EFT: Energy Meridian Tapping
In the Healing Room
Module Five - 60 minutes
EFT
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, except without the invasiveness of needles.
It is self-applied by tapping repeatedly on the body's energy meridian points. You stimulate these meridian points by tapping on them with your fingertips – literally tapping into your body’s own energy and healing power.
Your body is more powerful than you can imagine… filled with life, energy, and a compelling ability for self-healing. With Tapping, you can take control of that power.
Negative emotions are felt through a disruption of the body’s energy. Physical pain and disease are intricately connected to negative emotions. Health problems create feedback – physical symptoms cause emotional distress, and unresolved emotional problems manifest themselves through physical symptoms. This cycle becomes a negative feedback loop, taking on a life of its own.
The body, like everything in the universe, is composed of energy. Restore balance to the body’s energy, and you will mend the negative emotions and physical symptoms that stem from the energy disruption. Tapping restores the body’s energy balance, and negative emotions are conquered.
It can also be helpful to look at this as the action of parts. Negative emotions are burdens carried by parts. Other parts react to these parts and an escalating negative energy cycle maintains itself in your internal system.
The basic technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand: a fear or anxiety, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering you. Think of this as a part of you that needs attention, care and healing.
While maintaining your mental focus on this part, use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on each of the 12 meridian points shown below. Tapping on these meridian points – while concentrating on accepting and resolving the negative emotion (the burden held by a part of you) – will access your body’s energy, restoring it to a balanced state.
Setting Up EFT
Consider the problem or situation. How do you feel about it right now? Rate the intensity level of your anxiety, with zero being no anxiety and ten being the highest it could be (0-10).
Compose a set-up statement. Your set-up statement should acknowledge the problem you want to deal with, then follow it with an unconditional affirmation of yourself as a person.
- “Even though I feel this (anxiety, for example), I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I’m anxious about my interview, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I’m feeling this anxiety about my financial situation, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I panic when I think about ______, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I’m worried about how to approach my boss, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I’m having trouble breathing, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
It can be further helpful to add "there is a part of me that is", so that you are saying:
- “Even though there is a part of me that is having trouble breathing, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Write your set-up statement on the index card, use the card for reference today and save it for the future. You will work with this same part in other ways at a different time. If you wish, you can also note on the card any images that come up with this part, where you feel it in your body, and any other information which you feel may be useful in focusing on this part and connecting with it.
Repeat the set up statement three times aloud, while simultaneously tapping the Karate Chop point.
Take a deep breath.
Get ready to begin tapping!
Tapping Tips
- You should use a firm but gentle pressure, as if you were drumming on the side of your desk or testing a melon for ripeness.
- You can use all four fingers, or just the first two (the index and middle fingers). Four fingers are generally used on the top of the head, the collarbone, under the arm… wider areas. On sensitive areas, like around the eyes, you can use just two.
- Tap with your fingertips, not your fingernails. The sound will be round and mellow.
- The tapping order begins at the top and works down. You can end by returning to the top of the head, to complete the loop.
Here are some tips to help you achieve the right technique.
Now, tap 5-7 times each on the remaining points in the following sequence:
The Tapping Points
- Head (TH) The crown, center and top of the head. Tap with all four fingers on both hands.
- Eyebrow (EB) The inner edges of the eyebrows, closest to the bridge of the nose. Use two fingers.
- Side of eye (SE) The hard area between the eye and the temple. Use two fingers. Feel out this area gently so you don’t poke yourself in the eye!
- Under eye (UE) The hard area under the eye, that merges with the cheekbone. Use two fingers, in line beneath the pupil.
- Under nose (UN) The point centered between the bottom of the nose and the upper lip. Use two fingers.
- Chin (CP) This point is right beneath the previous one, and is centered between the bottom of the lower lip and the chin.
- Collarbone (CB) Tap just below the hard ridge of your collarbone with four fingers.
- Underarm (UA) On your side, about four inches beneath the armpit. Use four fingers.
- Head (TH) And back where you started, to complete the sequence.
As you tap on each point, repeat a simple reminder phrase, such as “my anxiety” or “my interview” or “my financial situation.”
Take a deep breath!
Recheck
Now that you’ve completed the sequence, focus on your problem again. How intense is the anxiety now, in comparison to a few minutes ago? Give it a rating on the same number scale.
If your anxiety is still higher than “2”, you can do another round of tapping. Keep tapping until the anxiety is gone.
You can change your set-up statement to take into account your efforts to fix the problem, and your desire for continued progress.
“Even though I have some remaining anxiety, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though I’m still a little worried about this interview, I deeply and completely accept myself.” And so on.
Now that you’ve focused on dispelling your immediate anxiety, you can work on installing some positive feelings instead.
Installing Positive Beliefs
Note: This approach is different from traditional “positive thinking.”
You’re not being dishonest with yourself. You’re not trying to obscure the stress and anxiety inside yourself with a veneer of insincere affirmations. Rather, you’ve confronted and dealt with the anxiety and negative feelings (parts), offering deep and complete acceptance to both your feelings (parts) and your whole self. Now, you’re turning your thoughts and vibrations to the powerful and positive. Consider these positive beliefs as what your true and higher Self knows and believes, even if the part does not.
That’s what makes Tapping so much more effective than the “positive thinking” techniques that you may have already tried. It’s not just a mental trick; instead, you’re using these positive phrases and tapping to tune into the very real energy of positivity, affirmation, and joy that is implicit inside you (Self-Energy). You’re actually changing your body’s energy into a more positive flow, a more positive vibration.
Here are some example phrases to guide you:
- “I have faith in my ability to change.”
- “I am excited about these positive changes.”
- “I am accomplishing something today.”
- “I can enjoy the calm and peace that I have.”
- “I can love the person that I am.”
- “I am becoming a more relaxed and joyful person.”
You can use these positive phrases with the same tapping points and sequences described above. You may also measure the degree to which you fully accept and believe these phrases from 1-7, with 7 being fully resonant to your core, and 1 being not at all. If you rate the phrase before and after the tapping, you can see how effective this approach can be for you.
Self-Acceptance, Acknowledgement and Welcoming of the Burdened Part
Take Your Time/Repeat
Journal and/or Draw What You Discover
Keep scratch paper, writing pads, journals, and/or sketch pads to make drawings and write notes about your Healing Room experience. Take a moment at any time during your Modules, or at the end to do so.
Read On
Feel free to read more in any of the books referenced in your modules. Specific excerpts have been identified for quick reference and easy digestion within modules, but you are welcome to spend more time in these books to expand your knowledge and increase your understanding. Schedule additional time in your Healing Room to use the resources in whatever way makes sense to you.
Alternating Bilateral Stimulation
Remember, The Healing Room is set up with a stereo system that can provide audible Alternating Bilateral Stimulation (ABS) which is a component of EMDR therapy (Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing). The unique Alternating Bilateral Stimulation sample played continuously in The Healing Room is called Ocean Crossover and mimics ocean waves moving back and forth across the room at a gentle low volume in the background. It has a relaxing effect and supports the neural integration of new perspectives and healing of negatively charged memories, particularly when it is paired with specific tasks.
*Having the ABS playing at a volume loud enough to hear it, but low enough that it seems to fade into the background while you learn these skills, is optimal.
Approved Consultant in IFS & EMDR: individual and group consultation via Zoom.