Dropping Anchor

The "dropping anchor" technique helps you to ground yourselves when anxiety or other emotions feel overwhelming. This practise may involve focusing on your breath, stretching, breathing, looking around the room ,listening to sounds in the room etc, expand awareness: acknowledge the presence of your difficult thoughts and feelings and at the same time notice what you see, hear, touch, taste, smell.

Transcript

Dropping the Anchor Introduction Dropping Anchor is a very useful skill. You can use it for handling difficult thoughts, Feelings, Emotions, Memories, Urges and sensations more effectively such as switching off autopilot and engaging in life or even grounding or steadying yourself in difficult situations. You may also disrupt remuneration, Obsessing and worrying or even focusing your attention on the task or activity you are doing such as developing more self-control. By dropping the anchor, You can also use it as a circuit breaker for impulsive, Compulsive, Aggressive, Additive or other problematic behavior. What is involved? Dropping Anchor involves playing around with a simple formula. A. C. E. What does A. C. E. Stand for? A. Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. C. Come back into your body. E. Engage in what you are doing. Let's try to practice this. Find a place where you can sit comfortably. Let's start the A. C. E. A. Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. Silently and kindly acknowledge whatever is showing up inside you. The thoughts, Feelings, Emotions, Memories, Sensations, Urges. Take the stand of a curious scientist observing what's going on in your inner world. Continue to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. Let's move on to C. Come back into your body and connect with your physical body. Find your own way of doing this. You could try some or all of the following or find your own methods. Example. Slowly pushing your feet hard into the floor. Slowly straightening up your back and spine. If you are sitting, Sit upright and forward in your chair. Slowly pressing your fingers with both hands together. Slowly stretching your arms or neck or your shoulders. Or even slowly breathing. Let's move on to E. Engage in what you are doing. Get a sense of where you are and refocus your attention on the activity you are doing. Find your own way of doing this. You could try some or all of the following suggestions or find your own methods. Example. Look around the room and notice 5 things you can see. Notice 3 or 4 things you can hear. Notice what you can smell or taste or sense in your nose and mouth. Now give full attention to what you will be doing with a sense of heightened awareness. You may end the exercise by giving your full attention to the task or activity at hand. You may also consider running the ACE cycle 3 or 4 times to turn it into a 2 to 3 minute exercise.