EFT surfaces the unconscious mind that lives in our body, thoughts, and beliefs, and transforms it into the consciousness, life, and world, of our making.
We need to consciously be in our bodies because presence in the body, in this moment, is the only “escape” from the past and what we deem as undesirable in the present.
We transmute the past by resting into the body and listening, allowing sensations and emotions to surface, along with the thoughts and stories that accompany them.
Only with this surfacing do we unpack and shed the weight of trauma and illness. Only then can we discover freedom.
We can also use our minds as the servants they are meant to be, by recognizing patterns in our limiting thoughts, stories, behavior, and relationships to help us grow, heal, and expand into new possibilities for the experience of our internal and external worlds.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) bridges the body-mind.
It utilizes the benefits of embodiment by tapping on meridian points. It (re)shapes the mind by giving the thoughts that surface consideration and distilling them to their root beliefs and recognizing how the belief has served us — because all of our emotions, thoughts, and functions of the mind act as our protectors, consciously or not — and replace that outdated, limiting belief with a new, preferred, belief.
👆🏾 Check out this article I wrote about the research that shows how EFT-tapping can change your life. Holistic Liberation clients describe EFT as mind-blowing and miraculous. 🔥
What are TFT, EFT & NLP?
From the field of psychotherapy, Thought Field Therapy (TFT) was created by Dr. Roger Callahan in the 1980’s. Through research, Callahan discovered that simply tapping certain points on the body immediately reduced distress and with time diminished symptoms from arising altogether. He discovered perhaps the most holistic approach in psychotherapy that, by addressing the body-mind, heals psychologically by providing a psychological reversal practice.
TFT combines language that roots from the assumption that we are already whole and possess healing resources within us, which is the foundation of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) with tapping points similar to the practice of Acupuncture using the meridian system, but with tapping, fingertips instead of needles are used.
TFT found that certain tapping points related to particular mental and physical illnesses. This was meant to be guided with a practitioner who could tell the patient exact tapping points in relation to their health challenges, particularly working with phobias, OCD, and the overwhelming emotional and physiological states such as anxiety and depression that are commonly related to PTSD and complex trauma.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) was created in 1993 as a practice that anyone can use at anytime, covering the primary points from TFT, to relieve symptoms that stem from beliefs, thoughts, and their emotional counterparts. EFT is a simplified approach from TFT, while using the same NLP methodology. The EFT points were found to cover the basis for any intention with the practice and thus easily applicable to the public for self-care use.
How to Create Your Own EFT Practice
First, identify what emotion and/or belief you wish to transmute.
What is currently blocking or bothering you? What is weighing you down? What emotion lies at the foundation? Let yourself feel into this, knowing that you are able to release it only when you’re distinctly aware of what “it” is. Can you feel what is bothering you in your body?
Another approach is to feel something that you want or need in your life that is currently missing. What is standing in the way between you and what you need/want? How does the absence of that need or desire feel? Now you can tap on the emotion that you feel, or you can tap on the belief that lies at the foundation of that emotion.
Tapping on thoughts doesn’t cut it because thoughts are surface level.
This is a common mistake with tapping — if we tap on thoughts, we’re not resolving the root of the thought, so take time to feel what is stored in your body. Take time to discover the belief that sources your pain. (Common limiting root beliefs: I’m unworthy. I don’t belong. I can’t get past this. Things will never change. I will never get better. Etc.)
Secondly, format your language for tapping.
👉🏽 State the limiting belief and/or emotion with “I love and accept myself” or appropriate variations. Repeat this three times while tapping the “psychological reversal point” or the “karate chop point.” (See EFT diagram below.)
When beginning a tapping session, we not only state the belief that we wish to outgrow. We also state that we love and accept ourselves no matter our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, or interactions. THIS IS CRUCIAL. The only way we outgrow our current reality is through acceptance of it, and therefore, we accept ourselves no matter what. We give ourselves unconditional love. This is the foundation for our healing.
Example: Even though I feel like I’m not good enough, and this belief has held me back, I love and accept myself no matter what.
👉🏽 Acknowledge how you feel now while tapping for as many rounds as necessary from the eyebrow point through to the top of the head. (See EFT diagram below.) The difficult emotion may intensify through this stage. Keep tapping through the points. Keep going. It will release when ready.
Explore the current emotion and/or belief, letting the hardship and all that you wish to release surface.
👉🏽 Shift to exploring the desired belief, feelings, life, actions, interactions while continuing to tap from the eyebrow point through to the top of the head.
Once we talk and tap through all that arises from our pain, we shift to talking through beliefs or emotions we wish to instill into our bodies and minds.
👉🏽 Speak your desired belief and/or emotion to conclude your practice, while tapping the top of the head. There are different degrees of new beliefs. Be honest; speak in a way that feels authentic to this new belief.
Example: I’m ready to feel that I’m worthy. Or, I’m closer to feeling worthy. OR, I know that I’m worthy. It may take a few rounds to know a belief is true from growing into the ability to feel the belief as truth.
👉🏽 Rate how you feel from 1-10 before tapping. Rate yourself again from 1-10 after tapping. Repeat as many times as necessary to feel better.
Trust the process. Keep going. It works.
EFT Diagram & Points’ Benefits
Simply tapping through the points in order, without speaking or clearing specific emotions or beliefs, calms and clarifies energy and is a great preparation for meditation.
👉🏽 Karate Chop Point: Heart/small intestine meridians. The “psychological reversal point” in TFT. State limiting belief while tapping this point.
👉🏽 Eyebrow: Bladder meridian—good for calming central nervous system, for stress and anxiety relief.
👉🏽 Side of Eye: Triple Warmer/Gall Bladder/Small Intestine Meridians—many, many benefits!
👉🏽 Under Eye: Stomach Meridian—for holding worry and tension in the stomach.
👉🏽 Under Nose: Large Intestine Meridian—for letting new in and letting go, for grief relief.
👉🏽 Chin: Central Vessel—tones the circulatory system, for joy.
👉🏽 Collarbone: Kidney meridian—calming and energizing simultaneously by toning vital energy, offers courage and clarity.
👉🏽 Under Arm: Spleen Meridian—for increased immunity and detoxification.
👉🏽 Top of Head: To calm and clear the mind and instill new beliefs. State desired, new beliefs with this point. Also tones the central nervous system.
Tapping Creates Your Life & World
Bringing the unconscious into the light opens space for your own healing. No matter how difficult it is to feel, your body knows when it’s safe for you to feel it. Your body also knows when you’re ready for memories and the feelings that are stored within those stories to surface.
Trusting your body to feel what you’ve been holding because you haven’t yet been ready or have avoided and not given yourself time sets the stage for your own healing.
Investigating what lies beneath thoughts and stories gets to the root of what keeps the pain alive, whether that be fear, guilt, shame, grief, and the beliefs that act as a container for those emotions and sensations.
Tapping through this surfacing releases those thoughts, stories, emotions, and beliefs. Tapping doesn’t allow stagnating in the source of pain. It brings up the tears, the feels, the memories, and sheds the layers that have weighed you down.
Releasing creates space for new thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Tapping generates room to create your life rather than live in outdated patterns that have been emplaced upon you unconsciously or not. Tapping gives the power to make the life, and world, of your choosing. It is a tool of creation.
Let go. Let go of the false self to create your life and world that is possible.
To help get you started with a tapping self-practice, I offer EFT practices for chronic stress, anger and resentment, fear and anxiety, grief, and changing stressful, self-sabotaging habits in the Holistic Liberation Facebook group and as a tool in the Holistic Liberation Program.
Have you tried tapping yet? Let us know here and keep in touch by subscribing below.
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Jyllin is an integrative health coach and creator of the Holistic Liberation Method that releases deeply engrained limitations by cultivating holistic healthcare into the fabric of daily life. Learn more about Jyllin and The Holistic Liberation Program.