We tap on the negative . . . where's the positive?

Photo by Alex Shiper on Unsplash

I love EFT for the emotional freedom it gives me. I don't feel so hemmed in by anxiety, worrisome thoughts about the future, or distress around past trauma that used to dog me. I'm deeply grateful to Gary Craig, who passed away last month, in making the basics open source so that almost anyone could begin to gain relief. He did a tremendous job in sharing EFT so widely and cultivating a community that was a pleasure to be part of in the early years.

At the heart of EFT we acknowledge and accept the negative. But do we then automatically move into the positive? Gary carried a towering positive self belief that could hold course regardless of contrasting views. That was not the way I grew up. 

Lack of emotional safety or reassurance in my formative programming made me doubt and question myself at every step. As I grew and gathered confidence, in time I reached healthy conclusions. It was just such a torturous journey on the inside to get there. EFT has calmed the harshness of my inner critic greatly. But I found I also needed a positive counter-balance that went beyond the positive ending of the EFT Setup.

Some of you may be aware of my Word for the Year journeying which first started in 2011. It's been my touchstone for finding an honest voice towards expansive life-affirming growth. A positive. 

One word is so simple and yet it allows for a profound focus. Every year in time for my birthday I pick a new word to grow into. The ritual has changed me for the better as a daily redirection until the change has taken hold in my psyche. 

This year there's a difference. For the first time I've been drawn to adopt a trio of words as my positive touchstone. They carry me on a wave with their unified meaning with a similar flow of energy: Wonder, Awe and Delight. 

So every day I hug my husband and marvel at the wonder and awe I feel in having found the most perfect indivdiual for me to walk alongside. I'm coming up to 30 years of having him as my best friend! I delight in that blessing!

The other week I noticed a sense of awe at hearing the most brilliant bird song trilling minutes before a class I'm giving started. It lit me up with happiness. Somehow I referenced it at the start of the course and we got to talk about how EFT has enabled me to delight in such a simple thing deeply after clearing the worst of the negative.  

I delight in the Universe offering me up an unused high performance rebounder at a 2nd hand price so easily. The kid in me has come alive recently. All I want to do is jump around and have fun in my breaks whilst getting some movement in. 

Wonder, Awe and Delight are 3 notes in a chord. It's what I want to deepen into in this year. 

I am aware that the world around seems perilously dark in places. Clients bring their responses to these things and their own personal strife to process. I offer gentle kind support combined with deeply resonant tapping where they are ready to work on these things. 

But the world also benefits when you and I are able to shine a light of peaceful relaxed upliftment. That comes from tending to our positive.

So the positive and the negative continue as an infinity loop. I'll move in and out of being touched by both. I just get to soften my perception of the negative with the gift of EFT. And I choose to tend to the positive I am growing into in my now. Those are both things within my power.