Tapping into better health: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

I recently discovered a simple, free, do-it-yourself way to help relieve stress.  It’s called Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT and I learned about it in a book and then searched for more information online.  EFT is a powerful self-help method based on research showing that emotional trauma contributes greatly to disease. Clinical trials have shown that EFT is able to rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories, fear, and incidents that trigger emotional distress. Once the distress is reduced or removed, the body can often rebalance itself, and accelerate physical healing. EFT uses elements of Cognitive Therapy and Exposure Therapy, and combines them with Acupressure, in the form of fingertip tapping on acupuncture points. Over 20 clinical trials published in peer-reviewed medical and psychology journals have demonstrated that EFT is effective for phobias, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, pain, and other problems.

I like several things about EFT:

1.  It’s simple. You don’t need any special equipment – just your own body (and possibly a computer if you want to watch You Tube videos and follow along).

2.  It’s safe.  All you’re doing is tapping your face, chest, and armpit – it’s not like you’re going to hurt yourself.  It might feel a little odd to start with, but if doing a few acupressure taps on yourself helps heal physical and/or emotional pain, why not give it a try?

3.  It’s free.  You can choose to go to an EFT practitioner.  Or you can watch free You Tube videos in the privacy of your home and follow along.  My favorite EFT online practitioner so far is Brad Yates.  He’s created over 341 videos and offers them free online.  He’s got a gentle calm, almost Mr. Rogers – like manner of explaining things. Here’s a few samples of what his work looks like:

Intro to EFT  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QcjIPURyoE

Healing  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYwRVp0HLaA

Changing the past http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptw4q0-WGM4&feature=related.

4.  You can do it yourself.  If you’re pro-active about feeling better, doing EFT tapping at home could be something to add to your bag of medical relief.  You might even consider it a non-pharmaceutical pain reliever.