Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a self-help tool created by Stanford engineer Gary Craig; it consists of tapping on energy points located throughout the body with your fingertips in order to release negative emotions, memories, and beliefs. Thousands of people have used EFT with excellent results.
I’ve found EFT to be very effective and I’m going to share what I’ve discovered about EFT with you in this tutorial. Most of the information for this tutorial was gathered from the following two free resources:
- “Free EFT Manual – Introduction to EFT” (from Gary Craig’s web site)
- “15 Ways to Health, Happiness and Abundance”
Here are some quick introductory points about EFT:
- EFT is very simple; it can be learned quickly by anyone.
- You don’t need any equipment or props.
- EFT is very effective.
- A round of EFT can be done in just two or three minutes.
- There’s enough free information on EFT available on the web so that you can start applying EFT right away without having to purchase anything.
This tutorial consists of the following sections:
- Section A: EFT in a Nutshell
- Section B: The Basic Recipe
- Section C: YouTube Video – EFT for Stress
- Section D: Subsequent Round Adjustments
- Section E: How to Know if EFT is Working for You
- Section F: Different Aspects of a Problem
- Section G: Ongoing Situations
- Section H: Try EFT on Everything
- Section I: EFT Resources
- Section J: Conclusion
Please note that although tapping is an easy, simple procedure, you’re tapping at your own risk.
Section A: EFT in a Nutshell
About 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered a complex system of energy circuits that run throughout the body. These energy circuits—or meridians—are the centerpiece of Eastern health practices and form the basis for modern day acupuncture, acupressure, and other healing techniques. In a nutshell, EFT consists of tapping with the fingertips at the end points of the body’s energy meridians. Tapping sends pulses through the meridian and fixes any energy disruptions.
Furthermore, EFT is based on the discovery that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system. The process is as follows: a person has a distressing memory, that memory causes a disruption in the body’s energy system, and it’s that disruption in the body’s energy system that causes the negative emotion. By using EFT people are able to get beyond negative emotions—such as anxiety, worry, excessive anger, depression, fear, frustration, stress, low self-esteem, guilt, and so on—in a few minutes, with long lasting results.
In addition to negative emotions, EFT can help you release negative beliefs you may have which are holding you back from achieving the things you want for yourself. For example, where money is concerned, a lot of people hold negative beliefs such as the following:
- Money is the root of all evil.
- People who have a lot of money got it by cheating and stealing from others.
- People with money are spiritually corrupt.
- In order to have money you have to sacrifice your health, your hobbies, and your family life.
- I don’t deserve to have a lot of money.
- I’m not smart enough to make a lot of money.
By tapping on the body’s energy meridians you can release these negative beliefs about money, or any limiting beliefs you may have about any subject or issue.
The EFT Basic Recipe requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand: a fear or anxiety, a bad memory, a limiting belief, an unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering you. While focusing on this issue, you use your fingertips to tap about 5 – 9 times on 12 or so of the body’s meridian points. The Basic Recipe is described in detail in the next section of this tutorial.
Section B: The Basic Recipe
In order to avoid having to diagnose which energy meridian may be disrupted when you’re feeling a negative emotion, the EFT Basic Recipe will have you tap near the end points of numerous energy meridians. Tapping on energy meridians that are flowing normally will do you no harm, and by tapping on several different meridians you’ll probably fix what’s wrong. In addition, a complete overhaul only takes a few minutes.
The Basic Recipe consists of four steps, which are the following:
I. The Setup
II. The Sequence
III. The 9 Gamut Procedure
IV. The Sequence
Each of these steps is further explained below:
I. The Setup
The Basic Recipe has a beginning routine to “setup” or prepare your energy system so that the rest of the process can do its job. The Setup takes about ten seconds to complete and it consists of an affirmation you repeat three times while simultaneously tapping the “karate chop point” (I’ll tell you where it is in a minute). The affirmation is basically the following:
“Even though I have this _____ I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Fill the blank with the problem you want to address. For example:
- Even though I have this fear of public speaking, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though I have this anger toward Bob, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though I feel anxious about money, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though my job creates stress in my life, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though I’m worried about how to approach my boss, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though I worry about how I will make ends meet, I deeply and completely accept myself.
- Even though I can’t sleep because my mind won’t switch off, I deeply and completely accept myself.
The affirmation acknowledges the problem while creating self-acceptance despite the existence of the problem. It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe the affirmation, just say it. The affirmation also “tunes” you in to the problem so that so that your system knows which problem you’re addressing in any particular EFT session.
The Karate Chop Point is located at the center of the fleshy part of the outside of your hand between the top of the wrist and the base of your small finger. Basically, it’s the part of the hand you would use to deliver a karate chop. Tap the karate chop point with the fingertips of your other hand. You can use the karate chop point of either hand, but it’s probably more convenient to tap the non-dominant hand with the two fingertips of the dominant hand. (The man in the photograph at the top of this post is tapping the karate chop point on his left hand.)
Once again, the setup simply consists of repeating your affirmation three times while continuously tapping on the Karate Chop Point. Say the affirmation outloud and with emphasis, like you mean it.
II. The Sequence
The Sequence consists of tapping on the end points of the major energy meridians in the body. Completing one round of The Sequence takes about one minute.
While you tap, repeat a word or phrase–the Reminder Phrase–that reminds you of the problem you’re addressing. You repeat the Reminder Phrase to make sure that you remain tuned in to the problem you’re trying to solve while you tap.
Let’s assume that your affirmation during the Setup phase was the following: “Even though I feel anxious about money, I deeply and completely accept myself”. The Reminder Phrase you use while you tap could be to simply repeat the affirmation at each point you tap, or you can shorten it to “anxious about money”, or even shorten it further to just “money”. Always repeat the Reminder Phrase each time you tap a point during The Sequence.
Here are four tapping tips:
- Most of the tapping points exist on either side of the body; it doesn’t matter which side you use.
- It’s probably best to tap with your dominant hand.
- Use the fingertips of your index and middle fingers to tap. If you’re worried about hitting the right spots exactly, try using four fingers instead of two. This way you’re covering more territory and you can be sure you’re getting the right spots.
- Tap each point between 5 to 9 times.
The tapping points for the sequence are very easy to locate. They are the following (if you would like to see an excellent illustration of the tapping points go here):
- Eyebrow (EB): At the beginning of the eyebrow just above and to one side of the nose.
- Side of the eye (SE): On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye.
- Under the eye (UE): On the bone under the eye.
- Under the nose (UN): On the small area between the bottom of the nose and the top of the upper lip.
- Chin (Ch): Midway between the point of your chin and the bottom of your lower lip.
- Collar Bone (CB): Place your forefinger on the U-shaped notch at the top of the breastbone (about where a man would knot his tie). From the bottom of the U move your forefinger down toward the navel 1 inch and then go to the left or right 1 inch.
- Under the Arm (UA): About 4 inches below the armpit.
- On the hand (a lot of EFT practitioners concentrate on the seven points above and don’t tap on the meridian points located on the hand, but it just takes a few seconds to tap on the hand, so you might as well):
- Thumb (TH): On the outside edge of your thumb at a point even with the base of the thumbnail.
- Index Finger (IF): On the side of the index finger (the side facing your thumb) at a point even with the base of the fingernail.
- Middle Finger (MF): On the side of the middle finger (the side closest to your thumb) at a point even with the base of the fingernail.
- Baby Finger (BF): On the side of the baby finger (the side closest to your thumb) at a point even with the base of the fingernail.
III. The 9 Gamut Procedure
The purpose of the 9 Gamut Procedure is to “fine tune” the brain, and it does so via some eye movements and some humming and counting. Certain parts of the brain are stimulated when you move your eyes, due to the nerves that connect your eyes to your brain. Likewise, the right side of the brain is stimulated when you hum and the left side of the brain is stimulated when you count.
The 9 Gamut Procedure is a 10 second process wherein 9 of these “brain stimulating” actions are performed while continuously tapping on the Gamut Point. You can find the Gamut Point as follows: find the point between the knuckle of your ring finger and the knuckle of your baby finger; from there move half an inch toward your wrist and that’s the Gamut point.
Perform the 9 Gamut actions while tapping the Gamut Point continuously. The 9 Gamut actions are the following:
- Close your eyes.
- Open your eyes.
- Eyes hard down right while holding the head steady.
- Eyes hard down left while holding the head steady.
- Roll eyes once clockwise as though your nose was at the center of a clock and you were trying to see all the number in order.
- Roll eyes once counter-clockwise as though your nose was at the center of a clock and you were trying to see all the number in order.
- Hum 2 seconds of a song (suggestion: Happy Birthday)
- Count rapidly from 1 to 5.
- Hum 2 seconds of a song again (suggestion: Happy Birthday)
IV. The Sequence
Go through the sequence once again. That is, you go through the Sequence twice, once before the 9 Gamut Procedure and once afterwards. And that’s it, that’s the Basic Recipe. It’s simple, fast, and effective.
Section C: YouTube Video – EFT for Stress
Follow along with this example of the Basic Recipe on YouTube; it’s a video that will help you relieve stress. You’ll notice that the affirmation the presenter uses during the Setup is “Even though I have this feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself.” The Reminder Phrase is “this feeling”.
The presenter in the video goes through several different rounds of EFT; you would only need to do this if the negative feelings persist.
Section D: Subsequent Round Adjustments
Sometimes a problem will vanish after just one round of the Basic Recipe, while other times one round provides only partial relief. When only partial relief is obtained, you will need to do one or more additional rounds. Since the subconscious mind is very literal, the subsequent rounds of The Basic Recipe need to address the fact that you’re working on the remaining of the problem.
If you’re working on the anxiety about money issue, you would adjust the affirmation at the setup phase as follows:
“Even though I still feel some anxiety about money, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Section E: How to Know if EFT is Working for You
You can test if EFT is working for you by measuring the intensity of any negative emotions you may be feeling before an EFT session and afterward. Do the following:
- Close your eyes and visualize a situation in the past when you were experiencing the problem that’s causing the disruption in your energy system.
- Assess the intensity of the negative emotion you feel as it exists now while you’re thinking about it on a scale from 0 to 10 (where 10 represents maximum intensity and 0 represent no intensity whatsoever).
- Now do one round of the Basic Recipe and imagine the situation again. Rate the emotional intensity you feel from 0 to 10 once again. If the intensity dropped after going through the EFT session then EFT is working for you.
- If you get no trace of the emotional intensity you felt previously then you’re done. If the intensity dropped but there’s still some emotional intensity present, you need to perform subsequent rounds of EFT until you reach zero.
Section F: Different Aspects of a Problem
Sometimes a problem will have many different aspects. For example, we’ve already explained in Section A of this tutorial how a person can have many different negative beliefs surrounding the issue of money. In that case, it would be a good idea to make a list of all these negative beliefs and go through an EFT session for each of them. Don’t worry if you can’t identify every single negative belief you have about money; once you’ve done an EFT session on 10 or 15 of these beliefs you should have a global impact on your attitude toward money as a whole.
As further illustration of how a problem can have several different aspects, feelings of anxiety may be caused by several different memories. In that case, you would need to perform an EFT session for as many of these memories as you can recall.
Section G: Ongoing Situations
Sometimes a situation which is causing a disruption in your body’s energy system is ongoing. For example, you may be working in a stressful job environment or you may be having an ongoing problem with a family member. In these cases EFT will have to be used persistently—most likely daily—because the stressful circumstances tend to show up every day.
Section H: Try EFT on Everything
Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, often uses this phrase when it comes to EFT: “Try it on everything.” Some examples of things you can use EFT on are the following:
- Stress
- Food Cravings
- Insomnia
- Fear of failure
- Fear of success
- Sense of lack
- Procrastination
- Motivation
- Smoking
- Performance anxiety
- Resistance to change
Section I: EFT Resources
Here’s a list of resources so that you can learn more about EFT:
- The EFT Tutorial
- www.eftdownunder.com
- www.tapping.com (this site offers 13 free videos that will take you through different EFT routines covering issues such as anger, self-acceptance, procrastination, insomnia, forgiveness, and others)
- www.emotionalfreedomtechnique.com
- www.emotionalfreedom.com
- Tap of the Morning with Brad Yates (This is a YouTube video of a great EFT session you can use to start your morning off right.)
If you would like to master EFT then you will need to purchase and study the DVDs in the EFT course available at www.emofree.com.
Section J: Conclusion
Memorize the Basic Recipe described in Section B of this tutorial. Tune in to any emotional or physical problem you may be having by customizing it with a Setup affirmation and Reminder Phrase. Be persistent until all aspects of the problem have vanished. If you do this, there’s a good likelihood that the problem will fade away. I hope you found this tutorial useful.
If you currently apply EFT, please share your experiences in the comments below. Also, if you know of any EFT resources not mentioned in this tutorial I would appreciate it if you include them in your comments.
photo credit: thetappingman
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