Anchoring Helpful Emotional States

Anchoring

Now that you know how anchors are formed, you can create your own! They can be really useful for changing your emotional state when you need it. I bet you feel really confident when you do something you’re good at, like playing a sport, a musical instrument, or a game of chess. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have that same feeling of confidence when you’re at a social gathering or approaching someone for a date?

Here’s how to create an anchor. Get yourself to feel the feeling you want to anchor, either by doing something physically or creating the experience in your head (trust me, it still works). At the same time, do something else, which will be your "trigger” for the feeling. The trigger can be a sight, a sound, a movement, or a touch. Once you’ve done it enough, it should become permanent. Keep in mind that if you’ll be using anchors in social situations, you don’t want your trigger to be anything embarrassing. It can be something simple like touching your finger to your forehead, tugging on your ear, scratching your nose, stroking your mustache or your chin, or a phrase… Now that you’ve created the anchor, whenever you want the emotional response just perform the trigger, and if you’ve done it right, your emotional state will change, as if by magic.