What does it mean to Anchor?
Anchoring is a powerful word to me because it has to do with grounding into something, whether it be a physical place, a personal commitment or a stated boundary. It brings the conceptual through to something real and tangible.
There is a messiness to systems, in that the boundaries can sometimes feel permeable or undefined, which can lead to a feeling of overwhelm or chaos. One of the things I learned in my early career in systems change, is that it is important to explicitly draw a boundary around the system that you are working with. Anchoring inside the boundary, creates a more manageable space from which to operate.
What does this have to do with self-awareness?
Cultivating a deeper level of self-reflection and examination requires a personal commitment to do so. It requires a settling in and anchoring down into your being to explore what underlying beliefs or epistemologies are driving thinking and behavior. Everyone has been conditioned according a certain set of belief systems by their parents, teachers, mentors, educational systems & institutions. A lot of our current thinking is shaped by the machine paradigm, which took off during Industrial Revolution. Science, education, and organizations are all constructed according to this paradigm. We break things into parts and pieces in order to make sense of the world. In doing so, we miss leveraging the synergies of a larger interconnected system. In order to unleash the power of systems change, we are invited to expand our mental models to embrace a systems-oriented worldview, one in which we are not separated from our environment. I am not preaching, rather I am inviting this expansion of thinking where we are able to leverage our machine-oriented paradigm in service of a larger living systems paradigm.
Furthermore, the global environment has been dominated and shaped by colonialism and capitalism. White supremacy culture has defined organizational expectations around productivity, efficiency, and perfectionism. Unwinding this deeply engrained culture of being takes focus, energy, and will power. It is time to unwind the hidden inequities in our thinking. Furthermore, it is time to re-examine what we believe to be true about the very nature of reality. How can we more intentionally shape and interact with our physical world?
This is an invitation to anchor in more deeply to your being. What mindsets need to be retired in order to catch wind of a deeper personal upgrade of self? Are you ready to question everything you've been taught to believe?
I will be heading out on a 13-day backpacking trip today to deeply examine my own growth edge. With a small group of backpackers and guides, we will hike deep into the Olympic Peninsula and sit in council together in preparation for a 3-day solo fasting vision quest. It is within this container that I hope to gift myself the spaciousness and silence, to more deeply cultivate an expanding worldview and spiritual practice that honors the interconnectedness of all of life. It is from this place, that I will be able to more intentionally leverage my personal agency and will power to make a difference through this consulting practice, Conscious Transformation Agents.
See you on the other side.
