Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping) can be a roadmap for change

As a spiritual counselor or healer, you are continually faced with clients who will not or cannot change the patterns that are making themselves sick physically, emotionally or spiritually. 

I am reminded of a client who always verbally says how sick she is.  I have told her, as others have, that changing the pattern of negative speak to positive affirmations of good health would better serve her.  Saying “my” illness puts that notion of ownership into the ether that, once out there, is hard to dispel... like putting a genie back in a bottle.  Often, I stop myself from acknowledging my own pain.  It’s hard not to dwell on what’s wrong.  It has always been difficult to concoct that image of good health I so desperately want.  But then I came across Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, also known as Tapping.  

Tapping can provide relief from chronic pain, emotional problems, disorders, addictions, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, and physical diseases. The healing concepts that it’s based upon have been in practice in Eastern medicine for over 5,000 years. 

Like acupuncture and acupressure, Tapping is a set of techniques which utilize the body’s energy meridian points. You can stimulate these meridian points by tapping on them with your fingertips – literally tapping into your body’s own energy and healing power.  This tapping method first asks that, while tapping various meridians on the face, scalp, and upper body with your fingertips, you acknowledge out loud whatever issue is troubling you, acknowledge yourself as worthy of change, and then visualize yourself in a better situation.   

I wasn’t convinced about this method that seemed to go against all my “keep it positive” training until I listened to my idol, Louise L. Hay, the author of “You Can Heal Your Life” and so many other books about positive thinking and affirmations, give her endorsement. 

In an interview with Nick Orton, the founder of the EFT movement, she says, “If you’re going to clean a house you have to see the dirt."  That stuck with me.  

Acknowledging pain is not a bad thing. Acknowledging any problem is the first step to overcoming it.  It engages with the energy of the issue so you can work with it.   

EFT can work with any issue that may hold you back, like the writer’s block I had when asked to write this blog.  In his book, "The Tapping Solution," Nick Ortner cites studies done at Harvard Medical School that found that the brain’s stress and fear response – which is controlled by an almond-shaped part of your brain called the amygdala – could be lessened by stimulating the meridian points used in acupuncture, acupressure, and of course, tapping.   

On his website he lays out the method step by step.

If you watch the videos I reference here, you’ll be able to try it for yourself.  I’ve seen it used with participants in a workshop about horse training and mental health. I’ve seen it used with the sick and dying to help with pain and the fear of death.  It’s something to behold.   

If you have an old habit just aching to be dumped at the curb and you don’t know where to begin, maybe tapping is the place.  You can even tap for someone else’s problem.  Start small and see how it can help you. 

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Vera Remes

Vera's Vave'n - The many aspects of Shamanism

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