It can often feel like our negative emotions are the enemy and it makes sense why. When we experience negative emotions, we feel bad AND they also get in the way of us making better choices in the moment.
That is why when Gary Craig created his version of tapping, he called it “Emotional Freedom Techniques” because there is such a strong human desire to escape strong negative emotions.
For me, the process isn’t just about escaping negative emotions, but also understanding them. Each of the negative emotions we feel is our internal guidance system trying to communicate a specific piece of information via the emotion.
An understanding of what information the emotion is trying to convey makes the journey to healing and transformation so much easier!
This week’s podcast is the first in a new series on Healing Fundamentals that will explore the underpinnings of the transformational process. The information conveyed by our emotions is the first part of the series because I believe that it is the lynchpin in the wider healing process.
Here is how I think about what negative emotions are trying to say and, most importantly, how we can use that information to create transformation.
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Hello Gene,
Thank you for your podcast.
The refresher course on emotions was really helpful.
It led to an unexpected twist for me.
The part about sadness coming from wants, desires or needs not being met led to an AHHA moment.
Here is a little background.
I am 77 and have been diagnosed with esophagus cancer.
They caught it at an early stage, and they will be able to treat it and remove the tumor.
I will go back to my normal life after the operation.
I have gone through 6 weeks of radiation and chemo which wreak havoc on the body.
My life has been thrown upside down and I feel like crap.
I haven’t eaten solid food for two months.
I feel a lot of emotions around all of this.
Sadness, anger, frustration and depression to name a few.
When I listened to the podcast, I could see where the feelings were related to my wants, desires and needs not being met.
Then came my AHHA moment.
My wants, needs and desires are all around feeling a lot better now.
Is that a realistic want, need or desire?
No! Not at all!!
The body takes time to heal after radiation and chemo.
It takes 4 to 6 weeks for the effects to wear off.
All of those emotions came from wanting something that was not possible.
I know that I will eventually get back to a normal life.
I also know that it will take time to fully heal.
Once I accepted that it will take time AND I acknowledged that I feel even a little better each day, a lot of the emotions settled down a lot.
Eliminating that stress helps me to relax and helps my body go into healing mode.
My lesson out of this is to first see what want, need or desire isn’t being met.
The next thing is to look at that want, need or desire to see if it is really reasonable.
If it is not reasonable, what can I replace it with?
In my case, it is to feel better each day knowing that I will be healed in two to three months.
That is doable and that takes a lot of the stress away.
The want, need and desire has not been thrown out.
It has just been modified to be more realistic.
I can live with that.
All of this came from listening to your podcast.
Thank you for that.
And thank you for all that you do.
I have been a lurking fan for years.
Russ
Thank you, beautiful. Ric