ANCHOR

DANCE
Anchoring Magic
Anchoring is a very useful tool in the tool-bag of an NLP
practitioner. Here I present “ANCHOR DANCE”, a method of
anchoring and linking that is both very effective and easy to
master. Using ANCHOR DANCE, an NLP practitioner (or even
a layman with some additional training) can easily change
problem/undesirable states or responses to more useful
/desirable states or responses. With ANCHOR DANCE,
within minutes, I have changed anxiety into cool and
peaceful confidence. Once done it need no conscious effort
or will power. The new state emerges automatically. This is
unconscious competence at its best. I have helped
students, managers, housewives and teachers to have
automatic resourceful states. This article will help you learn
the ANCHOR DANCE technique step by step and possibly
Vikas Dikshit get the most amazing results. You can use ANCHOR DANCE
with others as well as with yourself. I regularly use ANCHOR
NLP Practitioner DANCE to create some wonderful mindsets like confidence
about my ability to achieve a certain goal, for clearing
Pune, India doubts, and also to motivate myself. Applications of
ANCHOR DANCE are only limited by your imagination. You
Vikasdikshit@hotmail.com are invited to learn it, experiment with it and share your
experiences with others. Using NLP, let us make this world a
better place.
Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.
Disclaimer: - This document is only for purpose of information and does not purport to be advice. The writer accepts no responsibility for the reader’s actions.
Readers should make own decisions and obtain appropriate medical advice where necessary.
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ANCHOR DANCE is a very simple, easy to learn and effective mind exercise. Learning and doing ANCHOR DANCE will help you
make changes in habitual behaviours that you may have considered to be difficult or even impossible to achieve. You can use
ANCHOR DANCE for clients as well as for yourself. If you are already trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), all the better. You
will master this great technique of ANCHOR DANCE very quickly. If you are new to NLP, reading this article a couple of times more and
experimenting will make you proficient in this art. For more help, you can talk to an NLP practitioner or e-mail me.

Eliciting A State-
Even before we talk about ANCHOR DANCE, let us first understand how to elicit a state.
If I ask someone, “do you remember a time when you did something and you were very peaceful and confident about doing it?” She
may probably look to her left and access the memory of a past event, when she was doing something and felt really peaceful and
confident about doing it. I may say, “Take your time to remember such an event. It may be totally unrelated to your current situation
or problem”. (Speaking slowly in a hypnotic tone will help her to remember such an event). When she remembers an event her face
will light up and then I can say, “Imagine you are doing that activity now and please tell me how you are feeling”. She will probably
describe her feelings. Not only her words will tell she is feeling peaceful and confident but her voice, her tone, her gestures, her
expressions and body posture will congruently tell she is feeling peaceful and confident. If you are seeing and hearing some or all of
these, you have elicited a peaceful and confident state in her. Bravo. Well done indeed!

Anchoring a State-
If I say, “As you are doing that thing and feeling really peaceful and confident now, imagine you are standing in a circle, and you want
to choose a color for this circle… any color that comes to your mind, what color will that be?” And she may say, “Blue”. That’s great.
Wonderful! “Will you please describe this blue?” And she may say, “Confident sky blue”. I can say, “That is very nice. Can you actually
see that confident sky blue color?”. “Yes”. Great! Great indeed!
Now, what is happening here? Allow me explain… When I say “imagine you are in a circle as you are feeling peaceful and confident”, I
have anchored that feeling to the circle. This is a spatial anchor. Next time she stands in the circle she can automatically feel peaceful
and confident. When I am asking her to choose a color and to describe it and see it, I am anchoring the same peaceful and confident
state to the color also. That is synesthesia... a visual image of color standing for a bodily sense of feeling peaceful and confident. That
is even stronger and more powerful anchor. Next time she stands in that imaginary circle and sees that color in her mind’s eye, she
instantaneously feels peaceful and confident. That is cool. A really cool peace of anchoring there!
Now, you can easily do that for all the circles and the corresponding states explained below in ANCHOR DANCE exercise.

Language softeners-
Repeated use of expressions such as “That’s great”, “Wonderful”,” You are doing great indeed” etc. softens language and encourages
and authenticates client. If you have done this exercise many times with people, your confidence and a sense of authority will help
client to at least do what you suggest. (What the heck! Let me try this funny thing!)

Linking-
Stepping into a circle and seeing or mentioning color elicits that state, and quickly stepping into next circle and seeing and mentioning
appropriate color links the previous state to the next state. It is as simple as that! Hay, that’s easy! I can do that, you may say! 
Now, on to the DANCING floor. By the way have you put on your DANCING shoes? (Just kidding ;-)) Read on…

Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.

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Preparation:
Feel Good 1) Begin at circle 3. Elicit desired state.
Desired (E.g. I want to feel totally peaceful &
confident). Ask the person to choose a
About color. (Blue) Can you describe this blue?
State or Response (Confident sky blue). That’s great!
Please move to circle 4.
Yourself 2) On circle 4- Did you ever do something
well and felt really great about
yourself? (Yes) And as you remember
Circle 3 Circle 4 that time, will you like to choose a color
Break for this circle? (Pink). Will you describe
this pink? (Fresh happy pink)
3) Now stand on circle 1 please. Think of
State various situations when you feel
fearful. (A, B, C…) Make a note of A, B,
C etc. Please give this circle a color.
(Yellow) Will you like to describe this
yellow? (Dull yellow) That’s great.
Undesired Please move to circle 2.
Various 4) Now here in circle 2, choose one most
important situation where you do not
State or Response Situations want to feel fearful. (A). OK. Now
imagine you are in this situation A, and
Various as you begin to feel that fear, will like to
Facing this way choose a color for this circle? (Brown)
Situations Please describe this brown. (Dirty
ns brown)
Circle 2 Circle 1

Exercise-
 Now, as you stand in that dirty brown circle, you may want to close your eyes and think of this situation A, you may begin to feel
that fearfulness creeping up, and as soon as you start feeling that fearfulness(It is important not to allow the client to fully access
that fearful state)…. please step into this confident sky blue circle (circle 3), and here you can remember that totally peaceful &
confident feeling…. and as you begin to feel totally peaceful and confident…. in this confident sky blue circle, please step to your
right into this fresh happy pink circle and you remember that time…. when you did something well…. and felt really great about
yourself…. in this fresh happy pink circle. And now, you may step out and open your eyes.
 What we have done so far is, in situation A, we have linked undesired response of fearfulness to the desired response of feeling
totally peaceful and confident, and linked this response further to the response of feeling really great about oneself.
 Now, as the person is outside of any circle, ask something like…. what is name of your spouse, or what did you have for breakfast or
what is the name of your school. This sends the person’s mind to think of something totally unrelated. This breaks their mental
state. This is important because we do not want to link feeling good about oneself to the undesired state or response. So every time
the person steps out of circle 4, we ask this break state question. (Here we are not interested in the answer, and this can be made
clear to the person.)
 Now once again please stand in this dirty brown circle and try feeling that fearfulness and now quickly step into this confident sky
blue circle and feel totally peaceful and confident and quickly step into this fresh happy pink circle and feel great about yourself, and
step out and open your eyes. Break state.

Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.

 ANCHOR DANCE Page 3

 Now for the third time suggest that they

Feel Good may fail to feel that fearful feeling while
Desired standing in circle 2. Just say from dirty
brown circle quickly step into this
About confident sky blue circle ant then quickly
State or Response into this fresh happy pink circle and open
Yourself your eyes and step outside. Break state.
 Do this faster and faster, mentioning
only the colors. Speed is important
because brain can only learn fast, it
Circle 3 Circle 4 cannot learn slowly. Also the person’s
Break mind will have no time to go astray and
thus will remain involved in this activity.
 After a few repetitions, they will be
State amazed to discover that no matter how
hard they try, they do not feel that fear!!!
Some of them will even fail to see the
original color of the circle 2.
 After the client is done and is seated in a
Undesired chair, future pace. Ask him to think of this
Various situation A at some future time and say,
“tell me how you feel now”. I am sure;
State or Response Situations even you will be amazed by their
expressions.
 Now repeat the exercise for situations B,
C etc.
Facing this way  The whole exercise will take about 10 to
20 minutes.
Circle 2 Circle 1

How And Why ANCHOR DANCE Works?

When the person runs into situation A, he gets that automatic, un-resourceful response of fear. That means brain does some neural
activity that leads to a certain physiology of fear. After the exercise, because we have linked this undesired response to the new
desired response, in situation A, the brain may begin the fear response, but within a fraction of a second, changes to a different
neural activity…. That of a peaceful and confident response, and then on to feeling good about oneself response. Since this happens
so very fast, the conscious mind does not notice the process. Conscious mind may only become aware of the new state or response.
We avoid making it an endless loop by breaking the state, before we do next repetition. Also, we do not want to anchor “feeling
good about self” state to the fearful state.
Using circles in ANCHOR DANCE creates spatial anchors. This helps to quickly bring up states.
Using colors of client’s choice in ANCHOR DANCE uses synesthesia…. A color bringing up a state automatically. It helps to tell the
clients to close eyes and actually see those colors.
Circles with colors (even if they are in the client’s imagination) help elicitation of states in a moment, and therefore linking is fast
and effective.
Speaking slowly in a gentle, hypnotic tonality helps in elicitation of states.
Future pacing creates a new belief in the client that actual change has taken place. This may help them further when real life
situation arrives.
The changes brought about by doing ANCHOR DANCE stick. Doing ANCHOR DANCE correctly for once is enough. There is no need to
repeatedly do it. The new behaviour habituates quickly. It generates many other changes in person’s other behaviours and
personality. Doing ANCHOR DANCE for many times for many different problems will build up a strong and positive self image.

Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.

 ANCHOR DANCE Page 4
Case Studies-
Desired Feel Good 1. A middle aged married woman was
visiting her ailing father. She was feeling
very anxious & powerless because of a
State or Response About
very precarious family situation and
unfinished business about property.
Yourself After doing ANCHOR DANCE she still
could not say if her anxiety has gone. But
next day morning she called to report,
Circle 3 Circle 4 she slept well for the first time in several
Break weeks and felt confident enough to
handle the situation. After about ten
State days she said she continued to feel
peacefully powerful, even though her
family situation was the same.
2. A young lady was feeling frustrated at
her home and office. She thought, I
Undesired would need to know her story to be able
Various to help her. I said, “Your story seems
State or Response Situations interesting, but tell me first what you will
like to happen?” And she said “I want to
Various feel peaceful and comfortable”. So we
Facing this way Situations directly proceeded to do ANCHOR
ns DANCE. As soon as it was over she began
smiling and was wondering how the
Circle 2 Circle 1 feeling of frustration vanished in less
than thirty minutes. Listening to her story
was not necessary anymore!

3. An intelligent teacher, who had just once observed me doing ANCHOR DANCE exercise with a few of her students, told me this story.
She went on a vacation, travelling by car to her native place. Her daughter, aged fifteen, had suffered from motion sickness during
car travels since as long as they remembered. They always carried medicine with them for this reason. This time the teacher thought
of experimenting with what she had learned. So as the journey began and as the daughter became uneasy, the teacher did ANCHOR
DANCE with her daughter by the side of highway! The daughter’s uneasiness vanished immediately. They proceeded with the
journey without taking medicine. During the whole vacation, they travelled more than two thousand kilometers and to their
pleasant surprise, the daughter did not need even a single pill! Now she firmly believes, she will not need the medicine in future
also.
ANCHOR DANCE can help you change many automatic behaviours of body and mind. ANCHOR DANCE can be used for eliminating
limiting beliefs and replacing them with positive ones, and controlling anger. It can also be used for eliminating fear response to exams in
students or for getting over fear of facing interviews. It can be useful whenever any automatic and un-resourceful state or response
occurs repeatedly. After ANCHOR DANCE the change occurs, but the change sometimes can go unnoticed. At other times some other
things may be necessary for the desired change to occur.

Using ANCHOR DANCE to bring about rapid behaviour changes is a very fulfilling experience. NLP practitioners, teachers, parents,
managers, businessmen… just about everyone can find ANCHOR DANCE useful and discover new uses of this great tool for themselves.

Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.

 ANCHOR DANCE Page 5

Every behaviour has a positive intention behind it. That means, in a given situation, feeling fear may have a positive intention of
protecting oneself. If the fear is taken away, body may produce some other behaviour to protect oneself. This is called ecology in NLP
terms. Before and after changing behaviour it may be useful to do this ecology check. Please consult a competent NLP practitioner for
this.

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A friend of mine, who really loves to help people, said this to me.

“As I learnt this simple technique of ANCHOR DANCE and started using it for people and for myself, I found it very useful and
powerful. It kind of changed my mind in a profound way. I saw many wonderful possibilities. ANCHOR DANCE sort of
created a special place in my mind that I called ‘Help-us’. ‘Help-us’ took on my favorite color… I can actually see that color
when I think about ANCHOR DANCE. This color has energy of its own. I also see the shape of that colorful energy!”

“That is great! I never heard anyone say a thing like that!” I said.

He continued… “I started using ANCHOR DANCE everywhere I could, with my friends, family, children… everyone. When I
got great results, I felt great and ‘Help-us’ would become bright and large. But when I got mixed or doubtful results, ‘Help-
us’ would shrink and become a little dull. But then, I would get another great result and ‘Help-us’ became even larger and
brighter. It is as if ‘Help-us’ has a life of its own! And as I persisted, I became very skillful in ANCHOR DANCE and consistently
got better results.”

“Why did you name that ‘Help-us’?” I asked him.

And he said, “I think when I am helping others using ‘ANCHOR DANCE’, I am actually helping myself in the process. And
when I am helping myself by doing ‘ANCHOR DANCE’ I am indirectly helping others also. It’s not you or me anymore. It’s us.
I feel we are all together here in this world. That’s why I named it ‘Help-us’.”

That was fascinating! I asked him, “As you are telling me all this, are you noticing how this feels in your body? Where is the
feeling… stomach, abdomen, back? Is it a strong, solid feeling or a faint and subtle one? And how ‘Help-us’ is moving as it
grows and shrinks and grows again? What happens if you imagine you can actually make ‘Help-us’ grow?”

And he said, “I was not really noticing all that, but I am now!”

“And when you notice ‘Help-us’, you can also notice your breathing and your own weight, as you are sitting there.” I
suggested.

“Yes, I am noticing that also now! But what it has to do with ANCHOR DANCE?” He asked.

I said, “I don’t know. It just came to mind.”

He happened to meet me after about a month. He looked into my eyes and said, “Vikas, I want to thank you for everything.”
His voice was deep and I could sense a deep connection.

“You are welcome”. I said.

Copyright ©-2008, Vikas Dikshit, Pune, India.