RELEASE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE
ABOUT EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE
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Many of us—unknowingly or knowingly—carry around the energy of ‘emotional baggage’ in our systems. It tends to be composed of difficult memories, traumas and shocks, but also of seemingly insignificant experiences that did have great sway over us. When this baggage is held back rather than released of its emotional charge, it continues to carry an invisible influence over us.
This influence can be seen in unsupportive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour we can’t seem to shake. It may show up in repeating dynamics we experience, outdated roles we play, procrastinations we can’t shift, reactions we can’t control, critical self-talk we perpetuate, undermining beliefs we cling to, physical symptoms we exhibit, addictions we are slaves to and so on.
Some of us have had very difficult emotional experiences. Others less so, yet estimates suggest that most adults have had between 50–100 experiences charged with strong emotional stress. War veterans and those living in conditions of conflict, violence, abuse, famine, drought, displacement and human trafficking might be carrying many hundreds of these emotional legacies. Human beings are overall a traumatised species.
In one way or another, we all carry emotional baggage from our past. The charged issues we deal with in the present often have their roots in earlier experiences.
We can tell when such ‘old emotions’ are active: our emotional reactions are disproportionate to a situation. Say we had a bad experience of speaking before a group of classmates in our early teens. It didn’t work out as we had hoped and we could tell no one liked it. We never spoke about it to anyone since that time but repressed the whole experience the best way we could.
What we might not be aware of is that it was the energy of the bad experience that was repressed, and that we unknowingly continue to repress it. In adult life, other situations may unconsciously remind us of that ghastly time, and we find ourselves avoiding to speak in public or experiencing the same heightened sense of inadequacy, fear of rejection or loneliness as we did at that time. The pain of the past has been reactivated in our present.
Difficult experiences leave such imprints when we don’t have the skills to release their emotional charge. We tend to numb any uncomfortable emotional charge while animals can be seen shaking it out after intense experiences.
Very few of us are taught how to release the charge of difficult experiences from our systems. But then many of us were also raised by people who did not have emotional skills themselves. It follows that we adopt avoidant ways such as repression and numbing. Without constructive emotional education at home, school or the pervailing culture, we end up feeling at the mercy of emotions, not enriched by them.
Even when we become aware of beliefs, behaviours and dynamics that are directly connected to emotional baggage, most of us dread addressing these issues, usually out of fear that we could be swamped by the experience rather than freed. The good news is that there are many effective ways of doing this today.
LEARN A RELIABLE RELEASE METHOD
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Releasing the charge of our emotional history is an important part of thriving emotionally. One of the very best tools to emerge in recent decades, Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as EFT or tapping, is particularly effective when it comes to clearing the charge of emotional baggage.
There is a wealth of research and testimonials worldwide to its effectiveness with a range of issues. The reduction of the stress hormone cortisol, for example, has been proven to be reduced by 24% in just one tapping session. Higher percentage has been found in others.
EFT is a great example of a simple protocol that is easy to learn yet very efficient. It does not require going into any detail about emotional issues to give great results. There’s no need to understand why something happened or make sense of what happened. There is no need whatsoever to reactivate difficult experiences in order to radically transform their effects.
It was Gary Craig who developed the technique and made it freely available to the public. Methods for clearing emotional baggage often require training, accreditation, substantial expenditure or a fair amount of practice to work, while EFT happens to be free, easy to learn, straightforward to use and gives excellent results.
There are other approaches as well that combine the current understanding of neurology, psychology and the meridian systems. We could also somatically explore an issue and its effects, or use deep reflection to reach insights that in themselves give relief. Some approaches focus on changing the state of consciousness associated with the emotional issue. Sometimes the release of the effects of difficult issues happens through a process of acceptance and letting go. It is also well-known to happen through prayer or by turning our issues over to the care of something we experience as greater than ourselves.
Learning a release method like EFT gives us options for all kinds of charged issues; it is simply an excellent skill to learn. We all have different levels of experience and needs when it comes to releasing emotional baggage. Some of us know what we want to work with and others not. It helps to have a few basic skills under our belt—like knowing how to collaborate with the everyday emotions as they come and go—before engaging with the skill-building that de-charges our emotional baggage.
The effectiveness of using EFT on emotionally charged issues is outstanding. It is as simple as following a spoken routine while using fingers to tap specific points on our upper bodies and face. EFT is sometimes referred to as emotional acupuncture as it uses certain meridian points in the protocol.
The technique restores the energy flow where it has previously been impacted by difficult experiences. The emotional charge associated with our difficult, hurtful emotional experiences is drained. Whether it is bad memories, trauma, fears, phobias or hurts, we are bound to see results with tapping. It also helps overcome obstacles like self-defeating patterns in our thinking, behaviours and beliefs. It can deal with symptoms, patterns and core issues.
With tapping there is never a need to go into the details of a traumatic event or to dwell on it. The difficult event is only named in order to be tapped on and see the emotional intensity be reduced. Any image memories that additionally come to mind are addressed in tapping rounds as well.
This is not to say that we don’t approach our most difficult emotional issues with both respect and caution. One EFT protocol is to tap while a difficult subject matter is projected at a distance—much like being at the movies and seeing the screen further away. At any hint of distress, we stop the mental projection to tap and reduce the emotional charge of this particular part of the experience, then continue this ‘view and tap’ until the whole ‘movie’ has had its emotional intensity reduced or eliminated.
EFT can be used to work through backlogs of our issues or used on the spot when something has just happened. It offers what many of us do not have; a greater autonomy of influencing our emotional health and wellbeing.
EFT & IMAGE MEMORIES
Our life experiences are primarily processed internally in image form, not in the words of alphabets. With EFT, it is beneficial to work directly with these image memories.
Image memories tend to organise into clusters—or networks—that rarely make rational sense. There is no need to understand them to release the emotional charge they carry.
Imagine the crushed ice in a glass filled with soda. A block of the ice has formed and it seems really solid. But once it begins to melt, it disappears in no time at all. Now imagine this happening to clusters of charged emotional issues that have influenced you for as long as you can remember—the liberation can feel nothing less than miraculous! When we reduce the emotional charge of one issue it also tends to soften other issues in the same cluster.
So when we release the emotional charge of baggage with EFT, additional images memories or associations might also emerge. The trick is to notice these and tap them as well. Then whole networks of connected issues soften and can eventually release their charge.
It works best with tapping to be specific in the way we word our focus: for example, ’the shock of breaking my left leg’ instead of something global like ‘my self-esteem issues.’ When we use clear and specific language to describe the charged image memory, it is much easier to see tangible results from the tapping than it is with broader themes. The latter reduces more slowly and subtly.
A constructive starting point is to learn EFT and practice it on situations in daily life. An excellent option is also to work with an experienced EFT practitioner.
USING EFT
EFT offers a key skill when managing our emotional health and wellbeing, and the effectiveness of the technique on emotionally charged issues is outstanding. There are hundreds of studies that testify to its value, and hundreds of thousands of people have personal experience of remarkable changes using it.
MEASURING CHARGED CONTENT
A practical way to assess progress and results of the EFT protocol is to measure the emotional intensity before, during and after our tapping rounds. Using a scale of 0-10, with 10 representing the highest intensity of charge, we can see it soften and melt away. Measuring also helps to indicate when the tapping rounds are done. Ideally we tap until the intensity measure of an issue is below 3 on the scale.
BEGIN TAPPING
The EFT routine can be used in all kinds of creative ways. We can tap while telling the story of something that happened or while having sensations and emotions that we have no words for. We can tap while looking back over our lives for emotionally charged memories or when experiencing symptoms of pain. We can even tap unconsciously held beliefs. The motto is to “try it on everything.”
But we do need an entry point when we begin tapping. It can be an aspect that comes to mind about the particular situation we want to tap on. We give it a label, measure its strength and begin the tapping routine to release the charge of that situation. If our focus is on an emotionally charged pattern that reoccurs in our lives, a good entry point for it would be to tap the earliest image memory we have of this pattern.
It is inevitably empowering of our inner work to begin by setting an intention for it. In this context, an intention could be something like: My intention is to learn the EFT method and use it to serve my wellbeing in all ways.
THE EFT PROTOCOL
Part 1 THE SET-UP
CHOOSE YOUR CHARGED ISSUE & GIVE IT A TITLE
Decide the issue you want to work on and give it a name, a label
( Ex: ‘The break-up call’ ‘The first night alone’ ‘The mental obsession about my ex.’ )
MEASURE THE EMOTIONAL CHARGE
Tune into the issue that you want to tap and get a reading of how high the intensity is on a scale from 1-10
( 1 is a tiny charge, 10 the highest intensity )
TAP & SPEAK
Begin by tapping on point 1 on the illustration - it is on the fleshy side of the hand
Use a couple of fingers to tap this point while you repeat this sentence three times over:
‘Even though I have such strong emotions about [__your issue__] I deeply and completely accept myself’
Part 2 TAP THE POINTS
Now move the tapping to the point at the top of your head, point 2 on the illustration
Tap it with your fingers 7-8 times while saying: “The strong emotions about [__your issue__]
Repeat the same tapping on points 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 while speaking
You have now done one tapping round
MEASURE THE EMOTIONAL CHARGE
When you are finished this first tapping round, measure the intensity of the issue from 0-10
CONTINUE THE TAPPING ROUNDS
Continue tapping rounds until the charge has been significantly reduced or is under 3 in intensity. Adapt the language to reflect your experience of the issue
Part 3
TAP ASSOCIATIONS
If any other associations or image memories have risen while you tapped, tap on them
MEASURE THE CHARGE
Check in on each issue that you tap and measure the reduction of emotional charge
NOTICE THE EFFECTS
Tune in to the issue you began with and notice the effects of your tapping. How are you feeling? What was the experience like for you?
If you already have a sense of other issues to tap, note them down as headers on a To Tap List.
These rounds of skill-building becomes second nature when it is practiced in daily life:
I notice feeling emotionally charged and release the intensity by tapping until it has reduced.
For detailed support on various tapping subjects go to www.emofree.com. It is the official EFT website created by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT. There are hundreds upon hundreds of YouTube videos about using EFT for different issues and thetappingsolution.com also provides a yearly summit and an app for EFT tapping.
IDENTIFY ISSUES, PATTERNS & TRIGGERS
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If we tend to get swamped by emotion when recalling challenging issues of our lives, what follows is not for us right now. If we are experiencing a heightened emotional sensitivity at the moment, these processes should wait for another time.
Releasing emotional baggage can be done safely and without re-triggering but when we already feel emotional, the invitation is to care for ourselves with self-acceptance, self-compassion and gentleness. A time comes when we are ready for this type of inner work, and learning a release method would be a good first step.
For some of us it works best not to do this type of inner work alone but in the company of a professional, an EFT partner or a group of people who also want to identify, list and release their emotional baggage.
ENGAGING WITH ISSUES, PATTERNS & TRIGGERS
Depending on our experience with inner work and the content we identify, we need to honour our own sense of rightness about engaging with this type of inner work and proceed responsibly. It is wise to spread release work over several sessions and also use tapping to release the emotional charge of the content along the way.
Engaging with, and releasing the charge of emotional baggage and issues, takes time and effort. We proceed with such inner work according to our needs and abilities at any given time. For those items that have become obstacles to our wellbeing, a steady, gentle approach is recommended to melt their influence away.
Should we decide to proceed with the release of emotionally charged baggage, we first need to name a relevant issue to focus on—but other than that, there is no need to explore the issue further. Some of us make a list of our known issues and plan subsequent sessions to address these one by one.
When we choose to list the emotional issues we want to de-charge, the identification process needs to be brief, to the point and somewhat business like. It is important not to go down the memory lane and get hooked, waylaid or lost in details. We are focused on a straightforward fact-finding mission: to name and list those charged items that we want to be liberated from.
We turn to the effective EFT tapping protocol to reduce the emotional intensity of the listed items but we can also make this list while using EFT. In that case we need to learn the technique first and use it while we do our fact-finding.
LIST YOUR EMOTIONAL ISSUES
This is a time-limited written process so set a timer for 5-10 minutes.
The idea is to write down the first answers that come to you on your list and to use a simple header or key-word for it, for example ‘The first day of school’, ‘The operation ’, ‘The horrible maths test.’
Create the conditions you need for not being disturbed while working through this process.
You need paper and pen handy to list the issues.
TUNE IN
Relax your body, turn inwards and take a few deep breaths
Set an intention to easily identify the issues you would benefit from de-charging
REFLECT BACK IN TIME & MAKE A LIST OF HEADERS
Think back on your life. As you move down the memory lane, pay attention to any image memory that feels emotionally charged. Notice those times that still feel hurtful, sad, lonely or shocking but do not linger on them. Just give each a name and write it down on the list, then continue scanning through your life until the timer rings
If you want, you can also use any of the following ideas to help identify items for your list:
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What have I felt frightened about for a long time? Name this and write it down as a header
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What have I felt resentful about for a long time? Name this and write it down as a header
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What have I felt really sad about for a long time? Name this and write it down as a header
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What have I felt regretful about for a long time? Name it and write it down as a header
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What have I felt inadequate about for a long time? Name it and write it down as a header
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What people have I felt most upset with? Name these and write them down as headers
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What experiences with others would I find hard to forgive? Name these and write them down as headers
• What 1–10 events in the last year have really gotten to me? Name these and write them down as headers.
NOTICE THE EFFECTS
Shake your arms, wriggle your toes and take a few deep breaths and release any lingering tension while repeating the word RELEASE.
DE-CHARGE WITH TAPPING
Tap rounds according to your needs. Put away the list and reserve time-slots in your diary to reserve tapping sessions for one of these items at a time.
FINE-TUNE
We can be creative with the set-up sentences in the tapping protocol and use language that resonates with us. We are free to tap with the wording that is authentic to how we feel. A couple of examples: Even though I have felt very afraid of _______ for such a long time, I choose to release this deep-rooted fear now. Or: Even though I feel so angry about the relationship with ________, I choose to release the emotions of our troubled past and discover whether to end it. I also choose to cultivate more compassion for us both from now on.
When we regularly release our emotional baggage and charged issues over time, we are in a peace-making process with ourselves. A few additional issues might come to light in the course of it. By adding them to our list and tapping on these as well, we ensure that a thorough housecleaning gets done of our emotional baggage.
This practice round of skill-building becomes second nature when it is practiced in daily life:
I notice charged memories from my past and use the EFT protocol to release their emotional charge then and there.
RECOGNISE YOUR PATTERNS
Beyond identifying the actual content of our emotional baggage, it is helpful to also identify the emotional patterns that repeat in our lives. Our constructive self-awareness increases and it becomes easier to adapt solutions to them, should they activate.
This following exercise goes deep so it is wise to respect any need we have of doing it in the company of a professional, an EFT partner or a support group we trust. It is ideal to do this type of inner work over a planned series of time limited sessions.
The process collects spontaneous responses to typically sensitive themes. The purpose is to name and list them. Again we need to keep this work simple and to the point. Our job is to gather simple information only about emotionally charged patterns that repeat in our lives. The purpose is to establish a reference point for subsequent inner work where we release the emotional intensity of patterns with EFT.
We can also make this list while using EFT. If so, we need to learn the method first and then tap the points while we are identifying these patterns. It is described in this section.
Set up the conditions so you are not disturbed while working through this process. You need to have paper and pen to create spider charts and name the patterns you discover.
It is best to move through the statements below quite quickly.
TUNE IN
Take a couple of deep, relaxing breaths, then focus your attention and begin
DRAW & ADD KEY WORDS
Draw a spider chart at the centre of the page.
Add a key word to it in response to the following question:
What springs to mind (images, memories, words or beliefs) when I think about_______?
Here we will use TRUST as an example.
What springs to mind (images, memories, words or beliefs) when I think about TRUST?
Add these associations to the spider chart.
If you want to explore the theme further, create new spider charts on the theme. Add keywords for the associations you might have when you think about it. Here we continue on the theme TRUST:
Able to trust
Not able to trust
Having trusted
Being trusting
DE-CHARGE WITH EFT
If you feel any charge in the process of identifying these keywords, reduce it with tapping rounds. Keep the spider chart/s for the coming weeks as other associations might rise that can also be put to rest. When you look at your spider charts and feel it is done, get rid of them.
OPTIONAL FOCUS
The same instructions can be used for creating spider charts of associations for other themes we might want to address. Again consider working on these themes with a support group or professional.
These examples of themes tend to hold charge for many of us so it is particularly supportive to tap while working on each one. The principle is: Whenever we feel emotional charge around these keywords, we reduce it with tapping rounds.
What images, memories, words or beliefs spring to mind when I think about ___?
DE-CHARGE
Whatever we identify as repeating themes in our lives can be de-charged—one theme at a time—of their emotional intensity using EFT. Choose one pattern to begin with and set aside time to continue the work until you have de-charged those that matter to you.
This skill-building approach becomes second nature when practiced in daily life:
I notice when an emotionally charged pattern is active and choose to release the charge by tapping on the spot, or at a scheduled time, until it is de-charged.
DEFUSE YOUR FAMILIAR TRIGGERS
Human beings are sensitive creatures and may well add more emotional triggers throughout life. There are external triggers that set us off in disproportionate reactiveness, and internal ones as well. Their origin often stem from pivotal moments of our emotional history where strong beliefs were formed about ourselves, others and life generally, ending up with core beliefs that, for example, we are not good enough, unloveable or undeserving.
Triggers act like fuses that ignite the dynamite of charged emotional baggage stored in the body. This emotional energy has been amassed from challenging experiences that weren’t given time and space to integrate, release or heal and instead becomes the power source behind emotional triggers.
They may be sourced in trauma but can also be born from quite subtle experiences. They could have been created even in quiet moments when we did not feel heard, included or respected in some significant way, or were all too young to know how to deal with something going on. We felt strongly charged emotions but they had nowhere safe to go.
When the charge of emotional baggage is not released, it creates unconscious drives for getting those needs met later. Patterns are created around repeating themes. A pattern of not feeling validated or respected young, for example, could play out in later years as a compulsion to do whatever it takes to get it, or needing to be right, getting the credit or being praised. When it does not work, the charge of that emotional baggage linked to disrespect is triggered.
Our thinking isn’t rational when we are triggered; we over-react and end up doing things we might regret later. Strong triggers release stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, and it takes a lot of time for these to flush out of the system, let alone for rationality or reflection to be restored, begging the question: what happened there?
What emotions were involved? What was I thinking about before I being triggered? Was any damage done? ``Does the experience remind me of anything in my past? Do other situations or persons come to mind? By gathering such information retrospectively, we buffer the impact when our triggers kick in and increase the ability to choose.
The idea with this practice process is to find examples of times when you were triggered and look for possible drivers that were activated, write them down, and de-charge their emotional charge on the spot or later. Avoid dwelling on the questions but instead write down the first answer that comes to mind.
TUNE IN
Take a deep breath, let go of the world around you and turn your attention inwards. Tilt your head down toward your chest and put your hands there
REFLECT BACK IN TIME & RESPOND
Reflect back in time to connect with events where disproportionately strong emotions were triggered in you, whether they were expressed or repressed. Listen out for an inner response to these questions and write them down:
What situations and events have always pushed my buttons?
When are my reactions always over the top?
What tones of voice really get to me?
What words trigger me?
What looks trigger me?
What sounds trigger me?
What images trigger me?
What smells trigger me?
What trips me up over and over again?
Next take one of these identified triggers and run it by the following questions. Does this trigger resonate with any of the following statements?
CHANGE FOCUS & LOOK CLOSELY
I felt scared of not getting what I wanted
I felt disrespected
I felt frustrated
I felt manipulated
I felt unheard
I felt excluded
I felt unloved
I wanted to be right
I wanted to get the credit
I wanted respect
I wanted control
I was scared of losing something
I wanted to protect myself
I wanted to protect my self-image
I wanted approval
I wanted to impress someone
I wanted to be loved
I wanted to be heard
I wanted to teach someone a lesson
Something else… It was____
DE-CHARGE
De-charge the emotional intensity of this trigger by EFT tapping.
Repeat the process with the other triggers you have identified and de-charge each one or set up sessions to do so until you have covered all the triggers on your list.
This skill-building approach becomes second nature when practiced in daily life:
I notice when I am triggered and de-charge the emotional intensity immediately.
ABOUT BELIEFS
Beliefs begin to form at the very beginning of life; some might even be hardwired in us before we are born. They become filtering systems in our lives and have immense power over what we experience, and what we perceive is possible to do, have, be, feel, say, create, etc.
The most influential beliefs, core beliefs, tend to be formed when we are at our most impressionable ages and learn through trance like brain states. We are not yet able to tell whether something is true or not, nor can we makes sense of them or put formative experiences into words. It takes time to access other faculties like rationality, logic and articulate speech.
Core beliefs are rarely accurate as they tend to be black and white and related to our survival—whether it is safe or not for us to trust others, whether we can get our needs met or not. They end up meshing with the fabric of who we become and powerfully influence our developing sense of self and self-worth.
We add to our fundamental beliefs as we grow up. We assign meaning to the situations we encounter and who we need to be to meet them. Even the smallest event can lead to a firm belief. A moment of burning cookies at a young age can quite literally expand into a lifelong conviction that we are ‘terrible in the kitchen.’ So can winning or loosing a competitive game at a tender age launch a belief that it is possible, or not, in similar challenges that come later.
ENGAGING WITH UNDERMINING BELIEFS
Limiting beliefs carry a lot of influence and emotional weight. To influence them we first need to identify some undermining beliefs we have, and subsequently de-charge any emotional intensity they carry. To do that, we need starting points.
IDENTIFYING BELIEFS
Beliefs such as personal preferences, opinions and evaluations are quite easy to spot; we can catch ourselves, and others as well, repeating stuff like: ‘I’m hopeless at maths’, ‘I’m always late’, ‘I’m a terrible swimmer’, ‘I’ve never been good with money’, ‘I never finish anything’. The language of always, never and other absolutes reveal undermining beliefs in action.
We can also access hidden beliefs through memory images of, say, a heart ache. A formative experience that led us to believe that we are not as loveable as another sibling can cluster together with other emotionally charged experiences where we have felt of secondary importance, rejected or abandoned. The charge held by the belief amplifies and adds volume in other similar settings.
Core beliefs are also expressed in the stories we tell about ourselves and how we assign meaning to new events. They continually find expression in a multitude of ways; they show up in decision-making, thinking, emotions, speech, behaviours and actions.
Finding our core beliefs takes some effort as they tend to be unconscious in nature. As the processing speed of the unconscious has been estimated to be at least a million times faster than everyday cognition, an unconscious core belief operates so much faster and powerfully than any conscious efforts to control it. By their very nature, core beliefs are traditionally challenging to identify but today there are many good options available to get it done.
Our unconscious core beliefs show up indirectly in the way we relate to others and to life’s opportunities; for instance we might consistently act on an inner conviction that ‘I’m responsible for other people’s feelings and wellbeing’, or ‘I must never tell the truth about what’s going on.’
Maybe instead a conviction operates that ‘I don’t matter,’ or ‘I don’t belong,’ or ‘I’m never chosen.’ The absolute conviction could be that ‘I’m never good enough,’ or ’I don’t deserve respect’, or ‘I’m a failure,’ or ‘I’ll never succeed’. Core beliefs may be identified that ’I’m not loveable,’ or ‘I’m not wanted,’ or ‘I’m a burden,’ or ‘I’m not safe,’ or ‘I am abandoned.’ Core beliefs are rarely accurate yet so many of us live our lives unconsciously believing them and acting upon them. When we discover these undermining influences, there is no time to waste transforming them.
Let’s say we engage and discover that one of our firm convictions is that we ‘always procrastinate.’ To know more we can intentionally look for image memories of feeling stuck, held back by something or someone, inhibited, or maybe forced to do something against our wishes.
This cluster of emotionally charged content holds in place the belief about our procrastination. For the belief to cease operating, it needs to be de-charged. Image memories provide starting points to constructively engage with this work.
A simple approach is to take a few minutes to complete examples of these sentences
I always ____
I never ____
I should ____
I have to ____
Do we spot any self-limiting convictions here? For any self-limiting sentence we discover, it helps to add image memories that spring to mind.
Next we could identify something we really want but is out of reach in our opinion. It could be in the area of our health, relationships, creativity, interests, projects, finances, work etc.
We make a quick list of all the reasons why we can’t reach our goal. What comes to mind immediately?
The reason we can’t have what we want is likely to involve some undermining beliefs. Going through the list and identifying each obstacle, we can see that it tends to be what we believe, rather than established facts.
By choosing one undermining belief that we have identified above, we can simply tune into it and ask internally if every part of our system is willing and able to change this belief now. When we get a sense of Yes, we are ready to proceed. If the answer is No, we just choose another self-limiting belief as starting point to our work of transforming redundant core beliefs.
The emotional charge of our undermining and limiting beliefs can be de-charged with EFT.
A method called muscle testing, or applied kinesiology, can be used to identify our core beliefs. It confirms whether a belief is operating unconsciously or not, but can also be used to cull other information we may want to have about our health and body. Muscle testing reveals in simple terms what we unconsciously hold to be true.
It consists of simple physical gestures that establish communications with internal information systems beyond our conscious awareness. It is most effective to work with a professional kinesiologist who uses the full protocol but muscle testing can also be done alone in simpler versions.
ABOUT BELIEFS
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MUSCLE TESTING
Simple forms of muscle testing rely on having a clear statement to test for a yes and a no. We need to use affirmative belief statements. It doesn’t work to use negation such as ‘I don’t feel confident dealing with my finances.’ We only test affirming versions such as ‘I feel confident dealing with my finances’ to learn whether we unconsciously believe this or not.
With a belief statement to test, we lock our fingers together, tune into the belief statement, speak it out loud and muscle test to learn whether it is in operation or not.
The belief statement is tested against the strength of a muscle response. When the muscles respond with strength, there is an agreement, a YES, regarding the belief statement. It means this belief is operating.
When the muscle response is weak, there’s disagreement, a NO. It means that this particular belief is not operating. Another belief could be in operation instead.
ARTICULATING BELIEF STATEMENTS
We can either articulate one belief statement at a time or make a list of belief statements we would like to test. The list needs to have short, clear, and affirmative belief statements.
Articulate those beliefs you would love to have in the areas of health, relationships, self-worth, creativity, prosperity and so on.
ESTABLISHING YES & NO RESPONSES
While it is easy to learn this simple version of muscle testing, and it can become a trusted friend in everyday life for different purposes, it requires some practice to get used to reading the YES and NO signals of this muscle language. They can feel somewhat different from day to day, even hour to hour, so we need to check what they are like in the here and now. This is the focus of the following practice process.
THE PRACTICE PROCESS
Choose a belief you want to test and write it down as a clear statement
Next put together the thumb and index finger of your left hand to form a circle
Do the same with the right thumb and index finger
Link the two circles—see the illustration
Drop your chin down towards your chest and look down
With feeling, speak out loud something that is true, like the date you were born “I was born in ____ on the ——“
Try to pull your finger circles apart
Are the finger circles holding? If so, this is what a YES feels like today
Again with feeling, now say out loud something that is false, like the wrong date for your birthday, and then try to pull your finger circles apart again
When the finger circles do not hold, this is what NO feels like right now
If you want, double-check these YES and NO responses by running through a second protocol
Test pulling your finger circles apart while thinking about something or someone you really love. It could be a piece of music, a colour, a view, a person, a meal, an activity
Did your finger circles hold? If so, it is indeed what a YES feels like right now
Now test pulling the fingers apart while thinking about something or someone you dislike.
When your circled finger slip apart, this is what a NO feels like right now
Practice these until you have a good sense of the difference between a message of YES and of NO in the muscle testing.
With the ability to differentiate between yes and no communications, you can test the belief statement you have chosen and see if it is an active unconscious belief.
MUSCLE TEST YOUR BELIEF STATEMENTS
Choose a belief statement you want to to test, write it down and put it on your lap
TUNE IN
Tune in, take a couple of breaths and relax your body
Put together the thumb and index finger of your left hand to form a circle, then do the same with the right thumb and index finger
Link the two circles—see the illustration
Drop your chin down towards your chest and look down
Read out loud the belief statement, then begin to pull you fingers apart
When your finger circles hold strong, there’s agreement with your belief statement, a YES. And when your finger circles can easily be pulled apart, there is disagreement with it, a NO.
You now know if your belief statement is operating as an unconscious belief.
Whenever you discover that a self-limiting belief is operating, mark them as such on your list. Once we have answers from muscle testing, it becomes quite straightforward to release the holding power of unconscious beliefs with EFT tapping.
These skill-building processes become second nature when practiced in daily life:
I notice when I limit myself, muscle test to establish if an unconscious belief is active. Whenever I find self-limiting beliefs operating, I release their charge and influence with EFT.
SUPPORT LINKS
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For detailed support on various tapping subjects go to www.emofree.com. It is the official EFT website created by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT. There are hundreds upon hundreds of YouTube videos about using EFT for different issues and thetappingsolution.com also provides a yearly summit and an app for EFT tapping.