Our efforts to be skillful in life can be easily undermined by many factors. Not enough sleep; stress at work; physical pain; being too busy; not enough time for play and relaxation… the list goes on. We’re all dependant on internal and external factors to be well and to show up as our best selves.
Take a moment to pause today and check in: what anchoring practices help you stabilize and ground yourself? Perhaps it’s taking a walk in nature; reading a good book; doing a vigorous workout; caring for your houseplants; calling a dear friend.
The more anchors we can create, the less likely we are to be tossed around by the ever changing winds of life. The idea isn’t to cling to anchors - they too are vulnerable to change and they will naturally come and go - but to mindfully create time and space to nurture them. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of time and space. Making small tweaks each day creates less resistance for our overwhelmed brains, and makes the changes more sustainable and long lasting.
If you want to try this, invite yourself to explore 10-20 minutes a day of “anchoring time”. I find thinking of this time and space as sacred calls me to it with joy and anticipation, rather than making it one more thing to check off the to-do list. Let yourself explore your changing needs through this practice. What would feel wholesome and nourishing right now for your body? What would lift your energy today?
Afterwards, notice how more resourced you are, how much more in your body you feel, how more likely you’re able to respond rather than react to what’s happening around you. Anchoring sets us up to be skillful.
The practice doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be consistent enough.