Anchoring

Anchoring is a useful NLP technique for inducing a certain frame of

mind or emotion, such as happiness or relaxation. It usually involves a

touch, gesture or word as an “anchor”, like a bookmark for a desired

emotion, and recall it again later using that same anchor.

How To Use Anchoring
In this example, I need you to remember a time when you were very
happy, such as when you won a competition, had your first kiss, or had
some really good news. It can be anything you like, as long as it was definitely a very happy moment.

In your head, tell me the story of what happened leading up to that happy moment. Be vivid, and de-
scribe how it felt. Picture that moment in your head, and recall the feeling.

I want you to hold your left index and middle fingers in your right hand, and gently give your fingers
two quick squeezes. As you do the second squeeze, make the picture of the happy moment larger,
bringing it closer to you, and imagine the happy feeling multiply in strength.

Describe again how you are feeling. Describe what you were thinking at the time. As you do, squeeze
your fingers twice. On that second finger squeeze, the happy feeling doubles, again. The clearer you
can imagine the feeling, the better this technique will work. Repeat these steps until you have de-
scribed then doubled the intensity of the feeling five times in a row.

That’s the first part - laying the anchor. Later we can recall this anchor by using the exact same double-
squeeze to recall a sense of happiness.

What is Happening in Our Brains When We Do This?

You are psychologically associating the neural signal of “two squeezes on my left fingers” with “happy”.
Therefore it stands to reason that the more times you lay the anchor (as above) and the more clarity
you have in the feeling, the better this technique will work. We can combine this with plenty of other
NLP techniques to make that feeling more clear and vivid, but for now we’ll make do. This is known as
conditioning.

The famous experiment by Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov describes him ringing a bell every time his
dogs were fed. The dogs psychologically associated the experience of eating with the sound of the
bell. Later on, the dogs would start salivating at the mere ringing of the bell. This is similar to what we
are doing when we are using the NLP technique of anchoring.