New Movement Aims To Inspire One Million Young People To Get 'Selfcentered': Connect To Authentic Inner Selves, USA

Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 30 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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A new-school movement, aims to inspire one million young people to get "selfcentered": become more authentic, grounded, balanced and self-aware by spending time each day connecting to their inner selves.

The selfcentered Tour, a nationwide series of experiential events, teacher training programs, and entertainment, supported by a content-driven web community at http://www.getselfcentered.com, kicks off in February. At the core of The selfcentered Tour are unique and simple tools to get selfcentered, practices that are easy to understand, live, teach, and love. The techniques include signature meditation, breath styles, and body opening flow that give the mind an opportunity to quiet down, the body an opportunity to relax, and chaos an opportunity to exit.

Founder and chief enlightenment officer Max Simon, who at 22 became the youngest teacher in the history of the world-renowned Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, Calif., has spent the last four years traveling the country teaching meditation and yoga to thousands of people at the Chopra Center's prestigious workshops and events. Noticing that traditional methods of teaching weren't attracting a younger demographic, Simon decided to create an alternative approach to show his generation how to step away from the endless mind-chatter, disconnect from the buzz, and settle into a world of authentic inner calm.

"Let's face it, we live in an intense world. Yet just because the whirlwind exists doesn't mean that we have to get caught up in it," said Simon. "The selfcentered Tour is led by the next generation for the next generation. Our movement attracts dynamic, conscious, and creative people who are interested in feeling centered, living with passion, and being authentic."

In reaching out to a community of younger people, The selfcentered Tour intends to demonstrate that there is more to the next generation than addiction to celebrity gossip, shiny things, and reality TV. While a wealth of scientific evidence validates that meditation is good for body and soul, a smarter, savvier, more engaged population requires a more experiential, hands-on, do-it-yourself form of inner connectivity.

Simon is training a unified team of Awareness Architects, certified instructors and consciousness-raisers, many of whom contribute content to the selfcentered web site's Luminary Blogs (http://www.getselfcentered.com/blogs) and will develop events and group experiences in many corners of the world. As The selfcentered Tour travels North America, training programs will be held in each location to certify new Awareness Architects who believe, live, and teach the value of selfcenteredness.

The selfcentered Tour begins February 16 in Los Angeles, Calif., with additional events to be announced in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., Boston, and New York City. The movement has already begun collaborating with supportive partners, and welcomes being contacted by people and organizations interested in bringing The selfcentered Tools to their executives, employees, customers, and friends. For complete details, please see http://www.getselfcentered.com.

About The selfcentered Tour

A movement to bring a fresh spin to meditation, The selfcentered Tour incorporates events, workshops, teacher training programs, and a content-driven web community. Led by new-school leaders of consciousness including chief enlightenment officer Max Simon, the youngest meditation and yoga teacher in the history of the world-renowned Chopra Center for Wellbeing, The selfcentered Tour pursues a vision to inspire one million people within the next generation to get selfcentered by spending some time each day tapping into their authentic inner self.

The selfcentered Tour