Positivity Challenge 4 – using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to be happier

Can tapping on different parts of your body really make you feel better?

Around about 2001, 2002, I kept coming across reports of this amazing new technique. All you had to do with tap on some acupuncture points and it helped you feel better when you were upset. Having benefited a lot from acupuncture in the past, these reports intrigued me, so I downloaded some information but never got round to reading it.

When I read about it for the third time, on Dr Mercola’s website, I finally got round to reading more. It was called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT. I wasn’t feeling particularly upset about anything at the time, so I filed it away, again…

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At the time, I was studying to be a nutrition consultant, but we were also doing websites. On this particular day, we received a letter from one of our clients saying that someone else had approached them saying they could do a better website and our services were no longer required.

Given that we had been required to work round some specific parameters and they didn’t want to pay much, I was somewhat peeved. Ah! An opportunity to try that tapping technique!

For the first round, I used the phrase “xyz fucked us over”. I knew this was somewhat melodramatic, but it was how I felt. After tapping through the points, and taking a couple of deep breaths, I had the realisation that I was really peeved because I wasn’t happy with the site either (even though it was the best we could do in the circumstances). So I tapped about that.

After the second round, I had another realisation. Because I was self taught and didn’t have a formal qualification in web design, deep down I was a bit insecure about it. Even though I’d been teaching myself a wide variety of programs since the 80’s, when my boss first pointed to a new PC, and said “figure out how to use that thing, will you?” and I’d always been a natural at it.

A round of tapping about that, and I felt fine. Completely fine.

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So fine, in fact, that next time I was in their building, visiting another client, I popped in to see the letter writer. I asked him what it was about our work that they were unhappy with, to help me in the future. There is no way I could have done that previously, without feeling worried, embarrassed or uncomfortable in some way.

The irony is that he had changed his mind about the new person, but hadn’t felt like he could ask us to keep going after all. So I gave him the opportunity, which he was grateful for. Isn’t life funny?

So what exactly is this Emotional Freedom Technique?

It came out of another tapping technique called TFT – Thought Field Therapy. This was invented by Dr Roger Callaghan in the 80s. It involved muscle testing the client to see what type of Thought Field was disturbed and then applying the correct tapping routine.

All of the tapping points were on the ends of the meridians. These are energy pathways in the body, used for acupuncture or acupressure. Each type of imbalance had a different combination of points.

Along came Gary Craig, who studied with Dr Callaghan. It occurred to him that if you always tapped all of the points, you wouldn’t need to know which thought field was out of balance, and then anybody could tap for themselves at any time. He started experimenting and found his results were as good with his new technique. He called this Emotional Freedom Technique, and put it on a website where it could be available to anyone.

Photo of Gary Craig from his website

EFT has since grown enormously and spread all round the world. There are a number of spinoff techniques such as the Choices method or Positive EFT.

Many thousands of people have used EFT

It was originally used for emotional upsets. This might be because of an argument, or trauma, or just well, life. Dr Callaghan had his first success with a patient with a phobia.

But, over time, it became clear that it could be used for all sorts of things. This is because much of what happens to us is due to our unconscious thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Work on these and many things will change.

This can include physical issues, sports performance, work performance, relationships and more.

One of the things Gary recommends is doing a Personal Peace Procedure. This involves writing a list of all the events that you can think of that have bothered you – there should be at least 50. Over time, work through each one until you have cleared all negative emotions from it.

How do I get started?

Ah, the 50,000 SBD question. I was going to tell you that in this post as well. But it’s already rather long, so it will need to wait till another day.

My plan is to write it up over the weekend and post it on Monday. But if you can’t wait till then, visit my website for more information and instructions. And here’s a sneak preview of the tapping points.

From Gary Craig’s website

Back to my story.

I had been using the technique myself for a variety of things. Then as I started seeing nutrition clients, I realised that mostly they didn’t actually want to change their diets. They felt like they had to, due to ill health, but it was hard. That was when I started using EFT with my clients.

There were no training courses available in New Zealand, so I just did what I always do and taught myself, using the information on Gary Craig’s website. He had some training courses available, so I studied all of those. And then later, when courses were available in NZ, I took all of those too, and travelled to Australia a couple of times for conferences and training.

One of those trips to Australia included two days training with Sandi Radomski who had developed a system called Allergy Antidotes. This was right up my alley as I was mostly working with people who had food sensitivities.

Photo of Sandi Radomski from her website

So anyway, to cut a long story a little bit shorter, I’ve been using EFT with my clients for about 12 or 13 years now. Sometimes it’s working to reset the energy system around specific foods, sometimes its about the feelings that come up when you have to change diets, and sometimes people come to me just for EFT and have no interest in diet.

It doesn’t always work; no therapeutic modality always works. Sometimes it needs persistence. Sometimes it needs to be alongside other techniques. But it works often enough to be worth trying first. And the great thing is that clients can take it away and use it themselves, so it’s empowering.

How could you use EFT to improve your life today?

One final comment – if you feel like having a go, by all means do some work with your day to day incidents. But there is one thing you need to be careful of. Gary calls it “not going where you don’t belong”. What he means is, don’t go into the deep and nasty stuff on your own. If you have trauma, see a specialist who can support you if needed.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon with another EFT post.

Follow me for more health, nutrition, food, lifestyle and recipe posts.

I am now on Peerhub offering one on one nutritional coaching and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) sessions by Skype.

Some of my previous posts:

THOUGHTS ABOUT LIFE: My Intro ~ Are there kiwis in the house? ~ Benefits of joining a community choir ~ My grandmother’s legacy ~ Steemit in downtown Wellington ~ Overcoming my fears ~ Observations from a bus ~ The brandy snap maker ~ Wearable Arts Award Show ~ 2 months on Steemit and now curating health, nutrition and recipes ~ Positivity Challenge 3 – Acts of kindness ~ Positivity Challenge 4 with a twist

HEALTH AND NUTRITION: The wide variety of healthy diets out and what they have in common ~ The travels of Weston A Price and his discoveries about healthy diets ~ Good fats vs bad fats ~ DNA testing for better Health & Fitness ~ DNA testing part 2: How Well Do I Digest Carbs? ~ DNA testing Part 3: I can’t eat Carbs & How to Manage that ~ About the Gut & Psychology syndrome (GAPS) diet Part 1 ~ GAPS diet Part 2: Foods we can’t have ~ GAPS diet Part 3: Foods we CAN have ~ GAPS diet Part 4: What if I can’t eat some animal foods ~ Salicylate intolerances ~ Thoughts about Breast Health ~ I’ve got a cold & how to handle it ~ Sleep like a kitten Part 1 – 3 tips ~ Sleep Well Part 2 – What’s your sleeping style? ~ Sleep Well Part 3 – Resetting your body clock