ANCHORS

All experiences are represented as some combination of our six senses. When we re-experience (or imagine it) an event in one of our senses i.e sight, it triggers a response in our other senses. When the stimulus and response are directly linked we can say they are anchored together. For example, your family photos mean more to you than a stranger’s because of the memories and feelings they stimulate.

Making stimulus and response association can be very powerful in learning and unlearning processes. They can happen internally through our life ‘movie making’ and externally in the way we live our lives. These anchors are established naturally by our nervous system.  The smell of curry can generate physical and emotional responses in the body, as well as pictures and sounds in the mind.  Body and mind are connected in the creation of these triggers.

Anchors can be used deliberately to reframe our response in a particular context.  Being able to respond as if something was not threatening, when that was the natural response in a given context can break the connection between the picture or sound with what happens in the body and mind. This can be helpful in reducing nerves when speaking in public, or dealing with phobias.

An “anchor” pairs an action or word, internal or external with a specific thought or behaviour. Not setting it up intentionally means the mind can forget to refocus or reframe its thoughts and actions when the situation needs it. It helps to overcome the ‘blindness’ of what is the best response when faced with a specific stimulus. Anchors can occur naturally as habits.

This is a process by which a specific stimulus is used to connect to or trigger a desired emotional response. For example, when you hear a fire alarm (anchor) you leave the building (response). Music often helps you recall feelings related to an event. This is auditory an auditory stimulus. They can also be visual, emotional – negative or positive. See a spider and feel the fear.

The four keys to setting up an anchor are that it needs to be:

<ul>
<li>Timed just as the state peaks</li>
<li>Unique and distinctive</li>
<li>Easy to repeat naturally</li>
<li>Linked to a state that is clean and completely re-experienced</li>
</ul>

Having elicited and calibrated what your desired state is, it can be switched on and used as a resource in the present moment. It’s about being resourceful in the moment. It’s the bottom-line of professionalism – to turn it on and off as the situation requires.

To re-experience a strong emotion we must then trigger an event from the past into the present. An alarm clock is an example of an anchor that triggers an emotional response. Anchoring is a desired emotional state that can be achieved in three steps.

1. You decide on a highly intense, clear emotion, sound and sight you want to recall and link it to a desired state of mind i.e. confidence
2. You put yourself into that state and at its peak, link it with a part of the body you can touch. a word, etc.
3. You associate that state with the specific trigger you have created.

I use this approach with clients to help them, for example, to achieve goals far beyond their initial beliefs. The anchor can be visual, auditory or kinesthetic. It’s a skill. And like all skills it get’s better with practice. As Aldous Huxley observed “Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.”

You can anchor a range of desired states and you can “fire” them in chains. To get rid of negative emotions you can collapse the anchors that triggered them. As a result, anchoring can bring emotional freedom by escaping from the tyranny of past negative experiences and thereby create a more positive future.

<strong>Self-Anchoring</strong>

This is a process that enables you to re-access a chosen resourceful state whenever you wish.

<ul>
<li>You identify the resource you want i.e. confidence</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Choose the specific anchors (non-obvious gestures or touches, words or visual images) </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Think back to you best experience in the resourceful state. Ensure you are associated and represent it fully in VAK (vocally, audibly and kinesthetically) </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>As the experience reaches its peak, set the anchor, and hold the state for a few moments before breaking state.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Repeat the previous two steps a few times</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Test the anchor by firing it and ensure you have full access to the chosen resource. Repeat steps if necessary.</li>
</ul>

What will be the first thing you see/hear/feel that will remind you to fire this anchor.

Anchoring Others

The same process as above can be used to anchor another person and enable them to access their desired state – say by shaking hands, a smile or a tone of voice. Think carefully why you would want to do this so it is used appropriately.

<strong>Collapsing Anchors</strong>

This is used to neutralise an unwanted negative anchor. You can break the stimulus-response link so that it doesn’t work anymore. You will need to put a more resourceful response in its place. This is a useful process for replacing a habit that’s not working for you with one that will.

<ul>
<li>What current state or habit or mood isn’t working for you?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What would be a more resourceful state to replace it with?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Decide on the anchor you are going to use</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Describe what it’s like to experience the undesired state. What does it look/feel/sound like to you?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>As the experience reaches its peak – fire the anchor</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Repeat the previous two steps and few times</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Break state</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Test the anchor by firing it</li>
</ul>

Now access the resourceful state and anchor it as above. Fire the anchors alternately a few times so you can see the person changing between the two states. Holding the resourceful or preferred state anchor, simultaneously apply the unwanted state anchor. Break state for 20 seconds and fire the unwanted state anchor. It should not work. If it does you need to stack a chain of more resourceful anchors. Future pace (see below) by asking when they would have expected the unwanted state to be triggered. Notice their non-verbal behaviour as they reply to check if the unwanted state has been neutralised.

<strong>Change Personal History</strong>

Human experience only exists in the present moment. The past exists as memories and to remember these we have to re-experience them in some way in the present. The future only exists as expectations or fantasies, again created in the present.

But what actually happens can be, and often is, changed by giving it a different meaning – which affects our behaviour. Jealousy is generated, not from what actually happened, but from constructed images that we believe happened. We get trapped in our well-rehearsed behaviours. “Why do I keep doing this ?” It’s as if you were in a trance that you cannot break out of.

It’s as if we need to “break out of our box” and move from our comfort zone into the change zone. To change whilst in the box will only achieve first-order change or a quick-fix. Second-order change requires you to transform the inner experience so profoundly that you perceive the world quite differently. Small changes can lead to big results.

To achieve a sustainable and fundamental change, you have to get out of your box and change the way you see yourself (from the inside-out), the world around you (from the outside-in), your relationship with others (from the bottom-up) and your reverence for authority (from the top-down).

<strong>Future Pacing</strong>

Experiencing a situation in advance is called future pacing. This is achieved by using your imagination with your internal resources and experience in advance to rehearse how you wish it to be. Rehearsing a task in your mind before you do it is like replaying a video of your behaviour working out just as you want it to.

Future pacing tests if the work you have done in the present changes the action when a new situation occurs. It’s about giving the brain strong positive images to work with.

<strong>New Behaviour Generator</strong>

We hold on to memories of our experiences. This is fine when everything went well. But you can lay down a new, more beneficial memory after the event. You create an experience of what you should have done better and how that would have made the event more successful. Next time you are in a similar situation you can benefit from recalling what you wished you had done last time. This form of reflection lies at the heart of learning what you would do differently next time.

<ul>
<li>What did you see, hear and feel happened?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Replay it as a movie with a soundtrack as if you were there</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Now dissociate and step out of the movie</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If you could do it again what would you do differently?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Be a movie editor. What would you change?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What positive impact is it having?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Now step back into the new movie and feel the difference</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What will you do to remind you to behave in a new way?</li>
</ul>

You can apply this to anything you do. A ‘phone call, a conversation with a work colleague, even an email.