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March 13, 2009 | Janet | Comments 4

EFT Interference From Hidden Anger

Has this ever happened to you when you’re doing EFT? You’re tapping away, moving out your issue just fine. Your emotional intensity is dropping fast. And suddenly it just won’t budge. You can’t seem to finish off the issue. You want to get that intensity down to a zero, but you just can’t do it.

The Answer May Be Anger

Maybe the problem is hidden anger. Anger seems to act like a magnet, holding unwanted feelings in your system. You have to release the anger to let go of the rest of the larger issue.

Anger In All Its Disguises

I’m using anger here as a general category of emotions. Maybe you don’t think much in terms of “anger.” But what about these variations: feeling annoyance, irritation, impatience, blame, self-blame,  resentment, outrage, unfairness, injustice. Do you ever have little pieces of that mixed in with other issues?

When It Hooks Other Emotions

So anger can act like a hook, hanging on to other emotions so they resist being released. Let me give you some examples of how this works.

  1. Say you’re afraid of snakes. You’re using EFT on the fear, and you can feel it leaving. But the process hits a snag. If you’re annoyed at your mom for having that fear herself when you were little, that annoyance (anger) can block the release of the remaining fear.
  2. Or maybe you’re tapping away physical pain. You fell on a wet floor and hurt your leg, and EFT is relieving the pain. You realize you’re mad at the store people for not cleaning up the puddle, so you’ve tapped on that anger already. But if you can’t get rid of the pain completely with your tapping, you might be blaming yourself (anger) for falling in the first place.

The Solution

The ideal thing is to quickly check with yourself at the start of any issue to see if you have any kind of anger about it. Then either tap that away with separate rounds, or include it with your other EFT.

Otherwise, whenever you hit a slowdown in your tapping, ask yourself if anger could be the roadblock. Take a minute to tap it away (it often releases very quickly), and finish off your EFT session.

Watch For This One

The biggest culprit in this category, in my experience, is self-blame. The tricky part is this: If you have a habit of scolding yourself, it might not even occur to you to look for self-blame.

One way to remind yourself to check on this is to write a note that you keep with any other EFT papers you have. 

What’s your experience with this? Leave a comment below and let us all know.

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4 Responses to “EFT Interference From Hidden Anger”

  1. Cheri Mossie says:

    Hi Janet! Long time no see, or talk to, etc! I’ve been very busy, and am guessing it’s the same with you. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the helpful tips, it’s so great that you are willing to give away so many helpful things to help others. Thanks for the love! I love you Janet! I hope all is going well for you. XOXOXO-Cheri

  2. Linda says:

    Hi Janet:
    Is it okay to use “Releasing” affirmations, such as …”I release all trauma from this and past lives” along with positive affirmations, rather than going thru the whole process of doing the set-up, etc.?
    I haven’t yet memorized the whole process, so find myself doing just the affirmations. Is this effective also?
    Thanks!

  3. Janet says:

    Thanks, Cheri - I’m so glad these tips are helping you!

  4. Janet says:

    Linda, thanks so much for your question. By all means, feel free to try your “releasing affirmations” and see if it’s effective for you.

    In my experience (with personal tapping and with clients), EFT and affirmations are a great combination. That said, I find affirmations much MORE effective after the unwanted emotions have been released with the process outlined on my EFT-The Basics page. That means starting with a setup statement and tapping away the negative first.

    When your emotional intensity number gets down to a 3 or below, THAT’S the time to start introducing affirmations. I think you’ll find that you’ll release things much more quickly this way. Focus on the negative long enough to really start clearing it, and then move to the positive. Trying to focus on the positive from the beginning can create extra resistance to letting the issue go. Sounds like I need to write a post about this!

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