Anchoring

Anchoring is where mental and physiological changes occur in response to a stimulus. For example you might hear a wedding song and be reminded of those emotional feelings, or hear your phone ringing and feel compelled to answer.

Anchoring in practice

Having understood that we can create unconscious responses to particular stimuli we can use this to our advantage. The key to this is to aim for an emotional state and just before the state peaks anchor it in some way on your body (You will often see professional people form a circle with their thum and forefinger, this is simply them recalling a physiological and mental state. Try it yourself, think of something highly emotional, live the moment, hear it, feel it and see it and at it's peak tap your elbow. Repeat this and soon the tap alone will bring back that state on command.