Anxiety? EFT May Help!
Tools For Your Emotional Health
My focus today is on giving you a strategy for your emotional well being. COVID 19 has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, health, and livelihood. Getting healthy and staying healthy is our best offensive/defense against a viral agent that has arrived in our environment. We are all adapting and finding ways to live with this unwelcome guest. At some point in the future there will be medical approaches to prevent and treat this virus just as. Until then, we are on our own. Taking responsibility for all of the elements of our health is how we succeed. Recognizing that our health is made up of our physical, mental, emotional and environmental states and that it will be the little things that we do in concert that creates the foundation to our optimal health.
Emotional Health
There is a direct physiological response to stress and anxiety on our body which can in turn reduce our immunity making the body vulnerable to a viral invader such as COVID. Having a healthy emotional response to stress is especially important, having tools to help get us there is even more important. Fear is a healthy response; it keeps us alive during an attack as it sends us into a fight or flight response. We can run a way from danger, but once it has passed, we are left exhausted and vulnerable. This microscopic invader is not going away any time soon, leaving us with a real need to establish healthy emotional habits for our best defense.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
This simple self-help technique was developed in 1980 by Roger Callahan who was a practicing psychologist. Using principles of meridian therapy energy release like acupressure and acupuncture, it can be a useful tool for reducing and releasing fear, anxiety, obsessive compulsive thoughts or behaviors, PTSD and many other emotional states. The beauty of the technique is it can be done with your fingers tapping on the meridian points in a sequence that can release the blocked emotional energy. I have seen the technique used by skilled therapists as well as self care work equally well.
I have been using EFT since the 90’s both personally and professionally with great success. I love the technique because I can do this for myself anywhere and anytime, I need to address an emotion that is dominating or controlling my thoughts or behavior. I have used it when I have been in the car and angry about something, or if I have been fearful or had anxiety before an interview or exam.
The key is enough self-awareness to recognize you are in an emotional state and make the decision that it is not serving you in the moment and want to change it. As with any emotional work intention is the key. There are many sites on the internet that teach this technique if you feel it is something you would like to explore further.
Following are the basics:
Identify the issue: what is the feeling or emotion. Is it negatively affecting your ability to function or your ability to be present and productive in the moment?
Identify the strength of the emotion on a scale of 1 to 10. You will start with a level and then later check in to determine the change or to repeat the cycle of acupressure tapping.
Set-up
1. Acknowledge the problem or emotion.Accept yourself even with the problem or emotion.
2. Design the phrase that is personal to you that fills in the blanks:“Even though I have this _______________, I deeply and completely accept myself”.
This is the phrase that you will repeat as you go through the tapping sequence.
Tips For Tapping
The sequence has a short and a long version. I am going to provide you the short sequence. There are a couple of variations on where to begin, they all work. Remember intention is the vital ingredient to this process. You are desiring a change of emotion, experience, or habit and your goal is to get your physiology to make the change by releasing the blocked energy at the appropriate meridian.
The tapping uses the 3 middle fingers of either the left or right hand. The pressure of the tapping is not hard but a gentle consistent tapping on the point while repeating the phrase that you have designed for the moment you are in.
While you can tap with the fingertips of either hand, most people use their dominant hand. For example, right-handed people tap with the fingertips of their right hand while left-handed people tap with the fingertips of their left hand.
You tap approximately 5 times on each point. No need to count the taps because anywhere between 3 and 7 taps on each point is adequate.
The Sequence
The sequence
I like to remember the sequence as a question mark start on the crown of your head with the curve of the ? mark traveling around your face and then to your chest were the dot ends under your arm
Top of the Head (TOH): On the top of the head. If you were to draw a line from one ear, over the head, to the other ear, and another line from your nose to the back of your neck, the TOH point is where those two lines would intersect.
Beginning of the Eyebrow (EB): At the beginning of the eyebrow, just above and to one side of the nose. This point is abbreviated EB for beginning of the Eye Brow.
Side of the Eye (SE): On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye. This point is abbreviated SE for Side of the Eye.
Under the Eye (UE): On the bone under an eye about 1 inch below your pupil. This point is abbreviated UE for Under the Eye.
Under the Nose (UN): On the small area between the bottom of your nose and the top of your upper lip. This point is abbreviated UN for Under the Nose.
Chin Point (CH): Midway between the point of your chin and the bottom of your lower lip. Even though it is not directly on the point of the chin, we call it the chin point because it is descriptive enough for people to understand easily. This point is abbreviated Ch for Chin.
Beginning of the Collarbone (CB): The junction where the sternum (breastbone), collarbone and the first rib meet. To locate it, first 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. This point is abbreviated CB for Collar Bone even though it is not on the collarbone (or clavicle) per se. It is at the beginning of the collarbone and we call it the collarbone point because that is a lot easier to say than "the junction where the sternum (breastbone), collarbone and the first rib meet."
Under the Arm (UA): On the side of the body, at a point even with the nipple (for men) or in the middle of the bra strap (for women). It is about 4 inches below the armpit. This point is abbreviated UA for Under the Arm.
Once you have gone through the sequence once: take a deep cleansing breath and check in the emotion and the intensity level. If it is below a 3 or gone you can choose to leave the intentions space, you have created. If you are still highly engaged or near a 10, did you ask the right question, is there a deeper memory or emotion that needs to be released? This process is for you and allowing your unconscious mind to travel to the depths of what is disturbing you is important. For some: they are not ready to forgive or accept themselves around the issue. I have used the phrase “Even though I have this…I want to be able to deeply and completely accept myself. Then repeat the process.
If you try this and it feels right for your circumstances and body. Feel free to explore the many videos available to master this technique.
In Health
Dr. L