Emotional Freedom Technique EFT
We have all the different psycotherapies (talking therapies) to try to heal from the neck up, and we have lots of therapies (e.g. Reiki, reflexology, massage, shiatsu, acupunture) to try to heal from the neck down. This new method combines the talking therapies and acupressure (acupuncture, and without needles) so that the mind and the body can talk to each other. It is a gentle, effective and synergistic combination.
All you have to do is focus on your problem so you can activate the energy circuits in your body that aren't working, and then stimulate the endpoints of the energy circuts (called meridians) on 8 points on your head and torso. Instructions are towards the end.
A lot of affirmation books tell you to focus on the positives, so isn't it odd to focus on the problem? Isn't giving attention to the problem making it worse? These intelligent objections are based on awareness of the Law of Attraction, that states that whatever you give your attention to, you bring to yourself. So, if you are frequently upset about your debt, guess what you get? More debt, of course. Even if you are trying to cheer yourself up about debt, chances are you are churning with debt anxiety underneath. The difficulty with working with the Law of Attraction is that it is what your UNCONSCIOUS mind focuses on that you attract to yourself. This is for a few reasons:
*First, the unconcsous mind is in a constant state of the present. There
are no memories for the unconscious, only current events. This is congruent with the way the Law of Attraction works,unlike the consoicus mind, which tend to flip amongst past, present and future.
*Secondly, your conscious mind can only hold about 7 things in it at once. Everything else is held outside of consciousness. That means that if you and your unconscious mind are in disagreement, then your unconscious mind has the advantage of being able to 'think' about it all the time - your conscious mind just can't compete. Therefore, the unconscous mind gets first choice from the Law of Attraction.
*Third, if you and your unconcsious mind disagree, chances are your unconsious mind is trying to protect you, and protective functions get priority. For instance, you may want to quit smoking, but be afraid of coping with extra anxiety when you quit. Your unconscious mind will therefore not let you quit and will sabotage your efforts until you can find peace over that anxiety issue.
So, now that you know your unconscous mind is often in charge, what can you do about it? With EFT, you allow your problems to be given attention - it doesn't matter if it is through a body sensation or conscious recall - so that you can stimulate the meridians to neutralise the problem. If you don't give your problem that focus while you are stimulating the meridians, the mind/body can't neutralise the problem. It is only a TEMPORARY attention to the negative; when the issue is neutralised, we often tap around the points with an affirmation. Remember, because of the way the unconscious mind works, you are actually giving your problems attention 24/7 anyway - you might as well give it some conscoius attention so you can really clear it up. That means that the unconscious mind is no longer giving that issue the 24/7 attention that is so attractive to the Law of Attraction. With that new silence on the problem, you've got all the room you need to manifest your conscious choices.
A little bit of science...
With EFT, it seems that the brain actually rewires while you are tapping the points. Distress is caused when the unconscious mind recognises a pattern of danger from the past. The more upset you are about a past event, the more things will match - for instance, if you were yelled at terribly by a parent while sitting on a flowered couch, and you walk by a florist while you are already upset, the flowers you pass might make you feel even worse because the brain associates them with danger! If you are clearing a traumatic memory the brain actually works differently after the tapping - the distress just does not activate anymore becasue there is no more pattern matching for the unconscious mind to do - the patterns of alarm are simply deactivated and dissipated.
The Basic EFT Recipe
To read about the Basic EFT Recipe and try EFT for your self, try the basic EFT recipe here