I woke up last Thursday morning in flying form, absolutely buzzing from the night before. Step forward Mr Robbie Williams. 2 hours of pure entertainment, an unquenchable firebrand, like him or loathe him he had 20,000 people eating from the palm of his hand. Lapping up hit after hit. Any entertainer who can open up a show with one of their biggest crowd pleasers is obviously confident in his ability, and why not? He has gone from cheeky chappy boyband member to bona fide rock star. Even before he got on stage I was taken back by the average age in the crowd. I got seated next to a group of women in their 40s who had travelled 5 hours to see the show, behaving like a bunch of school girls! Giant screens at the front of the gig constantly zooming in on ecstatic groups who were evidently all the same shrieking girls who went to see him in Take That in the 90’s. This had me intrigued at the start but by the end the answer was very clear. Nostalgia.

It is one of those feelings that all of us can relate to. I grew up in the 90’s when all my female friends worshipped Robbie, even us lads wanted to be like him. I remember growing up listening to my dad saying how music wasn’t the same as it was back in 60’s, “there will never be another Beatles or Elvis”. I found myself uttering similar words the other night. It is fairly common in life for people to get a burning desire to return to the past in some shape or form. We dive straight back into a period when we were really happy, and a lot of the time we try to recreate that moment in the present. It’s not really the memory that inspires us but more the emotional state of the time. If we were really honest it’s a rather selective process were we choose to distort or the delete some of the events of that particular period. You don’t have to be a ground breaking scientist to realise the connection between music and emotion.

The human brain is a complex and mind blowing organ, way beyond my comprehension but what I do know is that memories can act as a very powerful tool. In coaching the anchoring concept is based around this. A simple image or a snippet of a song can transfer you back in time. Back to sitting in a field with the girl you thought you were going to marry, or playing football and not having a single care in the world. No matter how much time has passed, we are instantly taken back to that moment. Our brains are hard wired to evoke memories and experiences, harnessing nostalgia can be a very effective way to deal with certain obstacles in your life. Using an anchor is a very easy way to help control a multitude of situations, like Weight Loss, Increasing self-confidence, Public Speaking or general things like dealing with difficult people in work.

I’m not saying jumping back into the past is the best way to carve out your future, doing this more often than not can hold you back, ultimately this is a very bittersweet process. While we can never truly re-create the past, if it stirs up enough positive emotion to help you move forward then it’s a very worthwhile exercise. Take for example the excitement and buzz the new Star Wars movie has stirred up in people. Movie companies have known for years that by tapping into nostalgia they can make it very easy to fire out big budget sequels to movies. So the next time you’re struggling to get yourself into a good place, pop in the ear phones, hit up YouTube and find whatever inspires you, and leaves you feeling good. It might just set you free.

Dance Hits of the 90s – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCG1jKm_euo

How To Create An Anchor

• Decide on the state you want to anchor. For example being calm and relaxed.
• Choose an anchor (or anchors) that you wish to trigger the resourceful state.
• Recall a memory or imagine a situation where you can experience the state. So recall or imagine a time when you experienced the state.
• Active the anchor or anchors when the experience is vivid and you are in the desired state.
• Release the anchors when the experience begins to fade.If you keep applying the anchor when the experience is fading, then you will anchor a drop in calmness and relaxation!
• Do something else – open your eyes … count down from 10 to break state and distract yourself.