The many ways of being specific

If you are specific when using EFT you'll see results faster than if you tap globally. However, many times there are no specific details to recall because we were too young and the memory is implicit rather than explicit. Or maybe we didn't experience the event fully because we dissociated from it as it was too painful so the details are hazy. However, we know what we know, or more aptly, we feel what we feel, our body never lies.

My recent thesis discussed the link between tonic immobility, dissociation and trauma. Tonic immobility (more commonly known as the freeze response) is somatoform dissociation while peritraumatic dissociation is psychoform dissociation. Just as we can't separate the mind from the body, my hypothesis is that we cannot separate tonic immobility from peritraumatic dissociation, they are one and the same phenomenon. And their parent, so to speak, is dissociation.

This is why being specific when we tap can take different forms. If you are suffering from chronic physical issues for example, you can tap on how they show up in your body. And you can be really specific about how it shows up in your body and how the symptoms change, worsen or get better depending on how you feel, external circumstances and so on. For example, you can say: Even though the pain in my right top shoulder is dull, red and throbbing and it makes me feel totally and utterly frustrated and … I accept myself anyway. Tapping on how you feel about any physical pain also helps you be really specific as it is very difficult not to have an emotional response to pain.

Tapping on our body's symptoms is very powerful and is another way to be really specific. Our bodies really do speak our minds, and listening to and tapping on any symptoms can lead us to their cause.

There is a force within that gives you life 

Seek that. 

In your body there lies a priceless jewel 

Seek that. 

Oh, wandering Sufi, 

If you are in search of the greatest treasure, 

Don't look outside, 

Look within, and seek that. 

 ~ Rumi