Five Tips For Self-Healing With Emotional Freedom Technique

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), sometimes known as "meridian tapping" or "acupressure tapping" is one of my favorite energy therapy techniques - especially for clients to do at home. I'm all for self-healing! I personally can't imagine where my health would be without EFT. I know there are many forms of "tapping" but I have found the points used in the traditional Emotional Freedom Technique founded by Gary Craig, to be most effective.

EFT employs gentle tapping on face and body points while integrating specific wording about negative emotions or events into the routine. This helps balance the body's energy in relationship to that charged emotional issue. This is a basic explanation, but you can visit my EFT Resources page to find out exactly how EFT works.

This technique was one that I picked up very quickly, even before getting professional training. I very intuitively lead my clients through tapping with excellent results - even some "one session wonders!" I always encourage clients to use this at home, but they are often concerned that they will mess it up or it won't work without me (which is not true by the way). I even have kids do this with great success and I know they are not doing it perfectly :)

Top 5 Tips For Using EFT On Your Own

*If you need a step-by-step guide on EFT, check out my "tapping card" called How To Tap Using EFT.

1. Use this rule when figuring out where to start.
   - If you have a physical symptom, try focusing on the emotion associated with it.
   Example: If you have a stomach ache, try using words in tapping that describe how that pain feels: angry, relentless, sad.
   - If you have an emotional symptom, try focusing on the physical sensation associated with it. 
   Example: If you are nervous, try focusing on the physical sensation such as "tightness in chest" or "pit in stomach."
2. Know you can't say the wrong thing as long as you're focusing on the problem.
   The whole key to EFT is to really sink into the feeling of the issue you're trying to resolve. So the trick is to use words that keep you connected to that feeling while you tap. You can't use the "wrong" words if you just pretend you're "venting" to a friend (or me!) about the issue.
3. Don't focus on affirmations or positive tapping until the last few points or the last round.
   To really "tap away" an issue, you need to rebalance the body's energy in relationship to the negative feelings. If you're doing tapping on the positives too soon, you can cheat yourself out of really clearing the negative completely. Focus on the negative while you tap until you don't have a charge anymore, then do a round or so of tapping on a positive affirmation or statement to close out the 'session.'
4. Try to find metaphors related to your issue and tap on those.
   Think about what your issue reminds you of and then work that into the tapping script. Our body speaks to us through symptoms and we can often crack the code when we look at what it's trying to say to us.
   Example: Does your sore throat remind you of how hard it always was to "speak up" to your parents? Try to tap on this issue and see if your throat changes at all.
5. If you're stuck, don't give up.
   Sometimes people won't feel a shift in their issue immediately, but the worst thing you can do is decide EFT doesn't work. I have never had a client that stuck with it for a reasonable amount of time and saw no progress. If you didn't get your problem overnight, it may not go away that fast either so keep tapping.
   
   Because this technique is all about mobilizing stuck energy, it can also be helpful to change sitting positions while you tap, walk around, go outside or just do some stretching first. And of course, it's never a bad idea to do Donna Eden's Daily Energy Routine first! I believe that helps us shift faster into a positive place.

Have questions? Need more EFT tapping tips? Just leave a comment! Until then, happy tapping....