Gravitational Anchor Theory: We use relational data from events and people to ground ourselves to our environment. Naturally we are pulled to certain ways of grounding ourselves, which helps us make sense of our world.
When we look backwards in time we tend to frame events in relation to milestones. When we look forward in time we frame them in relation to anchors. These anchors tend to be fixtures in our lives as we continuously use them. These anchors are used both in time and space; with events being in time and people being in space. The gravitational aspect of the theory has to do with certain anchors being more appealing than others. That we are pulled to naturally fit into these anchors.
What This Means
Imagine living in world where you have no time or date. Where everything around you is the same as you and there is little that differentiates things. A person would be lost searching for a way to organize their world. It’s like floating through space with nothing to grab on to. This simply means that it is in our nature and best interest to organize the world around us. What requires our attention is not that we do this, but how we do it. Where we set our anchors help define our world. Not every anchor that we are pulled to is good for us. We have to observe how we relate to things around us and whether it is beneficial to us or if there is a better anchor which to use.
An Example
Weekends are a popular anchor for time. Many pundits tell you that you shouldn’t live for the weekends. What they fail to realize is the need for an anchor for short periods of time. It is hard to live in time where each day is no different than the other. This can lead to its own issue of losing the ability to pace yourself through life. Among anchors for space, the status of family members is popular. We set anchors to tether us to our environment and status is one of the easiest ways to define where you stand. Family members are usually the closest to you, so they get the immediate anchor of measuring how far you have gotten in space.
