Anchoring Or Pavlov with an NLP spin
In high school we all learnt about the famous experiment of Pavlov and the poor dog: to the ringing of a bell, then after a while, whenever the bell rang the dog would automatically begin to salivate. A true classic of psychology, yet taught usually in a very limited scope as classic conditioning. However, until now you might not have considered the “classical conditioning” we have done to ourselves.
In Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) classical conditioning is usually referred to as anchoring. Think about the anchors in your life: alarm clocks, picture of your friends and loved ones, that look from your mother, etc. There are many examples of anchors we have in our lives, yet we still don’t use this powerful techniques in our favour. Imagine the following scene: Man comesNLP from work, in a very bad mood, and the woman, as a response rushes to hug him. If she does that often enough, he will get the same bad feelings just from hugging her. Although this might not be her intention, it just happens.
So, how exactly does anchoring work? So, someone goes has an intense experience (positive or negative), and at the peak of that experience a specific stimulus is applied. This forms a neurological link between the emotional state and the stimulus. Voilà, an anchor is born. Now, every time the stimulus is applied, the emotional response will be triggered.
nchors can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be visual, verbal, gustatory, olfactory, or kinaesthetically. Ever heard a song that took you back in time to some memory, or smelt something that reminded you of that time you….all these are anchors. And now that you know how anchoring works, let’s look at how to produce one consciously.
In NLP there are several criteria that determine the strength of an anchor. The first one is the intensity of the state the person is experiencing. The more powerful the state, the more likely the anchor is to work later on. Next is the timing of the anchor. It will only work if applied before and until the height of the emotions.
If applied afterwards, it will not only not be as strong, but also might not work. The stimulus applied should also be a unique one, which is easily identifiably and reproducible. The final points are the replication of the stimulus (the anchor should be reinforced at times to keep it fresh) and also the number of times the anchoring has been done.
Sometimes once already is enough, sometimes you have to do it more often. In case this seems less than easy to remember, the mnemonic I TURN, coined by Tad James, will help (intensity, timing, uniqueness, reproducibility, and number of times)
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