Lifelong Learning Hub (Skye and Lochalsh)

Anchoring

If you feel nervous at the thought of trying something new, try this nerve-calming technique, which is available on many websites. We have taken it from the International Neuro-Linguistic Programming Centre Website: INLP

Basic Anchoring in 5 Simple Steps

NLP anchoring is one of the simplest NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) techniques to use.

Based on the work of Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Ivan Pavlov, basic NLP anchoring is done by pairing physical touch with a feeling or behaviour you want to have at your disposal.

Using NLP Anchoring to Instil Positive Feelings

The most common use of NLP anchoring is to have a way to intentionally feel resourceful in the right situations. For example, you may want to feel more confident when making a business phone call. An NLP anchor can grant access to the confidence you have in other situations that are not currently available to you when making business phone calls.

Try this experiment with NLP anchoring. Read the following steps through once and then do them. It’s more interesting after you’ve tried it for yourself.

NLP Anchoring in 5 Quick Steps:

  1. Determine how you want to feel.

For example, “more confident”.

  • Remember a time when you felt really confident.

It can be any memory when you were feeling confident, under any circumstances. You do have one! Relax and let a memory come to mind in which you naturally felt confident.

  • Choose an anchor device that involves touch

For example, touching your thumb and forefinger together or making a fist.

  • Remember what you saw, heard and felt in your confident memory.

You must put yourself inside the memory as if reliving it. Don’t view the memory from a distance; the feelings won’t come back. You’ve got to ‘be there’ again.

Relive the memory until you begin to feel the confidence coming over you in the same way you felt it at the time. As you feel that confidence coming on, activate your anchoring device from step 3.

For example, touch your thumb and forefinger together as the confident feeling increases. Release your thumb and forefinger when the feeling begins to subside. If you’ve done this well and there’s no underlying reason you shouldn’t feel more confident, this anchor is set!

  • Test the anchor.

For example, by touching your thumb and forefinger together in exactly the same way again and find out if you naturally access that confident state. Of course, don’t be sceptical and resist the anchor. Allow it to happen.

If it worked, you now have an NLP anchor! From here on out, you get to feel confident whenever you touch your thumb and forefinger together.