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Page 26 | Abby's Magazine | www.AbbysMag.com Cut Ties with Analysis By Dr. Joseph Mercola Dawson Church, Ph.D., is a leader in the energy psychology movement, one of the most common forms being the Emo onal Freedom Techniques (EFT), which I have promoted for years. Church investigated and built on the EFT techniques developed by Gary Craig in the 1990s (which in turn was a derivative of the founder of energy tapping, Roger Callahan's, work). This informa on is par cularly mely in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the infec on itself has been shown to be far less lethal than ini ally suspected, government responses to it have undoubtedly led to an epidemic of fear and stress, which can have serious health consequences. As explained by Church: "The stress we feel in our minds and bodies can o en do far more harm than pathogens. I've done several randomized controlled trials of cor sol. When you think a nega ve thought, when you feel stress, when you have a fearful belief, your cor sol level rises within three minutes. Chronically high cor sol produces all kinds of ill effects in your body, including depressed immune func on and increased inflamma on. The fear will get you even if the virus doesn't." e Importance of Positive inking As noted by Church, our brains are hard-wired and adapted to pay a en on to poten al threats. Failing to no ce a threat can get you killed, whereas there's no reward for failing to no ce the good stuff. As a result, most of us need to train our brain to no ce the posi ve, and to feel gra tude. "We're subject to a constant barrage of bad news, you really have to be deliberate in your efforts to redirect your a en on. What I do in response is to read posi ve blogs, news and media. That doesn't mean I never read any bad news, I stay informed, but I make sure I read posi ve things. Look out the window and see the roses and the bees and the sunset, and then it's a lot easier to stay centered when confronted by difficult local events. I also focus on compassion." Emotions Are Contagious The year 2020 has been challenging for most people. The drumbeat of nega ve news can overwhelm even the most resilient among us. In Chapter 2 of "Mind to Ma er," Church talks about a phenomenon called "emo onal contagion." In a nutshell, researchers have shown that emo ons have an impact similar to that of infec ous disease. They're contagious, and affect those around us. He cites one study in which they found that the next-door neighbor of a happy person is 35% more likely to be happy as well, and the neighbor twice removed is 15% more likely to be happy. That person's neighbor, in turn, who is 3 degrees removed from the happy person is 6% more likely to be happy. The same contagion rule applies when the emo ons are nega ve. "We're in the middle of this mass contagion of fear," Dawson says, "and it is depressing our immune systems, rendering us less resilient, affec ng us psychospiritually, making us less able to cope. That's when we need a bigger dose of posi vity, joy and gra tude. We need to do that deliberately. That means means consuming posi ve media. It means not exposing yourself to needless nega ve emo ons." "There are several things that move the needle in terms of neuroplas city in the brain quicker than others," Dawson says the one that changes the brain the quickest is compassion … a response to the suffering of the world and just a sense of acceptance of people just as they are. COVID Driven