Anchoring Yourself to Contentment
Have you heard of "anchoring"? I'll tell you that it has nothing to do with sailing or a ship. This form of the word has to do with emotional ties created through experiences.
Anchors can come in a variety of ways, particularly through our sense experience. Think back to how a certain song always brings you back to a special moment. When you reflect on that moment, you can feel it. That's an anchor.
I read a description similar to this about the process:
Let's say a person desires companionship. That individual wants to be in a relationship and be in love. So, they're tuned to the emotion of love. Now, the person starts scrolling through Instagram and IG Story ad appears. A video of a couple embracing and walking hand in hand is displayed. In the woman's free hand is a book. The next frame is the couple under the summer sun and a tree reading the book. In the final frame, the woman is asleep. In the background is a silhouette of her partner brushing their teeth. The camera moves to the book on the nightstand. Two weeks later, you see the book in a bookstore. You buy the book without thought. Only afterward you realize your heart is racing with anticipation.
What happened? Your mind anchored the promise of love and companionship to the book. This is not exclusive to an advertisement. You anchor to both "pleasant" and "unpleasant" things and give them a charge. What if you took that knowledge and created more anchors that support and provide joy or comfort? You can use anything to create positive anchors, including your bodywork sessions. You can build opportunities that promote a feeling of wellness and support.
Try this at the start of your next massage.
Focus on an emotion that you would like to propagate, like contentment, then recall a time when you felt that emotion.
Concentrate on the feeling of contentment and not the remembered experience.
Amplify the feeling until it seems full and expansive without the memory active.
Then start to sense the current massage strokes and the feeling of contentment at the same time.
Release the feeling after a few moments, then repeat steps 1-4 for 2-3x more.
Whenever you receive bodywork, you will notice that you're able to conjure up contentment. This process enables you to alter your brain awareness positively.
If you prefer to do this alone or outside a bodywork session, you could change the trigger to any sort of self-touch, like bringing your hands together or touching two fingers. Use all the steps above, except assume a body position that supports your feeling of contentment. In step 4. bring your hands together. Begin to sense your physical contact and feeling of contentment for a few moments. Release the feeling and your physical contact. Repeat all the steps for 2-3x. Now you've established a new supportive anchor. (Parts of this were adapted from exercises in Brain States by Tom Kenyon.)
(https://tomkenyon.com/store/books-store)
Sound and touch modalities provide opportunities to explore the richness of anchors and to establish support for our inner being. Being nurtured and cared for is deeply important for trust, safety, and health. In this way, you can make the benefits of your massage last even longer.
Please share your experiences below.