What are "anchors" in meditation?
One of my favorite meditations is "sitting in anchors". During the meditation you consecutively use different anchors. But what exactly are anchors within your meditation practice?
Simply put, an anchor is that where you try to keep your attention while you meditate. One of the most used anchors would be the breath. During your meditation you try to keep your attention at your breath and when you notice that your minds starts to wander, your go back to the breath.
Other anchors could be sounds, thoughts, emotions, sensations you can feel in your body or a mantra. Different anchors can work great for different people while others don't work as well. So I definitely recommend to try them out and experiment. Try an anchor for a while and see how it works for you. I don't recommend to try using your thoughts as an anchor right away because you don't want to dive into your thoughts, you just want to observe them.
Most of the time I use my breath as my anchor but when I notice that it's really hard to keep with my breath I switch to sounds or sensations in my body for example.
Often it will be usefull to just keep with your anchor, even when it doesn't go so well. Then especially there is so much to gain. However don't be to strict with yourself. It isn't a big deal when every now and then you do choose to switch your anchor when you are having a really hard time with the anchor you were using before.
When you notice yourself wandering off of your anchor, bring yourself back to your anchor in a friendly, non-judgemental way.
Meditation is a practice, not a punishment. Try to see it like this: Every time you notice that your mind starts to wander and then you bring your attention back to your anchor, you are training your meditationmuscle a little bit. You can even make it into a game, start counting every time you wander off. There is a reason it's often calles meditation practice.
That was it for today. Goodluck with the next steps on your bridge. I wish you all the happiness and an amazing day.
❤ Eva