# 2.Why Not N.L.P. ?
I would like to give you an example of re-anchoring. The example I have picked is of something I believe a lot of people would like to change in their lives.
Getting Up In The Morning
Most people struggle when the weather is cold or they went to bed a bit late after watching an exciting film the night before. For many people there is no real reason, it is just very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Three alarm clocks do not help or a bouncing, the cheerful child full of the joys of life. Let’s face it – another five minutes in the warm under the bedclothes will not make a difference, will it?
The Problem
Of course, we all know that the five minutes becomes ten and maybe Mr. Sandman sprinkles his sleepy dust and the ten minutes becomes much more and “Bingo!” we are late for school, late for work and late for everything and life becomes stressed and we skip breakfast which screws up our blood sugar and slows us down and we forget to lock the front door, forget our mobile and..And..And the day sometimes goes downhill from there, in the sneakiest, meanest way it can.
Can it be fixed? Yes. Can you change your story from “I just can’t get out of bed in the morning? I’m always so tired.”
To “I love getting up in the morning. My alarm goes off and I am out of bed brushing my teeth and planning the day, before I know it. And, I feel great.”
Well, yes you can, but first I need to explain what we mean by “anchoring,” then I will explain the secret behind the change.
Anchors
What is your favourite advert on TV? What is your favourite drink? What is your favourite game?
Good Ones
Everyone has favourite things in their lives and the reason is that we link emotions to things at certain times in our lives. Our favourite places, times and people are linked to good experiences we have had. All these things are anchors in our lives. It is quite normal to have preferences and favourites. An anchor in a ship helps the ship to stay in one place. Our anchors are emotional, feeling ones, and often linked to memories of the past.
Bad Ones
We also have bad memories which have anchors to places, times, people. If mushrooms made you sick when you were a small child then you probably dislike mushrooms now. A friend of mine passed her driving test after 9nine attempts and was over the moon that she could take her son out to buy some trainers for his birthday. At the first roundabout, the car in front pulled away then stopped abruptly in front of her. She ran into the back of him and hated roundabouts for years after. She had a bad anchor to roundabouts.
Create Your Own Good Ones
We have celebrations at Birthdays, Christmas, wedding anniversaries and we go on holidays to have a break and create good memories. These are you creating good anchors, like photos or videos of good times. Sometimes you celebrate with friends online and post pictures and videos of something memorable on Facebook. Creating Anchors to remember the moment by.
Do you take selfies of yourself when you are desperately unhappy and put them on Facebook? Most people do not. If you do, you are creating an anchor to help you remember how unhappy you were. Generally good anchors are better for future happiness, aren’t they?
Tony Robbins charges Thousands of dollars or GBPs for his seminars and workshops. He teaches a lot of N.L.P. based techniques. He uses them himself, daily. See this clip for one really good example of how he re-anchors himself every day.
How Do We Use This Knowledge?
We know there are good and bad anchors. We know we can create anchors and do it all the time. We know that anchors are links through our memory to a past time that we have feelings about.
Each time you look at a photo of you winning the egg and spoon race, with sweaty hair and a big cheesy grin on your face, you are strengthening that anchor of a happy time. It is like adding a little more of the same to the anchor.
You can also strengthen bad anchors in the same way. Do you think it would be useful to change the bad ones? Would you feel happier if you could get rid of some of your unhappiness or fears?
Would that help you to feel happier, more fulfilled and more energetic? N.L.P. can help with these things.
The Example Of Getting Up
An ordinary guy I know had problems getting up on time. He had three alarm clocks, one beside his bed, one at the bottom of his bed and one over the other side of the room. In the morning 6 a.m. the alarms would ring. He would typically reach out from beneath the covers stabbing blindly in the air to switch the no.1 alarm clock off, doing his best to keep as much of his body as possible under the warm bedclothes. Seeing the day creeping in would destroy the illusion that it was not morning and he did not really need to get up, so he kept his eyes closed as tight as possible.
Next the no.2 alarm would go off. Cussing and mumbling he would reverse his position in the bed, creeping under the bedclothes, like some giant mole, and reach out to switch off the second alarm. Groaning about the unjust cruelty of alarms, the cold, the daylight and mornings in particular, he would be shocked to realise: there was one more alarm.
Ouch! The third clock began jangling at him, insisting on the ultimate sacrifice; he had to get out of bed to switch it off.
A sad story but true. The guy had heard about N.L.P. on a course he was on and bought one of the first books in the U.K. available. There was a small introduction to “Anchoring.” He decided to try out the technique and see if he could change his feelings about getting up. He wanted to be on time for work, feel good about it and he had read that getting up early and planning the day was one of the habits of successful people.
The technique was simple and he practiced it over a few days and then threw out all the alarm clocks.
For the next three months he looked at his watch on going to bed, said “I will get up at 6 a.m. and feel great about it.” That was 50 years ago and it still works today.
How Was It Done?
I changed my feelings about getting up as soon as I wake up. Sorry, yes! That was me. I made a sort of movie of myself in my head of me getting up in the morning and realised that I hated the whole thing. I associated getting up with feeling cross, feeling cold, feeling too tired. I just wanted 5 minutes more. Wishing I had gone to bed earlier etc. That needed to change.
I wanted to be full of energy, leap out of bed and be in the bathroom doing my teeth before I could think about it. I wanted to be planning my day with enthusiasm and happiness. So I lay in bed, warm and relaxed, each night and ran a new movie with all the things I WANTED to feel like when I got up. The next thing I noticed was I was up and brushing my teeth, thinking “Wow, I will have time for coffee as well as breakfast today, before catching the bus to work.”
Yes it took me a few evenings to fine tune the new movie, yes I had doubts it would work but my mind was open to trying. Then I tried setting my internal alarm to 5 minutes before the clock one. It worked and I woke up 5 minutes before my alarm. I was astounded.
So, what happened here? I changed the way I felt about getting up, I re-anchored getting up with feelings of joy, intention and energy. I have since sneakily added a few other feelings and I do sometimes repeat and strengthen the anchors. I love getting up before everyone else and get a fun and satisfaction from the sense of achievement it gives me.
Does N.L.P. Work? Yes, If Done Correctly
An explanation of N.L.P. by Michael Breen One of the best Trainers and Coaches in the business today.
# 1. Why Not N.L.P.? – In part 1 we look at a specific example and introduce the two founders of N.L.P.