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| The Basic Premise |
The Basic Premise
“The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”
–The EFT Discovery Statement, Gary Craig
Emotions are like internal sense organs. They help us identify situations as “good” or “bad,” so that we might take appropriate actions. Emotions of happiness and love are pleasurable and help relieve stress. Anger helps us identify situations that are outside our definition of “right.” Fear identifies physical or emotional situations that may be dangerous, and stimulates fight or flight actions.
However, suppressed emotions, far beyond what is needed to take immediate or preventative action, can be so powerful that they disrupt or short circuit the body’s energy field (also known as the biofield, chi, ki, etc.). In effect, these emotions become stored within our body’s energy field.
When they do, our thoughts, emotions, and actions become “colored” by these stored emotions.
Examples of these embedded emotions might be:
• A man who grew up with a critical mother might get angry with his wife every time she makes a suggestion.
• A woman ridiculed by her father finds a mate who continues ridiculing her. Because she has developed low self-esteem, she may also find a job where she gets paid less than others with similar jobs.
• A man who was given chores as punishment may feel an underlying guilt every day at work because if he is working, he must have been bad. This might be expressed as an agitation that he suppresses with coffee, snacks, tobacco and, after work, a cocktail.
• An attractive young woman sexually harassed by a neighbor subconsciously overeats to become unattractive. Now stigmatized by her size, she tries to lose weight and, when she can’t, suffers from low self-worth and depression.
These people have made choices that are “colored” by underlying emotions. If they could get free of these emotions, they might make different choices that would lead to a more fulfilling life. That does not mean that when the woman who was ridiculed by her father permanently releases the feeling of humiliation, she divorces her husband and gets a new job. Rather she starts making choices that no longer replicate the feelings she associates with her childhood ridicule.
EFT is a method of undoing the emotional short circuit. When dismantled, the misfiring suppressed emotion no longer exists, just like when you separate two sparking wires, the spark no longer exists. It cannot come back, because there is nowhere for it to live.
EFT works by a process of mentally focusing on the emotion while tapping with your fingers on certain energy points on the body. The tapping reroutes the short-circuited energy back along its normal path. The process has been likened to emotional acupuncture without the needles. It is extremely simple to do and the results can be huge and profound.
“The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”
–The EFT Discovery Statement, Gary Craig
Emotions are like internal sense organs. They help us identify situations as “good” or “bad,” so that we might take appropriate actions. Emotions of happiness and love are pleasurable and help relieve stress. Anger helps us identify situations that are outside our definition of “right.” Fear identifies physical or emotional situations that may be dangerous, and stimulates fight or flight actions.
However, suppressed emotions, far beyond what is needed to take immediate or preventative action, can be so powerful that they disrupt or short circuit the body’s energy field (also known as the biofield, chi, ki, etc.). In effect, these emotions become stored within our body’s energy field.
When they do, our thoughts, emotions, and actions become “colored” by these stored emotions.
Examples of these embedded emotions might be:
• A man who grew up with a critical mother might get angry with his wife every time she makes a suggestion.
• A woman ridiculed by her father finds a mate who continues ridiculing her. Because she has developed low self-esteem, she may also find a job where she gets paid less than others with similar jobs.
• A man who was given chores as punishment may feel an underlying guilt every day at work because if he is working, he must have been bad. This might be expressed as an agitation that he suppresses with coffee, snacks, tobacco and, after work, a cocktail.
• An attractive young woman sexually harassed by a neighbor subconsciously overeats to become unattractive. Now stigmatized by her size, she tries to lose weight and, when she can’t, suffers from low self-worth and depression.
These people have made choices that are “colored” by underlying emotions. If they could get free of these emotions, they might make different choices that would lead to a more fulfilling life. That does not mean that when the woman who was ridiculed by her father permanently releases the feeling of humiliation, she divorces her husband and gets a new job. Rather she starts making choices that no longer replicate the feelings she associates with her childhood ridicule.
EFT is a method of undoing the emotional short circuit. When dismantled, the misfiring suppressed emotion no longer exists, just like when you separate two sparking wires, the spark no longer exists. It cannot come back, because there is nowhere for it to live.
EFT works by a process of mentally focusing on the emotion while tapping with your fingers on certain energy points on the body. The tapping reroutes the short-circuited energy back along its normal path. The process has been likened to emotional acupuncture without the needles. It is extremely simple to do and the results can be huge and profound.
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