EFT is incredibly effective for fears, phobias, addictions, relationship problems, and anxiety of all kinds.
Tap before a dentist’s appointment or asking your boss for a raise, when the kids are driving you to distraction, to calm yourself before speaking in public, before asking the bank manager for a loan, in fact any situation that raises your pulse rate. When we are calm we make better decisions!
The Complete Emotional Freedom Techniques Protocol
0 The Sore Spot – The area on your chest where you pin a brooch or medal. Gently feel around with your fingers and locate a spot that feels tender or slightly sore.
1 Top of the Head
2 Middle of the Brow
3 The Start of the Eyebrow (EB) – Where the bone of your eyebrow meets the bridge of your nose.
4 The Side of the Eye (SE) – On the bone at the corner of your eye.
5 Under the Eye (UE) – On the bone just under your eye, in line with your pupil when you are looking forward.
6 Under the Nose (UN) – Between your nose and your upper lip.
7 Under the Mouth (CH) – On your chin just below your lower lip.
8 Collarbone (CB) – In the angle formed by your collarbone and breastbone.
9 Under Arm (UA) – In line with a man’s nipple under the arm.
10 Thumb (Th) – All finger points are on the side of the finger in line with the nail bed.
11 Index Finger (IF)
12 Middle Finger (MF)
13 Little Finger (LF)
14 Gamut Point (GP) – Just behind the knuckles of your ring and little finger.
15 Karate Chop Point (KP) – On the side of your hand.
EFT is incredibly effective for fears, phobias, addictions, relationship problems, and anxiety of all kinds.
Tap before a dentist’s appointment or asking your boss for a raise, when the kids are driving you to distraction, to calm yourself before speaking in public, before asking the bank manager for a loan, in fact any situation that raises your pulse rate. When we are calm we make better decisions!
It is also very successful for dealing with addictions and has helped many with weightloss and food allergies.
EFT is easy, quick, discreet and is the key to living a stress-free happy life.
Getting Started
Familiarise yourself with the points, some may feel tender and easy to find, a lot of women find the point under the arm especially tender and higher than they think. While you are tapping on different statements you may feel some points are particularly sore to the touch or that you feel different instantly with a certain point. Some people find a specific point always helps and this can be a valuable emergency stop point to remember and use on its own.
In EFT these points are stimulated by gently tapping with your middle finger or middle and index finger combined. Tap quite rapidly; a good guide is about 7 to 9 taps while breathing in and out normally. Do not tap too hard, if you were tapping on a table the sound would be barely discernible but you do need to feel the tap so do what feels right for you. And if any of the points feel too tender to tap simply hold them and massage gently instead.
For practice now tap all the points starting from the Top of the Head point right down to the Karate Chop point, breathing gently all the time setting up a rhythm as you follow the sequence down your body. The order you tap in is not set in stone but is a nice way of remembering all the points.
Contacting the Problem
In EFT we use tapping the meridian points to release the interference and distortions that negative emotions cause and we do this by creating a statement spoken out loud to focus the mind as we tap each point.
So to begin with it is important to state the problem clearly and as you feel it, in your own words and how it applies to you personally.
Think of a problem, a fear, a pain, something that makes you feel sad or indeed any negative emotion that you would like to clear, the more honest you can be about how it makes you feel, the more profound the change will be.
The Set Up
Now that you have stated your problem you can start the Set Up
You create an Opening Statement by enclosing your problem in the following statement:
Even though (insert problem statement) I deeply and profoundly accept myself.
So if your problem is ‘Jack’s screaming is driving me mad’ this would translate into:
Even though Jacks’ screaming is driving me mad I deeply and profoundly accept myself.
Taking a SUDs Reading
Before commencing a round of tapping it is useful to ascertain what level of discomfort you are feeling so that you can instantly see what effect one round has had and whether you need to do more work on it, create a new statement, or if it has been completely cleared in one round. We call this taking a SUDS reading, which stands for Subjective Units of Disturbance or Distress.
Now you have the problem in mind, taking 0 as completely pain free, calm and happy and 10 being the highest amount of pain and distress imaginable, think of a number that would rate your feelings now. Just let the first number that comes into your head be your guide, do not struggle or argue with it.
Testing is a very important part of EFT and is what allows us to see just how quickly changes can be made which gives us enormous confidence in the process as well as ourselves.
Now you have your Set Up Statement, and also a guide as to the level of discomfort you are experiencing, it is time to start a round of EFT.
The Round
Now find the Sore Spot and while rubbing it gently say your Opening Statement three times while really concentrating on what you are saying and even if you do not feel totally comfortable with ‘I deeply and profoundly accept myself’ do try and sound meaningful, I promise you in time this will change but if you find it too difficult initially you can create an Opening Statement and deal with that first using
Even though I find it difficult to say I deeply and profoundly accept myself I deeply and profoundly accept myself.
Now it is time to tap each of the points, starting with the Top of the Head and working all the way down to the Karate Chop point while repeating a shortened version of your Opening Statement which is called the Reminder Phrase.
For example a Reminder Phrase for the Opening Statement…
Even though I’m shaking all over I deeply and profoundly accept myself.
…would be ‘shaking all over’ which you say as you tap each point.
Feedback
This is now the time to take another SUDs reading and see by how much your level of discomfort or distress has dropped.
Don’t be disheartened if it started at, say, 8 and is not down to 0 completely but is now at a 4, this is progress indeed and you have already reduced your bad feelings by half!
Do another complete round using the statement
Even though there is still some of the problem left…
Or
Even though I still have some of this problem…
If there is just a tiny amount left, say you have reduced your SUDs to a 2 or lower, you can use
I want to completely overcome this problem and I deeply and profoundly accept myself.
And that really is all there is to it!
It’s very difficult to get anything wrong. You may find it necessary to refine your Opening Statement or create a new one if you find the original problem has not been shifted. All tapping stimulates the meridians and has a calming effect on the entire system so don’t be afraid to try different statements until you find the one that works for each problem you are working on.