How to anchor a physiological state?

Well an anchor is simply a stimulus that is linked to a physiological state. When the anchor is fired (the stimulus activated) the linked physiological state is triggered. Anchors can be naturally occurring through association by classical or operant conditioning or they can be programmed. Anchors are a great way to achieve desired states when they are needed, such as confidence before having to speak to an audience.

It is easier to learn how to create an anchor by actually doing it. So I will run through the steps of creating an anchor.

First you need to choose a state or resource that you would like to have instant access to. Suppose you are not too comfortable with public speaking… so lets use confidence. Confidence would be the required resource that would greatly aid to public speaking problem.

Next you think back to a time when you where extremely confident…. OK, recall it! …. You have 14 years old at the local fair ground about to win a huge soft toy for someone you have had a crush on since primary school…. To win you need to hit three playing cards with darts, you have always been a good darts thrower and very confident you are going to win… which you did, and your skill was rewarded by your first real kiss! So your confidence bucket was well and truly overflowing!

Before you reach the peak of the experience (that’s the point when the last dark hit the board and you knew you had won… and the resulting prize!!) you need to choose your anchors. Kinesthetically you choose to clench your left fist as an auditory cue you will say the word CONFIDENT in a positive and confident tone. For a visual cue you have selected the image of an audience looking up at you, it is an easy visualization and is likely to be present when you need your confidence boost the most!

With your anchors ready you get back to the fair ground, really getting into it and seeing through those eyes and feeling those emotions as you did on that day… Your confidence builds as you run through the chain of events. As the last darts hits you are feeling more confident then any other time in your life! The moment the confident feeling hits its peak… (Oh. she’s about to kiss me!) I fire all three anchors at once! “CONFIDENT!”

Now that the anchor is installed you break the state, by walking around and thinking of unrelated thoughts etc. Next you trigger the anchor to see if it worked….

So, that’s how you can create an anchor! Play with it and enjoy it, once you have created your anchor test it out. If it is not as powerful as you hoped you can simply repeat the process, or, try stacking many resources on one anchor. Think of times when you have been happy, excited, confident, brave etc., Associate with the memory as described above and really feel those positive feelings come flooding back. At the peak of the experience fire off your anchor, using the same anchor to stack many states is an extremely powerful process.