Isn't all this focussing on the negative only going to make it worse?

So often when teaching people how to tap, this is a question I get asked somewhat fearfully! Especially when clients go home and try practicing on their own, they skip straight to the positive, and then feel they're not getting the results they got with me in the session. 

By naming the negative, whilst tapping - it gets it's chance to be heard, and doesn't need to scream so loudly, so then can settle down, and allow the more rational part of the brain to kick in again. The negative is from our primal brain, which is programmed to look out for all the worse case scenarios. - "Negative Bias"
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We are all "Meaning-Making-Machines" and our brain will make something mean something completely different to the truth sometimes, and this can be a cause of great anxiety... So for example when an upsetting event happens, like not getting chosen for the school sports team; a child can make it mean a plethora of things about themselves, or the world. for example - "I'm not good enough" / I'm too slow / I don't deserve it / I'll never be good at anything" and then start looking for more evidence to back up that belief, so it becomes embedded into believe system we operate from as if it's true. 

With Tapping we look to explore what those beliefs are, where we learnt them, and then by tapping whilst thinking about or around that particular memory or event, it then changes our relationship to it, so it no longer becomes a trigger point for upset/ anxiety / fear etc. and un-employs that belief system as one we need to live from as if its the truth. 

We all have those experiences which form our belief systems, and our body physiologically cannot tell the difference from a thought/ memory and the truth in reality, and will react as if the thought or memory is actually happening right now. 

So by employing Tapping, it sends calming signals to the brain, allowing it to put the memory back in the past, and unlink it from the present, and freeing us from that emotional and physical reaction - Hence the name - Emotional Freedom Technique! 

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