Becoming an Anchored Human - The case for a more primal existence with a modern twist.

Over the last thirty-plus years I have sought to understand the human being’s process for collecting, correlating, distilling, and turning real time information into actionable intelligence ultimately directing appropriate responses to particular situations or environments, often while under stress. Needless to say, it’s been a wild ride and having been able to close the loop on a few key areas, I am now introducing the idea of what happens when we anchor into the vast resources intuitively available to us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week purely existing to serve our best interest.

To begin the journey of becoming an Anchored Human we must first explore a few new concepts that shift and expand the indoctrinated idea of how the human system works and create new opportunities to evolve and mature some of our most crucial primal resources. Holding these concepts in place while navigating the Anchored Human programs will allow for a faster assimilation of information and a broadening of both awareness and interoception, often referred to as the sense that answers the question, how do I feel?

The first idea we need to explore is the way we perceive and understand what is commonly referred to as the mind. In a traditional sense, most individuals consider the mind to be some version of the brain and voice (or inner dialogue) heard narrating the events, reflecting on a previous experience or future casting to a moment not yet realized.

In the context of becoming an Anchored Human, when we refer to the mind, we are referring to the nervous system in its entirety, the organs, and the brain serving as the command center. To put it simply, the mind consists of the entire human system with the brain (command center) correlating, dissecting, and analyzing all points of data from all sources then distributing the calculated results to the rest of the system while fostering an inner dialogue (now referred to as the thought center) double checking its work with the primal function of discernment.

The second major concept is the one involving consciousness. Again, often we relate consciousness back to the voice or inner dialogue and while this may be a component in the process of consciousness, it is not the full representation of human consciousness. As scientists explore more about what consciousness is, I often refer to it as the difference of having knowledge, meaning you “know” a bunch of stuff, and knowing (or being conscious of…) in a way that holds a full-bodied response and no longer requires thought or consideration. When we are conscious or consciously aware of something, it has gone past the point of debate or consideration and now “lives” in our system as what we could call a truth, or a deeper sense of knowing. This becomes the linkage that enhances our primal response patterns and generates a more discerning personality profile.

The third concept that will require some adjustment to the common idea of our most primal response capabilities, often referred to as fight, flight or freeze, and the way this process occurs. As a species, we have not only failed to evolve or mature these crucial aspects of survival, but we have turned them into such a negative feature of our existence that it has caused a massive disruption to our base operating system.

As you explore your journey to become an Anchored Human, it will be important to recognize that this is a process of resetting your primary anchor points and bringing the entire human system into alignment. This is going to require interrupting your established response patterns by listening to the non-verbal dissemination of information through sensation and energy (interoception).

As human beings we are governed by irrefutable laws that keep us anchored to reality, for example, time and gravity. Gravity keeps us physically anchored to the earth while time keeps us logically anchored to the earth. Along our path we develop other core anchors which help us navigate our existence and so to be as efficient as possible, the anchors created in our early development often guide us for the remainder of our lives, whether good or bad, healthy, or unhealthy, supportive, or unsupportive. These anchors become the tuning fork of our nervous systems.

As we become more aware of anchors that are not serving us, we will naturally set out on a path to remove, repair, or modify those anchors. In many ways, this takes the form of personal growth and development with far more engaged in this process than realized. In the process I will articulate below, I believe if we plug that desire or those efforts into a process designed to work with our natural evolutionary processes, we are able to see greater results in less time with less overall effort and potential costs.

Becoming an Anchored Human is the process of tuning your nervous system to match your current environment with your current knowledge, awareness, understanding and choices - and then trusting your primal response patterns as the primary filter and compass.

I often say the difference between being regulated or dysregulated is determined by the internal state matching the external conditions. Finding people who can maintain this level of homeostasis on a consistent basis in today’s world is rare. Too often our internal state is attempting to match or respond to previous experiences left unmanaged or unresolved which overloads and overwhelms the entire system leading to heightened states of anxiety, clustered thinking, slow correlation, slow recall and slowed responses.

So how do we navigate this process and how do we know if it works?

After spending my life trying to figure out what was wrong with me or where I was broken, I have come to understand that when we learn to quiet the body, our internal dialogue will follow. Aligning our systems and having the full range of access to all our primal and evolved faculties leads to significant leaps in our cognitive function, mental health, physical wellbeing, and overall decision making. With a properly regulated nervous system, we can leverage an evolved primal response pattern and repair damage as well as regain one of the most important components to human survival, the ability to sense and know SAFE, which is the most important concept we will redevelop through this process.

CONCEPT SHIFT ONE

As I said earlier, there are a few core concepts we need to shift to build the pathways necessary to regulating the nervous system and creating new anchors. The first is the concept of “the mind.” When I ask most people to draw me a picture of the mind, the go to response is often what we know to be the brain or the head. Now, in grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal… or is it?

One of the greatest issues I’ve come to understand is the separation of our mind and body. We have somehow and for some reason become separated from ourselves during the evolutionary process. At some point along the way we decided that all important things occurred in and were controlled by the newest part of our brain and the associated Thought Center or internal dialogue chatting away. For centuries this has been the focal point of exploration and attention. However, in doing this, we inadvertently created a massive disconnection in our systems that has led to a persistent state of dysregulation and internal confusion.

Let me explain a bit more. If we were to consider that the mind is made up of the entire human system including all organs and the entire nervous system, then we would intuitively give more attention to the information being sent to the Command Center (i.e. the brain). We’d understand that an upset stomach is a point of communication, a clear signal to the whole of possible damage or injury. We’d consider the nagging pain brought about by inflammation as a warning light going off with things that require our attention. We’d recognize that the internal dialogue feature, in its natural state, is simply a broadcast tool that enables us to hear what our system is telling us in a language and process we can understand so proper actions can be taken. Instead, we have evolved our thinking to be contradictory in nature to what our systems are saying, meaning, we have perfected the ability to ignore our system and override its recommendations without remorse. This is the breakdown which corrupts discernment and instead is replaced with reasoning, judgement, and doubt. We are stuck on “figuring it out,” verses already knowing what the right course of action or answer.

Here’s the good news, your system knows how it’s supposed to work and if you can simply give it the space to do so, it will recalibrate and adjust to where you are today. This part of the process only requires you to realign your attention to the information being pushed to you by your system, not by the opinionated beast you’ve let be the deciding factor for so long.

As you work through the program, I will be giving you the tools and techniques to easily allow your system to recalibrate and then anchor into your life as you want and/or need it to. The process will require some effort and discipline but that’s just a part of the process so as you choose your Anchored path, consider what area of focus feels most important and aligned.

CONCEPT SHIFT TWO

Consciousness, the elusive mystical part of the human being. I often refer to a series of neurons firing in such harmony translating raw data into an internal voice representative of oneself as pure magic. And if that is magic, then the process of refining what we know to be most true, landing in depths of our soul as if we can feel that truth take up roots in our systems is to me, simply mystical. It’s what allows for faith, will, confidence, purpose and so many intrinsic elements we search for in so many ways. Consciousness, to me, is fully refined and purified information that lives without compromise, negotiation, or disruption. So, while we may hold a significant amount of knowledge in our head, what we know, what we hold in our conscious awareness and unconscious being is what comprises our individual core truths.

This is an important concept to becoming an Anchored Human because, as you become more and more regulated and more aligned, those deeper belief systems will become a major guidepost for you every day. I often say there’s a lot of stuff lodged between your awareness and your consciousness that keeps you in a cycle of questioning yourself, your reality, your perception, and your actions. Too often our input/output analysis software has been corrupted with logic, reasoning, consideration, influence, and so on, leading to a host of “system issues” such anxiety, confusion, fear, worry, doubt, disconnection, and an overall dysregulated (or stuck) nervous system. Good news is the human system, at its core, is designed to identify and remove inefficiencies if we learn how to allow that to occur.

CONCEPT SHIFT THREE

The third major concept shift in becoming an Anchored Human is the understanding that we have failed to evolve and mature our most critical, primal functions including fight, flight, or freeze. Over the course of my incredible journey, I have come to see that we are fully capable of updating and advancing what may seem like antiquated, caveman-like responses that are often looked down upon as immature.

I believe that long, long ago, society (or someone) decided that the inner dialogue knew better than those seemingly uncivilized responses and so we diminished the value of those primal responses and in doing so, we’ve eliminated the conscious understanding of what it means to respond naturally.

Imagine for a moment that there is a little person inside you and their entire job is to flip the safe/not safe switch. All the inputs from your current, real-time environment are streaming through your system firing various circuits, releasing various chemicals or hormones as this little version of you says, yep, you’re safe, proceed with caution until verified (use discernment), or, nope, not safe, engage one on of the following because your primal choices are now scalable.

Fight becomes a range of responses from simply “prepare for action,” all the way to “let’s do this,” giving the body exactly what it needs to survive this moment.

Flee becomes full of options from a gentle “disengagement,” all the way to “get the #$(@ out of here.” Guiding us to recognize when we are overwhelmed, exhausted, tired or have overextended ourselves.

And freeze becomes a choice ranging from “finding stillness,” to “do not move a muscle, harm is imminent.”

When we realign our primal systems to work in unison, our need to “think” about things lessens as we simply “know” what needs to be done. Instead of using the filter of reasoning, judgment and/or doubt, we can trust our system to register safe or not safe to the fullness of that scale and move with a confidence (faith and trust in self) that is often elusive.

CONCEPT SHIFT FOUR

The final concept, re-anchoring “SAFE.” This concept will play out over time and can only be internalized with experience, meaning, safe is a visceral sensation, not a logical order of thought. It’s good to understand that this concept is being reshaped so that you can continually validate it as it comes back online from years of dormancy. When I refer to SAFE, I am speaking to the idea that the human system will do whatever is necessary to protect itself and so there are automatic response patterns embedded deep in you, that if triggered, will result in a primal response to the situation you are in; as well as, SAFE being an initial warning light that you may be exceeding capacity to navigate the situation or environment you are in and is requesting you make a change. SAFE has a full range of capacity to evaluate mental, emotional, spiritual, AND physical safety.

As we expand the concept of SAFE beyond just the physical, it also speaks to our spiritual safety, meaning our spirit, the essence of who we are, the thing that makes us, us. Then consider are we emotionally safe? Are we free to express ourselves in a way our experience can be normalized and regulated within the system? And finally, are we mentally safe? Meaning, is our inner dialogue system on our side, or has it been corrupted to work against us?

So, when assessing SAFE we must answer them in evolutionary order which supports a proper realignment of the system. It’s like a pre-flight checklist with the distinct order of physical safety, spiritual safety, emotional safety then mental safety. Let’s explore those in a bit more detail…

Am I physically safe? Yes, good, then no significant physical changes are necessary. No? Then let’s fire up all systems and wisely choose (or discern) the next course of action.

Am I spiritually safe? Is the core of who I am or who I believe myself to be being threatened? This is not always an easy one to navigate in today’s world and will require some significant attention. It is my conclusion this is where we have entangled ourselves believing the inner voice is our spirit or the essence of self when in fact, it is not. Only when we can separate these two energies, ideas, concepts, or however you refer to them, can we begin to find peace with our spirit and feel safe in who we are.

Am I emotionally safe? Am I safe to express myself or better said, am I ready to share the stuff on the inside? As we will discuss at length in these programs, emotion is the outward expression of an internal state change or response. The question of safety is twofold, first, am I ok with me feeling the way I feel or am I safe with myself? AND then… am I in or do I have a safe space to express myself?

And finally, am I mentally safe? This is the clearest question you can ask yourself, is my internal dialogue a threat to me? These are no easy questions to ask, answer and answer honestly, but if we truly want to find a new path, these are the points that must be navigated one way or the other.

THE PRECURSOR TO EI

Now that you have the four primary concept shifts that will need to occur through this process, the next step is to choose your relevant path. I’ve done my best to contextualize the programs by highlighting key aspects of our lives that demand both our attention and our best performance. Basically, where are you struggling the most or what aspect of your life do you feel requires your full attention and effort? By investing yourself in one area, you will easily be able to apply the same fundamental principles across the board.

Becoming an Anchored Human is a path that will lead to a more regulated, confident, and stable version of yourself that you and others can trust and rely on especially in the face of uncertain situations.

As an Anchored Human you can expect a significant rise in your Emotional Intelligence (EI/EQ) as the process is based in four core principles including sensation awareness, sensation management, energy awareness and energy management. Through these programs you will understand the anatomy of an emotion from point of origin through expression and reflection. By increasing your Anchoring Intelligence (AQ), you will begin to build a capacity to interrupt, re-route, shift, or choose a more effective emotional response to the situation at hand. In short, your emotional response will be in proportion to the situation and not an accumulated response with the weight or velocity of previous experiences.

The pathways currently being offered include:

The Anchored Leader: Leading in any context is challenging enough, but when you become an Anchored Leader you become the CNS of your team, your company, your family, your community. You serve as a trusted and safe source for guidance, insight, understanding and performance.

The Anchored Partner: Bringing two humans together is a challenge in and of itself. This branch is designed to provide tools and resources that improve communication, listening, connection, understanding and most importantly, you know how to be the safe space your partner needs.

The Anchored Parent/Family: Kids don’t come with instructions, or do they? When you become an Anchored Parent, you can regulate your energy in a way that brings safety, closeness and connection between you and your child. You begin to communicate as a family in new ways leading to a new level of emotional intelligence.

The Anchored Child/Teen: It’s tough being a kid today at any age. So much coming at them it’s no wonder they are so dysregulated. This program is a parent/child effort to teach young people invaluable tools that will guide them through everything that will be thrown at them in life.

The Anchored Birth: If I can leave one thing behind on this planet, it would be this program. Designed to begin early in your pregnancy, the Anchored Birth is focused on the transition of the child from womb to world and creating a safe space to regulate themselves in their new environment.

The Anchored Veteran & Responder: A free program to anyone on active duty, prior service, retired or still on the job, this program speaks directly to the balance of life on and off the job.

The Anchored Team (Group Program): This program is custom crafted to meet a team where they are and accelerate their performance in unique ways. Combining a series of practices focused on team dynamics, cohesion, connected communications, and developing the team identity, becoming an Anchored Team sees an increase in productivity and a decrease in misalignment.

I'd like to personally thank you for taking the time to read the whole document and I would truly value your thoughts. As I continue to lay the groundwork for the future of this project, honest feedback, shared experiences, confirmation and contradictions are always welcome as they only serve to strengthen the whole.

If you're interested in learning more, you can send me a message or comment below. I do have a few case studies I'll be running in 2024 and would welcome your participation.

Author: Jeff Banman, Founder, The Anchored Human Project

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