In Japanese martial arts, there is a concept that they call hara. Located in the gut, hara is the center of your power and balance in your body.
Hara is psychological as much as it is physical. It refers to your balanced place, the place where your opponent cannot knock you down.
In life, we also have hara. The reason why so many of us feel lost in life is because we don’t have a strong sense of what’s true to us and what’s not. Your hara is that sense of truth.
To find your hara, you have to ask yourself: What principles or values do I have that, when I follow them, always give me a sense of clarity and/or purpose?
For some people, their hara may be physical exercise. When they exercise, they can see their life more clearly because moving their body helps them process their thinking.
For other people, it may be meditation. Through deep breathing and clearing out mental clutter, they are able to become in tune with their purpose.
For others, it may be a matter of following your gut, or intuition. When they sense something is right or off, they must follow it.
For other people, it’s the scientific method. They have to observe – see, feel, hear – something for themselves, run experiments, test new ideas out, in order to gain clarity.
For other people, it’s through organization and preparation. They need to map out things, see them physically, in order to gain clarity.
Everyone’s hara is different and may change as time goes by. The point is that you need something solid, something you know you can rely on, to give you that balance.
That is the source of your power.