Incredible You! - Controlling Your Emotional State Using Anchors

Do you admire people who seem to be able to transition to any emotional state they desire? You know the sort of person I mean, something upsetting happens to them, yet they shrug it off and remain positive.

How do they do that?

The wonderful complexity of your mind can entirely be described using an incredibly basic and simple set of rules and principles.

Layer upon layer of brain matter has built up over millions of years. Each part in isolation working without complication, until finally the mosaic is complete and we are left with, Incredible You!

It is at once a curse and a blessing to posses such a complex organic machine, that can be operated with such simple instructions.

Blessing, because simplicity means we can act quickly in times of stress or danger, without having to go through complex and time consuming thought processes.

A curse because the very simplicity that allows us to act without deep thinking when we need to, means that other influences can infiltrate our thought process and hijack ones should belong to you and you alone.

However let us focus on how we can use the easy-to-use operating manual for our brains to our greater benefit, via the use of neural anchors.

What Is An Anchor?

Simply speaking, a neural anchor is usually referring to an external stimulus that has happened several times previously, at the moment when you are carrying out another task.

The most famous, and as far as I'm aware, the first experiment with anchors didn't happen in humans, it was in fact dogs.

In Ivan Pavlov's now famous experiments, the Russian scientist kept a bunch of dogs; and while feeding them continually rang a bell. He did this for several weeks and then monitored their responses when he rang the bell without feeding them.

As he had suspected beforehand, he was able to illicit a conditioned response, the dogs salivated in the same way they did when they were about to be fed.

Even though dogs brains are of an order of magnitude smaller than ours, they still work along the same lines of principle.

Neuroscientists have a saying;

Those that fire together, wire together.

This is why it is unwise to listen to music while you're studying for exams. Because the neurons that are responsible for you learning whatever knowledge you're imbibing, will be firing together with the ones that are listening to music.

Once you're in the exam you will feel lost without your favourite tunes, because you have anchored the feeling of study, with that of listening to music.

However when we create an anchor on purpose, it can have a very profound effect on our well being. The idea is to anchor a particular feeling to a unique gesture. That way when you want to feel like that again, you only have to repeat the gesture.

This means that you will be able to perk yourself up when you're feeling down. Give yourself a boost of confidence right when you need it. Or place yourself anywhere you please, across the intricate spectrum of human emotion.

Defining Anchor Categories

OK, so now we know what an anchor is, and why they're beneficial to us, let's look at different ways you can create an anchor that works best for you.

Subconscious Anchoring:

The reason we are looking at this one first, is because it is the most powerful of all.

In fact this particular 'brain hack', is so powerful that it is being used against you practically every waking minute, on an almost daily basis.

I feel it is best to be aware of this one, even though you won't necessarily be using it to your own benefit.

Advertisers are continually trying to anchor your positive feelings to their clients' products.

The first way they do this, is by putting music on TV ads. This is the most dastardly trick of all, it is the equivalent of entering your house through a small, forgotten window and tricking you into thinking they've always lived with you.

If you like a particular song, and you hear it played with a certain product over and over again. The likelihood is that you will anchor your warm fuzzy feelings, to the particular product they're advertising to you.

It is not the only way those sneaky advertisers try and anchor your positivity to their stuff. Another way is by using soothing voices on the first advert, on the late night ad break. They know you're getting tired as you watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones, or whatever tickles your fancy. So they make sure the first ad has a voice that will complement that mood.

Perhaps you're already nodding off; the increased advert volume, coupled with a soothing voice, might just anchor that cosy feeling, to their (supposedly) cosy product.

The main thing to remember about subconscious anchoring, is that it happens.

It is possible that you yourself do things subconsciously at particular moments. The more you meditate and self-examine, the more likely it is that you'll start to notice these things.

For instance, as I'm writing this, I realise that when I pause to think about my next sentences and paragraphs. There's a particular thing that I do, which I have subconsciously anchored to the feeling of getting inspired.

Which is great!

Self Programmed Anchors:

This is my favourite type of anchor, mainly because it is the easiest to control, and the method that I've experimented with the most. As the name suggests, it is a form of self-hypnosis that will literally program you to respond a certain way in a given circumstance.

So for instance you may want to be able to feel confident at any given moment. Maybe you're shy and you find speaking in public daunting. Or perhaps you're in a job where you constantly feel undermined and unable to stand up for yourself.

Well you can create some self programmed anchors to help you achieve confidence in whatever situation you need.

Step 1.
This particular type of programming is best done without distraction. So make sure you're somewhere quiet and you want be disturbed for the next few minutes. Turn off your phone, as beeps, bleeps, rings, and buzzes will ruin the atmosphere you're trying to create.

Step 2.
Settle down and become aware of your body position and your breathing. There's no need to try and get in a deep meditative state here, just make yourself aware of your whole posture, and general mind-state.

Step 3.
Say the thing you want to be and imagine being it. So for instance, if confidence is your thing, then say to yourself in no uncertain terms; Wow, I'm feeling so confident right now! I'm oozing it!

Say it over and over again, even if you're not really feeling the emotion you're expressing, it doesn't matter. Fake it till you make it, you're the boss; so you be the one to tell your brain how it should feel!

I often find that this works better if you're in front of a mirror, especially when I'm having a hard time feeling how I want to.

So you're standing there, in front of the mirror, with each repetition of your phrase, you are feeling more and more congruent with what's coming out of your mouth.

Now comes the anchoring, each time you say that phrase, you need to perform a distinct action.

When I say distinct, I mean that it has to be something quite separate from what you might normally do.

For example; you might be standing there saying; I love public speaking! Whilst you're doing this, you find that you naturally clench your fists every time you get to the word 'love'. If you're doing this naturally, this is not a distinct movement. It is something you do anyway; what you need to do is come away from your natural rhythms.

So let's keep the example of public speaking, if you have to do a speech and you're nervous about it. Then the anchor you use, should reflect the situation you're preparing for.

In this example I might use a hand clap at the start of each sentence. Or perhaps I would select a particular word in the sentence, which would look like this.

I love public speaking! I feel so confident in front of a crowd!

With anchor.

I love public speaking! [CLAP] I feel so [CLAP + confident] in front of a crowd!

So the first clap is said after the word speaking, the second clap is said at the same time you say the word 'confident'.

This is a good one because you can imagine walking onto stage, with your hands raised about chest high and giving yourself a confident clap as you say; "Right! Hello everybody, let's begin!"

The key to this, if you haven't done it before, is to experiment with various gestures and words. You might find one straightaway, or it may take a few goes before you get to an anchor that feels right. Try and use your anchor in real world scenarios as soon as possible, and stick with it. The more you do it, the better it will work.

End Part One

OK if this is new to you, then it's a lot of info to take in all at once, and there is more to come. However it is hard to give you all the information you need, in less than a few thousand words.

So in order to keep your mind sharp and give you a chance to practice, we will move onto the last two types of anchoring in the next article.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF ANCHORING BEFORE? ARE YOU WILLING TO TRY IT? WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE ABLE TO SWITCH INTO ANY EMOTIONAL STATE YOU WANTED TO AT ANY TIME?

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cg