How many times have your emotions gotten the better of you? If you’re like most adults, many of your emotions are instinctual, uncontrollable and some are downright uncomfortable. For some people they feel like a curse. But that’s only because we don’t understand that our emotions are carrying messages that we need to heed!
Unchecked negative emotions wreak havoc on our body’s immune system and overall health. When anger flares up or sadness sets in, they can stick around for days or even years on end. And if this happens these unprocessed emotions can do some major damage to our quality of life. We lose sleep at night, anxiety sets in, sadness turns into depression, anger leads to deep seated resentments and eventually disease proliferates.
So What Are Emotions?
The word “E-motion” is short for Energy in Motion. Our sensory organs are constantly gathering information from our surroundings and sending them by means of our central nervous system to the brain for processing and an “appropriate” response is generated. The amygdala is the oldest, reptilian part of our brain and is responsible for our survival. It harbors our memories and generates our instinctual and emotional responses. If our hand touches a burning hot stove we instantly pull it away from the heat. If we hear a rattlesnake while hiking we immediately go on high alert and our body prepares for fight or flight. The response in these cases is instinctual and helpful behavior in the moment.
But what about when our cheeks blush from embarrassment or we feel red hot anger? These reactions are our body’s response to the thoughts we’re thinking. Our thoughts generate an electrical impulse that moves through the body and our body responds by instantly releasing a whole slew of chemicals — hormones and peptides — and generating a magnetic response that we call emotions. Our body is literally generating an electro-magnetic force field which emanates throughout and out. This is why you can feel the tension in a room you’ve just walked into after an argument has taken place — energy lingers.
Sometimes we have responses that don’t make any sense. Perhaps as a child, when we were vulnerable and unable to protect ourselves, we experienced a traumatic event or events. Hiding or emotionally shutting down was perhaps the best and safest solution then. Now as an adult we’re in a similar situation and though we know we need to stand up for ourselves or speak our truth we find ourselves unable to do so. We’ve instinctually reverted back to the response from childhood.
The amygdala is involved again. When our memories are charged with emotions any similar present moment experience will trigger the same emotional response from the past all over again. Until we release the emotional charge from the memory the past will control us. But when we do release the charge, that memory provides us with valuable knowledge and wisdom.
Emotional Freedom Technique, EFT for short and also known as Tapping, is a very simple and powerful process that releases the emotional charge from past or present experiences. Anyone can do it anytime anywhere. It just requires a bit of knowledge, practice and a willingness to be vulnerable enough that you allow yourself to verbalize and experience the emotions sufficiently, while tapping, to release the charge. I’ve designed BeneFIT’s Tapping Turnaround course to be a thorough introduction to EFT with explanations, strategies, tools, and live, recorded conference calls through which you can get personal coaching and/or ask questions. This is truly a tool that everyone should have and use regularly.
Remember, all emotions are messengers. They are not bad, not even anger. Anger is pointing out that something is unfair. Take the time to release the charge, harvest the learning and then do something about it! When we learn to decipher the message behind our emotions we set ourselves free, and as we harvest its wisdom we are empowered!
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Photo by Mubariz Mehdizadeh on Unsplash