May 25, 2007, Issue #049

Hello,

I recently discovered Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), which is sort of an emotional version of acupuncture without needles. Instead, you stimulate the energy meridians on your body by tapping on specified points with your fingertips.

Based on new discoveries about the body's subtle energies, EFT has proven successful in thousands of clinical cases. It applies to many different problems and often works where nothing else will. I've reprinted two articles here to introduce you to EFT. If you want to know more, you can learn all the basics for free by downloading the EFT Manual. If you want to save time and dive right in, then explore the affordable EFT DVD Library.

Carol

How Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Works - How Tapping Can Free You From Pain & Anxiety

by Anna Wilde

Does EFT work? Yes! I have found EFT extraordinary, when applied it to a wide range of physical pain challenges and negative emotions. Emotional freedom techniques can be easy and effective. Issues like anxiety, joint and back pain, and candida can be tricky to fix. I have seen EFT work for all of them.

Why do you have difficult emotional and physical pain?

EFT is based on the premise that "The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system." Because physical pains and diseases are connected with emotions the following statement has also proven to be true: "Our unresolved negative emotions are major contributors to most physical pains and diseases."

How do you create these disruptions in your body's energy system?

Situations arise in life that may provoke a strong emotional response within the brain. This sends chemical messages into the body and precipitates physiological response. From an energetic perspective, when you feel unpleasant emotions, and simultaneously repress some aspect of the emotion rather than acknowledging it, the body's energy system is disturbed. This means certain meridians get momentarily 'stuck,' and energy flow is inhibited.

How does this stuck energy affect your life? On an energetic, subconscious, and cellular level you store this response pattern. When you have other experiences that in some way mirror the initial situation, the mind/body falls into the habitual response pattern. For example, if you experienced shame and anxiety as a child during school speeches, every time you are asked to speak in public as an adult, a wave of anxiety and shame sweeps through you, as the ancient response pattern is activated. Your body is on auto-pilot response mode.

Why do you keep getting sick, even when you want to be well?

Your neural thought pathways have 'solidified' over years of repeating the same negative messages. The subconscious kicks in quicker than your new found resolutions to be well. If you always received extra special loving attention from a parent when you were sick as a child, your internal repetitive response may be to be sick in order to receive love and attention. Because the emotional payback on a subconscious level overrides the other reasons you want to stay well, the historical response pattern will sabotage your good efforts.

Over time the combination of conscious and subconscious memories stagnate into physical and emotional knots that can seem impossible undo. In fact they become such a familiar part of your internal environment, you think this is 'just the way I am.' "I have always had a weak immune system, and I probably always will." Or "I always get nervous flying in a plane." Or "I hate my hips."

There can also be a familiar and comfortable warm feeling that being this way I have received love or other ‘paybacks' before, so I better stay this way. But is it really better? Are you actually living in the shadow of our doubts and fears, not willing to believe that you can actually change and improve ALL the deep rooted habitual response patterns?

What if you don't want to respond to problems in the same old way?

How do you do it, when you are really ready to take full responsibility for your health on all levels? Ready to step out of all unhelpful energy reducing patterns?

There are many tools available, including EFT; forms of sitting, walking and movement meditation; cellular memory release processes like The Journey; and individual and group-work psychotherapies. All of these will unravel the emotional and mental knots which cause unpleasant patterns to repeat themselves over and over.

How does EFT work?

Simply stated, you stimulate a few well-established energy points on your body by tapping on them with your fingertips. The points are usually the start or end points of acupuncture meridians. While you tap, you verbally state your physical or emotional issue of the moment and that even though you have this issue, you want to heal and accept yourself.

The body's attention is being specifically brought to an issue, while stating an intention of self-acceptance, and activating the energy patterns where the old pattern has been stored. Amazingly, the body is able to rewire the system and energy flows freely once again. The process is easy to memorize and you can do it anywhere.

Copyright Wild Health and Anna Wilde. Anna Wilde works with people who want to improve their health naturally. Get recipes and straight forward advice to stay motivated, eat well, and be healthy.

Learn more about EFT.

What is EFT?

by Steve B. Reed

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is a brilliant yet simple method for easing emotional pain. It is both eloquent and effective for a wide range of emotional distress. The EFT method is clinically effective in treating trauma, abuse, panic, anxiety, fears, phobias, mild depression, some addictions, child related issues, and physical symptoms coming from emotional sources like some physical pain, allergies, headaches, breathing difficulties, and more.

EFT works with fourteen of the acupressure points from traditional Chinese medicine. For years, people have been recognizing acupuncture and acupressure as a viable means for reducing physical pain. Now EFT provides a potent and convenient way for self-administered acupressure to ease emotional pain. The results are frequently astonishing in that the distress can melt away so quickly.

How Is EFT Different?

With traditional forms of psychotherapy, people can spend years talking about what bothers them yet continue to feel their old emotional pain intensely. EFT and related therapies can often completely eliminate intense negative emotion and stress both comfortably and in far less time than you might imagine. Those who work diligently with these new methods can compress a year's worth of therapy into just a few months. Those who have large backlogs of emotional wounding and who are willing to participate in longer-term treatment are finding it is possible to reprocess and resolve a lifetime of hurt and trauma.

Rapidly reducing emotional pain is one of the key benefits that the psychological acupressure methods can provide. No one likes to linger in an unpleasant emotional state. Our natural mechanism for coping with painful feelings is avoidance. Some people will even avoid getting treatment because they have difficulty tolerating upsetting emotions. Older forms of therapy move at such a slow pace that one is frequently deep in distress at the end of a therapy session. This is rarely the case with EFT. Because it helps to ease the pain so fast, you can see the results and know that your distress will soon ease. This can help you face even traumatic events with the confidence that you will not be left in a state of overwhelm and that you will find emotional freedom from the issues that bother you.

Why Was EFT Developed?

Gary Craig, the developer of EFT, was an early student of Dr. Roger Callahan, who was the developer of Thought Field Therapy (TFT). TFT was the first psychological acupressure therapy. Gary took many of Dr. Callahan's concepts and saw a way to improve and simplify them. Through his efforts, this type of treatment is now available to many more people. Gary's method is so simple that I like to teach it to the people that I work with in therapy. It is so easy that even children can learn EFT for healing and relief of stress.

By learning the basics of the EFT, you can have a way to help yourselves between therapy sessions. I believe it to be simply the best self-help tool available. It is so empowering to know that at your very fingertips you have the means to ease much of the painful emotion that you experience.

Why is It Important to Heal Old Emotional Pain?

Some people have asked, "Why is it so important to heal these old hurts?" I think there are several important answers. The simple reality is that when it comes to intense emotional pain, out of sight is not out of mind; out of mind is not out of body; and out of conscious mind is not out of subconscious mind. That which is unhealed and harbored hurts us, limits us, dis-empowers us, lowers self-esteem, fuels over reactions, weakens our resistance to physical illness, diminishes the quality of life, contaminates peace of mind, inhibits our capacity to love, and blocks our ability to succeed in many endeavors.

Authors write many volumes enumerating the adverse effects of unprocessed and unresolved emotional pain on ones life. EFT and related work is so important because it is so effective in easing human suffering. It is capable of extracting the negative emotional residue of painful experiences out of the mind-body system. When the emotional charge is gone, the old experiences will cease to hurt you or to have power over you. Recent research shows EFT highly effective as a treatment in curing phobias, easing anxiety symptoms, panic attack symptoms, stress symptoms and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. I also use EFT as a treatment for emotional abuse, overcoming fear, overcoming fear of flying, overcoming depression, relationship help, reducing a wide range of anxiety symptoms, and many other issues.

EFT provides a powerful means to intervene upon painful experiences, traumatic events, and everyday stress. It can truly enable you to find a level of emotional freedom that you never dreamed possible.

About The Author

Copyright Steve Reed. Steve B. Reed, LPC, LMSW, LMFT, was among the first people to train in EFT. He uses EFT in his counseling practice in Dallas and in his work with people from around the world during phone counseling. Steve is a leading expert in the use of acupressure-enhanced psychotherapy and provides training in its use for easing emotional pain. You can reach Steve at 972-997-9955 or at www.psychotherapy-center.com.

Learn more about EFT.