Decoding the Emotional Mind:
How knowing just three Rules of Emotional Logic can help you make progress with EFT.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard an EFT client say “I know this isn’t logically true, but emotionally this is how I feel.”  
We often divide our experience into logical versus non-logical. Or rational versus irrational. This division leads to a sense of internal conflict – “A part of me thinks this, but another part of me feels this.”  And then this can distract us into focusing on the feeling of conflict (because that’s uncomfortable) instead of the actual issues involved.

But the distinction between Logical and Emotional is misleading - because in fact emotions do have a logic all of their own, if only we can decode how that logic works. When I say they have a logic, I mean they are not “random”. There are clear and highly predictable patterns driving the emergence of these feelings, even if the feelings themselves make us feel chaotic and out of control. Getting a handle on some of the key “rules” of Emotional Logic can help us feel less at the mercy of “random” emotions. And more importantly it can give us some vital clues about how to apply EFT to help manage them.

Rule of Emotional Logic 1: The purpose of all negative emotions is to keep us safe.

This is the most important aspect of Emotional Logic. Whatever the emotion you may actually be feeling, ultimately it is rooted in Fear. The emotion you are having is designed to prevent or somehow avoid the thing that your unconscious thinks is a threat to you. The Fear can take many guises, for example:
- Performance nerves or anxiety are a fear of failure, of being judged negatively by others, or even a fear of being noticed.
- Cravings are a fear of not having enough or of not being able to calm underlying anxiety.
- Anger is usually triggered by loss or violation, plus an assumption (fear) that the loss is irrecoverable.
- Procrastination can be a fear of success, or a fear of failure
- Work Stress can involve multiple fears including the fear of losing one's job, the fear of not getting a pay rise or promotion, or simply the fear of not performing to one's own standards.

How can we use this knowledge when applying EFT? Start by looking for what you might be afraid of in the situation - what might happen - and what might NOT happen. When it’s proving hard to find the “core issue” for a problem, ask yourself “What do I fear will happen if this emotion goes away?” Often, asking this question will reveal what the problem emotion is keeping you safe from. For instance I was working with someone on their issue of “putting themselves forward in the world" (specifically relating to building up their business). We went around the issue a few times and kept coming up against Safety as a problem. I asked “If you didn’t have this fear of being out in the world, what would happen?”. The answer was “I’d be noticed, and that would be dangerous”. This triggered some childhood memories of when being noticed was a definite danger – neutralizing these memories with EFT resulted in the fear of moving forwards also being reduced.

If you can't find the specific fear involved in the situation, it's still worthwhile assuming there is SOME fear involved and using a general setup statement such as:
                                     "Even though there's a fear behind this problem, I deeply and completely..."
Your emotional mind will know what it is, even if you don't.
(See Gary's Corner below for a link to an article discussing the role of Safety in more detail)

Rule of Emotional Logic 2:  The emotional mind is as literal as a computer.

Words and language are external to the emotional mind. Language in humans developed long after the emotional centres of the brain. This means that each single word individually has the ability to trigger an emotion, just the same as an external visual or auditory input. We may think that some words are equivalent at the conscious level (e.g. “Chocolate = Cocoa = Cadburys = Mars bar”), but at the unconscious level they may be completely different, triggering slightly different pictures and taste memories, and therefore slightly differing emotional responses. And that's why EFT works better the more specific you get.  There may be some generalisation between similar triggers if they are triggering similar emotional responses, but it can’t be assumed.

I myself had this experience when working on chocolate cravings by tapping while eating a Snickers bar. The EFT worked wonders - I found myself a week later having not even thought about chocolate and being content to eat a few pieces of chocolate (offered to me by someone else) when before I would have wanted the whole bar. However, I did mysteriously develop a new craving for Green & Blacks organic chocolate. I never called this chocolate, I always used the term "having some Green & Blacks" - and so somehow this substance was "exempt" from the EFT I'd done on "Chocolate".

So if you're using EFT on a problem it's worthwhile considering all the different words that could be used to describe the situation or the substance and tapping on all of them. Practitioners often implicitly do this by varying the words they use for the reminder phrase on each point as they guide a client. You can use the technique deliberately by tapping on all the related words that seem relevant to you.

Rule of Emotional Logic 3: The emotional mind doesn’t like sudden change (or any change at all really).

World Center for EFT - A new look for Gary Craig's website.

If you haven't been to Gary Craig's website recently at www.emofree.com now would be a good time. It's been completely revamped and has a new and entirely appropriate title "World Center for EFT".

The website has all the great stuff it always had - hundreds of cases histories, articles, resources, practitioner lists and so on.

EFT has developed so much and spread from one person to another so quickly that some users and even some practitioners of EFT aren't aware of where it all began. It's great to see the "source" site for information and training on EFT going from strength to strength and gathering support. The ever expanding list of MD's lending their name and support to this technique on the front page of this site is especially encouraging.

Many EFT users wonder how to go about explaining EFT to friends and relatives or how to present it as a serious technique - you could hardly do better than to give them this web address: www.emofree.com

Gary's Corner

Gary Craig, the originator of EFT maintains an excellent website packed with articles and cases histories..

In  this article Dr Pat Carrington writes about the reasons why many people forget to use EFT just when they most need it:

Why do people resist using EFT?

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