Neuro Linguistic Programming

Chapter 9: Dropping Anchors 153

Recognising your own anchors

What are the triggers, the stimuli, that affect you most at home or work?

Make a note in the chart shown in Figure 9-1 so that you begin to become

aware of the times you’re feeling good and when you feel less good. Your aim

is to concentrate more on your positive experiences and change or let go of

the negatives.

Figure 9-1:

A personal

anchor

chart:

V = visual;

A = auditory;

K = kinaes-

thetic;

O = olfac-

tory; and

G = gusta-

tory.

AT HOME

Good Bad

AT WORK

Good Bad

V-Sights

A-Sounds

K-Touch/feelings

O-Smells

G-Tastes

Take some time to record details of different experiences that make you feel

good or bad. These experiences can be seemingly insignificant everyday

events and are bound to be very individual.

You may feel good at home at the sight of a log fire or a vase of tulips on

the table, the sound of your favourite CD, or the smell of a hot meal on the

kitchen stove. Equally, the sight of your computer on a tidy desk, the buzz

of people, or the smell of a steaming hot drink may welcome you to work in

the mornings.

Alternatively, if you get angry when someone turns the TV up loud, or

another email or piece of paper plops into your in-tray, you may need to find

some strategies to switch the negatives into positives. Only when you iden-

tify what you do and don’t like, can you start steering the minute details of

your daily experience in the best direction for you.

We’ve organised the chart in Figure 9-1 by the different senses (head to

Chapter 6 for more on these modalities). Here are some anchors to notice:

✓ Visual – pictures, colours, decoration

✓ Auditory – music, voices, birdsong, sounds

✓ Kinaesthetic – textures, feel of the physical elements, emotional vibes