EFT tapping or Emotional Freedom Technique has been something that I’ve been using to deal with my emotions of grief, anger, traumatic memories, and fears. Most of us are aware that fight, flight, and freeze are common bodily responses to danger or high stress situations. The body pumps out a lot of energy in an effort to get us out of these situations alive. While this physiological reaction is beneficial, problems can be created when this energy gets trapped in our bodies.
Emotional Freedom Technique has been shown to help this energy move through the body and to decrease the symptoms that this trapped energy was causing. In general I tend to be a person who stuffs my emotions inside. Often I end up eating some comfort food to mask the painful emotions. I’ve been surprised at how much less I’ve been relying on this comfort food since using EFT technique.
EFT technique is sometimes called emotional acupuncture—it combines a series of gentle taps on nerve channels or acupuncture points while calling to memory specific emotions. This helps to release the trapped energy in the body as well as releasing the underlying emotions. After successful EFT tapping, you still remember the stressful or traumatic event, however it is now associated with the calming experience of tapping. These memories are no longer associated with the need to go into fight or flight mode.
Emotional Freedom Technique Steps
Think of issue to work on and measure the strength of the emotion You begin EFT by choosing an emotion, problem, or traumatic memory you wish to work on. You give it a number on a scale of 1 to 10 according to how strong you are experiencing that emotion right now. This is just a way for you to judge how well the EFT tapping is working for you. You don’t have to worry about getting the number exactly right.
EFT Setup EFT tapping begins with what is called a setup. In the setup, you recall your emotions or a painful event and combine it with a statement of positive self-acceptance. For example, “Even though I feel overwhelmed at the thought of life without my husband, I deeply and completely accept myself.” For the set up you repeat this statement three times while tapping on the side of your hand—where you would hit wood if you were going to make a karate chop. It is called the “karate chop point.”
Tap the sequence of nerve channels Breathe deeply while tapping the points on the illustration below. The points are shown on both sides of the body, but you only need to tap on one side. Lightly tap each point 7 to 9 times while saying, “This ________.” In the blank is your emotion or memory. For example with my set up example above, I would say, “This feeling of being overwhelmed with life without my husband” or simply, “These overwhelming feelings. The video below will provide a clear visual image of the EFT tapping sequence.
Repeat and Evaluate You can continue the above sequence several times. Then evaluate on the scale of 1 to 10 how you feel now. Sometimes there is an immediate and noticeable change. Sometimes it takes a while until the emotion has been worked through.
If you are completely new to EFT, it is easier to understand after you watch it a few times. Here is one of the best videos I’ve found that shows you how to do the EFT tapping sequence. I suggest you watch the video and follow along using an emotion or memory you are dealing with. Where he says, “This emotion,” you can state your specific emotion.
Magnus has taught EFT for a number of years. He is also the author of this very thorough EFT E-book. You will learn more about EFT just reading his information page.
