"A Failure of Intelligence"
Or Who to appoint to your personal Joint Intelligence Commitee

It's perhaps the hottest political topic on both sides of the Atlantic - the Joint Intelligence Committees of both the US and UK governments are both being found wanting in terms of the information they provided regarding Iraq. Don't worry - this isn't a political essay and I'm not going to go into the rights or wrongs of that conflict. What this article about is the idea of "Intelligence" - and what place we give it in our lives.

In the West particularly we place such great emphasis on Logic and Rationality - that we think the rational conscious mind is in charge. But in fact it is more the case that the conscious mind is simply one part of ourselves that needs to be involved in making decisions and choosing the direction for our lives.

One of the "soundbites" of the current story about the US Senate Enquiry was that the intelligence agencies were guilty of "Providing intelligence to please" and George Bush is accused of already having decided to invade Iraq before he even saw the intelligence information provided to him.  Again I'm not really trying to make a point about who was right or wrong in this situation - but I am extremely interested in how  this parallels  much psychological research which seems to suggest that most of our decisions are actually emotional - with the rational mind providing us with the "evidence" needed to support the decision - which further adds to the illusion that the decision is based on logic and is "justified".

One of the primary aims of coaching is to help clients become more aware of what is influencing their decisions, and putting the control back where the client really wants it to be.

So, if having the "intelligent" rational mind in sole charge leads to problems, who SHOULD be in charge? Who should you appoint to your own personal Joint Intelligence Committee in order to make the best decisions for yourself?   I'm going to suggest a core structure for your own internal JIC (which you are free to adapt any way you want). In keeping with the language used in the testimony from the US Senate Enquiry, I will refer to each element as "Distinguished Members".

Distinguished Member 1 is the Mind! Even though I've been giving it a hard time, it does have its place (no-one has suggested that the CIA and MI6 get shut down). It needs to be allowed to do what it is good at - noticing, discerning, planning and more. These are all essential elements in creating the life you want - it's just that it shouldn't have the final say.

Distinguished Member 2 is the Body - including the heart, the gut and the energy system. If you know about EFT or other types of energy or body work you won't be surprised to hear this one. And many religions and spiritual systems will talk about the importance of listening to the heart for guidance, and even the "Intelligence of the body" directly (for instance, Deepak Chopra presents this very eloquently in his book "Quantum Healing"). The trouble with focussing exclusively on the body can be as problematic for making good decisions as with focussing exclusively on the rational mind - especially if (like most people) it is sometimes hard to discern between the body's demands resulting from fear, pain and negativity, and the positive signals it provides.

Distinguished Member 3 is the Chairman. It is the presence of the Chairman which prevents us taking an "either/or" approach when trying to decided between "head and heart". The Chairman takes a much wider view which includes them both, knows they both belong to one system, but is free of the negative points of either. It doesn't suffer from the need for "self-justification" or "need to be right" of the Mind. And it doesn't suffer from the emotional negativity that the Body can sometimes fall into (dealable with using EFT of course).

One of the major criticisms made of the inteligence interpretation process has been that there was no group whose job it was to play "devil's advocate" and question the data. This is the role of the Chairman I am proposing. But what exactly is it? Some readers will feel it is something like the Soul, or a Higher Self. You might even think of it as God if that has meaning to you. I like to describe it as "Who You've Decided To Be".

Ultimately the Chairman is a point of view . It's a particular attitude which can be taken consciously in any situation and which asks: "What is the Mind telling me?" AND "What is the Body telling me?" AND "How can this information be USED to help become Who I've Decided To Be?".

Sometimes the Mind will be vetoed, sometimes the Body will be overruled - and sometimes a synthesis or compromise will be reached. Under this system, vetoing the Mind or the Body stops being a matter of conflict  - just as it makes no sense to think of the right hand "vetoing" the left hand, simply because you happened to use your right hand for a task instead of the left - what matters is the quality of the decision made for the system as a whole.

With so many external conflicts going on, this might be a helpful tool in helping to resolve some internal conflicts, one person at a time.

"Coach Yourself with EFT" Your chance to influence my next book.

I am now well into the drafting of my follow up book: "Coach Yourself with EFT". Whereas "The EFT Coach" was aimed primarily at professional coaches, the new book will be written especially for self-help users who may not have heard of EFT or coaching. Althought it will obviously draw on the existing book, it will skip much of the theory and be primarily a workbook for people wanting to apply EFT to specific coaching goals. It will also serve as a companion volume to The EFT Coach, providing coaches with examples and ideas they can use with their own clients.

Right now I'm collecting ideas and would love to hear from readers of the newsletter about the things they'd really like to see covered in the book. You don't have to know much about EFT or coaching. Your suggestions can be as general or as specific as you like.

So, do you want to see sections on handling relationships? business? life purpose? goal setting? making life changes? decluttering?

And how would you want to use a book like this? As a cover to cover read? Or as a reference book to dip into depending on what's happening in your life?

Don't be a "Bunny Boiler" - use EFT!
Or how to stop yourself acting needy when you're dating

A client of mine (name withheld by request) recently told me about a novel use of EFT. We have been working on relationship and dating issues and using EFT to help clear past relationship issues. Now she's dating she found herself really want to ring and text someone she was developing feelings for. But she was also very worried about coming across as too keen, too needy or even a "Bunny Boiler" (from the film Fatal Attraction).

One night she found herself spending a lot of energy trying not to text her current love interest. Noticing the anxiety and tension she was feeling about it, she decided to try EFT and see what happened. She tapped for "Even though I really want to text him...", and "Even though I can hardly stop myself sending a text...".

She said the anxiety reduced straight away and she felt able to think more clearly about what she was doing. In the end she decided to text him after all, but in much more lighthearted and relaxed way.

I'm very proud of my client for "trying it on everything", and using EFT to help be the person she wanted to be in the situation.

Gary's Corner

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

This month:

Relating to my main article, here is Gary discussing how EFT seems to affect both Body (emotions) and Mind (cognitive change) at the same time - reinforcing the idea that they are very much connected and part of the same system.

Learn EFT now! You can start using EFT for yourself right now by downloading my EFT QuickStart manual.

Alternatively, learn directly from Gary Craig, by ordering his training CD's

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