Staying Centered in a Chaotic World: Coming Back to Yourself in Unsteady Times
- Randi Camirand
- 34 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Many people are asking the same question right now—How do I stay centered when everything feels loud, urgent, and unstable?
The honest answer is: your system was never meant to track this much at once.
When the world feels chaotic, the body responds by reaching outward—scanning, bracing, monitoring. Attention spreads wide. Energy leaves the center. Over time, this can feel like anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, or a quiet sense of being unmoored from yourself.
This isn’t a mindset problem.It’s a nervous system response.
What Being Centered Actually Is
Being centered is about being located inside your body, in the present moment, with access to your own inner signals.
When you’re centered, you can feel what’s happening without being pulled under by it. Your energy is organized around your own midline rather than scattered in response to everything around you.
This is a somatic experience, not something you think your way into. It is a felt sense.
How We Lose Our Center (Without Realizing It)
In uncertain environments, many of us unconsciously:
Track the moods and needs of others
Stay mentally “on call” for what might go wrong
Take in more information than our system can digest
Hold tension as a way of staying prepared
These strategies often developed early, and they make sense. But they come at a cost: your energy slowly leaves you.
Centering is about returning.
Calling Your Energy Back Home
Instead of trying to calm yourself down, try orienting your body to where you are right now.
Notice:
The support beneath you
The weight of your body being held
The edges of your skin, containing you
Let your awareness gather toward the center of your body—your chest, your belly, your pelvis. This is where presence naturally organizes itself.
Place your hand on your chest or abdominal area. Feel your own presence.
Let out a gentle sigh.
These are nervous system regulating practices.
You might sense a subtle shift: less effort, more cohesion.
Letting Go of What Isn’t Yours
When the world feels heavy, it’s easy to carry more than your share.
A useful question is What am I holding that doesn’t belong to me?
Often, centering happens through release—through letting the body stop bracing against imagined futures or inherited responsibilities.
Being Centered in a World That Is Not
Staying centered does not mean turning away from suffering or pretending things are fine. It means staying connected to yourself while staying in relationship with the world.
From a centered place:
You respond rather than react
Your care has boundaries
Your actions are steadier and more sustainable
This is how nervous systems stay resilient—not by hardening, but by organizing around something stable within.
Returning Is the Practice
Practice. Practice. Practice
Return. Return. Return.
Centering isn’t something you accomplish and move on from.
It’s a practice of coming back—sometimes dozens of times a day.
In a chaotic world, staying connected to yourself is foundational.
And from that connection, something steadier becomes possible.
Further Study and Practice
You are not alone. I am available for individual sessions, when you are ready.
In the meantime, here are some Resources For Your Healing Journey:
Read blog posts from my series When the Spell Breaks: Healing from Narcissistic Abuse. https://www.randicamirand.com/blog/categories/healing-from-narcissistic-abuse
Follow my Women’s Wintering Well Series on Instagram for almost daily self-care reminders. https://www.instagram.com/randicamirand/
10 Grounding Practices for Women
Visit my Homepage www.randicamirand.com
Learn more About Me and My Approach https://www.randicamirand.com/about
Learn about my Women’s Online Meditation Classes and email sign up to receive notifications. https://www.randicamirand.com/womens-meditation-classes
Check out The Blog for therapy insights and self-help tips.
