When you start to feel depressed or suffer from other emotional and internal issues, what are some of the things you do to cheer yourself up? Meditate, binge watch your favorite television show, or talk to your family and friends. If you do, then consider adding EFT as another alternative solution to tackling your internal issues.

What is EFT you might ask? Well, EFT which stands for Emotional Freedoms Technique is a type of treatment in the field of Energy Psychology, where you use your fingers to tap into the different energy points in our bodies. It’s acupuncture for the mind.  The main goal of this therapy is to get rid of negative energy stored in one’s internal system.

The 16 EFT Tapping Points

There are 16 main tapping points where energy is located in the human body. These are:

• • “sore spot” which is located about 3 inches below your sternum and 3 inches to the left or right
  • inner side of your eyebrows, which is basically the center of your face
  • outer side of your eyes
  • under the eye
  • under the nose
  • chin
  • center of collarbone (where you would fasten a tie)
  • below nipple
  • under the arm
  • top of head
  • thumb
  • index finger
  • middle finger
  • baby finger
  • “karate chop”, which is located on the pinky side of your hand (the area of your hand you would use to karate chop an object)

Retrieved from website EFT–Alive

The key to this treatment is making sure that you place your fingers on each of the mentioned tapping points and put pressure on them for an equal amount of time.

Benefits of EFT

There can be an argument made towards EFT producing equally great results like yoga or any other form of meditation. Hence, we recommend that you set aside some time for it because in the end, you become a much happier person who is more at peace and level-headed.

Some of its potential end results are:

• Release Memory and effects of trauma
• Overcoming phobias and fear
• Process anger
• Releasing effects of abuse

EFT Case Study

Psychiatrist Stefan Gonick applied the fundamentals of EFT when he helped a former patient named Jane come to terms with the verbal abuse she was suffering from her father. In the first session, Gonick asked Jane to a recall a really bad and emotional memory involving her father. He assisted her using the Tell the Story technique, which is a EFT technique where a person discusses a specific event in detail and then stops to do the required tapping techniques when they reach a vulnerable portion in their story. However, Jane was able to get through the entire story without an emotional reaction.

Then came the second session and Gonick told Jane to retell the same story again. Similar results were produced.  Gonick told Jane to pick another memory and do the same exercise again, using the same technique. This time, Jane was able to produce an emotional reaction and both Gonick and Jane decided to explore and work on the particular aspect of the memory that caused Jane to have an emotional reaction.

Thanks to EFT, Jane eventually worked things out with her father.

How To Practice EFT At Home: A Step-By-Step Guide

1. Choose a painful or fearful memory to heal with EFT
2. Using a rating scheme to rank how much that particular memory bothers you
3. Write down a statement which acknowledges the particular issue you are going through. When doing so, remember to end it off with something motivational or positive. Read it out loud and make sure while you are doing so that you are either massaging your sore spot or tapping your karate chop with your index and middle fingers.
4. Start tapping each of the basic tapping points in order, seven times each.
5. Repeat this sequence twice.
6. Once you’ve completed two rounds, go back to your rating scale again. Reevaluate how you feel after you have finished the exercise. If you feel better, than congratulations. If not, then do the whole sequence again and make sure to adjust your statement accordingly to how you really feel.

It is really important to note when doing this exercise that once you garner a painful memory or any other type of emotional feeling in your head, you must start tapping immediately because it will provide you with better results.

Though issues like depression, anxiety and other internal issues never really go away, EFT can help manage them so that things don’t get out of hand.

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