NLP Resource Anchoring: How to Transfer Positive States

Below are the steps for transferring positive emotional resources from a past experience into a present situation where you want to access them. You can invite a friend to guide you through these steps.

Step 1: Identify the Situation and Desired State

Sit comfortably in a chair or stand somewhere you can observe the process without being involved. Think of a specific situation where you would like to feel or react differently. Then, choose a particular emotional state from your past that you would most like to access in this situation. This could be any resourceful state: confidence, humor, courage, persistence, creativity—whatever intuitively feels most appropriate.

Once you know which resource you need, start searching for a specific time in your life when you had that resource. As you recall examples, pick the one that feels the most vivid and intense.

If you have chosen a resource but struggle to remember a time you experienced it, imagine someone you know or even a fictional character from a book or movie. If you were them, what would it feel like to experience that resource? Remember, even if the person isn’t real, your sensations are, and that’s what matters.

Step 2: Choose Your Anchors

Once you have recalled a specific real or imagined instance, you’re ready to select anchors that will help you access these resources whenever you want.

• Kinesthetic Anchor: This is a physical sensation you can associate with your chosen resource. For example, pressing your thumb and forefinger together or making a unique fist can work well. The anchor should be unique and not part of your usual behavior. Choose something you can do discreetly.
• Auditory Anchor: This could be a word or phrase you say to yourself. The specific word or phrase doesn’t matter as long as it resonates with your feelings. The way you say it, your tone, and emphasis are just as important as the words themselves. For example, if “confidence” is your resource, you might say, “I feel more and more confident,” or simply, “Confidence!” Use a confident tone that fits the situation.
• Visual Anchor: You can choose a symbol or recall something you saw when you truly felt confident. If the image is unique and helps you evoke the feeling, it will work as an anchor.

Step 3: Relive the Resourceful State

After choosing an anchor for each representational system, the next step is to fully relive the resourceful experience. Move to a different spot or chair as you immerse yourself in the memory. Placing different emotional states in different physical spaces helps keep them distinct.

In your imagination, return to the specific resourceful state. Remember where you were and what you were doing. As the memory becomes clearer, imagine you’re back in that moment, seeing what you saw, hearing the sounds, and feeling the sensations associated with that experience.

Take some time to relive the experience as fully as possible. To reconnect with the resourceful state, it often helps to repeat the actions you took at the time—adopt the same posture or movements if possible.

When the feelings reach their peak and start to fade, physically return to your neutral position. Now you know how wonderful it is to recreate your resourceful state and how long it takes. You’re ready to anchor the resource.

Step 4: Anchor the Resource

Return to your resourceful spot and relive the state again. When it reaches its peak, recall your image, make your gesture, and say your words. You need to link your anchors to the resourceful state at its peak intensity. Timing is crucial—if you anchor after the peak, you’ll anchor the exit from the state, which is not what you want. The order of anchors doesn’t matter; use whatever sequence works best for you, or use them all at once.

After the feelings pass their peak, leave the resourceful spot and change your state before testing the anchor.

Activate all three anchors in the same way and sequence, and notice how strongly you experience the resourceful state. If you’re not satisfied, repeat the anchoring process to strengthen the association. You may need to repeat this several times to reliably access the state when needed.

Step 5: Set a Trigger for Future Use

Finally, think of a future situation where you’ll likely need this resourceful state. What can you use as a signal to remind you to access the resource? Find the very first thing you see, hear, or feel that tells you you’re in that situation. The signal can be external (like a facial expression or someone’s tone of voice) or internal (like the start of your inner dialogue).

If you realize you can choose how to feel, that realization itself is a resourceful state and will interrupt your usual reaction. Anchor this knowledge to your chosen signal, so it reminds you that you can choose your feelings.

Over time, as you continue to use the anchor, the signal itself will become an anchor for you to access your resourceful state. The trigger that used to make you feel bad will now help you shift into a stable, resourceful state.

Summary: Key Steps for Resource Anchoring

• Anchors should coincide with the peak of the state’s intensity.
• Anchors must be unique and distinct.
• Anchors should be easy to reproduce and linked to a state that is clear and easy to experience.

1. Identify the situation where you need resources.
2. Identify the specific resource you need (e.g., confidence).
3. Make sure the resource is appropriate by asking yourself: “If I had this resource now, would I actually use it?” If yes, continue. If not, return to step 2.
4. Recall a time in your life when you had this resource.
5. Choose anchors for each of the three main representational systems—what you see, hear, and feel.
6. Move to a different place and fully relive the resourceful state in your imagination. When it peaks, change your state and exit.
7. Relive your resourceful state, and at its peak, apply all three anchors. Hold the state as long as you want, then change your state.
8. Test the association by activating the anchors and making sure you enter the state. If not satisfied, repeat step 7.
9. Identify the signal that tells you you’re in a situation where you want to use the anchor.

Now you can use these anchors to access your resourceful state whenever you want. Don’t forget to experiment with this and other NLP techniques to find what works best for you. Keep your desired outcome in mind (feeling more resourceful) and keep practicing until you succeed. Some people find that simply using the physical gesture (kinesthetic anchor) is enough to recreate the state, while others prefer to use all three anchors.

You can use this process to anchor different resources. Some people anchor each resource to a different finger, while others link multiple resourceful states to the same anchor for a powerful effect. This technique of adding different resources to the same anchor is known as Resource Stacking.

Using your resourceful states is a skill, and like any skill, it becomes easier and more effective the more you practice. Some people find it works impressively from the start, while others need practice to become competent and confident that the process works. Remember the learning model: if anchoring is new to you, congratulations on moving from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. Use this stage to progress to conscious competence.

Resource anchoring is a technique for expanding your emotional choices. Our culture, unlike some others, often believes that emotional states are involuntary and created by external circumstances and other people. Nature may deal us a mixed hand, but we can choose how and when to play our cards.