Stressful days and Anchoring

It's days or even weeks like this week where it's been horribly stressful as most Australian kids and teachers are well into the swing of school again. As a consequence working in IT and education, this means increased amount of phone calls to the helpdesk, and what I'm finding more and more is that you have no option but to take it on the chin and smile and answer the phone.

So without going postal an suicidal at the end of the week, I've found something interesting to keep myself somewhat calm and sane, which isn't taking illicit drugs, or smoking, or drinking. It's a hypnotic technique called "Anchoring".

So what does anchoring involve? well it's as something as simple as think of the most powerful amazing happy thought that you can think of. Now touch your right earl lobe.

As you continue to come down from your little high, what you should find is that the next time you touch your right ear lobe, that partial feeling will come back. I may not be as strong as before, but it should be there. Do this enough times and you should be able to save yourself from a depressive spiral if you need to.

Having said that, it's not a magical fix for depression or wanting to cause self harm, and not being a doctor, a lawyer, or a therapist, I would hate to give bad advice on using this as a magic bullet to everything, because it doesn't always work for everyone.

Whilst I was in Brisbane, I taught a friend of mine how anchoring works without even hypnotising him. He was intrigued and somewhat impressed. However, I may leave this story for another day... and if you know me in person, do ask me, and I may finish this story for you.