Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) - sometimes known as "Tapping" - is a powerful and rapidly emerging technique for the transformation of your stresses, traumas, blocks and many other emotional challenges, as well as helping with the areas of performance and achieving your goals. EFT is known to help with many issues as fear, trauma, anger, bereavement, depression, anxiety, panic, social anxiety disorder as well as sometimes dramatically helping physical issues such as back and neck pain, joint stiffness, IBS, ME and many others. Even better, it is well known as being easy to learn and use for self-help. So what is the best way to learn EFT?
Started by Gary Craig in the nineteen nineties as a revision of Roger Callahan's (TFT) Thought Field Therapy, EFT is based on the belief that disturbances in the body's energy field cause negative emotions and that by utilizing its techniques ailments ranging from cancer to the common cold can be cured. In its original incarnation as TFT it utilized meridians, i.e. tapping points on the body. The ailing person was supposed to think of a negative emotion while tapping in a specific sequence on a specified series of points or meridians (which correspond to the meridians used in Chinese medicine) thus restoring balance to the body's energy field. Gary Craig discovered that the sequence of tapping points was irrelevant so he simplified Callahan's procedure while maintaining its core belief in meridians and EFT was born.
EFT theory states that negative emotions are created in the following sequence: in response to a negative experience negative emotions are born, thereby leading to negative programming in the body which leads to a disruption in the body's energy field. EFT proponents believe tackling the negative experience alone is not enough to restore health. They believe that the energy imbalance must be remedied along with curing the negative emotions in order to remove the negative responses i.e. illness, phobia, etc
Studies have been conducted on the efficacy of EFT with varied and ultimately inconclusive results. One study focused on four groups of people who reported phobias. One group received regular EFT, another received EFT with false tapping points, a third group tapped on a doll and a fourth group received nothing. The three tapping groups did better than the fourth group, but there were no significant differences between the three tapping groups.
I also find that Anonymous Tapping is very beneficial just before going to bed. Again, it helps release all the tension built up over the day and improve the quality of your sleep.Remember, saying something specific to focus on an an issue will always be more effective. Only use anonymous tapping to settle yourself down in general.Most people in the West think of Emotional Freedom Technique as a disciplined practice of tapping acupuncture points and set-up phrases intermixed with western energy psychology and are not aware of its deeper Classical Chinese medical aspects which this article will hopefully elaborate.
Eastern and western health philosophy differ in the way the two systems handle psychology. Asian philosophy emphasizes the unity of body and mind, whereas western philosophy separates the body and mind. The classical Chinese associate the emotions directly with the organs and they do not perceive the emotions as being stuck in the brain as the westerners do. Taoist and Buddhist philosophers link the emotions to each organ and have developed deep theories of psychology based on these relationships. Thus, the state of mind and the stage of one's body are intimately connected. In the West, although it is understood that certain physiological conditions can influence the mind, mental and emotional disorders are generally not connected to specific organs or organic functions, but are believed to be wholly centered in the brain. Fundamentally, the Chinese associated the emotions and related mental states to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and to the organs associated with them. In general, the emotions are related to the organ associated with each element.
Whether or not EFT can cure an individual of phobias or other non life threatening illness is open to speculation, and it seems to be relatively harmless in that regard. It is in its claims of being able to cure cancer and other potentially terminal illness that it runs into trouble. Its claims are specious at best and there is simply no medical evidence that EFT is effective. Any proof that has been presented is purely anecdotal.
As an EFT Practitioner, I have made important additions and modifications to Gary Craig's EFT procedure to avoid side effects called 'Qi deviation' and also increase its effectiveness a hundred-fold with a variant of EFT called "EFT Qi-healers Method." The Jing-Well acu-points of the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, gall bladder and bladder in the feet are added to balance the Yin (lower) and Yang (upper) meridians, and Pan Gu Shen Gong, Sheng Zhen Qigong, Wuji Qigong, Maitreya (Shiva) Shen Gong, Tibetan Shamanic Qigong with tonic herbs are also integrated with EFT to remove the energy toxins and restore the Three Treasures - Jing (essence), Qi (vitality) and Shen (Spirit) - leaked by the negative emotions held in the five organs.
The connection between the mind and body has been a subject of fascination for decades, and there is no doubt that the mind plays a vital part in the well being of the body. What is unclear is how effective EFT is in tapping into the connection between the two. Its popularity and vague results when put to the test make it difficult to determine hype from reality, and further scrutiny is necessary before it can be accepted or rejected. We are only in the beginning phases of learning just how powerful the mind/body connection is, and it would be irresponsible to completely dismiss the power of alternative therapies including EFT, and equally irresponsible to accept them without proper and in depth study.
For now it would be appropriate to say that the power of EFT is unproven, but the possibilities it offers are worth looking into. The field it is exploring is a vital one, and any opportunity to learn more about the connection between mental health and physical health should be welcomed. Skeptics and proponents alike should take more time examining the possibilities before casting judgment, negative or positive.
[Emotional Freedom Technique EFT]
Started by Gary Craig in the nineteen nineties as a revision of Roger Callahan's (TFT) Thought Field Therapy, EFT is based on the belief that disturbances in the body's energy field cause negative emotions and that by utilizing its techniques ailments ranging from cancer to the common cold can be cured. In its original incarnation as TFT it utilized meridians, i.e. tapping points on the body. The ailing person was supposed to think of a negative emotion while tapping in a specific sequence on a specified series of points or meridians (which correspond to the meridians used in Chinese medicine) thus restoring balance to the body's energy field. Gary Craig discovered that the sequence of tapping points was irrelevant so he simplified Callahan's procedure while maintaining its core belief in meridians and EFT was born.
EFT theory states that negative emotions are created in the following sequence: in response to a negative experience negative emotions are born, thereby leading to negative programming in the body which leads to a disruption in the body's energy field. EFT proponents believe tackling the negative experience alone is not enough to restore health. They believe that the energy imbalance must be remedied along with curing the negative emotions in order to remove the negative responses i.e. illness, phobia, etc
Studies have been conducted on the efficacy of EFT with varied and ultimately inconclusive results. One study focused on four groups of people who reported phobias. One group received regular EFT, another received EFT with false tapping points, a third group tapped on a doll and a fourth group received nothing. The three tapping groups did better than the fourth group, but there were no significant differences between the three tapping groups.
I also find that Anonymous Tapping is very beneficial just before going to bed. Again, it helps release all the tension built up over the day and improve the quality of your sleep.Remember, saying something specific to focus on an an issue will always be more effective. Only use anonymous tapping to settle yourself down in general.Most people in the West think of Emotional Freedom Technique as a disciplined practice of tapping acupuncture points and set-up phrases intermixed with western energy psychology and are not aware of its deeper Classical Chinese medical aspects which this article will hopefully elaborate.
Eastern and western health philosophy differ in the way the two systems handle psychology. Asian philosophy emphasizes the unity of body and mind, whereas western philosophy separates the body and mind. The classical Chinese associate the emotions directly with the organs and they do not perceive the emotions as being stuck in the brain as the westerners do. Taoist and Buddhist philosophers link the emotions to each organ and have developed deep theories of psychology based on these relationships. Thus, the state of mind and the stage of one's body are intimately connected. In the West, although it is understood that certain physiological conditions can influence the mind, mental and emotional disorders are generally not connected to specific organs or organic functions, but are believed to be wholly centered in the brain. Fundamentally, the Chinese associated the emotions and related mental states to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and to the organs associated with them. In general, the emotions are related to the organ associated with each element.
Whether or not EFT can cure an individual of phobias or other non life threatening illness is open to speculation, and it seems to be relatively harmless in that regard. It is in its claims of being able to cure cancer and other potentially terminal illness that it runs into trouble. Its claims are specious at best and there is simply no medical evidence that EFT is effective. Any proof that has been presented is purely anecdotal.
As an EFT Practitioner, I have made important additions and modifications to Gary Craig's EFT procedure to avoid side effects called 'Qi deviation' and also increase its effectiveness a hundred-fold with a variant of EFT called "EFT Qi-healers Method." The Jing-Well acu-points of the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, gall bladder and bladder in the feet are added to balance the Yin (lower) and Yang (upper) meridians, and Pan Gu Shen Gong, Sheng Zhen Qigong, Wuji Qigong, Maitreya (Shiva) Shen Gong, Tibetan Shamanic Qigong with tonic herbs are also integrated with EFT to remove the energy toxins and restore the Three Treasures - Jing (essence), Qi (vitality) and Shen (Spirit) - leaked by the negative emotions held in the five organs.
The connection between the mind and body has been a subject of fascination for decades, and there is no doubt that the mind plays a vital part in the well being of the body. What is unclear is how effective EFT is in tapping into the connection between the two. Its popularity and vague results when put to the test make it difficult to determine hype from reality, and further scrutiny is necessary before it can be accepted or rejected. We are only in the beginning phases of learning just how powerful the mind/body connection is, and it would be irresponsible to completely dismiss the power of alternative therapies including EFT, and equally irresponsible to accept them without proper and in depth study.
For now it would be appropriate to say that the power of EFT is unproven, but the possibilities it offers are worth looking into. The field it is exploring is a vital one, and any opportunity to learn more about the connection between mental health and physical health should be welcomed. Skeptics and proponents alike should take more time examining the possibilities before casting judgment, negative or positive.
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