What’s the F in EFT?
You may never have heard of EFT also known as Tapping, in which case – you’re in the right place! Or you might have heard about it and then seen a video on YouTube and thought nope, no way, not for me!
Quite simply, Tapping is acupuncture for the emotions WITHOUT the needles.
The Basic Recipe EFT sequence involves you tapping on specific points of your body (meridian points) and at the same time saying out loud a reminder phrase.
It’s a combination of the ancient Chinese principles of acupressure and modern psychology.
It looks a bit weird
There’s no getting away from the fact that it does look and feel a little strange to start off with but the more you do it the less self conscious you feel.
When I first heard about and tried EFT I really wanted to love it but I just couldn’t. I’m not sure if it was my British upbringing but there was something absolutely uncomfortable about saying the set up sentence and trying to remember where to tap at the same time.
But I have good news. You can start off by following along with one of my videos and saying something about yourself that you feel totally comfortable with. Something you really believe about yourself no mater how mundane it might seem. My set up phrase for a long time was “Even though I have this (insert fear/anxiety/belief) I make a really great Lasagne”!
Fight Flight Freeze
We’ve all heard about the fight or flight response when we’re in a situation where we feel threatened. But what if you’re not able to do one of those things? What if the threat you feel in the modern world is one that you can’t quite explain or it’s caused by a stressful situation at home, school or at work.
There is another response - freeze, when the energy or adrenaline from a particular experience hasn’t been discharged like it would be if you had to fight or were able to run away.
When you’re constantly in an anxious state it’s because you are stuck in the freeze mode. When someone explained this to me – it made perfect sense.
What happens to those negative emotions? Anyone with anxiety will tell you that they just keep going round and round in your body, they’re never discharged. The more stressed you get the more emotions there are.
The beauty of Tapping is that it doesn’t just work for emotions its also used for physical pain and weight loss by identifying and addressing the emotions behind them.
The F is for Freedom
The F in EFT stands for Freedom and that’s exactly what you can get from unhelpful, negative and trapped emotions and limiting beliefs.
Background
Dr Roger Callahan an American psychologist created Thought Field Therapy (TFT) in the early 80’s which he used in his practice to treat a client with a severe water phobia. Based around the ancient principles of Chinese Acupuncture but by tapping rather than using needles he discovered you could unblock energy imbalances in the body’s meridians.
Gary Craig an Engineer who had trained at Stanford University was interested in resolving emotional blocks to success as a personal performance coach and studied under Dr Callahan. He eventually refined his own version which he called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). By using focus, intention & tapping you can effectively turn off the charge that memories hold and release the associated emotions.
No amount of words really do this technique justice, the best way to experience its benefits are to FEEL it by actually doing it!
Hop over to my How to Tap post to get the low down.