This is an anchor meditation.
The breath may not be helpful for everyone and at all times to anchor yourself,
To stay with yourself,
To stay in the here and now.
We need the breath to speak and the breath changes when we are upset,
When we are afraid,
When we are very angry.
And the breath might be tight and tense.
There are other points in the body,
Other parts of the body that are helpful as anchors.
Because the body is always in the present and it is a wonderful tool for coming back to yourself again and again,
Realigning yourself,
Narrowing your focus,
Getting out of your thoughts,
Out of your thinking,
Out of your judgments,
Out of your actions,
And coming to rest in the here and now,
Being grounded by the body.
I will introduce various anchor points here and the task is always the same.
First,
Focus your attention on a particular area of the body and stay there.
Feel how it feels there,
What sensations are there,
And hold your attention as best you can.
Sooner or later there will be a distraction,
A wandering of your attention,
Sound,
Thought,
Physical sensation in a different place,
And the focus is gone.
We have drifted off.
Then the task is to notice this,
To realize my mind was somewhere else right now,
And to consciously return your attention to the part of the body that is currently in focus,
To re-anchor yourself,
To ground yourself again.
Now finding a position in which your body feels comfortable,
In which you can relax a little,
Settling down,
Giving yourself time to arrive,
Feeling the sitting,
The being here.
You can close your eyes or you can let them stay open with a gaze right in front of you.
Taking two or three conscious breaths and as you breathe out,
Letting go of any unnecessary tension that can be relaxed a little bit.
The first anchor point to try out is gravity,
Sitting,
The pelvic region of the body,
And feeling how the pelvis is in contact with the surface,
The chair,
The cushion.
Noticing how the body is pushed down by gravity,
How it is held by the floor,
By the support,
How there is always a connection,
A being carried,
A being held.
Sitting,
Using gravity as an anchor,
Feeling in the region of the body and keeping your attention here.
And when your attention is distracted by sounds,
By other sensations,
By thoughts,
Returning your attention to sitting,
To the sensations of sitting.
And now moving your attention to your back,
Using your spine,
Your backbone as an anchor.
It may be helpful to use a certain point in the back as an anchor point,
Perhaps in the upper back or the area that moves when breathing,
If there is contact with the back of the chair.
Or perhaps the spine as the centre line,
As the centre of the body.
Or take the whole back,
The sensation in the whole back as an anchor,
Feeling into your back.
And being attentive to whether the body straightens up a little when focusing on the back,
Whether it assumes a different position.
Letting this happen calmly and being curious.
How does it feel when the anchor is in the back?
And returning to this anchor point again and again.
The third anchor point in the body is the breath.
Being curious about where in the body the breath can be felt particularly clearly right now.
The abdomen feeling the belly rising and falling.
Or the chest,
Lungs expanding and contracting.
Or the airflow at the nostrils.
And staying with the part of the body that is breathing at the moment and noticing the inhalation and the exhalation.
There is nothing to do,
Just be here,
Anchoring yourself.
And returning to the anchor if the mind has wandered away.
And there may be a tendency to always feel the breath in the belly or always perceive it in the chest.
Being open and curious about how it is right now.
Not using the breath in your belly as an anchor,
But using the breath as an anchor wherever it is right now.
And just letting the body continue to breathe as it has been doing all along anyway.
And now bringing your attention into your hands.
Feeling the direct sensory experience in your hands and your fingers.
Perhaps there is a tingling sensation,
A sense of temperature,
The contact of the hands,
The fingers with the thighs in relation to each other,
To an object.
Sensing into your hands,
Using your hands as an anchor.
And it may be helpful to move your fingers briefly to make yourself aware or to exert slight pressure with your hands.
To feel very clearly once again,
How does it feel there right now.
And as a final anchor point,
Bringing your attention to your feet.
If your feet are not yet on the floor,
Place them there now next to each other,
Not crossed.
And feeling the contact with a sock,
With the air,
With the floor,
Sensations in the feet,
In the toes.
And sensations that arise because the feet are in contact with something.
Becoming aware there is always an anchoring,
A grounding.
A contact with the ground or with something that is standing on the ground.
Anchoring yourself in your feet.
When your attention wanders,
Then returning to your feet,
To the chosen anchor point.
And if this practice were to last another 20 minutes,
Which anchor would be most useful for you?
Gravity,
Sitting,
The spine,
The back,
The breath in the abdomen,
Chest or nostrils,
The hands or the feet.
Perhaps it is already quite clear which anchor is most helpful for you.
Maybe it's a little unclear.
Giving yourself time to try something out,
To wander back and forth again and again,
To see where it is easiest to hold your attention and to return to when there has been a distraction.
What is particularly useful for you?
And now staying with the chosen anchor for a few minutes.
And if there are perhaps two that are on the short list,
Pick one and try it out now.
Familiarizing yourself with the anchor.
Noticing the distraction,
Noticing the evaluation.
And returning to the anchor,
Returning to the pure sensory experience in the body again and again.
Forming an intention of taking the anchor with you into everyday life,
Of trying it out,
Familiarizing yourself with it,
Strengthening it.
In conversations,
In difficult situations,
In pleasant situations,
Whenever it is helpful,
Whenever it is necessary to anchor yourself.
Being here for a few more moments,
Anchored,
Until you hear the bell ringing.
