Try Moving Series – Anchoring
Find your anchor, use your anchor, strive to be an anchor for someone else. In trimoving we look at the physical, emotional and social perspectives to make that happen, these affect one another and create an overall anchor that gives us the strength and courage to face the world with all the challenges it has to offer.
Physical
Your physical anchor is your body. Specifically, the core, the abdominal area, that keeps you upright and in balance. The stronger and healthier you maintain the core of your body, the stronger and more confident you will feel. The key things to strengthen your physical anchor is eat well, drink well and strengthen your abdominal muscles. By eating and drinking well you will reduce cramps, chances of being bloated and any other discomforts that result from a poor functioning digestive system. By strengthening your core muscles, you protect your back, as a result you will have a better posture and are also more nimble in your movement, thus preventing injury. When your body is strong you can do more, reach further, get stronger. When your posture is strong you project confidence in your social interactions, increasing the probability of good relations and desired outcomes in those interactions.
Do it! Take care of your core, give yourself a good anchor so that you can drift off to the edge of your comfort zone and beyond. Be so strong and assured that should anything happen to limit your movement ability, the rest of your body can carry you through with stability and strength until you are as strong as you can be again.
Emotional
Your emotional anchor is your mind (yup, not your heart). Your mind is where physical sensations are translated to emotions. Your mind is where an experience is given meaning; it is where the experience is associated with other people, with other experiences and with other emotions. For your mind to be a strong anchor, you need to ensure that the default interpretation path is the one that gives you the highest probability of learning and feeling good about each life lesson. Your mind being a strong anchor means that you are empowered; it means that you have the most impact on what you do and how you feel. The key things to strengthen your mind is to remind yourself of the things you are good at, the things that you contribute to the world, the way that you matter to others. Think of your mind as a muscle that you have to train, except instead of a gym, you get stronger each time you acknowledge the good that’s in you. Another way to strengthen you mind is to take away other people’s influence over your confidence and your choices. You can take people’s advice, but the choice is yours and the consequences of that choice are for you to deal with. NLP offers many tools to strengthen your mind as your anchor, including their list of presuppositions, one of which is: “Behind every behaviour there is a positive intention”; this one is good for when you have to remind yourself that you did the best that you could with what you had (especially important if the results were disappointing). It’s also very useful to remember when we are hurt by other people’s behaviour towards us – I prefer to think that people meant well, and it was just a misunderstanding or they were limited in their way to act any better. I might be wrong and they did mean to hurt me, but it’s better for my peace of mind to assume that they meant well so I will because it’s my peace of mind that matters most to me.
Start now! Remind yourself everyday that you are a good person that matters in this world. Assume that people want your best. Give yourself a good anchor in your mind, so you can face the world with courage and hope in the face of all its challenges and temptations of drifting off to despair.
Social
Your social anchor is a person, or a group that is a constant in your life, ideally constant with a positive influence. For most this would be a family member (mum, dad, life partner), but for many others it could be a group that you belong to, like a choir or a book club or study group. You start with a shared experience, a shared hobby, a shared spiritual or philosophical pursuit. Wherever you journey through life, you know that there’s a point in that journey, a point that matters to you a lot, which you are not doing on your own. We are social beings and need that bond, minimal as it may be, to know that we are not alone in this world. With a strong social anchor, we are more confident to explore parts of the world beyond our comfort zone and we are more confident to expand our social circles.
You are an essential part of this world and the world will do better knowing you and all that you offer to our shared experience. Find your people, find your anchor, be strong enough so that people drifting off can use you as their support and security.
Find your anchor within your body, your mind and your people. Invest in that anchor, make it strong and secure so you can venture off to discover new people, new ideas and new experiences in the world. Do all you can to make this life a positive, enriching and love-filled experience, for you and for those around you.