On this lovely Spring day, let's dive deeper into a few nautical metaphors of the Inner
Constellation work. One of my favorites is the idea of “North Star." The North Star is briefly
summed up as your personal highest ideal,
or motto for life. It guides you when the going gets tough, the waves are a churnin' and clouds come rolling in. First step in the IC practice is to identify your personal North Star (feel free to contact me if you'd benefit from some assistance in this area, it's one of my favorite topics:). Once your highest ideal is identified, the second step is keeping your North Star in sight so you're aware of incoming weather and don't get blown off course! One of my all time favorite ways to keep my North Star in sight is to do what I call, "Dropping Anchor."
Dropping Anchor is consciously stopping and reorienting oneself to that which is most important--your individual North Star. It allows a body to ride out any surrounding storms without getting blown off course. Here's "Dropping Anchor" in four easy steps.*
1) Focus on dropping your attention into the area of your heart
2) Breath evenly and comfortably in and out of the heart area as if it has its own respiration
3) Call to mind and appreciate all the times when you've experienced or expressed your North Star
4) Ask yourself, "what is one way to exercise my North Star today?"
My personal North Star is to establish love as the number one condition. Step 3 for me means envisioning all the people, places, and critters I care about and feeling this love, allowing it to seep in deep. Step 4 might include practicing patience with a particularly difficult person that day.
Why should we take time to Drop Anchor? I find it particularly rejuvenating and helpful to start and end my day with this practice to set me on the right course, it's also a fabulous practice when I've been knocked off course. Most beneficially, Dropping Anchor allows me to realign and move forward rather than look back into unproductive territory.
Mavis Staples understood the importance of being internally guided by one's North Star when she sung the following lyrics to bolster her fellow freedom fighters during the civil rights movement:
Dropping Anchor is consciously stopping and reorienting oneself to that which is most important--your individual North Star. It allows a body to ride out any surrounding storms without getting blown off course. Here's "Dropping Anchor" in four easy steps.*
1) Focus on dropping your attention into the area of your heart
2) Breath evenly and comfortably in and out of the heart area as if it has its own respiration
3) Call to mind and appreciate all the times when you've experienced or expressed your North Star
4) Ask yourself, "what is one way to exercise my North Star today?"
My personal North Star is to establish love as the number one condition. Step 3 for me means envisioning all the people, places, and critters I care about and feeling this love, allowing it to seep in deep. Step 4 might include practicing patience with a particularly difficult person that day.
Why should we take time to Drop Anchor? I find it particularly rejuvenating and helpful to start and end my day with this practice to set me on the right course, it's also a fabulous practice when I've been knocked off course. Most beneficially, Dropping Anchor allows me to realign and move forward rather than look back into unproductive territory.
Mavis Staples understood the importance of being internally guided by one's North Star when she sung the following lyrics to bolster her fellow freedom fighters during the civil rights movement:
"Ain't no man on earth control,
the weight of glory on a human soul.
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on....
When you see a man walk free,
When you see a man walk free,
it makes you dream of jubilee.
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on."
On this beautiful end of May day, I hope the practice of Dropping Anchor prepares you to propel forward into the waters that await. Keep your eyes on the prize....
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