How to create an emotional anchor in NLP? 5 steps

PNL anchor It is a technique that consists in associating a stimulus to an emotional state. Said stimulus can be olfactory, visual or kinesthetic.

Thus, every time we repeat the stimulus we will be evoking the emotional state associated with the moment we did the anchor.

In psychology this technique is called conditioned response and it can be said that its origin is in Iván P. Pavlov.

Content

• PNL anchor
• We all have anchors
• How to create an anchor?
  • Bibliography:

PNL anchor

To understand a little more about the technique of anchoring in neurolinguistic programming (NLP) just remember those experiments that Pavlov did, with the digestive process in dogs and salivation they produced before the food.

While we remember, in this experiment, the dog began to salivate when I saw the food, but did even before having it close.

So, while Pavlov tested with different stimuli, he realized that, when a bell rang, and repeat it while the dog ate, then the animal salivated himself when he noticed the sound of that bell, even if there was no food in the front.

So, Iván Pavlov created a relationship between the two, that is, between the dog's salivation process and the sound of the bell, which he called a conditioned reflection.

This experiment has served in NLP to create a stimulus and arouse an related emotional state, or anchor.

We all have anchors

This PNL anchor technique can be used by anyone to change their mood and feel better, then, somehow, We all have anchors that we have generated throughout our life.

Many of these anchors have consciously and others unconsciously.

Some examples of anchors are Those songs that remind us of our first love, the aroma that brings to memory a loved one or recreates an important scene of our past, The taste of a meal prepared by our mother, among others.

Most of these examples of anchors are positive because they bring to the present an emotional state that is pleasant. However, we can also have negative anchors that, when activated, make us feel unpleasant emotions.

According to Ms. Marta Martínez, in her practical introductory course of neurolinguistic programming, when we evoke a specific experience we are resurrecteding significant sensory information that was captured and stored at a time.

We can all do this reconstruction, either of an experience in its entirety, or the fragment of a situation, which is the so -called "anchor".

The concrete sensory information can serve as anchors to bring to the present an experience, through an external stimulus that, deliberately, we associate with the experience.

How to create an anchor?

Each of us can create an anchor that allows us to place ourselves in an emotionally pleasant situation. Of course, we will avoid those that evoke us memories or little sensations.

So, We can turn an anchor into a support that helps us stabilize In those moments when we do not feel good.

When we create an anchor, we are consciously associating a response to an external stimulus that can be a word, a gesture, or even a mantra or movement.

For example, An external stimulus can be touching the cheek, a finger, giving a hug to oneself or another that gives us entrance to the emotional state we want, just with performing this action.

Some steps to create an anchor in NLP are the following:

1. Identify a pleasant emotional state in which we want to be. This must convey us peace and harmony.
2. Relive it until it is recorded in our mind. The more details we add, it will be much more effective. In this step, the scene was rebuilt, including what you were doing, who you were, the smells, textures, sensations, environment, everything that can be added.
3. Give strength to all those images and when you feel that you are already at the highest moment of emotion, so you must anchor it.
4. To anchor it you must create an activator, or "anchor gesture", which can touch your elbow, knee, close your eyes, tell you mentally a word, or another.
5. Check its operation. You can change your emotional status and use this anchor that you have created to notice that you really feel that pleasant feeling.

It is beautiful to have anchors that bring us well -being and, if in a moment we feel pain in the face of a fact, when creating a pleasant emotional anchor, we can not only feel better, but also to revive some episodes with more joy and less pain.

Test: How are you in your subconscious?

Bibliography:

• Cudicio, c. (nineteen ninety six). Understand NLP: neurolinguistic programming, communication tool (Vol. 2). Granica SA Editions.
• Douat, g. (2017). PNL Neurolinguistic programming. Parkstone International.
• Martinez, m. Practical theoretical introductory course "Neruolinguistic programming". Commission of young professionals of the College of Psychologists of Tucumán.
• O'Connor, j., & McDermott, I. (2016). The principles of NLP: mind, language and experience (Vol. 3). Amat editorial.