Hi Finola,
Welcome to healthypages. You'll be amongst friends and like minded persons here for sure.
I'm not usually one for many words and not sure why you want to "pad" out the essay. If you have your view of what you think the salient points are, then go with that. Has the lecturer asked you to write a 200/300/400 word essay for instance?
From my persepective, if you think you are centred, you are, unless you're not. If you think you need re-charging, you do, unless you don't. It's all in the mind and whatever you feel is the right thing for you to do, then go with that. What do you think you could write?
Hope this helps. Others here may offer their thoughts too.
Cheers