Welcome to Dropping Anchor.
Right now there's something very painful or difficult showing up for you and so I'd like you to practice this dropping anchor.
What this means is learning how to drop an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm.
Dropping an anchor won't make the storm go away.
It will just hold you steady until the storm passes.
The storm might pass quickly or it might move slowly or it might even get worse before it gets better.
The beauty and promise of this practice is that it can hold you steady at this time so that the storm doesn't sweep you away.
The emotional storm can be made up of difficult thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions,
Or memories and an anchor is anything that is here in the present moment such as what you see,
Hear,
Touch,
Taste,
And smell.
Anything that can help you to stay grounded.
And so your dropping anchor practice might look like focusing on the breath,
The steady inhale and the exhale.
It might look like stretching or moving your arms or legs or even listening to the sounds that are present.
Let's begin.
Can you push your feet hard into the floor and if you're sitting down or standing see if you can straighten your back.
Press your fingertips together.
As you do feel your arms moving all the way from the fingers to the shoulder blades.
There's a lot of pain here that you're struggling with and also there's a body around that pain.
A body that you can move and control.
Just notice your whole body now.
Hands,
Feet,
Back,
And have a stretch.
Press your feet down into the ground.
Next I invite you to look around the room and notice five things that you can see.
And notice three or four things you can hear.
And notice you and I here together,
Recognizing there is something very painful here that you're struggling with.
And also that you have a body you can move.
You can control your arms and legs.
You can notice the world around you and you can feel the connection,
You and I,
You and anyone else who does this practice.
As we start to transition out of the guided portion of the practice,
First I'll invite you to notice if you can notice any difference now compared to where we started.
Are you a little less caught up in the storm?
Is it a bit easier to be present?
And how could this little exercise that we've done be helpful in other situations?
To bring things to a close for now,
A,
Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings.
C,
Come back into your body.
And E,
Engage in what you are doing.
This means,
A,
Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings,
Silently and kindly acknowledging whatever is showing up for you now.
The C is practicing coming back into the body,
Whether that's pushing your feet into the ground or swallowing your breathing,
Not trying to run away or escape,
But to actually hold the challenging parts of your experience.
And lastly,
E,
To engage in what you're doing.
As you get more comfortable with this,
You can do this full cycle three to four times,
And that would take roughly three to four minutes.
And just know that there are infinite number of ways to modify the exercise,
So whatever you feel like is the most appropriate for you,
Go with that.
And just remember,
You can practice these kinds of exercises anytime,
Place,
Or with any activity.
Great work today,
And thank you for your time.
