Anchoring is a way of drawing on past experiences in which you felt confident to help you cope better in the present. It’s another powerful weapon in your confidence armoury. An anchor is any stimulus that consistently triggers an emotion. To use an anchor you have to: Generate in yourself the particular set of feelings you wish to recreate. Programme your subconscious to associate those feelings with specific words and gestures. Use those words and gestures to trigger the desired feelings when required. Sportsmen and women use anchors continually. For example, tennis players bounce the ball repeatedly before serving to calm themselves; most runners go through an elaborate routine to centre themselves, much of which is not strictly necessary to the actual performance; and the mighty All Black rugby team go through a series of rituals before each match to intimidate the opposition and fire themselves up. You constantly anchor feelings in the nervous system whether you like it or not, so why not learn to use this to your advantage? Using anchors you can feel calm and confident, or energised and confident whenever you wish. “People tell me I’m lucky, but I’ve noticed the harder I practice, the luckier I get. Gary Player ”
‘making Up For Lost Time’
Six years ago, Angela Dennett felt like a prisoner in her own home. Despite a debilitating back condition she was on full-time duty caring for her husband, who suffered from Altzheimer’s disease. When he died, she found herself with time on her hands, looking for something to get her out of the house.
As a young woman she would have liked a career in academia. She had a passionate interest in Ancient Egypt, but lacked confidence and grew up thinking it was beyond her. She ended up in a mind numbing office job.
One day Angela picked up a leaflet about the University of the Third Age (U3A), which provided educational and social activities for the over 50s. One of the courses was Creating Confidence. With trepidation she enrolled and diligently applied what she learned. Soon after the Membership Secretary’s job became vacant, and she put herself forward. A few months later, she was elected Chairman. ‘At first I was terrified,’ she said. ‘It takes a lot of confidence to control committee meetings, but I soon learned.’
It was then that her interest in Egyptology came to the fore. ‘After my husband died, I was able to study it properly. I enrolled for a degree course with the Open University, then I took the plunge and started teaching – l wouldn’t have had the confidence before. I gained a teaching certificate and am now a qualified adult education tutor.’
She regularly went to London to attend talks by the leading authorities. ‘One day I thought, why should I have to travel all this way, so I started the Wessex Ancient Egypt Society. Now the experts come to us.’
Recently a dream came true when Angela was invited to visit Egypt. ‘I’d never flown before because I was too scared, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, I used the techniques I’d learned on the confidence course – positive thinking, relaxation, visualisation and small steps to conquer my phobia. I was fine.’
‘As I see it, I’m in the second half of my life now, and fast trying to make up for lost time.’ And how!