CHAPTER 2- Anchorage

An anchor is an event that immediately creates an involuntary physical or mental response. The best example of this is where Pavlov anchored a Dog to a bell. In short, he brought food to the dog, with the sound of a bell ringing: the dog salivates. In the end, Pavlov could just ring the bell and the dog subconsciously salivated without the presence of food, because it associated ringing with food. This chapter is all about anchorage and association. Anchors can be in the form of any of the five processing types.

Anchors are apparent in everyday life, for example, if we see a green light, we will automatically think “Go”. When we have an itch, how many times is our hand there to scratch it before we even think about it? What if a person smiles at us, we smile back even if we don’t particularly like the person, this is because we associate one thing with another unconsciously, so we do actions involuntarily. We can use this to our advantage.


HOW TO CREATE OUR OWN ANCHORS

First, we need to decide what we want to anchor; which emotion? If a person is happy and excited, then we may struggle to anchor sadness…thinking rationally is the key here folks!
So, lets say we want to anchor excitement. Next decide how we are to anchor it in relationship to the processing type of the person (eg. Visual anchor for a visual processor)
During conversation, found out what the other person is passionate about (football, singing etc) and get them to talk about it, past experiences etc, make sure you listen so that you can ask questions and look interested (even if the truth is otherwise ☺)
You will notice that while talking about their passion, the subject will become increasingly more excited and anxiety levels will increase as adrenaline is released, at this point you will anchor the emotion. This can be done in a variety of ways, e.g. facial expression, make a noise, a touch etc. The unconscious mind picks up on this gesture and anchors the emotion. Later in conversation you can bring back this emotion by repeating the exact same gesture again, adrenaline will rush again and the subject will be excited and feel anxious, (therefore being open to suggestions) At this point you ask what you want to know.

EXAMPLE CONVERSATION

Bold are the responses you get.
“Ah, you like netball? Cool! I love sport too (just agree with what they say) Tell me, do you play for a team?”
“Yeah, I play for the county”

“Wow! Really? You must be good! What is your best memory of playing netball?”
“Oh, best memory…hmm…. I know, when we were playing in the championships, we had just managed to get to the final, we were pretty much level with the other team and we were near to then end, my friend passed the netball to me, I shot and scored from really far away, and we won the championships (level of excitement peaked here, I anchored it with a subtle ‘neck scratch’)

“That must have been great!”
(Later on in the conversation my friend was feeling a little down after talking
about distressful things)

“Don’t worry, Naturally, I’m sure if you take the time to think (scratch neck) you might realise that you are actually in a really good mood now, and may even want to go out tonight with your friends. What do you think?”

ANCHORING TECHNIQUES

VISUAL PROCESSOR- smile, wink, small gestures, bite lip etc
AUDITORY PROCESSOR- make a noise, cough, sniff, clear throat etc
KINAESTHETIC PROCESSOR- scratch neck, adjusts glasses, rub head, touch face, hand gestures etc.

WHEN IS A PERSON AT EMOTIONAL PEAK?
Note change of breathing patterns, breathlessness etc. Also, listen to changes in voice: volume, tonality, timbre, pauses etc. Watch for pupil dilation, shift of body language, muscle tension etc. AND PRIMARILY- listen to the story, it is obvious when the emotional part is at its’ peak!

CONCLUSION

After this short conversation the girl felt really happy again and did go out with mates that night. If you read through the conversation again you will see how the effect works, and with a little imagination, I am sure you can see how you can use anchorage to your advantage in everyday life.