Dropping Anchor - Grounding Exercise

Lizzie - Assistant Psychologist - A grounding exercise, like the one I am going to introduce today, can help to slow your breathing, slow your heart-rate, and may help you feel better able to cope with your emotions and tackle the day ahead. The exercise we are doing today can sometimes be called ‘dropping anchor’, a bit like what you would do if you were caught out in a storm at sea. The aim of the anchor isn’t to make the storm go away, or ‘our emotions’ to go away, but it will just hold you steady until the storm passes. Anchors are anything that is here in the present moment. They can include anything we see, hear, touch, smell or taste, or even just how you are holding or moving your body. There are many different versions of this exercise, but I am going to introduce you to one. Now we’ll start the exercise. It is normal to find this difficult at first and you may notice your mind jumping around with all sorts of different thoughts and distractions. That’s okay. If it does, try not to judge yourself and gently bring your attention back to the words being read aloud.