As I hiked up the path to the Peaceful Valley Chapel, I relished the quiet of my early morning solitude. After many years as a participant and assistant instructor at Thomas Crum's Journey To Center Program, this beautiful and energizing ten-minute hike had become a personal ritual. Each morning of each Journey to Center week, before our breathing and meditation session at 7, I always hike to the top of this small mountain to be inspired by the view of a much higher mountain range in the distance.

I stare at the 14,000-foot peaks, open my arms and breathe, inviting their energy, power, beauty and peace into my being. I contrast their stability and their "just there-ness" with my own approval-seeking energy, their effortless poise with my striving to do the right thing, and their natural and graceful essence with my desire to appear knowledgeable and beautiful and centered.

Could I possibly just BE? Like the mountain? There.

That turned out to be my practice this year - and I let the mountain be my teacher. Each time (well, most times) that I found myself in striving or approval-seeking mode, I stopped, breathed, and thought about the mountain. Thought about just BEING - like the mountain.

Each time I practiced, I felt my body come back to a relaxed stance, mind clear, my being at rest. It was as if I had been leaning forward - out of myself - looking for

something, someone, to be okay. As I thought of the mountain, I came back to center.

Is there a place that helps you return to your own powerful presence? Your needs are met, you are okay just the way you are. Find it now - in your office, your home, your cubicle. Bring your mountain back into view. And have a great journey to center.

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