Living with Uncertainty - Building an Anchor Within
Living with Uncertainty - Building an Anchor Within
I want to draw your attention to the dance we all do between certainty and uncertainty.
We want certainty and we don’t want uncertainty – immediately there is a dualistic push pull that takes your energy and causes tension inside. I invite you to notice that tension whenever you find yourself triggered by the need for certainty.
To be human is to live with uncertainty, and …. we can also build tools to live more gracefully with it.
Building An Anchor Within
One way I name this is to strengthen an anchor within yourself. In rough waters, a well-placed anchor, holds a boat solid below, while above it’s tossed about.
How do we build that anchor within, to help us weather the inevitable storms, that come everyone’s way, at one point or another?
To begin, I invite you to visualize that anchor within you. Feel it’s energetic presence. Maybe you notice it starts with feeling rooted into the earth but then travels upwards. Often it can be most felt in the pelvis and belly, maybe further up in the solar plexuses.
Pay Attention to the Sensations of an Anchor
You can strengthen the anchor just by paying attention to it. Feel its solidity; if it works for you visualize an actual anchor, or maybe its more like an ancient willow tree – flexible and bending in a strong wind, but solidly rooted below. Use the metaphor that works best for you.
Actions to Strengthen your Anchor Within
And there are many other actions we can take, day to day, to connect to strength within:
Prayer and meditation allow you to connect with something bigger than the little ego.
Taking time to remember your strengths and gifts – we all have them, but sometimes in stormy weather we forget just how resilient we are; along with this, remind yourself of other challenges you’ve navigated and what got you through.
Movement – a walk in nature, a yoga class, or my favorite - chi gong; life is movement, the nature of life is constant change; everything that is, will shift and change. You are part of this eternal movement. It’s enlivening when we don’t resist it. Bring your attention to when you enter movement, you are entering the stream of life.
Connect with the elements of nature – earth, air, water, and fire. These elements offer wisdom about weathering the uncertainty of being human. The elements are eternal and connect us to what is eternal and constant within us, while around us life swirls.
Do what truely nourishes you! Here’s where pleasure comes in. When we consciously choose to nourish ourselves, taking responsibility for our own wellbeing, we let go of any demand that the world owes us, or that someone or something “out there” can be our anchor. Explore what truly nourishes your spirit.
Periodic silence and stillness helps with learning about the anchor with. Unplugging from the noise of the outer world to deeply listen to your inner self – could be a hour, a day or a few days - that strengthens the connection within.
Next entry: Definition of Pleasure
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