Well, you made it to this page!  That actually counts as the preliminary step to Getting UnStressed and UnStuck, wouldn't you say?

I'm delighted to share with you some practical sugggestions that have helped large groups of my teenage students and many adults of all ages, including me, over the course of the last 20 years.  As I mentioned in the last issue of my newsletter 'From the Insight Out," the THREE basic steps to Getting UnStressed and UnStuck, or perhaps a better term would be stages, consist of: 1) Anchoring; 2) Relaxation/Meditation; and 3) Choosing to Choose.

Step One: ANCHORING

Anchoring for me consists of the three concepts of breathing, grounding and centring, with which you might be familiar.  Just in case you want to become clear what I mean, here it is: Breathing, grounding and centring prepare the stage for us to become present to ourselves and to our surroundings in a meaningful and healthy way. 

We all experience wonderfully successful anchoring ability in certain situation, such as when we engage in singing, praying, meditating, playing sports or practicing a particular healing modality, and much more.  Can you feel yourself anchored as you imagine yourself deeply engaged in your practice?  It's a great feeling.

So, now let me ask you.  Do you carry over that feeling of anchoring into all aspects of your everyday life and activities?  To me, that's the goal - to remain grounded and centred throughout the entire day, regardless of our outward activities.

Just imagine a pottery wheel in front of you.  You centre the clay and then you get the pottery wheel spinning.  Except, the clay starts slipping, the wheel's actions become wobbly and there you have it - the end result is a distorted pot, unstable and misshapen.  Could that possibly be you when you feel ungrounded and uncentred? (By the way, Mary C. Richards deserves the credits for that imagery, as you can read in her book Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person.)

Therefore, I suggest that if we learn to centre and remain centred as much as possible, we can take the feedback from the wobbly wheel of life when things just don't go so smoothly.  We can then adjust and recentre ourselves perfectly so that we can proceed living in a healthy way that supports us.

The poet T.S. Eliot, probably best known for his poem 'The Wasteland,' refers to our sense of ANCHORING as the "still point of the turning world."  Isn't that a perfect description?

Our challenge, I propose, consists not so much in ever reaching this still point, but in living from this still point.  That means we have incorporated (truly taken into our body, and therefore cellular being) and integrated the principles of anchoring.

Now to my suggestions of how to get there. 

• Check in with yourself as often as you can throughout the day and see how deep and relaxed your breathing is.  If you feel emotional or moody, for instance, you can take that as a clue that you need to re-anchor yourself. 
• Paste notes and other visuals in key places of your work space and your home that remind you of your breathing or anchoring.
• Create a list of exercises (brief and easy to incorporate into yourlife, regardless of your surroundings) from which you can choose theappropriate exercise that will allow you to re-anchor at this moment.
• Take a 30-second to 3-minute break and get yourself anchored, which will be infinitely worth it because you will be much more productive afterward. 
• Congratulate yourself for each time you recognize when you are off centre and manage to get yourself anchored again, regardless of how often that might happen in a day.
• Persevere with a smile. 

Most relaxation and meditation techniques are based on deep breathing. Alternate Nostril Breathing also works well.  Many healing modalities have their own process of how to become centred.  Find what works best for you in various situations to prepare the foundation for GETTING UNSTRESSED AND UNSTUCK.

As with all my blog entries, I invite you to write comments or send me a note with your inquiries or comments.

Stay tuned for Step 2 in this process: Relaxation/Meditation