Neuro Linguistic Programming

150 Part III: Opening the Toolkit

When you need to get back into a positive state, you simply fire the anchor

for yourself as a stimulus to change your state. To do so, recreate the physi-

cal movement or remember the sound or image that you used as a trigger for

the positive state. Another method for establishing resourceful anchors is

the classic NLP exercise ‘circle of excellence’ described later in this chapter

in the section ‘Deploying stage anchors’.

Anchors need to have the following attributes:

✓ Distinctive – different from everyday movements, sounds, or pictures.

✓ Unique – special to you.

✓ Intense – set when you fully and vividly experience the peak of the state.

✓ Timely – catching the best moment to make the association.

✓ Reinforced – use it or you lose it; anchoring is a skill to develop with

practice.

Accidentally establishing a negative anchor is all too easy. Take the situa-

tion, for example, where a highly stressed manager drives home from work

at night and arrives at the house having had mobile phone conversations all

the way from the office about work problems. As they walk in the door, their

negative feelings about work peak to a high intensity. At that moment, their

spouse comes and kisses them hello as they walk into the house. They may

unintentionally connect their spouse kissing them with work worries, because

anchors are established in this way. Then guess what? Their spouse kisses

them, they begin to feel anxious, and yet don’t know why.

A taste of the past: anchors in common usage

Just for a moment, look back to your very first

day at school. Quietly listen for the sounds

around you and how you feel to be in that

new environment. Sounds and smells are par-

ticularly evocative in bringing back pictures of

childhood memories – good and bad. Maybe

some triggers still immediately remind you of

school. What makes you recall memories of

your school days? Possibly the smell of certain

foods or a polished floor, the sight of a school

trophy, or the sound of a bell signalling the end

of lessons.

The smell of cardamom transports Romilla

immediately back to her idyllic and colour-

ful Indian childhood; yet, for Kate, merely

hearing the words ‘school custard’ brings

sights, sounds, and unpleasant tastes rushing

back with a vengeance, along with anxious

memories of the infant school dinner ladies

forcing their charges to eat unwanted food.

If you work with adults in a training role,

remember that some people had unhappy

learning experiences in school, and in such

cases you may come up against a natural

sense of resistance. Luckily, with good teach-

ers and trainers, most people discover how

rewarding, and how much fun, continuing to

learn as an adult can be, even if that wasn’t

their experience in childhood.