Being tuned in

As Gary Craig says, EFT works better when we are tuned in. In my experience I have found that to be very true. It can feel like we are going through the motions if we are not tuned in or associated with whatever we are tapping on and we certainly don't get the movement and shifts that we do when we are tuned in and really feeling what needs to be felt.

The reasons for not tuning in can be many, not feeling safe enough 'to go there', being dissociated and so on. Tapping with someone else who is able to help you access what you might not want to, is invaluable. In essence it is the ability to not shy away from pain, to embrace it instead, knowing that what we avoid grows bigger and more painful.

Ronald Ruden writes about EFT "It is interesting that this inhibition occurs only when the animal is in an activated state", in other words, being tuned in to the disruption enables us to dissolve the disruption. EFT is very powerful when we are tuned in.

References:
Ruden, R. (2007). A model for disrupting an encoded traumatic memory, Traumatology 13: 71–75.

An Interview with George Lough, Ph.D., on Somatic Experiencing

Clinical psychologist Dr. George Lough talks about an approach to trauma known as Somatic Experiencing. He says that trauma is really any experience, a life experience, that overwhelms the nervous system's capacity to deal with it. In the healthy nervous system throughout the day, there's kind of a cycle of arousal and relaxation. It looks like a gentle wave going throughout the day. And when you get kind of activated, the sympathetic nervous division of the autonomic nervous system's sympathetic comes into play and gives you energy and makes you responsive and able to do what you need to do. And then the parasympathetic takes over and you go into rest, digestion, sleep. And so that's the normal kind of way the nervous system is acting. If there's a traumatic experience or even just a difficult life experience -- even a child falling off of a bicycle or something like that can count in this. It can cause disruption in the nervous system regulation. So from the healthy regulation nervous system, this traumatic event comes in and it creates fear and anxiety, fear, and a sense that things are not okay, that you have to be on guard, you have to be careful, you have to be worried. And it can create a hyperviligance and a constriction, a feeling of helplessness like you talked about with the dogs. And so your nervous system tends to be stuck on or stuck off. People are in a freeze, and they can't respond. Read on

Using EFT for stress

I really like the Chopra Centre's definition of stress: stress is how we respond to not having our needs met.

Our need could be for a good night's sleep, a meal, warm clothes or someone to listen to you.

How do you respond to not having your needs met? Make a list of your unmet needs. List every event that contributed to not having having your needs met and start tapping on them. If you find it difficult to be specific at first, start tapping generally on an unmet need, and see what comes up.