Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a technique that aims to help you release negative emotions and move past anything that feels like a blockage in your life. The technique involves tapping certain points on the body to create balance in your body’s energy system – a kind of psychological acupuncture. According to its developer, Gary Craig, a disruption in energy is the cause of all negative emotion and experienced pain.
How does it work?
Similar to acupuncture, EFT focuses on meridian points, or energy hot spots, to restore balance to your body’s energy. It is believed that restoring this energy balance can relieve the symptoms of negative experience or emotion. Based on Chinese medicine, these meridian points are thought of as parts of the body that energy flows through – like the heart, lungs and bladder. These spots help balance energy flow to maintain your health. Any imbalance can influence disease or sickness. Practitioners of this technique believe tapping helps you access your body’s energy and send signals to the part of the brain that controls stress. They claim that stimulating the meridian points through EFT tapping can reduce stress or negative emotion, ultimately restoring balance to your disrupted energy.
Firstly, ask yourself: what issues do I want to work on?
For example:
- How I'm feeling today
- A past memory that still bothers me
- A future event that I'm anxious about
Then ask yourself:
- When I think about this, how does
it make me feel right now? - What is the emotion I feel – anger, guilt, sadness, etc?
Then consider: Where do I feel this in my body? What does it feel like? A racing heart? Tight chest? Clouded head? Churning stomach? Blocked throat?
And finally:
Using 0–10 as a gauge, what is the level of intensity of this emotion? (0 = nothing 10 = maximum intensity)
