Today,
We will be doing an extended anchor practice.
The anchor exercise is designed to provide you with tools to improve your ability to sustain focus,
Consciously controlled attention.
Like a muscle,
The brain grows stronger with use.
By placing effort into growing our mind's ability to pay attention on purpose,
We can better manage it when faced with difficulties and stress.
Life is ever-changing,
Like ocean waves,
Good and bad,
Joy and pain intermingled to weave the beautiful tapestry of our world.
Learning the skill of controlling where you put your attention,
And in this particular exercise,
Placing that attention on your breath,
Has been demonstrated in thousands of studies to shift the body from your sympathetic to your parasympathetic nervous system.
To move yourself from the fight,
Flight,
Freeze,
Instinctual activation,
To your rest and recover state,
Allowing you to ride the waves rather than drown.
Just as an anchor keeps a boat from drifting off,
This exercise is used to anchor us into the present moment,
Where we are able to consciously engage our relaxed state and better cope with our daily lives.
To pull us out of the fears of the future or the despair of the past,
Maintaining our focus on our breath is challenging,
And giving us a physical anchor to use helps us pull ourselves back into focus.
If your mind is too noisy,
You can create short labels for your experience,
Like breathing in,
Breathing out,
Or just in,
Out.
Short labels give the mind something to do in the present instead of planning for the future,
Dwelling on the past,
Or making judgments about what's happening now.
I will guide you through three anchors,
Allowing you to then choose which one works best for you.
Let's begin.
Find a comfortable position.
If you can,
Lie down.
Great.
If you are sitting,
Imagine a helium balloon is pulling you from the top of your head,
Spine erect,
Roll your shoulders back and down,
Relax your neck and head,
Eyes closed,
Or gaze cast slightly downward.
Every time the attention wanders,
And it will,
Simply notice and return your attention to the anchor's breath.
We will begin with our belly anchor.
Place your hand on your belly button.
Now move your attention to your breath,
Breathing in deeply through your nose and pushing this breath all the way into your belly,
Feeling your hand move as your belly expands.
Hold for a moment and slowly exhale as though breathing through a straw,
Feeling your hand lower as your belly contracts,
Breathing in,
Pushing all the way into our bellies,
Holding there for a moment and slowly releasing.
When our mind wanders,
Coming back to the physical sensation of our hands moving up and down with our belly,
Returning our concentration to deep belly breaths.
Stay on your feet.
Our second anchor is our chest.
Place one or both of your hands on your chest and notice the rise and fall of your chest with each inhalation and exhalation.
When your mind wanders,
Simply notice that it has and return your attention to your chest anchor.
Rise and fall with each breath.
Our final anchor is our face.
Place your hand in front of your nose and mouth.
Become aware of how the air feels cool moving into your nostrils as you inhale and feels warm as it hits your palm as you exhale.
When your mind wanders,
Simply notice that it has and return your attention to the physical sensation of the cool air in and the warm air out.
Is there a particular anchor with which you are more easily able to connect with your breath?
Which anchor feels best to you?
Find your anchor now and spend the next minute keeping your attention on your chosen anchor.
As you move through your day,
Know that your anchors are always with you and at any given moment when you have become aware of unhealthy thinking or the activation of your sympathetic nervous system,
Your stress response,
You can use these anchors to pull yourself back into the present moment and engage your rest and recover parasympathetic nervous system.
These practices will only work to change your life if you integrate them into your actual life.
If you are only doing anchor breathing at home on the cushion or when you find time,
They will never help you to actually surf the waves of your real life.
We do this formal practice to grow the neural pathways to strengthen the muscle of our minds so that when we need them they're more easily accessible.
But true transformation only happens when this becomes part of your daily life.
No one lives in a perpetual state of mindfulness.
It is biologically impossible as it takes far too much energy to remain in that state.
We will always be pulled into mind wandering.
I practice this a hundred times a day.
The perfection of mindfulness practice lies in the recognition of the imperfection,
Noticing I am lost in thought,
Anxious,
Reliving old pain,
Triggered by something,
And choosing in those moments of imperfection to redirect my attention,
To find my anchors and consciously switch to my parasympathetic nervous system.
May these anchors bring you that peace as well.
