is a practice, not a performance.

Take it one day at a time. Some days you’ll touch that deep calm easily. Other days it will feel distant. Both are part of the journey. The peace is always there, waiting patiently for you to discover it—or rediscover it.

PRACTICE #4: The Sensory Anchor (Use Anytime You Feel Overwhelmed)

When stress or anxiety hit, use your senses to anchor yourself in the present:

1. Name 5 things you can see (the corner of your desk, a tree outside, your hands).
2. Name 4 things you can physically feel (your feet on the floor, your back against the chair, the temperature of the air, clothing on your skin).
3. Name 3 things you can hear (birds, traffic, the hum of electronics, your own breath).
4. Name 2 things you can smell (or imagine smelling something pleasant).
5. Name 1 thing you appreciate about this moment, even if it’s simply “I’m breathing” or “I’m safe right now.”

This grounds you in your body and the present moment, interrupting the stress feedback loop.

You Have More Power Than You Think

Here’s the empowering truth: you have choice in where you place your attention. This might sound simple, but it’s profound. Choosing where to focus your awareness is like choosing which channel to watch on TV. The stressful channel is always broadcasting, but so is the peaceful channel. You get to decide which one you tune into.

Blaming the world for your stress doesn’t help. Blaming yourself doesn’t help either. Blame just feeds the drama and makes reactions stronger. What does help is developing your awareness—learning to notice without denying, observe without judging, and choose without forcing.

When you practice these simple methods daily, you build inner strength the same way you build muscle—through consistent, gentle exercise. You’ll realize, probably with a smile, that something as simple as choosing where you place your attention can transform your entire experience of life.

PRACTICE #5: The Attention Training Exercise (1 Minute, Multiple Times Daily)

Set a gentle reminder on your phone for 3-5 times throughout the day:

1. When the reminder sounds, stop what you’re doing.
2. Notice where your attention is: Caught in worry? Planning? Scattered? Focused?
3. Take one conscious breath and choose to shift your attention to something calming: your heartbeat, a tree outside, a feeling of gratitude, or that deep center within.
4. Return to your activity with this new focus.

This trains your attention muscles. Over weeks, you’ll notice it becomes easier to shift out of stress and into calm.

Tuning Into Your Inner Guidance System

As you practice noticing the difference between mental chatter and deeper calm, you’ll begin to recognize something else: an inner knowing that speaks not in words but in feelings, intuitions, and gentle guidance.

Think of your inner wisdom like an internal GPS. Your worried mind is like static on the radio—lots of noise and conflicting directions. Your deeper wisdom is like the clear GPS voice that knows the best route. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t argue. It simply guides when you’re quiet enough to listen.

This inner guidance communicates through your body’s sensations (“something feels right” or “this doesn’t sit well with me”), through sudden knowing (“I just know this is the answer”), through imagery (symbols or pictures that arise in your mind), and through a sense of resonance (“yes, this feels true”).

PRACTICE #6: Accessing Inner Wisdom for Decision-Making

When facing a decision, try this:

1. Sit quietly and take three deep breaths.
2. State the question or decision you’re facing, either silently or aloud.
3. Drop your attention to your heart center or belly.
4. Imagine one option clearly. Notice: does your body relax or tense? Does your heart feel open or tight? Do you feel expansion or contraction?
5. Clear your mind (take a breath and shake your arms gently).
6. Imagine the other option. Notice the same body signals.
7. Your body’s wisdom often knows before your mind does. Trust the option that brings a sense of opening, ease, or rightness.

The Key to Staying Centered

In these times of rapid change—when the world feels intense, when emotions run high, when transformation seems to be happening faster than we can keep up with—the key to staying centered is surprisingly simple.

It’s about learning to distinguish between the outer noise and your inner truth. It’s about developing the muscle of attention, so you can choose what you focus on. It’s about discovering that deep within you, beneath all the chaos and chatter, there’s a place of profound peace and wisdom that’s always available.

This isn’t about escaping the world or denying reality. It’s about finding your stable ground so you can move through change with grace, respond to challenges with wisdom, and maintain your sense of inner peace regardless of outer circumstances.

Start small. Try one practice for a week. Notice what happens. Be patient with yourself. Some days will feel easier than others. This is not about perfection—it’s about progress, about gradually training yourself to access the calm, centered, wise part of you that already exists.

As you practice, you’ll discover that this simple act of choosing where to place your attention unlocks something profound: the ability to stay centered, no matter what transformations are happening around you or within you.

And that is truly liberating.

QUICK REFERENCE: Six Practices for Daily Use

Practice #1: Finding Your Inner Calm (2 minutes) – Place hands on chest and belly, breathe, drop attention to your center.

Practice #2: The Witness Practice (throughout the day) – Notice and label your thoughts without judging them.

Practice #3: The Integration Check-In (5 minutes daily) – Scan body, emotions, thoughts, then connect to deeper wisdom.

Practice #4: The Sensory Anchor (use when overwhelmed) – Use your five senses to ground yourself in the present.

Practice #5: The Attention Training Exercise (1 minute, 3-5 times daily) – Notice where your attention is and consciously redirect it.

Practice #6: Accessing Inner Wisdom (as needed) – Use your body’s signals to guide decision-making.

Choose one practice to start with. Build gradually. Be patient with yourself. The peace you seek is already within you.

Joel Bruce Wallach