Increase Your Presence by Centering Yourself

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

In order to achieve your goals, you need to be calm and centered, so that you can deal resourcefully with any situation. It also helps if you’re confident and aware of your surroundings. The last couple of articles have been about NLP-based methods to achieve this, by putting yourself ‘at cause’, increasing your personal power, and calming yourself while increasing your awareness with peripheral vision. Here’s another way you can move towards that ideal ability to respond resourcefully – centering yourself.

This technique comes originally from martial arts. It’s a way of increasing your ‘presence’ and staying calm and centered no matter what happens around you. I taught it to my NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner students to help them manage their emotional states and increase their presence.

Martial artists discovered long ago that where you put your attention in your body has a huge effect on how calm you are, how comfortable you are within yourself, and even how physically strong you are. Most practitioners attribute great power to this ability; some go so far as to say that when you are truly centered, it is impossible to feel fear – though this would take a lot of practice.

Find Your Centre

Use this exercise to locate your centre and develop your focus. It can be practised in any quiet place where you can concentrate.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with your weight evenly balanced and your body relaxed.
2. Let your knees bend slightly, and be aware of the connection between your feet and the floor.
3. Pay attention to a point which is a few centimetres below your navel, and in the centre of your body, half way between front and back.
4. Look straight ahead and go into peripheral vision.

Test How Centred You Are

An easy way to test how centreed you are is to have a friend push on the top of your chest for a few seconds to try to make you take a step backwards. To really notice the difference, try this twice – once with your attention on the top of your left ear, and the second time centered as above. You should notice a dramatic difference – the first time it will be easy to push you backwards, the second time it will be much harder – and you won’t feel like you are trying as hard.

Increase Your Awareness

While you are out walking, practice paying attention to your central point and maintaining your peripheral vision. Although it might not be what you expect, as you increase your focus, you will find that you also become considerably more aware of your surroundings. Many self-defence courses teach the development of this all-round awareness as a means of increasing your personal safety.

Increase Your Presence When Speaking

If you stand up to give a presentation, or even just to speak in a meeting, take a moment to find your centre. You will find that you will feel calmer and more present, and your audience will notice that you are someone they should listen to (I believe your calmer and more resourceful emotional state communicates itself to the unconscious minds of your audience by subtle signals of body language, breathing rate, facial expression, and voice tone, although feel free to use ‘energy’ or even ‘vibration’ as a convenient metaphor if it works for you).

Practice This Technique Before You Need It!

The best time to try out a technique for the first time is not when you’re in desperate need of it – giving a big presentation, or in a life-changing job interview. Instead, practice centering every day in low-stakes situations and notice the difference it makes, until it becomes second nature to you. That way, the technique will be there when you most need it – and you’ll remember to reach for it.

© 2026, Andy Smith. All rights reserved.