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Anchoring: A Simple NLP Technique

Have you ever had a day at the office where you just can't focus? Between negative self-talk, co-workers distractions and that looming deadline, your productivity can go down the drain pretty fast. Wouldn't it be great to have a simple tool (other than a hammer) that could ground you and allow you to get back to work? To reach positive goals? I thought so too.

Have you ever had a day at the office where you just can’t focus? Between negative self-talk, co-workers distractions and that looming deadline, your productivity can go down the drain pretty fast. Wouldn’t it be great to have a simple tool (other than a hammer) that could ground you and allow you to get back to work? To reach positive goals? I thought so too.

I have a colleague who is juggling multiple projects. She was having a rough time one day and an NLP technique that could help her, being certified and all. Doing what co-workers should do, she asked for help, and I said yes.

I saw this as a great opportunity to provide her with a NLP tool I use frequently with clients called Anchoring. (NLP stands for Neuro-linguistic programming) NLP combines mind (imagination), language (Speech) and Healthy Body (Feeling) which allows us to see situations with greater clarity and get a different perspective than the one we might be mired in.

Anchoring is basically connecting a memory with a sense or feeling. For example: when you smell a certain fragrance that an old boyfriend or girlfriend wore, whenever you smell it you remember them. Or a song on the radio that was playing when you had a great time with your friends. Listening to it takes you back to the whole experience including the positive feeling you had.

Once created, an anchor takes us back to experiences in our life and this is a great way to help us shift out of a mindset that is counterproductive. An example might be if you are experiencing insecurity at work or are disorganized and end up going down that drain of manifested negativity I mentioned earlier. It is hard to focus when you are in that mind set.

If this sounds like a simple tool that could benefit you in the workplace, then give these steps a try to set up your own anchor:

Close your eyes and remember a time when you worked on a project and you received a great amount of praise for it.
Go back to the feeling the praise that you received created in your Healthy Body. The smile, the glow, whatever you felt when everything went well. Even hear the words you were hearing at that time.
Take a deep breath in and make a fist with your hand.
The deep breath and the movement of making a fist with your hand anchors you to the positive praise feeling. And shifting your insecurity to a confident positive vibe.

Closing your eyes and taking a deep breath in helps you focus on the outcome you want and further anchors the memory / feeling for you. I recommend making a fist because it is easy but you can use a squeeze on your leg or clasp your hands together. The key is giving yourself a physical anchor to a time in your life when something positive happened and allowing that memory to shift you out of one mindset and in to another.

Going into the mind traffic of self-manifested negativity is never going to end well. Not only does your self-esteem take a hit but you end up being less productive and it has a negative impact on your job performance. With this simple but very effective tool, you can get yourself back on track and continue working towards the positive goals that you were trying to get to all along.

So this is a great way to be in control of your self-esteem, feelings or over all well-being and get to the goals that you want faster and with ease.

Namaste!