When we link up or associate one thing with another thing— we create an "anchor." This refers to a trigger. What does the word "ENVY" trigger or anchor in you? Where does it send your mind? Your body? What state do you move into? Because things get linked up and associated as we move through life, we all inevitably create triggers. Sometimes we call these "buttons." What words or phrases could someone use with you that would "push one of your buttons?" What if someone said that you were "incompetent?"

In NLP, we call these anchors. And, we also use them intentionally and with focus in order to use them in a positive way. This enables us to take charge of running our own brain and body. The linguistic affirmations and visualizations served this function of anchoring in the 7-Day Relaxation Program. This means that we set up certain words, images, pictures, etc. so that they trigger or cue us to quickly, at the snap of a finger, to "fly into a calm."

Anchors work because one of the most basic and primitive ways that we use our nervous system to learn is through Stimulus—Response patterns. Pavlov demonstrated this over a hundred years ago with his dogs and introduced the idea of "classical conditioning" or Pavlovian conditioning. To set up anchors with his dogs, he simply used meat powder to stimulate and activate the autonomic nervous system response in the dogs of salivating. Once he got the response several times, he linked the giving of the meat powder with the feeder’s red shirt and the sound of his shoes entering the lab. Very quickly, the dogs "learned" (i.e., their nervous systems learned) to salivate to the sound of the steps and to the sight of the red shirt. This unnatural and conditioned response —a non-propositional kind of learning then resulted.

This happens with humans. We associate things. We get various triggers, ideas, words, experiences, etc. linked to other things. Language itself operates as an incredibly large anchoring system. We condition ourselves to associate dog with the word "dog." Using this dynamic for reducing stress simply enables us to take charge of the triggers or buttons in our lives. We can even transform a trigger (or anchor) so that instead of meaning (associating) one thing, we can make it mean another.