How to Master Yourself and Others by Anchoring

The following story illustrates the idea of anchoring.

Many years ago, a friend and I were extremely amused by something that happened. The event became associated with the expression ‘windscreen wipers’. Afterwards, whenever we or anyone else said, ‘windscreen wipers’, we would burst out laughing. Our pointless laughing at the word ‘windscreen wipers’ annoyed others who could not ‘see’ the joke. Bursting out laughing when one or the other of us said, ‘windscreen wipers’ seemed crazy to other people! The windscreen wipers had become associated with something amusing, and thereafter, whenever we said, ‘windscreen wipers’, it made us lough just as the incident made us laugh in the past. Has something similar ever happened to you? Have you ever associated things in some irrational way? We all have thousands of experiences, although we might not be aware of them all. We might even consider them rational!

In the story above, the neutral phrase ‘windscreen wipers’ had become anchored to a state of amusement. Whenever we wanted to laugh again, we had only to say ‘windscreen wipers’. Windscreen wipers became atrigger for evoking laughter, by anchoring a state of amusement with the phrase.

Actualy this anchor still seems pretty funny to me today, many years later, wich shows that anchor can remain effective years later. Any sound, object, picture, smell, words, etc, evoke emotions, thoughts or states, etc.

Designer Anchors

Anchor can be created accidentally, but can you create them to order? If you can, then you can learn to control your experience.

You can use anchors ti deliberately bring experiences under conscious control and produce their effects whenever you need them. For example, if you need to be confident, you can make an anchor to give you that confidence when you need it. For example, you might feel nervous about a meeting, such as a job interview, and you want to be confident. Here’s how you can use anchors to accomplish this!

1. Recall an experience with the resource you require. For example, recall a time when you had the resource, self confidence.

2. When you experience this confidence at its maximum, touch yourself (for example, bring the thumb and forefinger together to make a circle) to anchor self confidence to the touch.

3. Recall, or imagine several other examples of being confident to strengthen your state and apply the anchor as in previous step.

4. Test the anchor to see wether it evokes the state you want. If not repeat the above ateps.

In the steps above we nused feeling (or touch) to create the anchor. You joined the index finger and thumb to form a circle. You can also use a mental picture or a sound to anchor the state you want. You could, if you wished, use all three!

That is you could touch yourself, recall a mental picture and a sound. For example, you could think a word, say the word “confidence”, touch your cheek, and visualize a circle. When you need to evoke the atate of confidence, you would apply all the anchors.

Anchoring Others

You can apply anchors to others using these principles. For examples, every time a person is in a good mood, you could cough, or make a subtle sign. You could touch them. You would does this when they were at the height of the resource state. After anchoring the state