The Emotional Freedom Technique - An Added Benefit!

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) - created by Gary Craig

http://www.emofree.com

 

 “It’s In Here!”

Some Thoughts About An Important Aspect of EFT

In America, for decades, we have been conditioned to think that other people are responsible for how we feel.  The literature, the television shows, the movies, all tell us stories about how one person offends another, hurts another, makes another angry, sad or frustrated.  Our song lyrics, even the “good ones” say things like, “You light up my life.”, and “You make me so very happy!”, and “You broke my heart when you walked away.”

There are many people who work in the field of psychology and philosophy who study the actual process of thoughts and their relationship to emotions, who have for many decades known that this is not the way the system works.  In reality each of us creates our individual, internal reality.  Each of us makes choices, on a regular basis, about what to focus on, and how we will interpret what we see, hear and feel. 

In actuality thoughts lead to feelings and feelings are the shadows of thought.  If you are to feel an emotion of sadness, you need to focus on thoughts that you interpret as sad, or thoughts about a time in the past when you experienced sadness.  If you wish to feel joy you need to think about things that have happened which you interpret as being good and joyful.  There is nothing inherent about the thing you think of, which makes it a joyful thought.  It is how you think about it and interpret it that makes it joyful for you. 

For example, when asked to let themselves feel joy, some people focus on the first time the held a baby kitten.  For others the thought of holding a baby kitten brings up thoughts of responsibility, expense, and cleaning the carpets and furniture which will be soiled by the kitten. 

One of my favorite quotes from the book The Mirror Theory by Betsy Otter-Thompson is; “The moment you think that someone else has to change for you to be happy, the key to happiness is lost.”.  This is just one of many wonderful quotes which highlight the actuality that, “I cause my own pain, joy, sadness, contentment, frustration, elation, anger, guilt, and shame and joy.”.  I do this by choosing to focus on something and then interpreting it in a way which leads to one of those emotions.  Dr. Michael Ryce writes “If I am in pain, I am in error!” and he has created self-help worksheets which step people through the process of identifying exactly which thoughts are connected to which emotions and how that is causing pain and discomfort in their lives. www.whyagain.com 

Each time I say to someone, “You make me so angry.”  I am choosing to focus on them and their behavior as the cause of my anger and discomfort.  In doing this I prevent my self from seeing the true cause of my anger, which is always inside of me.  It is my thoughts which cause my emotions, not the actions or reactions of anyone else.  Each time I tell someone that they have offended me, I block myself from seeing the actual process of how I have chosen to take offense and then feel offended by what they have said or done.

Gary Craig, in his EFT DVD’s, repeatedly talks about how the source of all the discomfort a person feels is “a disruption in the body’s energy system.”  He teaches people the process of The Emotional Freedom Technique, (EFT), to help them remove the disruption in their body’s energy system.  This is a powerful process which I describe as; "Giving yourself an acupressure treatment for any physical, mental, or emotional discomfort".

I have discovered an added benefit of the EFT process.  When you are tapping or rubbing on the acupressure points on your body, and repeating an affirmation which pairs the  problem with acceptance, love and forgiveness of self, you are physically pointing to the source of your discomfort!  You are continually tapping on YOUR body. You are not tapping on the body of the person who did something you chose to get angry about.  You are tapping on your body, as if to say, “It’s In Here!”, “The source, and therefore the solution to my pain, Is In Here!”

I have found that adding, “It’s In Here!” to my affirmations has helped reinforce the knowledge that I am creating, and therefore can eliminate, most of my pain and discomfort, whether it is physical, mental or emotional.  I alternate using this affirmation in addition to, and instead of, the standard affirmation format recommended in the EFT manual.  When I focus on the anger I am feeling, about something someone said or did, I begin tapping and say The Setup Phrase, “Even though I am angry about what they said, I deeply and completely love, accept and forgive myself, and I know, “It’s In Here!”  Then my reminder phrase is something like, “This anger, that’s In Here”.

Remember that whenever you are using the Emotional Freedom Technique, you are physically pointing to the source of your pain and discomfort.  It may help to verbally remind yourself that, “It’s In Here!”

Thanks for reading, and Happy Tapping!

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love.  Everything else is false.

Healing Through Relationships Part II

I want to dedicate this entry to the wonderful people who give up their Tuesday nights to come to the Mindshifters group, and roll up their proverbial sleeves to work on the difficult, scary, and painful issues that most people run and hide from.  It is an honor to be able to work with you all!

Last night our Mindshifters group watched the second half of the Michael Ryce lecture titled: Healing Through Relationships.  Dr. Ryce talks about how he used to call the lecture: Healing Your Relationships,  but changed the title when he realized that relationships are not sick or broken.  He describes how the process of conflict in relationship is actually a vital process which brings our awareness to negative energy and emotions which we have hidden from ourselves, until such time as our partner in a relationship triggers that negative energy.  He focuses on how this is a blessing because we are not able to dismantle or heal that negative energy unless we become aware of it.

Dr. Ryce details the two things that are necessary for healing.  1) A negative, false reality must come into conscious awareness.  2) Conscious, active Love must be brought to awareness at the same time.  The presence of Love is the mechanism which transmutes all other energy, thereby healing the negative energy, negative emotion, and pain connected with the negative, false reality.  This is critical because it is the negative energy which we store in our bodies and energy systems which end up disintegrating our energy system and creating the physical pain, and illness which eventually leads to aging and death.

In light of this Dr. Ryce makes the statement that "A lack of communication is the  major cause of death".  He explains that every time we refuse to acknowledge and dismantle a negative thought, emotion, or "reality", we refuse to communicate about it and work it out.  When we do this we store the negative energy in our system and it stays hidden there until it begins to disintegrate our energy systems and eventually our physical bodies.

Another point in the lecture talks about "The Commitment", which is the tool they have created for navigating through relationships, in both good times and bad.  The commitment is a tool which helps people interact from the space of Love in a relationship.  Before beginning to use the tool of The Commitment, it is important to decide to have a new purpose for being in a relationship.  For most people raised in this culture, the purpose for being in a relationship is usually two-fold, 1) Deciding who is in charge, 2) Determining how much stuff we can get.  

The suggested new purpose for being in a relationship is:

 "We want to heal!"

Summary:

1) We are creating our realities!

2) Any emotion we feel is  something that comes from inside of us, not from outside events or the actions of other people!

3) The fact that we did not feel this emotion until the other person "did what they did",  means that this negative energy was hidden from us!

4) The fact that the energy was hidden from us means that it was hurting us without our knowledge and would eventually lead to further breakdown in our energy systems and physical bodies.

5) The fact that we are now upset means that we can see the negative energy/ false reality, and do something to correct it and heal from it.

6) The fact that someone "did what they did" that resulted in us getting upset, is a real blessing,  and the only way for us to heal those hidden and repressed parts of our energy system. 

7) The more we work to find and eliminate the negative energy, negative emotions, and painful realities we have hidden from ourselves, the more easily we can see that;

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love.  Everything else is false.

Gregg Braden's Idea of the Biggest Dogma

A few weeks ago the Mindshifters group watched the Mayan Calendar lecture by Ian Lungold in which Ian stated that the biggest unquestioned belief on this planet is the answer to the question,"What Day Is It?".   In Gregg Braden's book, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief, Mr. Braden proposes that there is another, even more insidious, unquestioned belief which may be the root cause of most human suffering.  That belief would be the answer to the question I will paraphrase as, "Is there such a thing as Good versus Evil, outside of the human mind?"

Gregg Braden provides reports on research and scientific theory which supports the idea that human mind energy, the power of our thoughts and beliefs,  may be the greatest force on the planet.  The power of the human mind to create realities for each  of us and to effect our physical bodies and our environment, is being understood more completely than ever before, in recent history.  So if it is true that human thought can effect the energy which makes up our bodies and  our world, and that we create the reality we experience, then it would be critically important to understand how that process works.  

One of the Bottom Line Observations I wrote about in an earlier post is, "The events that happen to me and around me in my life, are not nearly as important as how I interpret and respond to those events."  So if I create my own internal reality and chose to believe that there are good and evil forces in the world battling for control and supremacy, then I will be convinced that I live in a "war zone".  If I am convinced that I live in a "war zone" I will be constantly on guard and in a state of tension which will negatively effect my physical health and emotions.  If I buy into the idea that there are evil spirits, or a "devil" battling a "god" for possession of my soul, I am creating a reality of ultra high stakes danger and fear within which I then live.

What if everything in the world  I experience comes from the same source and is connected by energies I can't yet see or understand?  What if there is no good or evil except as human interpretation makes it so?  What if everything that happens on the physical plane is just exchange of energy at different levels?  What if my job is to learn how to monitor, and how to raise the vibration of my energy to the level it originally came from?  What if my only real job in this world is to learn to stay in the higher vibrational energy that some have called God, and some have called Love.  What if I am creating all the stress, anger, and pain in my life by wanting things to be different than they are?

More and more sources are coming to light which point to the ancient knowledge that the world is all connected and from one source, and that the energy we "see", and "feel", and "hear" is the tiniest fraction of what truly exists.  

What if I am creating all the stress, anger, and pain in my life by wanting things to be different than they are?

What if my only real job in this world is to learn to stay in the higher vibrational energy that some have called God, and some have called Love. 

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love.  Everything else is false.