How to Anchor Good Feelings

All of us have times when we find ourselves feeling stressed, anxious, panicky, nervous or just drained of energy.

Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to control those feelings - or even better swap them for a more positive feeling?

Well an ‘anchor’ is a means of helping us to do this. It allows us to counteract an unpleasant feeling with a feeling of calm, confidence, vitality or any other feeling we may wish to access.

An ‘anchor’ is simply a trigger – something which sets off an automatic emotional response inside us. We are surrounded by ‘anchors’ every day of our lives - a piece of music which reminds us of a fantastic night out with friends years ago, the smell of school dinners which instantly transports us back to the dining hall, a photograph which makes us smile…

All of these things are ‘anchors’ – all automatically linked to particular memories, events and emotions from our past.

But anchors can be created on purpose for very specific reasons and with a very positive outcome in mind.

As therapists we help our clients to use anchors in order to override or replace limiting emotions that hold them back.

The person who cannot give a presentation without shaking will learn to trigger a feeling of confidence. Those who find that nerves interfere with exams and driving tests will replace the feeling of anxiety with one of calm. Anchors, once established, can be used reliably over and over again in any situation.

Interested? If you want to learn how to create an anchor for yourself, check out our instructions here:

How to Start

1. Think of a problem situation, in which you want to be more resourceful - for example, giving a presentation or performing in an interview.

2. Identify the specific feeling you want to access in this situation. It might be calm or confidence.

3. Now, think back to a time when you experienced this positive feeling in an intense way – even if it seems completely unrelated to your situation. For example, you may have felt very calm on a particular holiday or very confident when you last played football.

4. Identify a specific but discrete ‘anchor’, a gesture that you can link to the positive feeling, such as pinching your thumb and index finger together or clenching your fist.

Establishing the ‘Anchor’

5. Close your eyes and in your imagination, put yourself back fully into that positive situation. Remember where you were, what you were doing, what you could hear, see and feel. Make the picture rich, bright and appealing. Really enjoy how good you felt and allow yourself to relive that experience as intensely as possible.

6. As the feeling comes to its peak, capture it by using your gesture and hold for a few seconds. This creates a mind-body link and connects up the feeling with the gesture.

7. Think about something else. Stand up and walk around.

8. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 a few times to clearly establish the anchor and build up the connection.

Testing the ‘Anchor’

Now, thinking of the future problem situation in which you want to be more resourceful, set off your anchor using the gesture and the mind-body link should occur. Do this by closing your eyes and seeing yourself in that future situation but setting off your anchor at the same time.

You should get instant access to that positive feeling. If not, repeat all the steps until the feeling is intensely good.

Read our article on how using an anchor helped one of our clients to overcome the panic she felt on having to give a presentation.