7 situations you can turn around with Anchors

How did Milton Erickson solve it?

When Milton Erickson worked with patients with intense trauma, or chronic physical conditions he used his wonderful Trance Inductions to create lasting changes in those patients. He always used an anchor for them to easily access the altered mind-state in real life.

In the book “My voice will go with you”, Sidney Rosen has biographed Milton Erickson. She has used auditory anchors to create lasting change.

Top NLP Practitioners in India and myself (Ridhima Dua) have used Anchors as one of the techniques in NLP to solve many situations for my clients.

Here I present some of the situations which can be handled using Anchors:

Wearing a specific piece of clothing for confidence in public speaking: For example, you might have done a “dress rehearsal” wearing your smartest blazer or a specific neck-chain or rings, and feel that swagger before you actually go to the public speaking. And when you are in the high performance, you focus on these visual (the dress which you are wearing) and kinesthetic (neck-chain which you are wearing) anchors, and get that state of swagger back.

Listening to a specific song when you are down: You might have a special song, one that motivates you and feels energetic by listening to it. When you are feeling down and you need the energy back on, listening to this very song changes your mind-state. This is called as setting up an auditory anchor.

Going to a sacred place like Temple or Church when you are anxious: The people who are spiritually connected choose the place of worship. It can be a temple, church, mosque, or gurudwara. Whenever they are low or down they worship these places. These are called setting a spatial anchor.

Kinesthetic, Visual & Smell Anchors

Doing/performing a specific action when being questioned: Have you noticed that some people perform a specific action when they are being questioned, like hands on hips, hands behind head, clasping their hands, or touching a specific object? That is their strategy of getting into the desired state when the situation, like questioning, puts them in an unhelpful state of mind. This is an example of a kinesthetic anchor.

Petting a furry animal to feel calm: Having pets is considered to be therapeutic. Most people feel calm as they stroke the soft fur of a dog or a cat, or even a soft velvet blanket. This is an example of a kinesthetic anchor that gets you into a calm state of mind when you are feeling anxiety. Additionally, it also changes your focus from visual and auditory to kinesthetic systems and creates a new state.

Brand Logo: For example: When you see the swirls of red, white, and blue inside a circle, it reminds you of a specific cola. Or, a green-colored crocodile on clothing means one specific brand, and a small-case ‘i’ inside a black circle on a red background means a specific cartoon family. Logos are easy visual representations of the organization’s values, and easily recalled whenever they are presented. These are all visual anchors.

Different perfumes for different occasions: Our sense of smell is naturally linked with certain states of mind. How can use perfumes as anchors? E.g.: Light cologne for business meetings, strong musk for sports performance, citrus for meeting with friends. These all are olfactory anchors.

What other anchors can you create for yourself? And how do you create strong and clean anchors for yourself?

Let me share that with you in another article. Till then keep practicing and sharing your results.

About Me (Ridhima Dua) – NLP Life Coach & Trainer

I am one of the Top NLP Practitioners in India and I am on a journey to transform coaches who can further transform the world. Also, I am mentoring & training professionals to become International Coach (App. ITA & NLP Academy). The only Indian Woman educating coaches to use NEW CODE NLP in coaching. My NLP online courses are aligned with NLP Academy, UK.

I run these NLP Courses Online: