EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping is a simple, yet powerful holistic technique most commonly used for emotional distress and physical pain. It’s based on the same principles as traditional acupuncture, but instead of needles, EFT combines gentle tapping on key acupuncture points while focusing your thoughts on the issue at hand.
Tapping provides relief from a variety of issues including chronic pain, emotional problems, disorders, addictions, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, and physical diseases. It is truly magic at your fingertips! Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, says to try it on everything!
How Does EFT Tapping Work?
Similar to acupuncture, EFT focuses on the meridian points (areas of the body that energy flows through) to restore balance to your body’s energy. These pathways help balance energy flow to maintain your health. Any imbalance can influence disease or sickness. Restoring this energy balance can relieve symptoms that a negative experience or emotion may have caused.
The tapping helps you access your body’s energy and send signals to the part of the brain that controls stress. Stimulating the meridian points through tapping can reduce the stress or negative emotion you feel from your issue, ultimately restoring balance to the disrupted energy.
How to Do EFT Tapping in 5 Steps
EFT tapping can be divided into five steps. If you have more than one issue, you can repeat this sequence to address it and reduce or eliminate the intensity of it.
1. Identify the Issue
All you do here is make a mental note of what is bothering you. This will be your focal point while you’re tapping. Examples might be: Sore shoulder, my brother embarrassing me at my 9th birthday party or singing out of key. Be sure you are only targeting one issue at a time. Trying to combine issues will compromise your results.
2. Test the Initial Intensity
Before you begin tapping, establish a before level of the issue’s intensity by assigning a number to it on a scale from 0-10, where 10 is the worst the issue has ever been and 0 is no problem at all. This serves as a benchmark so you can compare your progress after each tapping round. If, for example, you start at a 9 and eventually reach a 4, then you know you have achieved improvement.
Here are some useful methods to help you access your issue(s) and arrive at your 0-10 numbers.
- For emotional issues, you can recreate the memories in your mind and assess their discomforts.
- For physical ailments you can simply assess the existing pain or discomfort.
3. The Setup
The Setup is a process used to start each round of Tapping. By designing a simple phrase and saying it while continuously Tapping the karate chop (KC) point, you let your system know what you’re trying to address.
When designing this phrase there are two goals to achieve:
- Acknowledging the issue
- accepting yourself despite the problem
The common setup phrase is: “Even though I have this [issue or problem], I deeply and completely accept myself.”
For example:
This sore shoulder:
“Even though I have this sore shoulder, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
This fear of heights:
“Even though I have this fear of heights, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
This humiliation at my eighth grade graduation:
“Even though I have this humiliation at my eighth grade graduation, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
You can use some flexibility when designing your Setup phrase. For example, instead of “this sore shoulder” you could say “Even though my shoulder hurts, I deeply and completely accept myself”.
4. EFT Tapping Sequence
The EFT tapping sequence is tapping on the ends of nine meridian points that mirror each side of the body:
Tapping on these points stimulates and balances the body’s energy pathways. To perform it, you tap each of the points shown in the diagram (see below) while saying a Reminder Phrase that keeps you tuned into the issue.
Here are the points followed by a description of the Reminder Phrase:
Top of the Head (TH)
Beginning of the Eyebrow (EB)
Side of the Eye (SE)
Under the Eye (UE)
Under the Nose (UN)
Chin Point (CH)
Beginning of the Collarbone (CB)
Under the Arm (UA)
The Reminder Phrase is quite simple as you need only identify the issue with some brief wording. Depending on your issue, you might say the following at each tapping point….
“This sore shoulder”,
“This fear of heights”,
“This humiliation at my eight grade graduation.”
5. Test the Final Intensity
Finally, evaluate an “after” level of the issue’s intensity by assigning a number to it on a 0-10 scale. You compare this with the before level to see how much progress you have made. If you are not down to zero then repeat the process until you either achieve zero or plateau at some level.
Tapping Tips
1. You can use either hand, or both hands, and tap on either side of the body. Bilateral tapping (tapping on both sides of the body at once) may decrease the amount of time it takes to resolve an issue because you are sending the maximum amount of energy down through your body on both sides to reach wherever the blockages are.
2. Use enough pressure when tapping to stimulate the meridians but not enough to hurt yourself. Use the same amount of pressure you would use if you were drumming your fingers on a table.
3. Drink water before and after a tapping session. Water is a conductor of energy and can help get your energy flowing. It also helps to flush out an toxins that might be released from the tapping.
4. Take a slow deep breath after tapping to help move the energy through your body.
5. Yawning during tapping is a sign that you are releasing energy.
6. Be persistent. If you’re intensity level is not releasing to a 0, keep tapping on the issue. You may need to use different wording, or there may be other aspects to address.
7. Connect to your feelings. Be aware of your response to the thought or event you are thinking about.
8. Be Specific. Rather than using general statements, try to focus on specific incidents. Or if it is pain in the body, describe the pain. Where is it?
9. Tune in to your emotions. Say your statements and reminder phrases as though you mean them.
10. If you’re not making progress on an issue and you seem to be stuck, shout out the words. Really put emphasis on them and give them some ummph! Use swear words if you feel it will emphasize the feelings you are experiencing.
11. If you are in a situation where you want to tap, but you’re around other people and it does not feel appropriate to start tapping on yourself and repeating phrases, you can tap mentally. Simply imagine tapping on yourself for the current issue.
12. Sometimes it might be necessary to change physical position, such as from sitting to standing, or even move to a different room.
13. If an issue is not reducing, try tapping with a friend or relative if you are not able to work with an EFT practitioner. The positive intention and combined energy of two people can sometimes make the difference in releasing stubborn issues or problems.
14. Try EFT tapping on everything! It only takes a few minutes and can change your life!
I hope this post has been helpful in learning how to do EFT tapping. Let me know if you have an questions or comments below.
Happy Tapping!
