NLP Training - Anchoring Part Two

NLP Training - Anchoring

In this chapter we will allocate a variety of techniques that can help you with learning and motivational states , and organise your environment from your inner mind out, rather like a director on a film set.

We are going to look at this way of NLP Training and anchoring from a communicators point of view. It may also suit a teacher or trainer, yet we all deliver communication in some way, so you should be able to find yourselves here somewhere...

The writer and scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (September 14, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research pertaining to the digestive system. Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning. He was born in Ryazan where his father worked as the village priest.

He began his higher education as a student at the Ryazan Ecclesiastical Seminary, but then dropped out and enrolled in the University of Saint Petersburg to study the natural sciences. He received his doctorate in 1879.

In the1890s, Pavlov was investigating the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect measure and analyze the saliva and what response it had to food under different conditions. He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food coated with chili powder was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this "psychic secretion", as he called it. He decided that this was more interesting than the chemistry of saliva, and changed the focus of his research, carrying out a long series of experiments in which he manipulated the stimuli occurring before the presentation of food. He thereby established the basic laws for the establishment and extinction of what he called "conditional reflexes" — i.e., reflex responses, like salivation, that only occurred conditionally upon specific previous experiences of the animal. These experiments were carried out in the 1890s and 1900s, and were known to western scientists through translations of individual accounts, but first became fully available in English in a book published in 1927.

In NLP, we understand that we can create a conditioned response, but not only to a reflex but also to emotional state (such as confidence, enthusiasm and calmness), how useful would be to be able to instantly call upon a particular emotional state to aid you in teaching?

Anchoring is one of the most useful of NLP techniques.  Anchoring is the process by which a memory, a feeling or some other responses associated with (or anchored to) something else.

Pleasure or anger are natural processes that usually occur without our awareness.  For example, when you are young, you undoubtedly participated in family activities that gave you great pleasure. The pleasure was associated with the activity itself, so when you think of the activity, or are reminded of it, you will tend to really experience some pleasurable feelings.  By the same process of associated memory anchors are reactivated or triggered.

So for instance, let's say you have a child who has a very early age at the beginning of their learning cycles were told very negative things about themselves and about their ability to learn and ability of who they actually are as people. Think back to the example of the dogs, and the food.  Any learning experience provided to a child, when they are in a highly intense state and then a comment (which will be experienced as a command by a young mind) was given.  “You are stupid”, or “you just don't learn”, or “you'll never do this” and the child will begin to associate learning with them being stupid, not having abilities, etc etc.

Think back to your own learning experiences; which of the subjects did you really, really enjoy yourself? Think back to your earliest memories of how this came about, who were the teachers, what was happening in the classroom?

The most probability is that you had a good teacher or a good state was present when the subjects were also presented to you, so it's not just that you're a bright child, it’s also very much about the environment. The environment was conducive to learning and to make you feel good about learning. Therefore when you approach the subject, the same state is there for you. Then this reframes the notion of just being a great learner, it’s more about what atmosphere was present at the onset of learning.

Here’s another example about anchoring in learning states. One thing I've noticed more than anything about computer repairers is that it's not about how bright or intelligent they are with the mechanics of the computer, it’s just that they really enjoyed the process of tinkering. Perhaps with most of the rest of us, the very thought of going inside the computer and even sometimes the software turns our stomachs over and we just push it away and give it to somebody else.

So is not really that they are so intelligent or so bright with computers, it’s just the fact that they have a good state when they think about the process of the internal mechanics of computers. In other words they simply have had good associations when approaching the whole subject. They also may well have a good recovery strategy when things don’t go well, so that they still have a good state in adversity!

Some of the other pieces to take into consideration here are the different ways that people like to learn.

If you have had pleasurable experiences and store them visually, then that’s how you will like your information when you come to learn new things.

Some of you will have had very good associations with kinaesthetics so you will want to have that somewhere in your learning cycles. Some others love sounds so they want to hear the sound of the subject or hearing the subject in a certain way, or even hearing an audio book for instance.

All these things have to be put into the equation as a presenter, a teacher, a parent, a trainer or just as a person when you're delivering a communication.  So how do you do this?  How do you satisfy all of these different learning styles, all of these different minds in a Pavlovian way that will satisfy the majority of your audience? What about people who have no access to ANY good learning experiences, how will you get them to learn new excellent strategies for good states in learning?

So this section really is about heightening your consciousness around what you are doing and what you are anchoring when you're in front of people with varying different abilities.

Visual Anchors

You can use visual anchors to anchor the resourceful state . You can use external or internal anchors. For example, you could use a figure on a bracelet to anchor being calm and relaxed. The external anchor always has to be there for you to use. You may find it relaxing and calming to view a certain landscape, but unless you can carry it around with you, it is of limited value. You can however use an internal image of the landscape to anchor your resourceful feeling.

Some examples of Visual Anchors are:

* Symbols. For example, you could use a circle as a symbol for being calm and relaxed and anchor this to your excellent state from earlier
* People, such as a trusted friend or mentor ... or even a person from history or current affairs, as long as they evoke your excellent state.
* Various objects and landscapes can be used as anchors for being calm and relaxed. For example, you could imagine:
o A favourite place
o A flower you remember for its qualities
o A river taking away stress and bringing love

Are you getting the picture?

Auditory Anchors

You can use a sound as an anchor. Like the visual anchors, sounds can be internal or external. Songs are anchors. Mozart has been used for learning abilities: For an internal audio, you could even hear your own voice telling you something good and relaxing

Have a selection of really good songs in the background (for yourself that is, we don't all have the same hearing taste)!

You can think of a movie and it’s soundtrack, there are so many ways of getting yourself tuned in!

Kinaesthetic Anchors

Examples of kinesthetic anchors are:

* Feeling a comforting hand on your shoulder
* Making a circle with the second finger and the thumb
* Touching yourself on the hand or knuckle. You can choose a point and treat it like an acupressure point - pressing on it to fire the required excellent state.

What will it be like to you if you could walk into the room, stand and say certain key phrases in certain places and have immediate attention? Or have certain visuals/ sounds that immediately people will turn on to and then the prospect of having a really good talk/training/session with you?

Perhaps you think this is out of reach for you?  Well, from my experience of training up to 100 people at a time in many different environments in many different situations, it’s very possible! I have had to deliver information to children who are not allowed to go into state schools, because they cause too much trouble and aggravation.  I can tell you from first-hand experience that all of this is possible and all of this will make your day so much brighter, so much more enjoyable, so much more human!

So let's start with your own state so you can get a first-hand experience of a good frame of mind, because that's where it all starts. What's in your mind, what's in your body, what's in your visual when you walk into a classroom immediately?

If you really intend that people can have a good experience with you then you must start with a good experience inside of yourself.  It's too much to ask somebody else to do all the work to have a good learning experience and feel good when you don't yourself!

What’s exactly the kind of state you'd like to have?  Of course this may take a little time to set up with yourself, because if you've got all the negative anchors inside your learning environment, you’ll need to collapse them or remove these old negative anchors before you can then install new ones.  You may start with one area of your room, training area, house or desk for instance, and have a really good positive anchor around there.

Some people use pictures of the family as an anchor on the desk.  As long as whatever you have associated to does give you really good feelings, then these will work.

OK, so far we have set up the anchors for you. Now let’s look at how we can project these anchors out to others.

If you have grasped the basic concepts here, you can begin to realise that your state is what controls a room. It’s the same for actors. A certain actor will command the whole nature of a film. So wherever you go in time and space, your state will determine what’s associated there with you. Your amount of consciousness will then dictate how well you are doing with your anchors!

Some of you by now may be thinking “gosh, I have to be a trainer, a business person and an actor now!!??”

Well, yes and no. You see, you already have set up the anchors in your environment just by being there and doing what you’ve done. All that’s happening now is you are becoming more aware of what you are doing and how to get the results that you’d like!

OK, so think of a film set and all the places on the stage that are your environment. Think of all the different states you’d like people to have: Creativity, learning, quietness, teamwork, individual work, extrovert, introvert, whatever it is you’d need as the state for the class.

Now see where you can divide the office or training space up like a film set and notice where you’d like to anchor the states.

In acting or training circles, these are called stage anchors.

For instance, if you’d like the particular state of learning or creativity than what you would do that you would go to the particulars places in the classroom you have decided will be right and you would evoke creativity or learning.

As long as you got the general experience or the general atmosphere of creativity (for instance while telling a story), your pupils will get very interested and very tuned into you in this particular place.

Whenever you go back there again, and use the same kind of voice or words which are associated to this feeling then your pupils will immediately go back there with you into that space when you need them to.

Similarly, if you wanted to allow them have a place in the environment that can be dealing with upsets or dealing with complaints that the people may have, or even aggression, you can set this up as well. Make it well away from the creativity place!

So mark out where that may be, like a dumping place, so that whenever an upset occurs, you deal with it there.

So in this case, you would deliberately have walked to that place in the office/training room if there's a problem there.

You can then return to another place for your next piece.

So by changing the areas that are relating to those states, you'll be able to manage the energy of the room and manage what you want people to be listening and looking at much more effectively than before.

This is no different from the way Pavlov was experimenting to notice that the dogs responded to anything that was present when they are in a highly motivated or intense state. The only difference here is that you are substituting the bell for specific places in the space.

So all you have to do with people is to make them hungry for whatever you are training or delivering and then anchor that with a specific voice, or in a specific place in the room that you and they will automatically remember next time you introduce that voice or place or picture. Then you'll be able to move through the day with much more control.

So what happens if you are not in a good state of mind?  Well if you're not feeling that good one day, this is where the anchors come in really handy as well.

Because the anchors are already set up and the people will expect certain things from certain areas of the room you could be running at 50% or 75% effectiveness and still have a great day with them!

You just use the anchors you’ve set up on one day and the anchors will do the rest for you!

If you imagine your favourite comedian, or even your favourite TV personality, sometimes just by coming on to the stage, you feel different and change your own state.  They don't even have to say anything.  You associate them with certain attributes of humour or abilities and then they just have to hint at what you already know about them and you are already laughing out loud or transfixed by their presence.

If you want to know more about NLP Presentation skills, just click this link

So that's the end of part two on NLP Training and Anchoring: Look out for part three coming next week!