Anchoring is an NLP term relating to Pavlovian Condition Response. You may have heard of Condition Response through the story of Pavlov’s dogs.
If you have suddenly felt emotional for no apparent reason, you might have been at the effect end of Anchoring.
Or perhaps you had promised yourself you wouldn’t let a specific person affect you emotionally again, but it happened anyway?
Perhaps you would like to know how to quickly put yourself in a more confident, powerful state of mind when dealing with a boss or demanding client?
Well, you can do that easily when you know how to use Anchoring effectively.
NLP Anchoring – Easier Than You Think
NLP Anchoring is easier to use than you may think. You are anchoring and being anchored to certain things all day long.
NLP Anchoring happens when a condition occurs and causes a response. In other words, something happens and is responsible for giving you a certain feeling or state of mind. A good or bad feeling is “anchored” to someone or something. When that condition happens again, it can make you feel as it did before; automatically, you won’t even know why!
Anchors are automatic responses to certain conditions. They can happen without your awareness of why you suddenly feel as you do. When feeling bad, you may resort to medicine or drugs because most people are not aware of the powerful effects that anchors (condition responses) have on your feelings.
Childhood Anchors, How Long Do They Last?
Remember in school when someone scraped their nails down a chalkboard? Do you still have an instant reaction to that? That is classical Anchoring at work.
When you smell a particular aroma, you may remember a specific event, place and or person in the past. Perhaps it’s baked bread, cookies, perfume or something else.
Have you seen the Old Spice Red Zone deodorant commercial? “Scent is the strongest sense tied to memory.” (The two gals at the table, the two guys going crazy about the game on TV)
We once trained our cat, using this method, to completely stay off the furniture, counter, table, and stay out of the kitchen. Friends were always amazed at this since it shows how powerful Anchoring is.
Did you know there are only two natural fears? The rest you created by anchoring an event to a frightening experience. Call reluctance in salespeople is an example; when salespeople avoid using the phone to call clients, they have anchored some real or perceived fear of making the call.
Bad Anchors Can Cause Divorce
Problems in relationships continue because a bad feeling is anchored to a specific look or sound of a voice that, when repeated, creates the bad feeling from the previous experience.
A little work with condition response to reverse the effect could save many family strifes and breakups.
As a salesperson, have you anchored clients into trusting you or mistrusting you?
If you are a salesperson, you probably go by advisor or agent because the word salesman or salesperson has been anchored to a bad experience or being a bad person.
No Limits To Good And Bad Anchors
There is no limit to where you can use Anchoring to help yourself and others. Mostly it is effective in changing how you feel when you are performing at your job or play.
If you are undergoing brain surgery, you hope your surgeon is anchored to a feeling of confident success before s/he starts rather than an anchor of any past failure.
For golfers, it’s one way to put your ball successfully on the other side of the pond to have a better game. Tiger Woods knows how to hit the ball well, and we can all agree on that. When he is off his game, it’s not about hitting the ball well; it’s about the state of mind he should be in to play his best. That’s a proper time to use Anchoring.
Play Sports? Know Your Anchors!
All the best athletes have success/performance coaches. Some say the NLP coaches first started this practice with Greg Louganis, the world champion diver who had hit his head on the diving board. The NLP coach, working with Greg, found that just before that dive, he had a memory of a previous lousy dive, which anchored Greg into the wrong state for success.
You will often see baseball players going through a little routine up at the plate, such as scratching or adjusting things. They are just more examples of Anchoring.
They are Anchoring in a good state in which they are better able to hit the ball.
Perhaps you have a lucky piece of clothing you wear; it’s another anchor to instil confidence and a winning feeling.
You Can Overcome Health Issues With Anchoring
You can use Anchoring to erase the hurtful feeling of past traumatic events. And you can keep what you have learned from those events so as not to repeat what causes it.
You can use Anchoring to combat procrastination. Overeating is itself a form of Anchoring. If I eat this, I will have a good feeling.
The good news is that learning anchoring can undo your bad responses and help you create new good responses guaranteeing success.
Anchoring is happening in your life every day; why not control it? Create excellent and powerful anchors that will make your life better.
Marketing people use it to sell you their goods, so why don’t you use it and sell yourself on feeling better and living better?
We teach anchoring in our NLP Practitioner & Master Practitioner Certification Training. We also use it to help clients in our coaching practice effectively.
To the extent that you now know about Anchoring, you can call us the next time a known or unknown anchor happens that makes you feel bad.
Or perhaps you have an upcoming event where you want to do well and feel good; either way is best for you.
Learn more about Anchoring by checking out our NLP Training … you’ll always be glad you did.