Sometimes being mindful is hard. There‘s times we have a lot going on and mindfulness really doesn’t come easy.
We might even try really hard, or just feel exhausted looking back at how easy mindfulness was at previous times.
Or if you’re just starting out on your mindfulness journey. You‘ve had those first few meditations, liked it, and you‘re now looking for ways to add more mindfulness to your day.
Anchors are suited extremely well for these situations. Here’s what they are about:
You may know anchors from negotiation tactics, where you can mention a number in a conversation and people will measure every other number (e.g. a price) in relation to this number.
But anchors can also be small hints in your surroundings.
If you’re driving a car, the siren of a fire truck is an anchor for you to be more cautious, and look if you need to make space for it to pass.
That’s the anchor you can use for mindfulness. Here’s the exercise:
Write “breathe” on a post-it note and put it somewhere in your apartment. Every time you see it, take a slow, conscious breath.
This also works for other words and phrases. You can try e.g. “body scan” and “smile”.
That way, you have many small mindful moments throughout your day.
Reading Recommendations
Choosing and using your anchor in meditation
“The biggest challenge in meditation is staying present, not getting lost in memories of the past, dreams of the future or the running commentary that your mind creates about whatever you’re experiencing; having an anchor, a place that you can return to when your mind wanders off is an incredibly useful tool for all meditators, …”
How Anchoring Bias Makes You Dumb
“The subconscious mind has a strong tendency or compulsion to refer to a recently encountered reference point, piece of evidence, or other input when trying to figure out something or make a decision.”
9 Extremely Useful HTML Tricks
Some handy HTML elements you might not know.
Weekly Mindfulness Practice
This week, try the post-it note exercise from above!
End Note
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Have a great week
Simon
PS: What do you think about this? Please hit reply and let me know. I’m curious!