What Virtual Anchors are Weighing You Down?

Do you ever feel like you are being weighed down or anchored in place by your own life circumstances?

Would you rather pull up your anchor and set sail to experience some new adventures?

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” 

Admiral Grace Hopper

Thinking about being weighed down reminded me of something I did a few summers ago.

Let me tell you another true story.  One summer day my friend Mike and I decided to go scuba diving in Lake Michigan just off a local beach near a harbor in south eastern Wisconsin in the city we lived in.

We decided to swim out to a breakwater in the harbor to look to for interesting objects we could find.

A “breakwater” is a barrier built out into a body of water to protect a harbor from the force of waves.  The break water in our harbor was a concrete wall with large piles of rocks surrounding it.

The area around the breakwater was a place in which boats would often stop to fish.

Captains of boats would throw out a boat anchor to help keep the boat temporally in one place and not allow it to get too close to the break water while they fished.

Since the breakwater protects the entrance to the harbor from the large waves on Lake Michigan, the water around the breakwater is typically very rough, choppy and has a strong current.

Depending on the weather, the waves may push a boat causing it to drag its anchor along the bottom.  On some days, anchors from the boats get snagged on the underwater rocks around the breakwater and cannot be retrieved by the boat’s captains. 

In many instances, the boat captain simply cuts the rope to the anchor and leaves it stuck on the underwater rocks near the breakwater.

The day Mike and I went scuba diving we located six boat anchors wedged into and stranded on the underwater rocks around the breakwater. To keep the environment around the breakwater clean as possible for the fish, we decided to collect the boat anchors with the ropes attached to them and bring them back to the beach. 

All six boat anchors were mushroom boat anchors.  A mushroom boat anchor is an anchor that has a shape like an upside down mushroom.  

The mushroom anchor has a bowl-shaped head with a shaft welded to its center.  The bowl shaped head of the mushroom shape drags along a bottom of a body of water until it hooks into the bottom and temporarily stops the boat from moving.

All six mushroom shaped boat anchors weighed about ten pounds each. 

The only problem we faced was how to get all the boat anchors back to shore.  The breakwater is about 800 yards off the beach.

The anchors are heavy and trying to swim holding them, underneath the water or on top of water took a tremendous effort because the anchors naturally drag a swimmer down towards the bottom.

Mike and I could only take one anchor back to shore at a time.  That meant we needed to make three 800 yard round trips, or swim about 3 miles total for each of us.  We were able to accomplish this task and when both reached the beach for the final time, we were both totally exhausted from swimming while being weighed down by the anchors.

This story illustrates how actual anchors drag a swimmer down and keep a boat in place.

Do you ever feel like there is a virtual anchor around your neck that is very heavy energetically keeps dragging you down in your life?  Is your virtual anchor keeping you stuck around a virtual breakwater in your life preventing you from entering a safe harbor where things are safe and calm?

PODCAST: What Virtual Anchors are Weighing You Down?

What can you do to get rid of any virtual anchors that are weighing you down to create positive changes in your own life?

1. Identify the circumstances in your own life making up your own virtual anchor.  Take a moment to think about and then write down your beliefs, reoccurring thoughts, old wounds, fears, habits, energetic patterns, life choices, thoughts about being a victim, etc.  Identify which of these circumstances are weighing you down and keeping you in place as your own virtual anchor.  Ask yourself this question, “are you willing to change the circumstances in your life that have created your own virtual anchor?  Are you resisting changing or letting go of any of these circumstances?”  There is an old mind-body-spirit saying, “What you resist, then persists.”  Are you holding tightly onto any of these circumstances in your life?  Do you really need them? There is another old mind-body-spirit saying, “if you don’t need something, release the need for it.”  If don’t need anything you have identified, release the need for holding onto it.  Cut the virtual rope that is keeping you attached to your current life circumstances and release your own virtual anchor.
2. Identify all negative emotions making up your own virtual anchor.  Human emotions are based on energy that vibrates at a certain frequency (e.g., Hertz, or cycles per second).  A number of scientific researchers (e.g., Dr. David R. Hawkins, in his book Power vs. Force, etc.) have determined that negative human emotions such as shame, guilt and fear have lower vibrational frequencies (e.g., shame about 20 Hz, guilt about 30 Hz and fear about 100 Hz).  If you are experiencing negative emotions, your vibrational energy is a lower frequency and is thick and dense and creates a heavy virtual anchor that really weighs you down. In contrast positive emotions such as courage, peace, love and joy have higher vibrational frequencies. (e.g., courage about 200 Hz, peace about 600 Hz, love about 500 Hz and joy about 540 Hz). If you experience more positive emotions, your vibrational energy is a higher frequency and is light and open and does not weigh you down and helps you release your own virtual anchors.
3. Cut the connections to your own virtual anchor and trust.  Releasing circumstances in your life that you do not need and shifting to positive emotions helps you cut the connections to your own virtual anchors.  When you cut the connections to your own virtual anchors, you need to trust and be open to new circumstances and situations that will now occur in your life. Trust your intuition. When you trust, you open yourself up to the energy of a Higher Power, an energy field in which all things are possible and happen in ways you can never imagine. The new circumstances and situations without your virtual anchors are likely to very different than anything you have experienced so far in your life.  If you trust the final outcome without any virtual anchors will be for your highest good, you must be open to receive the new life circumstances and situations that go along with that final outcome.

There is currently a commercial on television for a beer company whose slogan is “Live life anchors up.” 

I am not collecting any more real or virtual anchors.  I am living my life “anchors up. ” How about you?

If you get rid of your own virtual anchors you can make a positive impact in your own life and in the life of others.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2020, 2022, by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

Certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.