Finding Your Center: A Childhood Awakening into Emotional Healing and Inner Balance

I was always one to seek out the quiet places, retreating into the solace of my own being - just to come back into some sense of rest. My childhood home life was very chaotic. I constantly felt a barrage of emotional energy that I somehow needed to filter through just to breathe… just to feel who I was in the world.I remember slipping away in the afternoons to go to the park. It was the one place where I could escape the heaviness - the weight of a depressed mother, a distant father, and a sister who often released her frustrations onto me.

At the park, in the middle of a suburban landscape where houses were packed tightly together, I found space… and I found myself.

And then there was the seesaw.
For some reason, I became fascinated with standing at its center point—the apex where both sides could balance into stillness. I didn’t understand why it mattered so much, but I felt deeply that it did.

So I practiced.

I would place one foot on each side and try to balance the plank perfectly. No one showed me. No one told me how. But something inside me needed to learn this.
It became my quiet ritual. It took weeks of practice to find that still point. But when I finally did… everything disappeared.

There was only light.
Peace.
Aliveness beyond anything I had ever known.

Yogic traditions might call this a state of pure presence—Samadhi, but here I was, seven or eight years old, discovering it on my own, on a simple piece of playground equipment.

What did I learn?

I learned that if I put too much weight on one side, it would crash to the ground and if I overcompensated, the other side would fall just as hard.

Balance wasn’t force. It was refinement.
I had to slowly reduce the weight—less effort, less tension… less of me in the way.
And I noticed something else: Even when I got close to balance, the moment a single thought entered my mind—like, oh on, my mother may be looking for me, or oh look at me I am doing it!
the seesaw would tip.

Every time.

So I had to begin again.
I had to remain empty, quiet and still.

Refining the mind is refining the body

True balance, where the plank rests in stillness required NO thought.

Only presence.

No judgment.

No distraction.

No leaving the moment.

Just being.

What does this mean for our lives?

It means learning to balance the polarity within ourselves.
The part that says one side is good… and the other is bad. The light versus the dark. Desire versus aversion.

True freedom comes when we can stand in the center of it all—without falling into judgment, of this or that.
When we can embrace the totality of who we are.

This is the still point.

The center of the swirling vortex of life, the eye of the needle in a hurricane storm—where peace already exists.

It begins in the mind

The mind activates the body into either rest or stress. Our thoughts influence the release of neurochemicals: some of the more common ones: adrenalin, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin—that shape how we feel and experience life.

And so, each of us has a choice.
To continue swinging from one side to the other, Or to return to center.

Because when we are in confusion and stress, we are not in balance and end up using a lot of energy to maintain daily bodily functions.

So how do we return?

We begin simply. By sitting quietly, even for just a few minutes a day.

By dedicating ourselves to stillness. By placing our attention on the sacred space within.

Find a quiet place - somewhere in your home, garden, or outdoors in a nearby park - where you can gently watch your mind at work. Take a few deep, conscious breaths to ground yourself, allowing the body to soften and settle. Then simply observe. Notice the internal conversation, the subtle agitation, the sense of unsettlement that may be present.

Imagine yourself standing at the fulcrum of a seesaw, just as before. Watch your thoughts swing from side to side, or swirl around your center point. There is no need to stop them, fix them, or follow them. Just witness their movement.

And then. Be still at the center.

Remain as the one who observes, unmoving, while everything else shifts around you. Anchor your attention here, gently returning each time the mind pulls you away. Breathe into this space of stillness… and allow yourself to feel the quiet that has been waiting for you all along.

Some call this meditation.
Some call it the yoga of life.

But it is, at its core, a return to Self.

Here at Earth Spirit Wisdom, Amalia guides you back to this center point.

Through shamanic healing, and emotional healing in Sedona and life shift coaching online in Sedona,  Amalia offers simple, grounded practices to help you return to balance, clarity, and inner peace.

Whether you are visiting Sedona and wish to experience a session on the land - connecting with the wisdom of the Earth—or joining online for emotional healing and life shift coaching, this work is here to support your return to the simplicity and purity of who you truly are.

Feel free to reach her at 1-800-393-2037 or email.