EFT and Popularity

This article about Emotional Freedom Technique is intended for those who have a little familiarity with the process and does not therefore offer much explanation of the tool.  If it seems confusing or mysterious, I would urge you to check out the articles at eftworks.gather.com.

EFT and Popularity

I noticed two nights ago that the emotions of preparing to take a trip were getting the best of me, so I told myself that a few moments taken now would save me a lot of difficulty later.  EFT begins by accessing the immune system, rubbing a spot near the thymus gland, and as I did so, I said Even though I'm feeling frantic about leaving my classes, I deeply and completely accept myself.  I said that three times and proceeded into tapping myself on the key acupuncture points.  The first emotional shift came quickly this time as I felt the desired relief before I had completed the first part of the process.

I don't like taking days off from school.  I love the time off, but it's so much work for me to prepare something a substitute teacher can handle in one of my language classes.  I don't like coming back to my kids complaining about a sub either.  It seems so much easier to stay and teach myself, but my wife and I need to take a trip tomorrow to Florida to see our kids.  My stepson is back from his secret Air Force work in the Middle East, and the weather's still great on the beach.

So the prep work is nearly done, thanks to EFT settling me down. It also got me thinking about a new emotional angle. 

One of the surprises of EFT is that once you deal with an emotional issue, other things come to the surface that you might not have known about.  I knew that I had lots of emotional dust floating around in the rooms of my mind, but I was still surprised by this one.  When Amy George and I recently collaborated on an article, there was a point during the day when her side of the collaboration had twice as many comments as mine, and I had this huge rush of envy, accompanied by old feelings of being oddly unpopular, very, very old feelings that went right back into childhood.  There was nothing rational about this, but I had to summon up all the reasons why I don't want to think twice about popularity, in order to turn away from those feelings. 

Now that I'm feeling pretty calm about leaving my students, I've got energy to deal with this old layer of detritus.

So on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest anxiety, I'm at a six or a seven for worrying about whether or not anyone will read my stuff on Gather, and I'd like to bring this down to a zero, forever.  So here goes-I'll be back after a brief pause to tap.  Even though I'm worried about being popular...

Not very much change.  I may be down a point or two, but I haven't really gotten to the heart of it yet.  Even though I'm still worried about being popular...

Perhaps the second round took me down another point.  I do feel a little calmer, but it doesn't feel like I'm really on the right issue completely.  Even though I'm worried about being unpopular...

New words come to me as I tap.  I shift from feeling unpopular to feeling rejected, feeling I don't have friends, feeling unloved and back through all the same phrases.  The change is slight at best.  I try one more round, adding in "still."  Now it's harder to find the emotion, but there's still some sort of emotional knot near my heart, some core issue I have not touched.  I might be down to a three or perhaps even a two, which is not bad but a little annoying because I was hoping to be rid of this. 

If I'm mixing into my articles an intent to gain popularity, I think this could interfere with my writing on all sorts of levels.  And it won't be just writing; it will be part of every aim I have in life, this desire for self-importance smothering me because it drains the energy I need to live and grow.

So perhaps the lesson of this experience is to be persistent with EFT.  If it doesn't work, it's probably because you haven't figured out the real emotional issue which needs to be addressed.  It would seem that I'm going to have to live with this a bit longer, but chances are that I have shifted something in the grimy parts of my brain, something that will eventually surface into my consciousness.  I will then be able to tap on that issue, and I'll get this down to zero.  If I can do that, I will have won a battle that I've fought all my life.