What is EFT? EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, sometimes called Meridian Tapping. If you go to the tab of processes there is a page that talks more about EFT, what the tapping sequence looks like, and how to use it. I wanted to share here how to start to tap daily as a resource for staying focused on change. Developing a daily EFT practice is a great way to work through some of the past garbage that kept you stuck in the cycle of addiciton, and to give yourself a daily reset emotionally to help you stay on track.
Where to start
In creating any daily process you will need consistency. The first step is to make a committment to tap for 6 to 10 minutes every day. I suggest doing it in the morning because if you are like most of us, you will be more likely to follow through if you do it first thing. If that won’t work for you, pick a time when you can do it everyday at that time. Structure helps create new habits.
What To Tap On
If your new to tapping this can create some uncertainty.
Here are some thoughts on how to identify what to tap on.
1. In EFT there is a process called the Personal Peace Procedure. With this process you identify memories or thoughts from past events that create some distress when you bring them to mind. Be as specific as possible.
For example: Instead of the general thought that “my Mother always criticized me” come up woth a specific example like “The time my Mother called me stupid because I got a C on my second grade report card.”
Create your list and then pick 1 event to tap on each day. Measure your Subjective Units of Distress level (SUDs), how strong is the emotion when you think of it. Then tap a couple of rounds and check in, keep at it for 6 to 10 minutes and check in, measure again. Some things will clear up quickly, others may take more time, or you may find another aspect comes up and you have to tap on that to clear it up.
This can bring up some difficult feelings so please take rsponsibility for your self. If you have severe abuse or trauma in your past you may not want to start with this process, or you may want to work with a practitioner that can guide you through releasing these feelings.
2. Another way to create a daily process is looking at challenges and obstacles that are coming up around the change that you are making in your life.
For instance – Let’s say that you are in the Contemplation Stage of Change and you are going back and forth about the benefits of change – on the one hand you know you would save money if you stopped smoking but you’re worried about how to will handle stress without a cigarrette. You could tap on the fear of being stressed without having a coping strategy, or fear of feeling overwhelmed.
Or if you are in the preparation stage of change and you are looking at obstacles and one is worried about how to tell your friends and family that you will no longer be drinking. You could tap on the fear of how they will take the news.
With both of these typpes of scenarios, imagining yourself in the situation will help you identify the feelings and the SUDs level. Tapping with the picture in mind will help to clear the negative emotion and help you feel more relaxed about what you need to do.
3. You could also just check in on what you are noticing in the moment. This might be a good way to do it if you are tapping later in the day. Focus in on what you are noticing and just tap on that. If you are aware of tension in your shoulders or lower back you can tap on the physical sensations. If you have a meeting with your boss and you are feeling anxious about it you can tap on that. If you notice a sense of saddnes, loss, overwhelm, any negative emotion to something that is currently happening these are all are tap worthy items.
4. You can start to identify some of your limiting beliefs, such as;
- I’m too old to change
- Making more money than I need is greedy
- I’m not worthy of love and happiness
- I’m just not a good person
- I’m too flawed to be successful.
If we really check in on self talk or look at some of your life expereinces, especially if you think you have self sabotaged in the past, there is a chance you have some limiting beliefs.
For myself, whenever I started to have a little cushion of money in the bank I would gamble and put myself in a financial bind again, I started to realize that I had some beliefs about being irresponsible and definitely had some unhealthy beliefs about money. Tapping has helped clear some of that, I am still a work in progress.
I have a script later that will help you start to see how you can get in touch with limiting beliefs.
4. Finally you can do a positivity tap, you can tap on the choice to have a good day. You can tap on an intention to focus on the good. This can be effective on it’s own however at some point clearing out the negativity of the past and current eotions is a good idea, but you could end each session with a short positive tapping session too.
The way I would encourage you to do this is to pick one of the methods and create a list so you have it ready when you are ready to tap, rather than trying to figure out what to tap on in the moment. If you like alternating between the methods have a couple of lists ready.
What Does It Look Like
I’ve written out a a general example of how to use EFT with limiting beliefs around change. I have a script below, it is pretty general so it will work with multiple issues around change and limiting beliefs. Add a few of your own specifics to personalize it to whatever you are tapping on.
I didn’t put the points just tap through the points with each phrase. If you aren’t familiar with tapping you may want to go to my page on how to tap, and read about it or watch a you tube video and then the following will be easier to understand.
To identify some of the limiting beliefs, determine what you want to create or change and write out your goal.
For instance, let’s say you have been a shopaholic and you have now turned into a bit of a hoarder, the area in your life you want to work on is your physical environment.
The general goal is – Clean up clutter, get more organized.
Lets chunk it down or create a more specific goal that will move you forward:
- I will start with my living room and clear out the clutter spending 2 hours a day until it is complete.
- I will clear out the clothes I no longer wear by August 14, 2019 and take them to a donation center
Now sit with one of the goals and see what comes up –
I will start to clear out the clutter in my home environment spending 2 hours a day until it is complete.
Blocks/Shoulds/Negative thoughts:
- I’ve never followed through before what makes me think I will this time.
- Who would I be without the clutter
- Maybe the clutter really serves a purpose
- The idea of starting to get through all that is overwhelming
- I don’t think I can do that on my own.
- I don’t even know where to start
- 2 hours is just a drop in the bucket
- I can’t get rid of some of those things they were my Mothers,
- I have cleared it out before and now I have it again, so what’s the use.
Write it all out, you can tap on each item separately or incorporate them all in one tell the story tapping.
Example:
Even though I am worried that I won’t follow through because I have never done so before, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
Even though I am worried that I won’t know where to start and the task is going to be too overwhelming, I deeply and completely love and accept myself
Even though I am worried that this will be just another failed attempt and then I will have another reason to beat myself up, I accept myself and all my feelings around this.
This worry
This overwhelm
Fear of failure
I don’t believe I can do this
I won’t do it good enough
It feels so overwhelming
This fear of failure
This fear that things won’t ever really change
Why do I think this time will be different
I set goals all the time and never follow through
I never complete things
This will be just another failed attempt
This overwhelm
This worry that I won’t follow through
All this fear of failure
(Go through a second and even third time till it starts to feel like this time might be different)
Next Round – After you tap down some of the overwhelm, you now want to tap in being open to the possibility that you can do it. The second tapping series is about shifting perception to be open to the possibility that I will follow through:
Even though I am worried that I will not follow through because I haven’t in the past I am open to the possibility that this time will be different. (3 times)
What if I was open to letting go of the worry and fear around this
What if I was open to the possibility that this can turn out okay
What if this could turn out even better than I imagined
I choose to be open to those possibilities
What if I took 100% responsibility for this situation
What if I believed I created or allowed this and so I can create a solution
What if I was open to seeing the gifts in this situation
I am open to seeing this as a learning opportunity
I am open to the possibility of success
I have been successful before and I can do it this as well
Once that feels super light and you are open to this time might be different you want to go into choosing to do it differently this time. Move onto the specific choice statements;
Even though I have not always followed through on my goals in the past this time I choose to believe I can be successful and follow through to complete my goal. (3 times)
I choose to believe I will successfully follow through on my goals this time and I completely accept all my emotions around this.
I choose to take 100% responsibility for this
I created or allowed this and I can create a solution
I am open to seeing the gifts in this situation
I am willing to learn from this situation
You can keep repeating the above statments going through the points or add a few of your own, that are specific to what you are working on.
If it still feels likes something is lingering you can do the alternate tapping sequence where you say a positive statement and then go back to a negative statement –
EX:
I choose to believe I will be successful
Who am I kidding I will never accomplish this goal
I know if I put my mind to it I can do it
I have never followed through in the past
I have completed projects and been successful
I don’t know if I really believe in myself
Once again, please take responsibility for yourself, EFT can be really helpful in taking the charge out of limiting beliefs, just tap, you can’t do it wrong or make it worse. If you find that your emotional intensity increases, stay with it, it will lower if you keep tapping.
Be mindful, don’t start with your biggest issues. Take some time tapping on some irritations and annoyances and get comfortable with the process.
Let me know how you feel about tapping, would love to hear your successes.