What would you say if I told you that there was a technique you could use to help you generate any feeling in a matter of seconds? What If I also said this only requires a simple exercise for a few days to be effective for weeks? Whether you think it’s possible or not, there is something you should try, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it recently.
In my quest to help as many people as possible, I often try to learn new methods that I think may benefit individuals. For example, it wasn’t till I started writing this blog that I decided to try meditation, noticed its benefits and wrote a guide. The technique is actually something I have learned through studying NLP and is just one of the awesome ideas I’ve came across.
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Neuro-Linguistic Programming
I won’t pretend to be an expert on a subject where I am not, but I have been studying NLP for over 6 months and find it completely fascinating. NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming and my favourite definition for it is as follows:
NLP is a therapeutic technique to detect and reprogramme unconscious patterns of thought and behaviour in order to alter psychological responses. The basic principle of NLP is that it is in an individual’s power to change their own subconscious programming for the better.
NLP was introduced to the world by Richard Bandler and John Grinder who focused on behavioural modelling and continued to research and develop their process before they later parted ways. Richard Bandler is thought to be the main pioneer in NLP and coincidentally worked very closely with a man many of you may know, Paul McKenna - an ex client of mine - who now uses NLP on his clients and even on his TV shows.
NLP Anchoring
There is a technique in NLP known as anchoring which is basically a way of conditioning yourself to feel a certain way after performing a certain action. Imagine if you could develop an anchor that would give you massive amounts of confidence before an interview. Or, imagine if you could create an anchor that would flood you with a sense of peace for when you are dealing with difficult situations.
You no longer need to imagine, because it is entirely possible. Here’s how…
Creating an Anchor
An anchor is basically a ‘trigger’ (an action) that helps you feel a state that you have conditioned yourself to feel. There are only 4 steps involved in creating this anchor and they shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes:
1. Choose Your Desired Feeling - It is important that you choose an emotional state that you want to feel, not one that you want to avoid. For example you might pick confidence, positivity, relaxation or some other state.
2. Visualise that State in Detail - Now that you have chosen a feeling, you need to vividly remember a time when it was already present. For example if you chose confidence then picture a time when you were confident and vividly imagine that situation. What is around you? Are there any smells? What can you hear? Try to be as detailed as possible and feel your body through the visualisation.
3. Set an Anchor - When you are visualising and you get to that great state you wish to feel, you must perform an action that will help you trigger it in the future. You can pinch your ear, push certain fingers together with a slight bit of force or something else. Make sure that your action is not something you might do normally though, such as scratching your nose. As soon as you get near the ‘peak’ of the emotion you want to feel while visualising, perform whatever action you have picked for a few seconds.
For example: When I first tried this I pictured a time when I was in a nightclub and just felt amazingly confident. During my visualisation of this time, when I could feel the amazing state I grabbed my right ear for a few seconds.
4. Repeat the Process - I have found that this works better if I do it five times, for about 2-3 days. Some people state that you only need to do it on one day, but around ten times. It’s completely up to you, but I recommend repeating it for a couple of days so that the anchor can ’set’.
Each time you’ve visualised the situation and set your trigger, it’s important to try to get yourself in a completely different state before you set it again.
That’s it! You can literally do this in around 5 minutes so try it out and let me know in the comments below how you get on. Do this process for a day or two, and then at some random point in the next week perform your action (pull your ear, push certain fingers together) and notice how your body is flooded with the emotion that you had visualised.
If you would like to view a video version of this explanation, my friend Tim has a great video here.
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