Here are some videos on EFT Research
TBI symptoms improve after PTSD remediation with EFT
Efficacy of EFT in reducing public speaking anxiety
Single session reduction in the intensity of traumatic memories in abused adolescents
Effects of EFT on chronic pain in adults
EFT in the treatment of Unhealthy Eating Behaviours
You would have noticed that tapping scripts and audios focus too soon on easing and releasing an issue. Instead of fully experiencing the reality of a particular situation and sitting with it while tapping, the focus is on easing it immediately. In EFT process when we evoke the issue in our mind, first the problem is activated as we are exposed to it and our emotional brain gets active. Then, when we tap on it, it sends deactivating signals to the amygdala and the problem (what you’re tuned in to) starts reducing in intensity.
However, if you don’t stay with the issue at hand, you don’t give a chance to yourself to fully process what is going on. Tapping on the positive may give you result but it won’t last. And more than that many a times you’ll experience resistance to tapping when you insert words like “ease” and “release” too soon into your tapping process.
In standard EFT, we encourage you to first tap on the reality of your situation, what you’re feeling, and only when the intensity subsides to do a positive round.
To know more, you can watch this short video here.
There’s always a choice point when we procrastinate. Although it may seem like it’s happening automatically and we might think we don’t have a choice, the fact is that we do. Either we act on the thought of wanting to do a task or give in to the urge to delay it. It’s at this critical juncture where thoughts play an important role. In that split second you’ve made a decision to delay the task and then your mind will give you umpteen justifications for your reasons to delay and that’ll become a habit.
Today when I was laying on the sofa watching Netflix and not feeling like getting up, I had a thought of sketching. I immediately went and picked up my drawing tools and sat down to draw. Hence the result is these two drawings. Now in that moment as I reflect, I had another thought, “let me watch one more episode”. That was the choice point – drawing or giving in to watching another episode and remaining in that place for the rest of the day.
I’ve had practise with catching my thoughts so I was able to quickly act on my action thought.
This may not be possible all the time. But over time if you practise you’ll be able to recognise your choice point – choosing whether to delay or act. Many a times, there are valid reasons for delaying like being burnt out, exhausted, needing rest, sleep etc. However many a times, what makes us procrastinate is not being aware of the choice point, and then we have these handy justifications that don’t help at all.
We have all these ‘ideal conditions’ that have to be met before we do a task. If any of these conditions aren’t met, we procrastinate. We think we need to do it perfectly and unless all the demands/conditions are met, we cannot do it. All conditions may be important but they aren’t necessary to do the task.
For example, if I think of drawing, I just need the drawing tools, hence even a pencil will do. All conditions like having a quiet corner for myself, being in the right mood aren’t necessary to draw. Also, we have this idealised and perfect image of tasks, like I might think I need the best markers to draw, I need to finish my laundry then draw, I need to do this and that and then… I procrastinate!
So try this. The next time you get a thought that prompts you to take an action, instead of ignoring it, act on it immediately. Once you act on it, you’ll gradually feel motivated to continue doing it. We cannot wait for the right feeling to come along to do something. You don’t need motivation to act, you just need to recognise the choice point and act despite the urge to delay. Also, become aware of the automatic thoughts that come up, the justifications that come up when you have the urge to delay.
Practise, telling yourself, I don’t need to meet all the conditions to do this task. All conditions don’t have to be met to complete this task or to start it. What I have is enough to do it right now.
Reversals or psychological reversals are a group of aspects that adversely affect the EFT process. They can come up when you are making progress. For example, you might feel fear or resistance when you’re on the verge of releasing a strong emotion, a physical symptom or condition. They can also come up right in the beginning as soon as you start addressing an issue for the first time.
They are conscious or unconscious resistance that we have towards healing something. They can show up as “conflicting parts and beliefs, secondary gains, protective parts”.
All of us have developed coping mechanisms to survive certain traumas and tough situations when we were younger and these coping mechanisms really helped. However, as we grew older these coping mechanisms became outdated , limiting and unhealthy.
These coping mechanisms can act as protective parts trying to hold on to what helped us survive. Gently addressing the fear and resistance around replacing old patterns and adopting healthier coping mechanisms can really help.
EFTi defines “Reversals as a specific group of Aspects that can negatively affect the EFT process. These can be conscious or subconscious and include secondary gains, resistance, conflicting beliefs or protective parts that stand in the way of progress. When EFT progress is slow or stalled (i.e. Intensity Levels are not dropping, emotional intensity is returning with frequency or presenting issues are not changing measurably), Reversals (i.e. hidden Aspects) are often present.” (EFTi glossary)
Our present and future is always coloured by our past. As Joe Dispenza says and even neuroscience suggests, if you keep thinking the same thoughts, then the same neural patterns will get strengthened, the same neurons will fire and wire together. So when we keep reviving our past and the strong emotions associated with it, the body keeps getting into extended periods of stress. The body cannot differentiate between real and imagined event. Hence when we keep narrating or retelling the same stories in our head throughout the day, the body stays in that stressful mode.
Example, if you’ve been cheated by someone in the past, and very frequently you think about how bad that experience was, the body experiences the same emotions over and over again, the same neurons fire and wire. This becomes a habitual pattern where negative events will stick to us and positive ones will slide by easily.
That’s where EFT comes in. When you work on specific episodes with tapping, the narration is done in a structured manner where every crescendo of the story is tapped upon. This sends deactivating signals to the amygdala and the neural connections for that story are weakened. This changes how you feel about your past, which in turn creates a feedback loop and new thoughts and feelings are generated about the past that aren’t stressful to the body. Acceptance and being able to let go create a calmer physiology.
A short excerpt from Joe Dipenza’s interview.
“Become conscious of your negative thoughts.
People have a habit of clinging to the familiar and the known. Most of the times we’re not even aware of what we’re thinking. Observe the thoughts. You will feel uncomfortable and will want to distract yourself. Any kind of change requires becoming uncomfortable to some degree.
Changing your thoughts consciously on a daily basis is needed.” You can see the full interview here https://youtu.be/ereahWKwNV8
Here are some tips and suggestions
We have two very important survival mechanisms: GROWTH and PROTECTION
Dr Lipton did an experiemient in the laboratory on endothelian cells. When he introduced toxins into the culture dish, the cells retreated from toxins, just as humans move away from lions and tigers. These cells “gravitated” towards nutrients just like humans move towards nourishing food and love/connection.
Gravitating towards nutrients is a Growth response and Retreating from danger is a Protection response.
Now these two mechanisms cannot work efficiently at the same time!
So when we become protective – trying to protect ourselves from real or imaginery danger- we are operating from a protective mode. We go into fight or flight and the body channelizes the enegry to tissues and limbs to be ready for protection mode. Hence the growth is inhibited.
An excerpt from Dr Lipton’s book:
“Inhibiting growth processes is also debilitating in that growth is a process that not only expends energy but is also required to produce energy…the longer you stay in protection, the more you compromise your growth” (p. 116)
Most of the times we are not at a point where there is extreme danger to our survival and since humans are multicellular, not all of our cells have to be in growth or protection mode at the same time. Only depending on the severity of the treat, the cells engage in protection response.
While we can survive threats, chronic stress can inhibit growth mechanisms and can compromise your health.
Bottom line i
s that not only do we need to cope with stress in a healthy manner but also actively seek joy and move towards fulfilling loving lives where growth processes are stimulated (p. 117)
In order to move towards joy and lead more fulfilling lives we need to lessen our daily stress and also the stress from past experiences. What better way to do it than EFT! It can help you release negative experiences and reinforce positive ones.
Reference: Lipton, B. (2005). Biology of Belief. India, Hay House.
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Our subconscious mind retains all of our early life’s data. It’s a storehouse of learned experiences and instincts. It’s basically a ‘repository of stimulus -response’ tapes from our childhood. (Lipton, 2005)
Subconscious mind is habitual. Think of the last time you lost it when someone did something. For example, I used to dislike it when I saw a piece of misplaced furniture. If a person sat on a chair and didn’t put the chair back in its place or position, I would get irritated. My dad is very organized and growing up I’ve observed and retained a lot of his habits around organization.
So in essence, my overreaction came from my subconscious mind which had stored all the observations about my dad’s organized behaviour. Of course, it also made me very good in organizing stuff which is a great skill but at the same time, it also made me inflexible and a perfectionist. After I realized that my overreactions were coming from my subconscious mind, I became more mindful and conscious of my reactions. Now, it doesn’t bother me much. Although I 
will still put the chair back in its place 😅, I do so without any irritation.
In his book, the Biology of Belief, Dr Bruce Lipton says that the subconscious mind is more powerful neurologically than conscious mind. Our conscious mind is the state in which we are aware, conscious, creative and attentive.
If you read his book, you will come to know about many fascinating facts. Did you know that the cell’s main brain is not the nucleus but the membrane? Bruce Lipton explains how this is tied to how the mind influences the body.
The membrane consists of receptor (awareness) and effector (action) proteins. “These protein complexes are the fundamental units of cellular intelligence” The cell membrane interacts with the environment to produce responses that help in sustaining life. The cell membrane is the brain of the cell. And our brain is the main unit in a human body and each cell of our body has to “acquiesce control to the brain..the brain controls the behavior of the body’s cells” (Lipton, p. 101)
The mind is a function of the physical brain.
What this means is that we can heal if we properly use our conscious mind. Our conscious mind has control over the cells of our body and the way we think and feel can affect our cells and thus lead to healing or aggravate ill health. That’s why working on our subconscious beliefs is so important for a healthy mind and body.
Our conscious mind is very powerful. It can choose how to behave in a situation, it can analyze the data coming from subconscious mind and so and so forth. Those of you who know EFT, know that with EFT, we engage the prefrontal cortex, the conscious mind, and that can override the subconscious mind’s default behaviors.
Work on your subconscious beliefs, remember to take up specific events to transform these beliefs.
Reference: Lipton, B. (2005). Biology of Belief. India, Hay House.
Learn about Genetic Deternimsm and Epigenetics here
Nature vs nurture will be always be a hot topic of debate. I remember reading about it for the first time in my psychology class in 12th grade. It was a fascinating topic and still is. Much research has taken place in this area. To make it short, Identical twins studies suggest that even though identical twins share the same genetic material, they often don’t share the same diseases or health outcomes.
The stringent concept of genetic determinism states that we are born with a set of genes and we are bound to get the same diseases our parents and grandparents got. Whereas epigenetics drawing from identical twin studies points out how even if we cannot change the genes, we can change the gene expression, meaning the way the gene expresses itself.
Bruce Lipton, in his book, Biology of Belief, says that Darwin’s theory has undermined the role of nurture (environment) and led us to believe that ‘genes control biology’. He further goes on to say that most diesease like diabetes, cancer etc are due to ‘complex interactions amongst multiple genes and environmental factors, and not due to a single gene’ and, ‘the environmental influences including nutrition, stress, and emotions, can modify those genes without changing their basic blueprint’
Which simply means, environment can triumph over hereditary.
Chromosomes carry genetic material and they are covered by proteins like ‘sleeves’. When the genes are covered, their information cannot be read. What you need is an environmental signal to make the protein to change shape , which allows the genes to be read ( p. 38, Lipton, 2005)
So the environment makes a huge difference in whether your genes will be expressed or not. For example, if you believe you have a ‘diabetic gene’, firstly it’s not a single gene, and secondly the environment will determine whether you will become a diabetic or not, whether the diabetic gene will be turned on (expressed) or off (silenced).
Given that stress, emotions, lifestyle can change gene expression, we have a lot in our control. Here’s what you can do with EFT, meditation and other techniques:
Change your negative believes about health. Nocebo effect is when negative beliefs about health make you sick. If you believe you will fall sick, most probably you will. Hence it’s important to release health anxiety, change your thoughts patterns and transform limiting health related beliefs.
Reference: Lipton, B. (2005). Biology of Belief. India, Hay House.
I got a terrible spasm in my lower back a few days ago. It was very painful, I couldn’t walk or sit properly. Since I had a couple of client sessions that day, I decided to use self-tapping, my favourite go-to tool.
Half an hour before the client call, I sat on my chair and started tapping on myself.
I wasn’t able to bend forward so I started there. That’s how I measured the pain intensity. You don’t always have to use the suds scale. You can measure pain by movement as well, as in how much can you bend forward or backward, sideways etc and when there’s a change in that in terms of flexibility, it indicates relief.
( I was mindful of not injuring myself and did this very gently so please take all precautions if you have pain and also tap on underlying emotional factors for the pain)
Even though I have this pain in my lower back and I cannot bend at all, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
1 round on this.
Tested by bending and although I still had the pain ( a bit less) I was able to bend forward a little.
Next round was on, Even though I’m able to bend forward a little bit now and that’s great, I still have this pain in my lower back and I completely accept myself.
Tested again by bending; was able to bend even more.
Pain was going down.
In 5-6 rounds I was able to touch my feet while sitting on my chair with minimal pain. In these rounds I also included tapping on how my posture had been incorrect in the last few days and how that might have contributed to the pain ( Even though I wasn’t sitting properly yesterday and it might have caused this spasm, ….) Then I tried bending backward, it was difficult.
I didn’t take any painkiller or apply any pain relief spray. The pain has been minimal since then and I’ve been doing client sessions as well as resting. The spasm is completely gone. I’ve been able to get back to yoga and stretching exercises.
