Emotional Freedom Techniques

I wrote this post on Emotional Freedom Techniques for my friend Babita's brilliant Advent calendar on her great blog http://meadysmusings.blogspot.com/

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease ~ Hippocrates

Throughout the ages, the energy or force that animates all life has been referred to as Prana, Qi (Chi), Ki, Ka, Pneuma, Ashe, Ha, Life Force and Spirit. Ancient healing systems such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine have studied and documented the effects of how this energy influences and directs the body and mind. Today we are building on this solid foundation with the developing fields of mindbody medicine, energy medicine, energy psychology and energy healing. Holistic psychiatrist Dr John Diamond refers to this animating life force as Life Energy. Life Energy is “the innate healing power of the body, and it is intimately connected with health in that whatever the symptoms of any particular illness, underneath we will always find a diminution of Life Energy. It is the Healing Power within us, the restorative powers of our own body, and the only true healing comes by raising the Life Energy.”

Some day the medical profession will wake up and realize that unresolved emotional issues are the main cause of 85% of all illnesses. When they do, EFT will be one of their primary healing tools ... as it is for me ~ Eric Robins, MD

Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT, simply stated, is emotional or psychological acupressure. Acupressure is the act of applying manual pressure, or tapping, usually with the fingertips, on various meridians located on the surface of the body, the same meridians used in acupuncture. Meridians are the channels through which energy flows, much the same as veins and capillaries are the channels through which blood flows. Energy needs to flow freely and unimpeded through these channels, otherwise it stagnates and becomes blocked, this congested and clogged energy can eventually become so dense that it results in emotional and physical dis-ease. EFT helps to dissolve and release the energetic blocks and restores the natural flow to our Life Energy. As Dr John Diamond states “Holistic Healing always starts with the actuation of the Life Energy, the Spirit—the Healing Power Within. Only then can there be the full appreciation and joyful acceptance of the beauty and wonder of life. This and nothing less than this is True Health.”

The visible world is the invisible organisation of energy 

~ Heinz Pagels, Physicist

EFT is a very elegant technique, it can be used on issues such as headaches, pain, fear of public speaking, dyslexia and it may also be employed to treat more complex, serious and chronic issues such as multiple sclerosis and cancer. Very often, in treating an emotional issue successfully with EFT, a related physical ailment will disappear or diminish and the same is true when working on a physical issue, related emotional issues melt away. We all know the effect emotions can have on our physiology, when we're afraid or nervous for example, our stomachs may tense up and become knotted, our hearts may beat faster, we start to sweat and our breathing becomes shallow and fast as we take shorter breaths. As the founder of EFT, Gary Craig, states in the discovery statement of EFT “All negative emotions are caused by a disruption in the body's energy system.” EFT works on this simple, but profound, truth.

The latest discoveries in physics and cell research are forging new links between the worlds of Science and Spirit. The latest science leads us to a worldview not unlike that held by the earliest civilizations, in which every material object in Nature was thought to possess a spirit. This is the world of quantum physics, in which matter and energy are completely entangled ~ Bruce Lipton, Ph.D author of Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles

Much research has shown us that the mind and body are inextricably linked, if not one and the same. Dr Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, Why you Feel the Way you Feel, states that the body is the “outward manifestation of the mind”, and what influences and directs the mind more than the beliefs we hold about our self, others and life? These beliefs create the filter through which we view, perceive and live life. Cell biologist Bruce Lipton writes in Biology of Belief "When cells band together in creating multicellular communities, they follow the 'collective voice' of the organism, even if that voice dictates self-destructive behaviour. Our physiology and behaviour patterns conform to the 'truths' of the central voice, be they constructive or destructive beliefs." Skilled use of Emotional Freedom Techniques unveils core beliefs, which can then be tapped on to help dissolve and release them. Just like poet William Blake wrote “When the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear to man as it is: infinite”, when we dissolve beliefs that do not serve our highest good, we too will see that we are infinite and therefore have infinite potential, possibility and power.

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received

~ Albert Einstein

The phenomenon in which EFT often works best when we tap with others rather than alone, is evidence to many of us that we are all energetically connected. We shift more blocked energy, we perceive things differently, we don't feel so alone, we feel connected, what’s really happening in my opinion is that we are HEALING our spirits. I believe this energetic or spiritual connection is also why distance healing and surrogate EFT works. We are connecting to the energy of intention when we tap with the intent for the highest good of a person to manifest. I think this quote sums it up beautifully "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire 

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The founder of EFT, Gary Craig, has always held the vision of Emotional Freedom Techniques bringing us closer to who we truly are: spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around. He is also a minister for A Course in Miracles and its philosophy is embedded in the very spirit of EFT: to love and accept ourselves unconditionally EVEN THOUGH we have issues. As mentioned previously, energy is also known as spirit, so, it is in raising our Life Energy, our Spirit, with the help of EFT that we will realise what Gary Craig wrote in his recent blog announcing his retirement “the exquisite beauty that is our birthright”. Thank you Gary for your beautiful gift of spirit and peace to the world.

Love is my religion ~ Rumi

I feel or I am?

When you are feeling a feeling do you identify with it or associate your self with that same feeling or quality? An example of what I am talking about is:

I feel horrible

or

I am horrible

Do you see the difference? If we internalise a feeling and it becomes a part of our identity, it can have a profound effect on our lives. Children very often find certain emotions or energies difficult to process and understand and they tend to internalise the feeling instead. Going through life feeling like you are a horrible person is not pleasant, and, sadly, we tend to attract people and events that seem to reiterate this so-called truth.

When we internalise a feeling, the energy of that feeling becomes stuck. The same thing happens when we identify with a feeling, or judge and criticise the feeling. Instead of allowing it flow through, our judgements, criticisms and identifications impede the natural flow and the energy cannot follow its natural course of in, through and out. Pay attention the next time this happens and practice observing the energy of that feeling and see what happens when you tap along with that. EFT short cut diagram.

Beating to the sound of your own drum

This is an EFT script to help you with clarity; becoming clear about you and your life. EFT short cut diagram.

Tapping the KC continuously or rubbing the sore spot say:

Even though I feel I'm all over the place sometimes, I love and accept myself

Even though I don't really know what it is that I want or where it is I'm going, that's okay, at least I'm asking the question

Even though I don't know what the best direction for me is, I'm confused, I deeply and profoundly love and accept myself anyway

Even though I'm not clear right now, I'm open to listening to my heart's desires

TH I'm confused

EB I don't know what to do

SE Nothing is clear to me

UE It feels________

UN I wish I knew what to do

UC I wish I knew where I was going

CB Maybe I need to listen

UA Maybe I need to quieten the noise so I can hear

TH What I have to say

EB So I'll know

SE What I want

UE What I really really want

UN That feels________

UC It feels good

CB But ...

UA I still don't know

TH And that's okay

EB I'm still listening

SE To what I have to say

UE About me

UN And my life

UC What my heart's true desire is

CB What is it?

UA I'll keep listening ...

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more - more unseen forms become manifest to him ~ Rumi

EFT and Intention: An Interview with Noreen Barron MA EFTCert-I

Interview by MohammadEFT, visit his great website http://www.eft-personal-development.com/

1. Can you please tell the readers about what you do?

I am an EFT practitioner who specialises in working with sensitive souls, chronic dis-ease, trauma, anxiety and depression. My experience is though, that people are drawn to work with a practitioner because of who they are, not necessarily what their speciality is. In essence I believe many of the issues we have are due to a lack of self love and self acceptance. We take on erroneous beliefs as a result of certain events and people but these beliefs are not who we truly are at our core. Though they can certainly feel like it. What occurs in our lives does not define or 'damage' us in any way, it's 'just' our 'story', which can be powerful and used to heal others and our self, but ultimately our true self cannot be touched or changed by these temporary experiences. I think trust is one of the most important factors in a working relationship, if not the most important factor, it enables people to feel safe, fully connect and open up so deep healing can take place. I believe that I facilitate people to do their own healing, so being as clear as I can possibly be is very important for EFT to work as well as it can. As Gary Craig says “get yourself out of the way”! I am also currently training to be an Emotrance practitioner and I intend to do the intermediate EFT certification in the new year. 

2. How did you first hear about EFT, and how did you first feel about it?

I first heard about EFT in a magazine years ago. It was an article written by Dr Mark Atkinson in a weekly alternative health section of the magazine. The words 'emotional freedom' jumped out at me and from there on I was hooked and immediately wanted to know more about it! At first I felt it was too good to be true, it seemed 'too simple', I think I was afraid of actually believing that it could help me as I had tried other therapies and they hadn't worked. EFT gave me real hope and I learned to take my power back, slowly but surely. 

3) The word "intention" can mean different things to different people. Can you tell us a little bit about what you mean by it?

I read Wayne Dyer's book The Power of Intention a few years ago and I was fascinated by what he said about its meaning “Intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy—a power that can carry us.” The energy of intention is creative, kind, loving, beautiful, expansive, receptive and abundant, an energetic force we are all part of and as a result have access to when we tune into our true self. I believe EFT helps us tune in by dissolving all the blocks clouding the way. He also said “accessing the power of intention relieved me of so much of the seemingly impossible work of striving to fulfill desires by sheer force of will.” This gives me a lot of hope and helps me to remember that by tuning into the frequency of intention, which is who we are naturally, life becomes easier, more effortless and inspired. 

4) Let's say someone is still new to the whole world of EFT and intention, and feels overwhelmed by the amount of work that "should" be done. Where would you advise that person to start? 

Start with how you're feeling right now, even if you judge what you're feeling to be 'wrong', even if you're questioning the validity of what you're feeling, if you're feeling it, trust those feelings and start doing EFT with them. I think one of the most powerful things EFT has done for me is to really help me to trust my self more, and value my feelings, emotions and experiences. Self trust is so important and gives us a solid foundation and sense of belonging that so many long for but feel they don't have. 

5) When would you advise someone to consult an EFT practitioner, rather than tapping for themselves?

 When they feel stuck and things are not shifting. If EFT is not working, it may feel like another reason that 'proves' the common belief of "there's something wrong with me". People tend to blame themselves and beat themselves up about EFT not working for them. Also, I feel we are all in relationship to each other, so, working with others, including a tapping buddy or a trusted friend, enables and empowers us to view our experiences from a different perspective. A new perspective can reframe the experience in such a way that it returns our power to us (or reminds us that we had it all along, we were just too afraid to exercise that same power) and helps to dissolve and release any intensity surrounding that experience. Allowing the space for someone to really be heard creates a connection and trust that naturally creates reframes I find, and they usually come from the person themselves. I find it easier to access certain issues and feelings when I do EFT with someone else too, they help me to tune into more painful feelings that maybe I would try to avoid for protection or safety. 

6) Do you have a tapping routine that you go through daily, for example? Or do you just tap when issues come up?

Both! I do have a tapping routine that I do everyday. I always do the three thump tap (collar bone, thymus, spleen) first thing in the morning along with the cross crawl. I also have my personal peace procedure list which I do almost every day (Note from Mohammad: The Personal Peace Procedure is an amazing use for EFT, I will write about it soon). I often tap continuously during the day too, a way of toning up my energy system. And I do tap when issues come up but sometimes if you're really being triggered it can be the last thing you feel like doing. I know from experience that this is the ideal time to tap! So if you can, really try to tap then.

7) Where do you personally see the future of EFT going? Do you have a certain vision for the future?

 I believe very much in the vision that Gary Craig and others hold, that the future of EFT is to realise that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around. Using EFT to help us remember that we are infinitely pure, perfect and complete. I find that vision so comforting, hopeful, exciting, and, most of all, true. 

8) Last question, have I told you that I love your blog?

Thanks Mohammad!

Loneliness and many many aspects

This is an excellent article taken from emofree.com which demonstrates how a general issue such as loneliness has many aspects to it.

Hi Everyone,

Here are two letters (about two weeks apart) from Irene Schoenfeld regarding a client with loneliness. This is a multi-aspected client of the type many of us come across. They take more time than others and, until we get more experience with them, we wonder if we are making any progress. They are both a challenge and a blessing to us. They are a challenge because they take more time. They are a blessing because they help us expand our skills.

Hugs, Gary

By Irene Schoenfeld

FIRST LETTER: "I have a client who has a big loneliness issue. He feels if he gets over this it will free him from a lot of his life problems. He is a people pleaser and has problems dealing with people if there might be a possibility of them leaving him alone. He was massively reversed so I had him rub the PR spot saying, "I love and accept myself even though I am miserable" for a week. Then I had him do the PR spot for loneliness which he did for a couple of days. During that week he had a massive bout of loneliness but it did not occur to him to tap. We have been tapping on loneliness for two sessions (the first one 2 hours and the second one and one half). We get it down but if he gets into it he can bring it back up. I do ask him to work at getting in as deep as he can when we first start. Do we just continue or do you have other thoughts?"

GC COMMENT: My apologies. You asked me about this a couple of weeks ago and I haven't responded until now. Although we spoke on the phone about it, I wanted to add to it through this written response. I've been thinking about it in the meantime. Here are some thoughts.

1. Loneliness is a big wide label that is likely to include many aspects. Incidents of rejection are high probabilities. Abandonment also comes to mind. In your letter you said he, "has problems dealing with people if there might be a possibility of them leaving him alone." I suspect there is a fear here in many forms. This list could probably go on indefinitely and may be one of the reasons you have long sessions with him. He keeps bringing up other aspects. See if you can't zero in on some of these other emotions that make up his sense of loneliness. It's a way of being specific.

2. This is a case where the client will likely benefit from doing EFT for the general issue of "loneliness" 10 times a day or more. If he thinks of a specific issue during the day then use that one instead. The case of Lori which we wrote up a while back was just like this except her issue was the general one of "self image." Spectacular change occurred for her. Your client may "forget" to do what needs to be done here and you may have to be a bit more persuasive. A daily phone call as a reminder might help.

3. You may be making great headway and not know it. Good possibility here. He may be skipping from aspect to aspect in a generalized way and each time he does so EFT may have topped (improved) the previous tree in his emotional forest. He still seems beset with problems but you will know you are making headway when some of the previous problems don't seem to come up any more. He is off to new ones. Good news indeed.

Gary

---

SECOND LETTER: Hi, I have a client same client as above-GC that is great at getting specific but sometimes I wonder if it slows us down. Here is an example: Being Fearful start at 4 go to 2 and then he says the worst part of the fear is I can't make it on my own, he continues talking and then it becomes fear of moving ahead. That is an 8+. Goes quickly to a 3 and then to a 0. He then spontaneously talks about fearful of being with himself, that's a nine and we get it to 0. He wanted to do it one more time and a tear runs down his cheek because he has never accepted who he was before. I test the fear of moving ahead and he finds an aspect of "if he moves ahead his business will blow up." This is a 7. During the tapping he talks about feeling his essence is getting bigger. He doesn't feel like a small being any more. We get the "if he moves ahead his business will blow up" to a one and I asked him what's keeping it there after 3 run throughs. He says: uncertainty of the right direction of my business, uncertainty of what kind of person I will change into when I become successful, can I change in myself what I need to change and will I actually need to do the work. Fear is down, uncertainty is up. Doubt is what is holding the fear in place.

Any suggestions? At that point we had been at this for 2 hours so I ended the session so I could have a chance to look at it all. I think that I need to tap on Doubt. What do you think?

By the way this is the person who has been tapping on loneliness for several weeks and he says that it is getting much better. When his friends say they can't see him he doesn't get all plugged in.

Irene Schoenfeld

GC COMMENT: I think you are to be commended for hanging in there with him and for probing for all those aspects. It started with loneliness. Several forms of fear came in. Now doubt. Probably more to come. I know it seems endless but it sounds to me like you are doing marvelous work with a difficult if not "impossible" (with conventional healing techniques) case. I hear music here. An unfinished symphony.

Please note that persistence has helped with his "loneliness" issue but the way he "gets" this is by being aware of his emotions when his friends cannot see him. Although a powerful change, it manifests itself rather subtly. It isn't like a phobia where we can produce instant results of the type, "now you see it, now you don't." We would love to have this kind of result every time but some clients, like this one, present us with a sea of problems all at once. You may be blessings to each other. He needs your love, patience and experience and you need his circumstances to sharpen your skills. What we learn along the way with our "tough" clients makes us better with our future clients. Getting through these "challenges" takes you to the next level of proficiency and your reward will be increased confidence that benefits YOU as well as your clients. I've been through this many times over the past 6 years. It is getting harder and harder to "throw me." In most cases I am presented with, I've been there before. It's just a matter of experience and hanging in there.

Also, when your client shifts from one aspect to another (I call this the daisy chain effect) he is not likely to come back to a previous aspect and, if he does, it will usually have a different flavor to it. If this is what is happening, you now have a BIG CLUE that you are making superb headway. It may take many sessions but please notice that the client is always bringing up NEW issues. The old ones seem less of a bother. He is getting healthier before your eyes. Maybe he doesn't notice it yet (because he keeps bumping into new trees) and you may need to keep reminding him of his headway by pointing out things that no longer seem to bother him. You are doing this man a loving service by staying with him. Persistence, persistence, persistence.

My love to you both, Gary

P.S. How much headway do you think you would have made with this client if you didn't have EFT? How many hours of talk therapy, visualization, cognitive work or other conventional techniques do you think it would take to help this man? Just a little perspective.

EFT, Inner Theater and Guilt

This is a guest article by EFT practitioner Pat Burns who lives in Tallahassee, Florida. You can find out more about Pat's work on her lovely website and blog.

Inner Theater combines the power of EFT with inner visualization. With Inner Theater, a client creates a safe place in their mind/imagination --- an inner sanctuary of sorts in which they have total control. Nobody can enter that sanctuary without their permission, and nothing can happen in that space that they don't wish to have happen.

Clients are encouraged to give their imagination free reign, and to "go with the flow", and not try to analyze what happens as this imagery plays out. If a client can trust in the process, they will find EFT and Inner Theater to be powerful tools for change and healing.

Inner Theater is not only tremendously powerful when combined with tapping -- it also allows clients to approach highly emotionally charged issues with far less fear and anxiety than with more traditional methods.

Once I learned the Inner Theater technique I found that it was useful when doing tapping on my own issues, particularly those with a high emotional charge. One such issue was the guilt that I felt about what kind of mother I had been. A part of me felt that I had let my daughter down, and that was difficult to deal with.

I started by focusing on how that guilt looked and felt to me. I got a mental picture of myself lying on a bed of nails. Each nail represented a time when I had let my daughter down, and with any little movement that I made, the nails pierced me. My intensity on this issue was a 10. I started tapping.

“Even though I have this guilt about my mothering that looks and feels like a prickly bed of nails, I’m ready to start letting go of that guilt, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself”.

“Even though this mothering guilt is really painful, I’m open to the possibility that I can let go of the guilt AND the pain and feel better about myself, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself”.

I used reminder statements such as:

· “I love my daughter so much and I let her down”

· “I did the best that I could, but it wasn’t good enough”

· “I wasn’t the mother that my daughter needed”

· “It’s time to start letting go of this guilt”

· “I’m open to the possibility that maybe I wasn’t such a bad mom”

· “I did the best I could, and that’s all anyone can do”

· “Breathing out that guilt with every breath I take”

I could physically feel the guilt level dropping. My muscles started to relax. I tapped a bit more.

“Even though I’ve released a lot of my guilt, I’ve still got more that I’m holding onto, and I’m ready to bring some healing to this, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself, and I hold myself in kindness and compassion”.

· “Letting go of the guilt”

· “Feeling better and better about myself”

· “Breathing out guilt, breathing in peace”

· “Transforming the last of the guilt into a healing energy”

I estimated my emotional charge at this point to be about a 5. I checked back in to see whether there was any change in that bed of nails, and right before my eyes, the nails transformed into blades of soft grass, gently cushioning me.

Next I pictured myself standing face to face with my daughter. I expressed my remorse, and apologized to her for all of my shortcoming as a mother. Her immediate response was that she was lucky to have me for a mom. This was something that she had actually said to me.

A loving feeling filled me, and the tears flowed freely. I felt a great release of emotion, and my body somehow felt lighter.

Now I said aloud to myself “I was a bad mother” to see how it felt. The statement no longer felt true, and the emotional charge was down to zero.

This tapping session was transformational for me, and I felt a deeper, more profound connection with my daughter as a result.

By using Inner Theater and EFT together, you too can experience the combined power of the two. Open your mind, free your imagination, and find out what EFT and Inner Theater can do for you.

Letting go with the help of EFT

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning 

~ Lao Tzu

Many of us fear letting go. What if we can't get it back? What if we end up alone? What if we end up being wrong and having to do it all over again? What if they get away with it, again? What if we stop trying? What will happen then? You know you need to let go when you feel stuck, when you see the same patterns of behaviour repeating themselves over and over again in your life. One of the biggest obstacles we have and use for not letting go, is our attachment to a situation or person. We want a situation or person to be different than what it really is or was and very often this leads us down the road of denial. We resist what happened or what is happening now, and this resistance leads to a feeling of being stuck.

Using the analogy of eating; we ingest food and assimilate what we need and eliminate - let go of what we don't need or what doesn't serve us. If we don't eliminate or let go of what we don't need, we become congested, constipated, full, heavy and laden down. The same thing happens with our experiences in life. Only we seem to have more difficulty in letting go of certain experiences, so we hold on and we keep holding on because sometimes we just don't know how to let go. Try the following EFT script for letting go, customise the set up statements and phrases to really help you tune in to how letting go relates to you and your life.

Tapping on the karate chop point x 3 times or rubbing the sore spot (see short cut diagram), say:

Even though the thoughts of letting go fill me with____________I completely accept how I feel

Even though I don't want to let go because______________I completely accept how I feel

Even though it is not safe to let go because____________I love and accept myself anyway

TH I don't want to let go
EB I'm afraid
SE I can't
UE I'll be hurt again
UN I need my guard up
UC I have to remember
CB No I don't
UA Yes, I do

TH I don't know how to let go
EB And that's okay
SE No it's not
UE Yes, it is
UN I don't have to know right now
UC It's hard not to hold on for dear life
CB And that's okay
UA It's how I feel

TH Letting go feels________
EB And that makes me feel________
SE And that's okay
UE It's okay to feel that way
UN No, it's not
UC Yes, it is
CB I feel it anyway, so why pretend?
UA It's exhausting keeping it all in

TH I don't have to do that any more
EB But I don't know what else to do
SE That's okay
UE No, it's not
UN I'm stuck, I feel stuck
UC I feel stuck
CB I feel stuck
UA I feel this feeling________(note and locate where in your body you feel this feeling and do a few rounds of tapping on that. If you do not have any bodily sensations, that's okay too, do more rounds on how you're feeling until you can say “I can let go” “It is safe to let go” “I give myself permission to let go” “I deserve to let go” and it feels true on a 0 to 10 scale, 10 being the most true and 0 being the most false.

Ever so Lonely ~ Sheila Chandra

"The Ocean refuses no River"

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other

~ Mother Teresa

The Twelve Meridians by Dr John Diamond

This is excerpted from Dr John Diamond's Acupuncture Emotional System. Below is a list of the twelve meridians along with their emotional states and positive affirmations associated with them.

The Twelve Meridians

The Lung Meridian (thumb point); The meridian of humility. The associated positive affirmations are:

I am humble.
I am tolerant.
I am modest.

The Thyroid Meridian (gamut spot); The meridian of hope. It is classically called the triple heater meridian (which governs fight or flight). The associated positive affirmations are:

I am light and buoyant.
I am buoyed up with hope.

The Stomach (under the eye point) Meridian; The meridian of contentment and tranquility. The associated positive affirmations are:

I am content
I am tranquil.

The Spleen Meridian (under the breast on rib cage, left side); The meridian of confidence. The associated positive affirmations are:

I have faith and confidence in my future
I am secure.

The Gall Bladder Meridian (side of eye point); The meridian of adoration. The associated positive affirmation is:

I reach out with love.

The Small Intestine Meridian (side of hand point); The meridian of joy. The associated positive affirmation is:

I am jumping with joy.

The Liver Meridian (under the breast, right side); The meridian of happiness. The associated positive affirmations are:

I am happy.
I have good fortune.
I am cheerful.

The Kidney Meridian (collar bone points); The meridian of sexual assuredness. The associated positive affirmation is:

My sexual energies are balanced.

The Large Intestine Meridian (index finger point); The meridian of self-worth. The associated positive affirmations are:

I am basically clean and good.
I am worthy of being loved.

The Heart Meridian (little finger point); The meridian of forgiveness. The associated positive affirmations are:

I have forgiveness in my heart.
My heart is filled with love.

The Circulation-Sex Meridian (middle finger point); The meridian of relaxation and generosity. The associated positive affirmations are:

I renounce the past.
I am relaxed.
I am generous.

The Bladder Meridian (eyebrow point); The meridian of peace and harmony. The associated positive affirmations are:

I am at peace.
I am in harmony.

Try tapping on the above statements (watch for any objections/tailenders, which you can also tap on) using either the EFT shortcut or basic recipe, or you can always tap on the meridian governing a particular organ or body part that you're having an issue with at the moment.

Finding core issues

Taken from the EFT newsletter 23rd November 2009, by Gary Craig:

When EFT "doesn't work," it is usually NOT because it doesn't work.

Instead, the real reason for not seeing results is because the practitioner has not applied EFT properly. Perhaps the practitioner has not been specific enough or maybe emerging aspects are masking otherwise valid healing work. We have covered these possibilities earlier in this tutorial.

There is another important element of sophistication that we need to explore ... namely ... the discovery of Core Issues. Sometimes a client's "presenting problem" is nothing more than a symptom of a Core Issue--a much deeper, much more important underlying problem. Once the Core Issue is discovered, it can usually be broken down into specific events and handled routinely.

There are many live examples of Core Issues throughout the various EFT training tapes. Study, for example, the case of Nate's "fear of heights" on the From EFT to the Palace of Possibilities DVD set. Nate comes up on stage with other height phobics and makes only modest headway. After some detective work, however, it was discovered that the real Core Issue was the sense of ridicule he felt when he was teased and prodded to make a parachute jump from a helicopter (while in the armed services). Once we took care of that Core Issue, his fear of heights vanished. In addition, his eyesight improved and his elevated blood pressure dropped dramatically (without taking his medication).

Other live examples abound within our EFT - Beyond the Basics DVD set. Pay particular attention to the sessions with Craig (Bashful Bladder), David (Fear of Public Speaking), Martha (Being Reserved) and Jane (Accident).

Finding Core Issues is an art and it requires experience to do it expertly. Fortunately, there are some common sense questions that can help you get to Core Issues quickly. Here are some of them....

• "What does this issue remind you of?"
  
• "When was the first time you can remember feeling the same kind of feeling?"
  
• "If there was a deeper emotion underlying this problem, what might it be?"
  
• "If you could live your life over again, what person or event would you prefer to skip?"

Please be aware, however, that a favorite answer clients like to give to these questions is, "I don't know." When you hear this, be persistent. You can say, "Well, just guess for me." Their guesses are usually right on target. Gary Craig

Let the beauty we love be what we do ~ Rumi

Iago, Study from an Italian, Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867

What are your dreams for your self and your life? If you can't think of any, just think back for one moment to when you were a child. Children are full of fantastic imaginings and exciting dreams which they are convinced are going to come true! They haven't yet learned to censor themselves or preclude the infinite possibilities that are open to them. They are full of hope, innocence and creativity, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

The photograph above is one of my all time favourite images. I used to work as a photographer and while I was at college studying photography, I learned about a photographer called Julia Margaret Cameron. I was really drawn to her style. I feel something when I look at her images, something that I can't quite explain or articulate even now but I can best describe her work as beautiful and ethereal. For me the essence and meaning is akin to the poetry of Rumi or Teresa of Avila.

Julia is quoted as saying "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied." I love what she accomplished, she took up photography in her late forties in the 1800s. Her work shows, in my opinion, that she was obviously following her passion and dreams. She became a photographer at an age that, today, in age obsessed 2009, may be viewed as 'too old' and at a time when many things, including photography, were considered only for men. I believe it is never too late to do what you want to be or do, what you are drawn to be or do. You are much more than your age, your gender, your weight, your situation. By birthright we are all a part of the energy of creativity and beauty just because of our existence. Just because we are. Isn't that a good enough reason to do what we love?

Tailender exercise

EFT shortcut diagram

Negative or Honest?

Many people ask the question “Why do we affirm the negative in EFT?” Affirming our truth and being emotionally true to how we really feel is a statement of honesty not a statement of negativity. Every part of us knows we feel this way so pretending otherwise is entirely futile and does us no favours whatsoever. This is resistance in action. Saying no to how we feel creates resistance. Saying yes to how we feel creates flow.

There is enormous power in stating the truth of how we feel and what we believe to be true. The important point to emphasise here is that it is emotionally true for us. It may not appear logical or rational but that is beside the point. Stating a truth or truths we do not like has the exact effect on our energy systems that we are looking to correct with EFT. The emotional truth that we don't like, are terrified of or just don't want to acknowledge or admit, disrupts our energy system in such a way that it creates a short circuit in the flow of our energy. The natural flow of our energy is diverted or becomes blocked and starts to stagnate. It has no means to exit in the natural way. Tuning in to how we honestly feel is so important and makes EFT extremely effective. EFT is designed to correct and dissolve these short circuits in our energy or electrical system.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

~ William Shakespeare

Depression/Pressing Down

When you press your emotions and feelings down, deny them, stuff them, repress them, and consequently do not express them, there is a build up of unexpressed energy. All that energy has to go somewhere and if it can't express itself and exit in the natural way, it starts to press down on your life force and vitality. One of the most common reasons people do not express their feelings is that they are afraid, it is not safe to feel certain feelings and/or express those feelings. Staying safe is a primal need that cannot be overemphasised.

Blocking and stunting our natural expression depresses our life energy. Eventually this will manifest in the physical realm. We become more and more sluggish, daily tasks are more of an effort and slog, our movements slow down as does our thinking. We start to feel overwhelmed and anxious because there is no room for any more of anything. We become more and more afraid of everything. This is the time when hopefully we will reach out for help. Many people break down before they will ask or seek the help they need. Very often a breakdown can be a breakthrough, it's an opportunity to see what does not work and respond differently.

The thyroid gland is affected by depression. The thyroid is found in the throat so it is no accident that when the expression of our voice or feelings is depressed in any way that this gland's function is affected. Many people with depression have below par thyroid function which can often go unnoticed by allopathic medicine because it may not fit the blood test parameters of a hypothyroid diagnosis (underactive thyroid). Some symptoms of an underactive thyroid gland include fatigue, dry skin, cold hands and feet, sluggishness and weight gain. Extract below from Silvia Hartmann's book Adventures in EFT.

Gamut Spot
Connection; GS = Gamut Spot = Triple Warmer (Thyroid Meridian)
When blocked there is an inability to express emotions and love.
When tapped removes low self-esteem and opens us up to emotional
interaction with others.

Potential, Possibility and Power

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite ~ William Blake

Take your power back by seeing the potential and possibility inherent in every situation.

Potential: There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential ~ Rusty Berkus

Possibility: Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything ~ William MacNeile Dixon

Power: Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power ~ Seneca

The need to fix your self

Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain ~ Saint Bartholomew

Needing or wanting to fix our self usually comes from a core belief that we are broken or that there is something wrong with us. We want to run away as fast as possible from the feeling this belief creates. The more we run and avoid the feeling, the more the feeling chases us. It can seem like we are never going to “get rid of it”.

Why does it feel as if the feeling is chasing us? Because it has never been felt. It has not been felt because it was too painful, it was too much to cope with at the time and the necessary resources to feel that feeling were not there. So the feeling and experience remains suspended and frozen in time. Our bodies and minds will always look to regain equilibrium and one of the best ways to do that, is to feel that feeling. It can seem as if this feeling is following us around like a shadow, lurking in dark corners and that can scare us. But if we remember that the only reason it seems this way is because that feeling needs healing, it needs to be experienced, it can help us dissolve any fear we have about feeling the feeling. It may still be painful but we find the courage to feel it as we know this is where the solution lies.

Healing is not about fixing or “curing” anything. It is about remembering, or putting the pieces or members back together again, re-mem-ber. It's about being who you really are. The you that is underneath and covered by all the beliefs, all the thoughts, all the memories, all the events and all the emotions that you think define who you are. The thing is we identify with these beliefs. We believe we are these beliefs. We hold the false belief that what happens to us IS us.

Examine your beliefs and where they came from. Without evidence - events – we would not hold these beliefs. We can use EFT on the painful events and beliefs to dissolve them and to feel free.

Feeling heard

I have long believed that not feeling heard is traumatic. It renders you hungry for more. More love, more approval, more acceptance. But it's never enough.

We feel heard when we or someone else is fully present. It is the greatest gift we can give to our self and to others. We know or can sense when someone is not listening. What we're really feeling is that they are not present with us. We make all sorts of interpretations as a result; we're not important, we don't matter, we're not worthy of their attention and therefore, their love and acceptance.

Do you hear you? Are you present to you? Plug your self in to the present by meditating and hearing what you have to say.

Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit ~ Jeremy Taylor

The Discovery Statement of EFT

By revolution we become more ourselves, not less ~ George Orwell

This discovery statement is from EFT founder Gary Craig. However, I don't believe there is such a thing as a negative emotion, but certain emotions can feel difficult or frightening for various reasons. I really like Karla Mc Laren's work on emotions, read her post on the myth of negative emotions.

Watch your language

Consider describing your life with different language. Substitute your description of a 'problem' into one that makes you feel powerful, a description that gives you a choice about what path to take. The words we use will usually reflect our thoughts. What do the words you use say about your thinking? Are they helpful? Are they helping? Our perception of something will determine our entire approach to it. Seeing more than one possibility gives you back your power. Choosing different words, just like using a thesaurus instead of repeating ourselves, helps you see things differently. If you consider an issue to be too big, consider the possibility that it has to 'scream' at you because you're not listening. If we always do the same thing we'll always get the same results. We have to do different to have different.

Are you ready for release?

A guided meditation for releasing uncomfortable emotions and clearing our perception to see more possibilities in our current situation.

http://www.chopra.com/agnilight/oct09/podcast

Feeling out of control

Control is never achieved when sought after directly. It is the surprising outcome of letting go ~ James Arthur Ray

Many people react to not feeling in control with fear. Fear is often defined as false expectations appearing real. How does fear show up in your life? A knot in your stomach, anxiety, or panic attacks? The mind will resist letting go or surrendering as it does not feel in control. When you recognise this, it will lessen your fear and resistance to accepting what is.

As Eckhart Tolle writes in The Power of Now :

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind. The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honour and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering----and free of the egoic mind.

Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.

In energetic terms, the more you resist what is, the more intensely you will experience and feel an energetic disturbance. Emotionally this can manifest as fear, terror, guilt or anger and it may also manifest physically and mentally. You can correct this energetic short circuit with EFT so your energy will flow as it is supposed to. Accepting what is helps keep your energy moving. And paradoxically, acceptance is needed for change to occur. Flow and movement are the opposite to resistance.

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit ~ Emmanuel Teney

Diagram of tapping points

Follow the path of least effort, nature does!

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance
~ Samuel Butler

Music, Smell and EFT

We sometimes forget how evocative music and smells can be at recalling long forgotten memories. What smells of home? Freshly baked bread? Or something else? What smells do you remember from school? These two senses can really help you to tune in to your feelings which makes EFT so much more effective at correcting any energetic disturbances. Have you ever caught a whiff of something that immediately transported you back to when you were 5 years of age?

Listening to music can be helpful when you find it difficult to tune in to how you feel. Smells or odours can be more difficult to control! They can pop up when you least expect them and take you by surprise. Both smells and sounds can be aspects or features of an issue you may be having difficulty clearing. Remember, anything at all can be an aspect or feature of an event. The more you do EFT the more you will experience this for your self. If so, ask yourself what smells or sounds you can remember about a particular event. If something comes up, tap on it, if you find your self overwhelmed or even taken aback (this often happens when we remember or smell a smell) keep tapping until the intensity subsides. You don't need to say anything as you're already tuned in. EFT shortcut diagram and procedure

Letting go

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning ~ Lao Tzu

If you're feeling overwhelmed, full, stuck, exhausted or ready to burst, it is time to consider letting go. If even considering this elicits an emotional charge, you know you have definitely hit on something. What or who do you find difficult or even impossible to consider letting go of? Life is a process of ingesting, assimilating and eliminating. We often get stuck, literally and metaphorically, on the last two. We find events or people hard to digest. We often feel very justified in hanging and holding on to something, particularly if the event was traumatic. In fact we could say they are directly proportional! What we don't eliminate or let go of, accumulates, accumulates and accumulates. We start to feel under the weather, heavy, lethargic ... the full barrel effect. Little things start to REALLY bother us and we can't cope. And the pile just keeps on growing. 

Choose one thing a day to let go of. Start small, be gentle and kind to yourself. Observe how much lighter you start to feel with each passing day. Remember if it gets difficult you are doing this for you. This is a gift you are giving to your self.

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward ~ Author Unknown

Feeling trapped, stuck and overwhelmed

Emotions are energy. And energy follows the laws of nature. Energy likes and needs to move. For various reasons energy can become trapped, frozen or stuck. Very often we experience this trapped energy as severe anxiety, depression and complete overwhelm. We need to find a way to let some of that 'steam' out and tapping can help us do that. If we don't feel safe letting something go, or letting that energy move, the energy will become more dense over time and this is what very often leads to feelings of complete overwhelm. Our emotions are the feedback from our energy system, so if energy is very dense, it feels very very uncomfortable and how our energy system lets us know that it needs help in releasing that energy, is by how we feel. When we don't fully feel or allow the experience to move in, through and out of our system, we are overriding our natural release mechanisms and as a result we cannot discharge energy from our nervous system. This usually builds up over time until we feel bad enough to do something about it.

Tapping on the thymus and collar bone area will almost immediately return some sense of calm in the moment. When you feel calmer you can then perform EFT on the specific reasons behind the anxiety and depression.

A few set up statements that you could use to help you when you feel stuck or overwhelmed are:

Even though this energy is not moving and that is making me feel ... I acknowledge that it is stuck


Even though some part of me might not want this energy to move for whatever reason, I acknowledge that possibility


Even though it's just not safe to let this energy of anger (fear, guilt, disloyalty, sadness, grief, shame) to move through my system and feel it, I absolutely have to resist it, I acknowledge my fear


Even though I'm really afraid of feeling ... which is keeping it stuck, trapped and frozen, I accept myself, I'm doing the best I can  EFT Short cut diagram and procedure

Quantum entanglement and the Power of Intention

EVERYTHING IS ENERGY

Movement

Life is movement. Everything is in the act or process of moving and changing all the time. When we resist moving, we stagnate. When we resist our emotions, which are energy in motion or energy in movement, we hinder those energies from following their natural course, or when we allow a thought not in alignment with our true nature.

Allowing ourselves to feel our emotions allows the energy to flow freely. We don't allow ourselves to feel for various reasons, it is not our natural state but a conditioned and learned state. Sometimes it's not safe to feel or express how we feel or it's not acceptable to feel a certain way. It's 'bad' to feel angry, envious and all the other emotions and feelings on the 'bad' list. And we all have a 'bad' list. What do we do? When these energies arise, we deny them, we repress them with all our might because we are ashamed or feel guilty for feeling that way. Tap and breathe the next time uncomfortable feelings and emotions arise. Allow them to flow and move through you and dissolve ... naturally.

Diagram of tapping points

EFT script for feeling stuck

“Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states.” Carol Welch

Try this script when you're feeling stuck. Scan your body to determine if you have any physical sensations of feeling stuck. For example, it may manifest as a knot or lump in your throat, a tightness in your solar plexus, a constriction in your gut. Be really descriptive in how you describe your physical sensations and use your own language in your tapping. If an image or metaphor comes to mind use it in your tapping. Tailoring the phrases to suit you and how you feel will help you to tune in and make EFT more effective. Diagram of tapping points
Tapping on your Karate chop point continuously or rubbing your sore spot (see diagram):

Even though feeling stuck feels tight and constricting, I accept how I feel right now

Even though this issue (be as specific as you can here) won't budge and I feel frustrated and want it gone, I allow it to be there just for now

Even though I feel stuck, the act of allowing the stuck feeling the right to be there and thereby accepting it, is what could help me to dissolve it

TH this stuck feeling
EB It's not nice
SE It feels stifling
UE I feel helpless
UN I can't move
UC Either way
CB I'm stuck
UA I feel stuck, afraid to go back and afraid to go forward

TH It's loosening
EB It feels less tight
SE But I still feel stuck
UE That's the way I feel
UN I acknowledge my feelings
UC It's still there
CB But lessening
UA This stuck sensation

TH It's definitely dissolving
EB I feel it
SE It's still there … a little
UE It's melting
UN With my attention
UC It's going
CB It's moving
UA It's still moving

“Ignorance is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.” Shakti Gawain

The Cross Crawl

Try this simple quick exercise before you start tapping with EFT to make sure that your energies are crossing over. It will save you time in the long run!



http://www.feelingfree.net/batteryproblems/crossover.htm

Thought is What You Are

Trans-form

I am nourished by love

I have found that there are very few, if any, tailenders (objections) to this statement of truth. We are all nourished by love, we need it. It feeds and nourishes us on every level. Even if you feel you don't have love in your life at the moment, when you have felt loved you have also felt nourished too.

Try the temporal tap (area around right ear) with this statement or try tapping on your thymus (centre of chest) as you say it. Do it as many times as is comfortable throughout the day.

When EFT does not seem to work

Article by Gary Craig.

Introduction to this extensive answer: When progress with EFT seems stopped-or it seems like "it doesn't work"-EFT is usually not the problem. Rather, the reason for the lack of progress can most often be traced to the inexperience of the user. Why do I say this? Because those who master EFT don't miss very often. They not only get their share of "one minute wonders" but, compared to conventional techniques, impressive progress is also made for just about any problem with an emotional cause-including many physical ailments. In those cases where the masters are stumped, however, they don't point the finger at EFT for "not working."

Rather, the masters ask themselves questions like....

"What's in the way here?"
"What have I not seen yet?"
"What core issue have I been unable to find?"

I'm not saying here that EFT is a panacea for everything. It won't paint your toenails, for example, nor will it allow you to drink gasoline. But just about anything that has an emotional cause-including many physical ailments-is a clear candidate for EFT. It often works beautifully, even in the hands of a beginner. But that doesn't mean we have perfection here. We are still learning and should give thanks for those "tough cases" that challenge us to perfect our skills.

Those who want to achieve mastery of EFT will be interested in the following reasons why it sometimes appears that EFT "doesn't work." 

Menu for reasons why "it doesn't work" Read on

EFT Short cut diagram and procedure