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Using the body to get past the mind.
How to use your body as an emotional measuring device.

If you're already an EFT user you'll know that EFT was originally designed to relieve emotional distress. But you may also know that EFT has frequently been helpful in relieving physical symptoms too especially when the physical problem is known to be aggravated by an emotional issue. If the background emotional issue can be resolved then the physical symptom can often be relieved too.

But physical sensations and symptoms can have another use in EFT - as a way of measuring progress with an emotional issue. This is because EFT is a technique that engages both the conscious mind (saying set up statements) and the physical body (tapping on the meridian points).
This mind-body connection for emotional issues is very apparent when I'm working with people. Clients often spontaneously report physical effects, such as noticing muscles relaxing in the head and shoulders, losing feelings of tightness or heaviness in the stomach or chest, or feeling pleasant tingling sensations in the area of the points being tapped.

Classic EFT uses a numerical rating of 0-10, as a way of measuring progress and letting client and practitioner know if more EFT is needed to completely clear an issue. But sometimes, working just with the conscious mind - talking about issues and obtained 0-10 ratings - can hit a kind of wall. I can tell this is happening when someone is finding it consistently hard to come up with numeric ratings for their issues or to settle on words which they feel describe the problem.

There are many reasons why sometimes using words and numerical rating scales doesn't work:
    • If the person tends to feel their emotions more kinaesthetically, in the body
    • If the issue relates to a very young age and the memory is strongly pre-verbal
    • If the issue is so unpleasant that it's distressing to have to find words to describe it

In these cases, insisting on using words and numbers fails to properly connect clients with the issue they want resolved. In fact the focus on words which don't quite describe the emotion can make it harder to make progress, since it's important in EFT to be properly "tuned in" to the issue while you tap. Whenever this happens with clients, I start focussing on the body and using the body as a measuring device instead of the conscious mind.

This is also a useful self-help technique - since it can make it much easier for beginners to be sure they are correctly focussing on the right issue and saying the right words - so here are some suggested questions to help you tune into your issue and measure progress at the same time.

• Is there any physical sensation when you think about the issue? - Scan your whole body for any sensation that doesn't feel good - there may be multiple sensations in multiple places.

• Where do you feel it? - Stomach, chest, throat, head, back, arms or legs?

• What kind of feeling is it? - Does it feel warm or cold, light or heavy, sharp or diffuse?

• Is there any movement? - Does it stay still, move around or come and go in waves?

• How intense is the feeling? - Instead of rating the issue, rate the physical feeling out of 10.

Now, when you apply EFT, you simply alter the setup statement to refer to the physical feeling you associate with thinking about the issue. For example, "Even though I have this tight chest feeling,...". And while you are tapping, focus your attention on the location of the feeling.

Usually I move between the physical and emotional during the course of a session. So if someone is working on a fear that has a physical sensation of a "tight chest" associated with it, I will make sure that both the mental feeling (fear) and the physical feeling (in the chest) have both been cleared, before I will be satisfied that the overall issue has been cleared completely.

For examples of how working with the physical can clear the emotional, see Gary's Corner below.

The Future Starts Now
Take care of the Nows and the Future will take care of itself

At the heart of my practice is a belief: that the Future isn't something that happens "way over there", months or years away. It's happening - and being created - right this second, with every thought, decision and action you take, right Now.

It is famously quoted that "The past is a foreign country". Unfortunately many people (including myself for many years) treat the Future in the same way - as a foreign country.
We are brought up and educated in the ways of "deferred gratification". Working hard at school is rewarded "later" by passing exams and getting a job. Then, working hard at a job is rewarded "later" by getting a promotion and a pay rise, and "later still" a secure retirement.

I remember a Peanuts cartoon that expressed this perfectly. Charlie Brown was questioning why he had to go to school. His friend answered: "So we can get good grades and get a good job so we can have a family so the kids can go to school and get good grades and get a good job…".

Somewhere on this treadmill, some of us stop for a moment and realise we've spent a lot of effort running for miles and miles and moved not one inch from where we started. And all that running hasn't even made us "fit" - we've accumulated injuries, perhaps even done some permanent damage. But it's worse than that.  All the time we spent running, we neglected our families and our friends, ourselves and our personal growth. Eventually we realise we will get further by getting off the treadmill and simply walking a few paces.

There is only really one sure fire way to take care of your Future - and that is to take care of Now. Each Now you create in the way you want, creates not only a Future that's closer to what you really want, but a Past that's worth remembering. As my favourite quote says:

Sow an Act, and you reap a Habit.
Sow a Habit and you reap a Character.
Sow a Character and you reap a Destiny.
(James Allen)

Each Act you sow now, matters.
Your Future is at stake.

Emma's Power Struggle Loosening inner conflict with EFT

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be at the AMT conference in Brighton and met "Emma" (name changed for confidentiality) during one of the seminars and afterwards we got talking. She said she had an unusual kind of fear - that she was at a turning point in her life, wanted to make a career change, but was afraid of her own power. (Actually this fear is not so uncommon - I was reminded of Marianne Williamson's poem which goes "Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure". )  I offered to do some EFT with her on the issue at lunchtime.

To start with she rated her fear of using her own power as a 9 out of 10.  We did a round on "Even though I'm afraid of my own power…" and the fear dropped to a 5.

We did a second round on "Even though I'm still afraid of my own power…" but this time I varied the reminder statements as we proceeded through the points to include some of the factors she had mentioned to me or which I had an intuition about: "I don't know what will happen", "I might hurt somebody", "It's not safe to use my power" and so on.

The rating dropped to a 3 and she said it felt looser and easier somehow and that she now had a feeling of wanting to use her power. I asked "What is the 3? What's stopping it being a 0?"  She said there was some kind of conflict or frustration.  So we did another round on "Even though I want to use my power I'm afraid of it…" and alternated reminder statements between "I want to use it", "But I'm scared of it", "But I want to use", "But I'm scared of it". As we tapped Emma started laughing as she could see the funny side of believing both thoughts at the same time.

Since the next session was about to start I decided to do one more round but with a choice statement to leave her in a good positive state of mind about the issue. "Even if I'm still a bit afraid to use my power, I decide to start using it safely, creatively and for the highest good of all".  
By the end of this she looked totally lit up inside and when I saw her later she was still beaming.

This is a lovely example of a use of EFT that doesn't really fall under the category of "therapy" in that we weren't going into Emma's past or dealing with an emotion that would prompt anyone to seek a therapist for help. Emma's issue was far more of a coaching goal - wanting to make changes in her life but feeling conflicted and blocked. We managed to make significant progress with her block in under 15 minutes - I can only guess how many conventional coaching sessions might have been needed to achieve the same results. Emma and I agreed to stay in touch so hopefully I can report more progress in the future.

Gary's Corner

Gary Craig, the originator of EFT maintains an excellent website packed with real case histories. Each month I select cases that really show the power and range of EFT.

This month:

Chronic muscle tension down the "left" side

In this example, EFT is applied to the physical sensation of tightness, but results in insights and alleviation of many emotional issues and memories.  Plus::

Tightness, pain and palpitations

At one point Gary says:

"I can’t tell you how many times people have come to me complaining of something like anger and, without ever addressing the anger per se, the anger issue vanishes. What I do is address their bodily pains (which are almost always there). When the pain subsides, I then test for the existence of the anger and get statements like, "Well, it doesn’t to seem to be much of an issue now." "

Learn EFT now! You can start using EFT for yourself right now by downloading my EFT QuickStart manual.