EFT - Emotional Acupuncture

(An excerpt adapted from her forthcoming book, On Healing Body, Soul and Spirit)

By Margaret Farrelly

EFT is Emotional Freedom Therapy. EFT uses tapping on the 14 mail meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine to release emotions stuck in the body. It uses tapping on a meridian end point, (usually the endpoint) to move the energy through the whole meridian.

I recently woke up with a nightmare. Using one round of EFT, it was gone. I could remember the dream but it was no longer a nightmare. It works to eliminate any uncomfortable feeling.

Emotional Freedom Therapy is a way to undo programmings in the subconscious mind that are based on unassimilated emotions. The particulars of the situation do not have to be remembered, though the particulars usually come to conscious awareness as the energy system gets corrected and the energy flows once more. Feeling the uncomfortable feeling is necessary while the process is done.

EFT is gentle. The unwanted feeling does not have to be verbalized. The full intensity does not have to be felt all at once, though full intensity works faster. With EFT tapping, the emotions finally get all the way through your meridians and are no longer stuck festering and putrefying

EFT is simple to do. It bypasses diagnosing which meridians are blocked by using all of them. Tapping on one point often clears energy from other meridians because meridians are connected to each other.

The intensity of the feeling is evaluated on a scale of 0 to 10, 10 being the most intense. This allows comparison before and after each round of the process. Then any psychological reversals relevant to the feeling are dealt with. A psychological reversal is a condition of self sabotage in which you will not let healing happen. To undo this condition feel and accept the “bad” feeling and say, (whether you believe it or not), “Even though I have this feeling, (the more specific you can get the better.) I deeply and completely accept myself.” You can call the feeling “this feeling” if you do not want to mention what it is.

Say this three times aloud while tapping the reversal point on the side of the hand, where you would hit with a karate chop, or rub the other reversal point, a sore spot within a radius of two inches from a point three inches below the nook between your collar bones and three inches to either side. The sore spot reversal point works best but it can be uncomfortable because of congested lymph. This temporarily undoes the psychological reversal so the tapping can move the energy through.

During the original incident, the emotions were not totally experienced so the energy got stuck. Now these emotions continuously manifest in things like phobias, feelings of discomfort, fear, rage, and self sabotage. At this present point in time, keeping this energy stuck does not make sense or serve you, but to the younger you it is a way of coping and surviving. And Bravo and Brava you have survived and coped or you would not be reading this now.

EFT works with one feeling at a time. It often changes to a different feeling about the same incident and this feeling has to be addressed from the beginning. Each aspect of an experience needs to be neutralized. EFT takes care of individual incidents, though after a while your subconscious mind generalizes and the incidents of that category no longer bother you.

After rating the intensity, (1–10), and undoing the psychological reversal, tap 5-7 times on each of the numbered points in the diagram, while naming the feeling at each point. The feeling is named out loud as a device to stay connected to the specific feeling. A sequence is then done to balance the brain: While tapping on the gamut spot, close and open your eyes. Without moving your head look hard down right, then hard down left. Make circles with your eyes, one way then the other. Hum a tune for 5 seconds, count to 5, then hum for 5 seconds again. Do the numbered tapping sequence again (with verbalization) and evaluate. This is one round. Continue more rounds until the intensity is 0.

Psychological reversal or other aspects may hinder the process. Each aspect needs to be dealt with separately and psychological reversals need to be removed before any progress can be made.

EFT is a most elegant process, simple in its physical movements and complex in its psychological movements and accomplishments. It is a tool that can remove emotions that are in the way of being who you really are. Interestingly it often works well for physical ailments too. For more in depth information about doing EFT you can go to emofree.com.

Margaux Farrelly does healing with EFT, shamanic energy and sound. She is a healer living, teaching and working in Traverse City. For more information, e-mail her at FarrellyRainbow@hotmail.com or call (231) 223-7779.