The Power of Anchoring
We all know what it feels like to be in a peak state. We feel empowered, upbeat, positive, energetic and more. We are “in flow” and tasks seem easy, we are inspired, creativity flows and generally life feels good! On the other hand, we also have times when tasks seem so difficult, we lack motivation and inspiration, we feel like we’re in a slump, we’re unproductive, we’re in an unresourceful state!
Anchoring is a process that turns these states on or off. It happens naturally all the time. Sometimes all it takes is a song or sound, a smell or an action to take us right back to a particular state, and luckily, we can create this on purpose too. By setting an anchor when in a naturally occurring state is extremely powerful, however we can also elicit the state we want to be in and set an anchor to be able to access it quickly, and effectively.
Here’s how to do it:
1) Choose the resourceful state, feeling or emotion that you want to anchor, examples are: confidence, determination, motivation etc.
2) Choose a trigger word, one that you will use specifically to trigger this state or feeling.
3) Choose a physical action to use as your anchor, for example, squeezing a thumb and finger together, making a fist or any other physical action that is easy to replicate at any time and any place.
4) Elicit the feeling (or if you’re in a naturally occurring peak state do it then). To elicit the feeling, remember a time when you have felt the feeling strongly, if it helps, adopt the posture you were in when you felt this feeling strongly.
5) Breathe how you breathed, say what you said to yourself in the past when you felt this feeling intensely.
6) When are experiencing the empowering feeling that you want, anchor it by applying the physical action you decided on and repeating the trigger word to yourself. Continue to do this as the feeling expands and gets stronger (approximately 8 seconds), release the anchor while the feeling is at it’s peak, BEFORE it starts to wane.
7) Repeat step 6 three times, each time intending a greater intensity of the feeling.
Your anchor is now set! Any time you need to feel this empowering state, simply do the action and say your trigger word!
