Welcome to today's meditation,
Weathering Emotional Storms Through Dropping Anchor.
Take a moment to settle into a comfortable position.
Let your body relax.
Let your breath be natural.
And allow yourself to simply arrive.
Today we'll explore the ACT skill called Dropping Anchor,
Using two helpful metaphors,
The captain in the storm and the flashlight of awareness.
Imagine you're a captain of a ship out at sea.
Some days the water is calm,
The sky clear.
Other days,
Storms roll in,
Waves rising,
Wind howling,
Your ship rocking in every direction.
These storms represent emotional storms.
Intense feelings,
Racing thoughts,
Overwhelm.
Now,
Picture yourself in the middle of one of these storms.
Your instinct might be to fight against the waves.
To power forward.
To wrestle the ship into control.
But any experienced captain knows,
In a true storm,
The safest thing to do is to drop anchor.
Dropping anchor doesn't stop the storm.
It doesn't flatten the waves.
But it steadies the ship,
Keeps you from getting swept away,
Gives you stability until the storm naturally passes.
And that's what we'll practice here.
Dropping anchor in the middle of an emotional storm.
Before we begin,
Let's bring in one more metaphor.
Imagine you are holding a flashlight in the dark.
Whenever you shine it,
That's all you can see.
If you're focusing only on the storm,
Your whole world becomes the storm.
But if you slowly widen the beam,
The light reveals more and more around you.
The deck beneath your feet,
The railings,
The horizon.
Suddenly the storm is still there,
But it is not the only thing there.
Dropping anchor is like widening the beam of the flashlight.
Expanding your awareness so you can see more than just your thoughts and feelings.
We will practice shifting our awareness,
Beginning from within and slowly moving outward.
Bringing awareness first to your mind,
Which has thoughts and feelings,
Then to your body around your mind.
And then finally to the external world around your body.
We will cycle through these three different states of awareness during this practice.
A helpful acronym we can refer to is ACE.
A-C-E.
Acknowledge your thought and feeling.
Connect with your body.
And engage with the world around you.
So let's begin.
First,
Bring the flashlight of awareness inward to your mind.
Acknowledge and notice any thoughts,
Any feelings,
Any urges,
Images,
Or stories that your mind is offering.
You're not trying to change them here.
Just naming what you notice.
This is a wave.
This is a storm.
This is a feeling of sadness.
Grief,
Of anger.
This is what my mind is doing right now.
Letting the thoughts be thoughts.
Letting the feeling be feelings.
Letting the mind be the mind.
Just acknowledging the weather feeling inside of you.
Now gently widen the flashlight.
Bring awareness to the body.
The anchor of this practice.
Feel your feet on the floor.
Feel the weight of your body in the chair or cushion.
And feel the breath moving in and out.
You might experiment with pressing your fingertips together.
Or wiggling your toes.
Or taking one slow,
Deep breath.
These physical sensations are your anchor points.
Steady,
Solid,
And present.
Now widen the beam even further.
Notice and engage with the world around you.
Hear the sounds in the room.
Feel the temperature of the air.
The feeling of clothing against your skin.
Notice the sound of my voice.
Letting the environment remind you there is more here than the storm inside.
You have a mind full of emotions.
A body that sits steady.
And a world around you,
Holding you.
This is dropping anchor.
Not escaping the storm.
Not fighting it.
Just finding your footing while it passes.
So let's gently move through these three layers again.
Coming to A,
Acknowledging your thoughts and feelings.
Notice any thoughts or feelings drifting by.
Naming them silently to yourself.
This is anxiety.
This is frustration.
And I'm noticing a sadness.
Just weather passing by.
And coming to the C,
Connecting with your body.
Feeling the ground beneath you,
Supporting you.
Feeling your breath anchoring you,
Maybe as your chest rises and falls.
Feeling your muscles softening or tightening.
Just noticing here.
And coming to the E,
Engaging in the world around you.
Listening.
Sensing the air.
Noticing the space.
Describing or naming to yourself objects you see in front of you.
Just letting the room hold you here.
And cycling through one round on your own.
Widening and contracting the beam of awareness.
Again and again.
When the storm comes,
And it always eventually does,
You can choose to roll up the anchor and move forward with whatever matters most to you.
But even as you move,
Know you can always drop anchor again whenever a wave arises.
You are the captain of your ship.
Storms may come and go,
But your anchor,
Your awareness,
Is always available.
So taking a final breath in.
Feeling grounded,
Steady,
And present.
When you're ready,
Gently returning your attention to the room.
May this practice leave you feeling more grounded and capable to weather the inevitable emotional storms of life.
