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Welcome to part one of your EFT Tapping journey. We are going to be with you every step of the way and if you have any questions or comments please get in touch. gary(@)eftworldmagazine.com In this edition we feature... • • • • • • • • • • • •
WHAT IS EFT? What is EFT Tapping? WHAT ARE THE RESULTS? The History of EFT ENERGY DISRUPTION A DISRUPTION IN THE BODY'S ENERGY SYSTEM… LOOKING FOR RESONANCE SUDS AND ENERGY DISRUPTION PSYCHOLOGICAL REVERSAL THE SET-UP SET-UP STATEMENT THE TAPPING SEQUENCE
PART ONE Feel free to read the information below, listen to the audio or download to your computer.
WHAT IS EFT? It is only natural to view new innovations with skepticism, particularly those that relate to our health and which promise rapid results. The Emotional Freedom Technique is based on sound scientific principles and the process launches off the EFT Discovery Statement which says... "The cause of all your negative emotions is a disruption in your body's energy system" Albert Einstein told us back in the 1920's that everything (including our bodies) is composed of energy and Eastern medical experts have know this for over 5,000 years. These ideas have been largely ignored by Western Healing Practices and that is why EFT often works "where nothing else will". A s the founder of the process, Gary Craig says on his emofree website, "it's not that EFT is so stunning, rather, it is because conventional healing methods have simply overlooked the obvious". So or though the emotional Freedom Techniques are an ultra-modern complementary therapy EFT still has its origins in ancient Chinese medicine. This is why we say that the Emotional Freedom Techniques are an emotional version of acupuncture, but instead of using needles, we stimulate the well established energy meridian points on the energy body by tapping them with the fingertips. It is an incredibly gentle technique and you remain relaxed and fully clothed at all times. Electrical messages are constantly sent through your body to keep it informed of what's going on. Without this energy flow you would not be able to see, hear, taste, smell or touch. 3
It has been proven that disruptions or blockages in these electrical pathways can cause limiting thoughts and emotions and lead to ill-health. For those of you who have spent weeks, months, or even years trying various drugs, counselling and alternative therapies in a desperate search for relief from your emotional problems, EFT may come as a welcome change. Tapping often gets results "when nothing else works". Psychologists, therapists and medical doctors from all over the world have found EFT to be rapid and profoundly powerful. Deepak Chopra, MD has been quoted in saying "EFT offers great healing benefits." EFT Tapping helps to create an environment that encourages positive results for all kinds of emotional problems.
WHAT ARE THE RESULTS? The results are fast and generally lasting. Strong emotions such as fear, anger, shame and sadness dissolve into clear thinking, enabling a fresh perspective and you may find yourself achieving relief within minutes or you may require a few sessions to really benefit. It is particularly effective for conditions such as anxiety where clients are often unable to pinpoint the exact reason for their unease. My experience of using EFT is now with several hundred people and over 90% get some sort of result. Because there are no drugs or invasive procedures involved in the application of EFT, it is perfectly safe to use it alongside other forms of medication and complementary therapies. However, EFT offers such quick and effective results that you may not feel the need to use additional therapies. EFT is now used worldwide by therapists, health care professionals, teachers, parents and individuals. [However, in the case of serious psychological problems, EFT should not be seen as a substitute for qualified medical advice from your GP. You should always consult your GP or existing care provider prior to engaging in complementary therapies.] If you are reading these pages having already had an EFT experience then what you read will not seem weird or far-fetched and you'll know that emotions and tensions can dissolve in seconds. If you have not yet experienced EFT for yourself then I hope you'll understand that EFT has to be experienced to be accepted and no words I could say or write can be a substitute for that convincing experience.
The History of EFT The founder of EFT Gary Craig studied first a therapy called Thought Field Therapy (or TFT). The method was a creation of psychologist, Dr Roger Callahan around 1980. The discovery of the therapy was made when Dr Callahan was working with a client, who we'll call Mary. Mary had an intense phobia around water and one day as Roger was working with Mary on a stomach ache Roger wondered what would happen if he tapped on the end point of the Stomach meridian. He had been learning about Traditional Chinese Medicine, and acupuncture so thought that he would try this approach. Suddenly Mary said "It's gone" and jumped up. Dr Callahan thought she meant the stomach ache, so was surprised and horrified when she ran out of the room and down towards his pool. He ran after her, and she called back "Don't worry, Dr, I know I can't swim". 4
Her fear of water was gone, never to return. But notice that her common sense didn't disappear with it! This is how Dr Callahan started to work with the meridians, and develop his tapping protocols for many emotional conditions. His system required a therapist to diagnose the nature of the emotional problem and apply an exact sequence of tapping points, which was different for each problem. Gary Craig, a Stanford trained engineer and personal coach, studied with Roger but he felt that this method could be available to everybody, without having to see a therapist every time. So he surmised that if you repeatedly went through all of the tapping points that were used in TFT, regardless of the problem, it would still work. EFT has now become phenomenally successful and has been in use since the early 1990's. Over time, a shortcut tapping sequence has been introduced and some extra tapping points are sometimes added.
ENERGY DISRUPTION (Taken from Gary Craig's website emofree.com) Looking back at Mary's water phobia, we could see that she was experiencing her fear and this caused the energy (or chi) going through her stomach meridian (under the eye) to become disrupted. This is the most important point, and the one thing about EFT you must remember, is that the energy imbalance was what was causing her emotional intensity. Tapping under the eyes sent pulses through the meridian and fixed the disruption. It balanced it out. Once the energy meridian was balanced, the emotional intensity or the fear went away. This is the most powerful thing you are ever going to learn about your unwanted emotions. They are caused by energy disruptions in the meridians. Notice what the statement does not say. It does not say that a negative emotion is caused by the memory of a past traumatic experience. This is important to recognise, because that presumed connection of traumatic memories to negative emotions is a mainstay in conventional psychotherapy. In some circles, it is the accepted practice to treat the memory and, in the process, ask the client to repeatedly relive some emotional, painful event. EFT, by contrast, respects the memory but addresses the true cause.
A DISRUPTION IN THE BODY'S ENERGY SYSTEM So you can see that it is the disruption that is the direct cause of the emotional upset. If the memory does not cause a disruption in the body's energy system then the negative emotion cannot occur. That is why some people are bothered by their memories and others are not. Compare the energy flow in your body to that of a TV set. As long as the electricity flows through your TV normally, the sound and picture are both clear. But what would happen if you took off the back of the TV set and poked a screwdriver amongst all that electronic spaghetti? You would quite obviously disrupt or reroute the flow of electricity and an electric "zzzzzt" would occur inside. The picture and sound would become erratic and the TV would exhibit its version of a negative human emotion. In the same manner, when our energy systems become imbalanced, we have an electrical "zzzzzt" effect going on inside. Straighten out this "zzzzzt" and the negative emotion goes away. It's that simple. 5
I am well aware of how strange this may sound and difficult it can be to believe, at least at first. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen so many marvelous changes after applying these techniques to myself and others. The Missing Piece It is widely assumed, for example, that a past traumatic memory is the direct cause of emotional upset in someone. It is not. There is an intermediate step between the memory and the emotional upset. That step is a "disruption in the body's energy system". It is that disruption, that "zzzzzt", that is the direct cause of the emotional upset. And, let me add, emotional upset is most often the root cause of physical ailments. EFT, by balancing the body's energy system, collapses the emotional upset and heals the body.
LOOKING FOR RESONANCE If your friend is suffering from a trauma, it is advised that they seek out a qualified EFT practitioner. If you work with someone, pay close attention to how they express their emotion. * Look at: * Body posture * Facial expressions * Movement (i.e. head, neck, eyes, hands, feet, shoulders) * Skin colour, temperature * Tone of voice Breathing problems as well as the tone of your friend's voice may indicate some kind of change. All of these changes can indicate a resonance emerging in the energy system. We need to recognise this resonance and work with it using the EFT process and something called the SUDS level. When using SUDS we can put a number on how they feel.
SUDS AND ENERGY DISRUPTION The technical term is taking a SUDS level or SUDS scale reading. It stands for Subjective Units of Disturbance. What you do is ask yourself on a scale of zero to 10, (10 being the highest imaginable pain/fear/sadness/discomfort, and zero being completely calm, pain free, tranquil, relaxed and happy) how would you rate what you are experiencing in this moment? You may use the SUDS scale on yourself and others. The aim is to get a feeling for the level of the resonance of the issue in hand. This works for emotions as well as for physical sensations and even for beliefs which might be the problem.
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EXAMPLES On a scale of zero to 10: * How depressed are you right now? * How painful is your leg? * How bad is your fear of heights? * How distressing is this memory? * How much do you hate this person?
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVERSAL (Taken from Gary Craig's website emofree.com) Psychological reversal is a reversal in your energy flow, it is as though you have your batteries fitted in backwards. This causes self-defeating behaviour; it often occurs subconsciously and is normally outside of our awareness. Roger Callahan found, that if you muscle tested people about their commitment to their goal, they would inevitably test "weak" on it. For example the dieter's test muscle would go weak when they made the statement "I want to lose weight". The salesperson would test weak on "I want to increase my sales to Ă‚ÂŁxx,000.00 a year." He called this problem Psychological Reversal (PR). This does not mean they have a conscious desire to fail. But for some reason, their energy system is locked in a pattern of resisting their goal. Psychological reversal exists almost 100% of the time in people who have chronic illness, auto-immune disorders or addictions. About 40% of the time any person may be psychologically reversed on a given issue. The good news is that Callahan found that by rubbing certain spots on the body or tapping the Karate chop point while saying an affirmation about the issue, one could temporarily get the reversal to right itself and the person would test strong for their goal. Then, by tapping on specific acupuncture points while thinking about the issue and the emotional energy around the problem, the emotional charge would literally "vanish". Dr. Callahan developed an elaborate system for diagnosing and treating various problems using what he called "algorithms" a detailed sequence of tapping on specific energy meridian end points. On average psychological reversal will only be present and hinder the Emotional Freedom Techniques about 40% of the time. When it is present it will stop any attempt at healing, including EFT. Tapping the karate spot normally corrects psychological reversal unless the reversal is considered to be what we term "massive reversal". 7
THE SET-UP There are two parts to the set-up. Repeat a set-up statement three times while: Continuously rubbing the sore spot or tapping the karate chop point. 8
To find the sore spot point, place two fingertips in the hollow of your neck. Then go straight down the chest about 5 inches, then over to either side about an inch. This spot may be a little sore. If it is really sore, rub the other side of the chest or tap the karate chop point.
THE KARATE CHOP The karate chop point (small intestine) is the fleshy part of the hand below the outside of the little finger, the area that is contacted when you make a karate chop motion on the side of a table. 9
Tap on that spot with two fingers of your dominant hand, while repeating the set-up statement three times. Roger Callahan was the first to discover what is now called psychological reversal (PR), and that by either tapping the karate chop point or rubbing the sore spot whilst saying the set-up statement you can disperse this problem.
SET-UP STATEMENT To start the process we have what we call the set-up statement and it follows the format of acknowledging that you have a problem and then affirming self acceptance. The default set-up statement is formatted like this: "Even though I have this anger, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." "Even though I have this sadness, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." "Even though I have this grief, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." "Even though I have this pain, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." It doesn't matter whether you believe the affirmation or not, just say it. It is more effective if you emphasize the words "deeply and completely love."
THE TAPPING SEQUENCE Before you begin tapping for any subject or problem, take the time to take a SUDS rating and make a mental note of it. Then, when you have completed an EFT sequence, ask the question again to find how much it has changed. It is a good way to be able to assess how well the treatment has worked and if you need to repeat the treatment. Sometimes, the problem can go from as high as 10 to as low as zero in a single treatment. More often though, you start with eight or nine, and after a round of tapping, the severity is reduced to a four or a five. This means that the treatment is beginning to work but there is more to be done. Perform the tapping sequence by tapping with the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand about five or seven times on each of the following points listed (see chart on page 14) while repeating a reminder phrase such as "this anger" and focusing on the problem. The best reminder phrase is a short description about the emotion or problem named in the set-up statement. We create the set-up statement by using the words that make us feel uncomfortable. What I mean by this is that if you are talking about a time when you were attacked in some way, the word you would use may be the word "attacked" or you may even say "hurt feeling" etc. So you would have a set-up statement that looks like this: "Even though I was hurt when I was four, I deeply and completely love and accept myself". The PR point is located in the middle of the fleshy part on the outside of the hand between the top of the wrist bone and the base of the baby finger. It is also called the karate chop point and you tap on this spot or rub the sore spot for psychological reversal (PR). Remember to start tapping the karate chop or rub the sore spot as you say the setup statement that you have created, something like: 10
"Even though I have this hurt feeling, I deeply and completely love and accept myself" and then shorten it to a reminder phrase such as "this hurt feeling", as you tap the rest of the points on the head, body and fingers. 1) At the beginning of the eyebrow, just above and to one side of the nose 2) On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye 3) On the bone under an eye about one inch below your pupil 4) On the small area between the bottom of your nose and the top of your upper lip 5) Midway between the point of your chin and the bottom of your lower lip 6) The junction where the sternum (breastbone), collarbone and first rib meet. To locate it, first place your forefinger on the U-shaped notch at the top of the breastbone (about where a man would knot his tie). From the bottom of the U, move your forefinger down towards the navel one inch and then go to the left (or right) one inch. 7) On the side of the body, at a point even with the nipple (for men) or in the middle of the bra strap (for women). It is about four inches below the armpit. 8) On the right hand side of the nail as it joins the skin on your thumb, index, middle and lastly little finger. 9) On the back of either hand half an inch behind the midpoint between the knuckles at the base of the ring finger and the little finger. If you draw an imaginary line between the knuckles at the base of the ring finger and little finger and consider that line to be the base of an equilateral triangle whose other sides converge to a point (apex) in the direction of the wrist, then the point would be located at the apex of the triangle. The liver point is just under the breast and is not generally used due to social awkwardness. As we tap we are tapping with two fingers: the index and middle fingers. The index finger is on the large intestine meridian, when blocked this may lead to someone dwelling on the past or having guilt feelings. The middle finger is on the circulation/sex meridian, and is connected with low self esteem, jealousy, regret, sexual problems and unhappiness. You can tap on points on either side of the body. You can even change sides during the sequence. Tap just enough to stimulate the energy, but not hard enough to hurt yourself. Once a full round of EFT is complete, take a deep breath and focus on the emotion or physical problem you are addressing. The type of EFT process that we use here is the original or traditional way of doing EFT. You will find that, as you progress, some aspects may be discarded to aid efficiency. So, this is not the only way to do it, but one way to do it. I have described the traditional EFT so that you have an in-depth knowledge.
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In our level three training we use a short-cut version which reduces the number of tapping points and particularly omits the nine gamut process. This makes the method more efficient and short cuts the process, but I would like to encourage you to learn the long form of EFT as this can be used to fall back on when and if the method seems to falter.
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We have more information in the next edition. You can also download the compleaete introduction to the Emotional Freedom Technique in the EFT Tapping Hub at: http://www.efttappingmagazine.com Email: gary@eftworldmagazine.com
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