Let me explain … anchoring is done by choosing a desired state, visualizing the state until you can vicariously relive it with all five senses using nothing more than your mind, your thoughts, memories, and the emotions those invoke. Then, you create a trigger or touch point which you bond together with the state (through repetition) so that when you activate the trigger or connect with the touch point you created during visualization, you are instantly taken into the state of mind or state of being you desire to be in. Confusing? I thought it might be, so …

In plain English, here’s how to create an anchor: Remember or imagine a mental or emotional state you have experienced before and/or would like to experience. When you “feel” it perfectly, snap your fingers or touch your eyebrow. This action will become your “trigger” or “touch point” that anchors your memory to the action you perform. Repeat this step several times. You have now anchored snapping your fingers (or touching your eyebrow) to the memory or imagined state. When you do this action in the future, your brain knows to produce the state you desire to feel.

Now, move around and change your posture, or move to a different area of your house to break your current state. Next, trigger your state change by snapping your fingers or touching your eyebrow (or whatever you set as your touch point previously) and notice how you are taken immediately to the state you remembered or imagined. See, you already have proof NLP anchoring works because, whether through intentional state creation of subconscious anchoring, you’ve “relived” a time in your life brought on by some “accidental” trigger or touch point – such as hearing a song that takes you back to the favorite summer of your youth.

Or maybe you hear the neighbor’s kids yelling and you are instantly transported to the memory of the fight you had with your sister when you were ten. The song and the yelling are “triggers” or touch points that anchor to a state you’ve experienced in your life, usually multiple times. The triggers put you back in the state you were in during the actual experience. Regardless of how an anchor is set, there is proof that NLP anchoring can and does work to change a person’s state of mind from one to another on a whim – or at the mere snap of a finger.