Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Meridian Tapping for Stress Relief by Laurel Lee, MC

Transcription

1 Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tappingintolove.net Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Meridian Tapping for Stress Relief by Laurel Lee, MC What is Emotional Freedom Technique?...1 Emotions Versus Thought...1 Talk Therapy...1 Why We Can t Just Think Ourselves Happy...1 How Can EFT Help?...2 How Exactly Does EFT Work?...2 Step #1: Identify Your Target Memory...2 Step #2: Identify Your Target Emotion...3 Step #3: How Upset Are You About It?...3 Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (SUDS scale)...3 What is Psychological Reversal?...3 Step #4: Correcting Psychological Reversal...4 Desensitizing Emotional Pain...4 EFT Tapping Points Diagram with Sequential Wording...5 What s Changed?...5 Keep Going!...6 A Note about Focus...6 What if EFT Doesn t Seem To Be Working?... 6 Why Do We State the Negative With EFT?... 7 Positive Thought Installation...7 Are There Any Limits to Using EFT?...8 Common Sense Caution...8 A Lifelong Tool...8 EFT Diagram Printouts In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy. ~Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine

2 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 1 What is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)? EFT is a newly discovered stress reduction technique that falls under the category of Energy Therapies. Energy therapists assert that emotions exist in our body s nervous system, not in our thoughts. EFT clears the body s nervous system of energy blocks that underlie negative feelings. In many cases, EFT works very quickly. EFT is simple to do! Even children can learn it quickly and easily. Emotion Versus Thought: The body s nervous system reacts to stress. This is why your stomach goes into knots or you get a headache when you are upset. This is why your heart hurts when you are dumped by the romantic partner of your dreams or your throat tightens up when you fight back tears. The fact that emotions exist in the body is the reason some people do not get better with traditional talk therapy. Talk Therapy Versus Energy Therapy: Cognitive therapy, or talk counseling assists clients in gaining awareness into their self-defeating behaviors and in identifying negative selftalk. This type of therapy is often helpful in teaching clients better ways to operate in the world the idea being that, with a little awareness, the client can overcome depreciating thoughts and replace them with more positive ones. Yes this is helpful sometimes. But with unprocessed emotional pain something that many people live with on a daily basis, talk therapy does not provide the patient with long-term relief. Clients who do not budge from their selfsabotaging, depressive ways are labeled difficult or attention seeking and told that they don t really want to get better or that they are just manipulative and difficult. But this is like a medical doctor prescribing positive thinking to a raging wound and then blaming the client when the wound fails to heal! Why We Can t Just Think Ourselves Happy: Applying positive thinking over emotional pain is a tough job. Our subconscious beliefs, and all of our past experiences that comprise them, are the ones that call the shots in our life. People often strong-arm negative emotions they try to feel good about themselves. They try to think positively. Then feel awful about their inevitable fall back to despair. I failed! she will tell herself. There really is something wrong with me! When actually she has just not been given the proper tools to successfully clear her nervous system of the energy blocks that are behind her negative emotions. This is important

3 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 2 because emotional memory largely dictates human behavior, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. These patterns exist in the body s nervous system which is why we need to work there in order to get on the other side of our emotional challenges. How Can EFT Help? EFT can be used to calm anxiety related to any of the following: pain, CRAVINGS, fear, jealousy, anger, shame, frustration, rage, embarrassment, traumatic memories, anxiety, depression, guilt, sadness, obsession, grief, disgust,.and many others! How Exactly Does EFT Work? EFT works directly with your nervous system, which is why it is so effective. The human nervous system can be thought of as an intricate road map throughout the body. Nerves merge and disperse at points called meridian points.* This is why EFT is sometimes called Meridian Desensitization. EFT gently manipulates the meridian points (tapping on them with the fingertips) to literally flush negative emotions out of the body. In other words, EFT will help you get over it... and quickly! By tapping with the fingertips on specified meridian points, a tiny electrical impulse is sent through the body s emotional-neural tracks. This tiny electrical impulse literally pushes along any stuck emotions that may be trapped in that particular nerve track. Once this happens, the memories behind the emotions lose their charge. Thus, those negative thoughts will no longer cause a disruption in the body s nervous system. In fact, you can think of EFT as an emotional rotor-rooter. Step #1: Identify Your Target Memory: Think of a problem you are having or a past event that is still upsetting you. Examples of statements you might use: I am embarrassed about I am craving I am worried because I am angry because I am scared of I am ashamed of

4 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 3 List your identified problem here. Keep the phrase short: Step #2: Identify Your Target Emotion: What emotions do you feel when thinking about this problem? (Fear, sadness, anger, jealousy, regret, shame, guilt, rage, despair, embarrassment, disgust, indifference, annoyance, anxiety, etc ) If your problem is a craving, write craving Step #3: How Upset Are You About It? Use the Subjective Unit of Distress Scale to measure our level of upset. Ask yourself, When I think about this problem, how high does this emotion feel to me on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the worst/highest? If your problem is a craving, identify how high the craving is. Refer to the diagram below and circle your rating / number: Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (SUDS): What is Psychological Reversal? A person who is psychologically reversed will create the exact opposite results s/he desires. For instance, have you ever tried to lose weight and then gained ten pounds instead? Tried to excel at your job and ended up flubbing an important project? Well, you can stop blaming yourself, because you were probably just psychologically reversed! No one is certain why we become psychologically reversed. It may happen as a reaction to the nervous system becoming overwhelmed, for instance, by emotional trauma through a traumatic event, or from a reaction to chemicals that negatively interact with our

5 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 4 nervous system (e.g.: artificial sweeteners, pest control spray, or even food allergies). In any ase, about 40% of the world s population is psychologically reversed. If we are psychologically reversed on an issue, EFT will not work. Fortunately, we have a very simple, quick way of correcting psychological reversal. Because psychological reversal is such a prominent issue, the process of correcting psychological reversal is built right in to the EFT protocol. Step #4: Correcting Psychological Reversal: There are two reversal spots on each side of the body: the sore spot which is three inches below the collar bone (both sides) and the karate chop point which is on each hand. It is the same spot that you would strike on wood if you were to deliver a karate chop. For this tutorial, we will use the Karate Chop Point. Take the fingers of one hand and tap on your other hand s Karate Chop Point while saying: Even though I have this problem, I still deeply love and accept myself. Even though I have this problem, I still deeply love and accept myself. Even though I have this problem, I still deeply love and accept myself. That s all there is to correcting psychological reversal. (Wasn t that easy? ) It is a simple but important step. Desensitizing Emotional Pain: The next step involves tapping the meridian points. While focusing on your negative emotion, tap on each of the EFT points as shown in the diagram on the next page. Say aloud, This problem (or your stated problem you wrote above). Be sure to maintain focus on your negative emotion. In fact, you are encouraged to try to get upset about your problem as you tap. The more effective you are at feeling the negative emotion, the more effective the tapping will be in clearing it. Note that the wrist point is shown on the hand diagram above. Hint: you can tap your wrists together to activate both wrist points at once.

6 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 5 EFT Tapping Points Diagram (with Sequential Wording) 1) Tap Eyebrow (EB) and say, this problem 2) Tap Side of Eye (SE) and say, this problem 3) Tap Under Eye (UE) and say, this problem 4) Tap Under Nose (UN) and say, this problem 5) Tap Chin Point (CH) and say, this problem 6) Tap Collar Bone (CB) and say, this problem 7) Tap Under Arm (UA) and say, this problem 8) Tap Top of Head (TH) and say, this problem 9) Tap Wrists and say, this problem (shown on hand diagram on previous page) Now... take a deeeep breath and exhale slowly. What s Changed? Measure your emotion again using the SUDS scale: You will likely notice a change in how you feel about the problem: You feel better (usually this is the case)

7 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 6 Your emotion changed (e.g.: from fear to anger, or from anger to sadness) Your emotion gets worse (a sign to keep g oing! You are clearing emotions you have stuffed over the years!) Your thoughts have changed or you are thinking about new aspects of the problem. Keep Going! Repeat the EFT rounds until your emotional intensity with your identified problem is at zero. Do not be deterred if you did not get the results you wanted in only one round of EFT. Sometimes it takes several rounds to get relief. Also, you may have other insights, ideas, or memories come up for you during your EFT practice. It is a good idea to write these down and refer to them later to enhance your healing journey. You may want to keep a journal for this purpose. It is empowering to go back at a later date and read it and see how far you have come! A Note about Focus: It is important to keep refocusing on your original issue until your SUDS measure is zero on that issue. Many beginners of EFT are tempted to abandon the original issue and tap on other memories that pop into their head. This can lead to an emotional memory wild goose chase. When this happens, the person will experience some relief with the initial problem but experience relatively little improvement overall because they are jumping all over the place with their target emotions, not seeing any one through to completion. OR they may feel worse because, rather than completely desensitizing the initial issue, they will essentially stir up a multitude of other emotions and memories without reducing or eliminating the SUDS on any one specific aspect. This is why it is important to maintain focus on your identified issue until the SUDS level is at a zero. Then you can move on to whatever other memories come up for you, and then treat those with EFT in the same way. It is helpful to keep a journal and write down memories, emotions, or beliefs that surface for you. What if EFT Doesn t Seem to Be Working? If you are not experiencing notable stress relief with EFT, do a little investigating; there are a handful of influences that can keep EFT from working. For example, EFT will not work well if: you are dehydrated. It is important to drink plenty of water before and after EFT. As with any body therapy like massage, acupuncture, or reflexology, water helps to flush out the toxins after treatment.

8 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 7 you have energy blocks like chemicals (insecticide that was sprayed in your home or office) or other neural toxins (artificial sweeteners for example) in your body you have a subconscious payoff for remaining stuck in your problem. The human brain is a fascinating organ; it can literally create an allegiance to our dysfunction because part of us is either fearful, prideful, or simply too angry to let it go. Working through this may require the work of a skilled therapist or EFT practitioner, but you may be able to at least jostle some of that allegiance loose with a few rounds of EFT. you are trying to address too big of a chunk of memory. Suppose your target memory is, I was always unpopular in school. This target memory is far too big to address as a target memory. It has many individual pieces of the puzzle, one of which may be, I sat alone in the lunch-room on my tenth birth-day. This is a small piece of I was always unpopular in school. Another might be, I was always picked last for the kickball team. Another might be, No one ever played with me at recess. Each of these smaller pieces can be addressed using EFT. Thankfully, you do not need to address each and every unpopular memory you ve ever experienced in your entire life; addressing just 10 to 15 or so of these memories will likely resolve the whole I was always unpopular in school issue, because the emotions related to these memories (loneliness, embarrassment, humiliation, etc...) all exist on the same neural-tracks. However, note that each piece may need to be broken down into even more specific chunks in order to successfully clear them. Why Do We State the Negative with EFT? Aren t We Supposed to Think Positively? Stating the negative emotional experience is a crucial part of the clearing process with the understanding that in no way do we dwell there. But you can t release anything that you don t own. We have been so conditioned by modern-day therapies to think positively or ignore our true feelings that many people get scared when they are instructed to actually focus on their problem. Understand that this is ONLY to identify and ultimately dispel the negative experience from your life. This will by no means work against you as you work towards peace and love. Positive Thought Installation: It is extremely helpful to conclude EFT treatments with a round or two of positive statements. Positive tapping can help to clear the residuals of a stubborn issue. However, do not use positive tapping on issues where the SUDS measures higher than a 5.

9 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 8 Reason being, it can feel invalidating and may not deliver optimal benefits. Think of positive tapping as a way of installing positive thoughts into your subconscious mind. Here is an example that you can easily use and easily adapt to any problem: Eye Brow- EB: I choose peace over this situation. Side of Eye- SE: I return to my natural state of peace. Under Eye- UE: I am free of this experience. Under Nose- UN: I love feeling this free. Chin (dent) - CH: I am free to choose peace. Collar Bone- CB: I love feeling so peaceful. Under Arm- UA: I feel calm about this situation. Top of Head- TH: I am peaceful at this moment. Wrists- WR: I love feeling calm and peaceful. Are There Any Limits to Using EFT? There are really no limits to using EFT. The most common EFT adage is Try it on everything! However, don t use it for more than an hour or so a day. You need to give your nervous system rest time between treatments. Common Sense Caution: EFT is not a replacement for traditional therapy or medical care. While you are welcome to show the process of EFT to friends and family, only trained professionals should delve into severe trauma cases such as past abuse or neglect. This is because (very rarely) abreactions can occur during the EFT process. Abreactions involve the re-living of past emotional traumas and it can feel overwhelming. EFT works on the emotional body and so it can jostle loose old memories that need to be cleared. In the very unlikely event that you or someone else experience an abreaction, an increase in your anxiety level, depression, or any other negative emotion that doesn t seem to be responding to EFT, contact a mental health professional right away. Continue to take your prescribed medications while using EFT. A Life-Long Tool: Once you get the basics of EFT down, you can use it for with any given problem from self-confidence, to romance, to increased energy, to quelling pain. EFT is a quick, inexpensive, and effective way of restoring balance to your emotions and life. This is

10 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 9 because EFT works directly with the energy of the nervous system; our nervous system holds the keys to our wellbeing on many levels. EFT is a practical tool that will help you release the energy of the upsetting events of your past so you can more easily create a life of health, joy, power, and peace. Happy Tapping! Laurel Lee, MC laurel@tappingintolove.net Author of Tapping into Love: From Pushover to Goddess in 12 Simple Principles Certified Divine Healing Hands Soul Healer Certified Reiki Master You are permitted to distribute this EFT tutorial to other people who may benefit. Print the diagrams on the next three pages and hang up to help guide you through the tapping process during moments of stress.

11 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 10 Diagram of EFT Tapping Points

12 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 11 Diagram of EFT Tapping Points on Hand

13 Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Tutorial by Laurel Lee, MC 12 Subjective Unit of Distress Scale (S.U.D.S)