I have known and read about Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping for many years, but have never actually tried it because many of the sites you go to have rather complicated or time consuming methods of using EFT, but the other day, I came across a guy who was using a very simplified method of EFT that I felt quite comfortable using myself so I have been playing around with it a little bit for a few days and feel that his method of EFT is easy, doable and relative to other methods of EFT, it is very fast and to me, effective. He also claims that his method can be done mentally or without actually tapping your body, but rather mentally imagining yourself tapping those specific pressure points. Another benefit to his method is that pin point accuracy is not needed and that right there is a big plus! Unfortunately, I just stumbled on to that site and then I had to leave my house and forgot to bookmark it, but I will find it again and post the link as soon as I find it.
I should first start by saying that I am a believer in EFT, so that should be considered a bias on my part and I want to be clear on that right up front.
I first read about EFT on Dr. Mercola's website many years ago as he uses it for himself and mentions it occasionally in some of his write ups. The amount of information on the web about EFT is quite simply, overwhelming and it seems like most practitioners think their specific methods are the best, but while they are all very slight variations on the same type of tapping techniques, I feel that they all probably have benefits to our overall health and specifically to what we "aim" at. By aim, I mean specifically the thing or condition that we are trying to eliminate or alter such as pain, anxiety, negative thoughts, a recurring bad memory etc.
When you google EFT and PD, you will have no shortage of reading material!
Here is a very basic description of what EFT is about that was written by Medline :
Emotional freedom technique (EFT) is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It’s also referred to as tapping or psychological acupressure.
People who use this technique believe tapping the body can create a balance in your energy system and treat pain. According to its developer, Gary Craig, a disruption in energy is the cause of all negative emotions and pain.
Though still being researched, EFT tapping has been used to treat people with anxiety and people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Similar to acupuncture, EFT focuses on the meridian points — or energy hot spots — to restore balance to your body’s energy. It’s believed that restoring this energy balance can relieve symptoms of a negative experience or emotion may have caused.
Based on Chinese medicine, meridian points are thought of as areas of the body energy flows through. These pathways help balance energy flow to maintain your health. Any imbalance can influence disease or sickness.
Acupuncture uses needles to apply pressure to these energy points. EFT uses fingertip tapping to apply pressure.
Proponents say the 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 the stress or negative emotion you feel from your issue, ultimately restoring balance to your disrupted energy.
Okay, so that is how Medline describes EFT. The past couple of days, I have been using this guy's particular simplified method of EFT to try and eliminate or reduce negative feelings and impressions and I have to say it works for me or at least for the time I have tried it and it seems to work fast. His method of aiming I also found interesting and I suspect he may be correct on that point. The way I have tried to use what he is describing is by waiting until a negative feeling or memory pops into my head and then I use his method of tapping to try and eliminate it or at a minimum attenuate, it. As an example of one way I used his method, there is a person who I don't particularly care for to the point that even their voice irritates me and I easily visualized them and imagined them irritating me and while thinking about this person, I went through the truncated tapping of the pressure points while saying out loud that I am letting go of this negative thought process and now this person no longer pops into my head and irritates me! Yes, I know , not earth shattering to be sure, but I think the sum total effect on our health to "let go of" these type of negative thoughts is going to cause a positive back lash on our health!
EFT is not limited to just negative thoughts, it can be used for pain, anxiety, depression and many other things. To get an idea just google EFT and fill in the blank. I recently talked to a friend who has been to a psychologist who uses EFT in their practice.
I am hoping to get a conversation going here on the forum that can expand on the idea of how EFT can be used to help PWPs as I feel it is a valuable tool to help deal with many health issues including PD!
As soon as I find the video that I watched the other day that describes this faster and practical version of EFT, I will add it into this thread!
Okay, I found the video. I was not so impressed with him, but his "fast method" and "aiming" ideas hooked me and when it worked for me, even more so! I am going to continue experimenting with his method.
I found alot of articles referenced on pub med. It is worth noting that pub med is a US based SEARCH ENGINE. It will reference all articles but does not assess their reliablity etc. When looking at an article you need to check what magazine published it and when.
Anxiety at many levels is a common PD symptom and apparently EFT has shown benefit in this study :
Interesting, Art... in my last post I found some info on stimulating the vagus nerve to activate the parasympathetic nervous system , it mentioned eft as one of the techniques that do that.
You have to admit, this EFT is interesting and what i am reading in the studies so far, is effective for way more than just stress,depression, anxiety and PTSD!
So many people swear by it, there must be something to it!!!
The available studies can't all be wrong. If this were a drug achieving these type of results, there would be a lot more studies and it would be expensive. EFT is free and with this guys technique is fast and easy and the results are fast also! Plus you can do it wherever you are.
Art
And another showing very good effectiveness of EFT in both depression and anxiety!
And this 2009 study that begs the questions why isn't there more research for this absolutely free and non-invasive approach to help make yourself well!
That is where I have been on this for about 10 years and if I had not seen that video the other day by accident (or was it by accident?), I'd still be there! There is so much information about it out there, it is overwhelming and hard to know the best place to start, but since this guy's techniques seem to be working for me, I will have to watch more of his videos! I think the potential is huge!
The thing about this EFT is I think we are only seeing the tip of the ice berg even though it has been around a long time! The available studies suggest as much. The guy in the video was ahead of most of the studies because that video was made in 2010 and I have seen videos from him that were made in 2009.
Quigong taps your meridians to release negative thoughts. I have also found the standing relaxed pose to be my PD posture at moment(co-incidence?). I believe my PD is based on trapped negative stress and i need to let go storing it inside and not releasing has made me ill. Qigong is very like your EFT. Gd videos here thanks
Yes, one of the reasons I put this post up is because I have heard members mention that negative energy and thoughts are considered contrary to good health. So far, for me, I feel like EFT can allow the release of negative energy and thoughts. I'll keep experimenting to see where that might go!
Art
He did this video about a year or so after the first video that I linked to and everything about this video is better than the older one, from the setting where they filmed it to the tone in his voice and his relaxed state to the simplicity of the technique as he describes it.
In this video, he does a demonstration on an audience member to show how to eliminate a very bad memory quickly along with the negativity associated with it.
Okay, so this is interesting, but what can you do with it as a practical health tool? The next video gives a very practical demonstration of just one way you can use this to help yourself, but it also illustrates how powerful this tool is!
Keep in mind that this is just one basic example that gives you a better idea of the practical application of this technique!
Art
So I am continuing to experiment with this form of EFT and it is an interesting experiment because this one I can do with other people and doesn't require anything. I tried it on two of my friends and my sister so far and they were impressed with the results. One friend has a person who makes her blood boil anytime she sees or thinks about this person. She said if she had to rate her anger toward this person while actively thinking about it, she would say anger level 8 out of 10! I went through the tapping process once and asked her how she would rate her anger level after that one minute exercise and she said it felt like it dropped dramatically to a 3 out of 10, so that was pretty impressive after just one minute! We went through another minute of tapping and then I asked her what she felt about this person now? The first thing she said was that a calm peace came over her after the second try which she said reminded her of being in a very calm meditative state and when I asked her where that would be on the 0-10 scale and she said she now felt that 0 would be the correct number ! For just two minutes of tapping, I have to say I was impressed, as was my friend!
I also tried it on another friend, well actually he did it himself after I showed him what to do. He has a condition as a result of getting the flu shot last year that his doctor insisted upon giving him. He ended up getting what is called "Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration" ( SIRVA), which can happen with most vaccines that are injected near the shoulder area and apparently is fairly common judging by the number of attorneys who are specializing in these SIRVA lawsuits. The most common cause is because the injection is done too close to the shoulder, but even if done properly can still happen. The sad part is that they don't really have a treatment for this severe shoulder pain that results in just days after getting the vaccine and to make matters worse, some people never recover from it! Here is a link that discusses it a little bit.
Now, back to my friend. He can no longer lift his left shoulder without pain that increases dramatically the higher he tries to lift it. He got the vaccine about 9 or 10 months ago and has been in pain ever since and his left arm muscles are starting to atrophy. So he tried doing what I had showed him while he was laying down, but wasn't really clear on it yet and when I saw him the next morning he showed me that he could lift his shoulder and arm considerably higher with much less pain! He said he is going to continue doing it to see if he can get back to 100%.
The next person I tried it on was my sister who has muscular dystrophy which causes here to get muscle cramps anywhere on her body almost. She was able to get relief from the cramps and said she will likely include EFT as part of her nightly prayers.
So, I like the results so far, but one thing I have found out from my own personal experimenting is that things that are deep rooted in the subconscious can take many attempts to finally start to fully reverse, but so far they eventually do succumb after multiple attempts!
Placebo effect? Possibly, but who wouldn't take it if it improves your quality of life, costs nothing and is literally always at your fingertips? It can't get less invasive than tapping! So I am going to continue with this experiment and see what else I can do with it. This is one of my experiments that so far seems to offer fast results right now, so I will continue with this experiment because I am excited with the results so far and can't wait to try it on other issues!
Art
Anxiety and depression, start tapping! The following newer abstract shows relatively quick results can be had using EFT! This stuff really works, if you use it!
If you're thinking that EFT is interesting , but also thinking it is limited to PTSD, depression, headaches, certain types of pain and anxiety, you might want to rethink that. In the following study, it was found that EFT was able to help people with psoriasis and the results were lasting and improving with time. We all know how very powerful the placebo effect is because in some studies it has outperformed the drug or substance that is being tested. The placebo effect generally means that you believe it is going to work and so it does, but the bottom line is it is your body and mind that creates the placebo effect and results in improvement when there is no reason for improvement. This makes me wonder if EFT merely allows us to tap into this placebo effect mechanism in a way that allows us to make good use of what the body is capable of doing? Just thinking out loud and wondering why more testing is done to learn how to harness this placebo effect? That would certainly alter the course of our current healthcare systems and take a big bite out of their profits! The pharmaceutical companies test to try and eliminate the placebo effect, but maybe it would be more useful to try and learn how to harness this highly potent healing mechanism that obviously exists in humans. In any case I don't see any studies of trying to harness what appears to be a potential built in healing mechanism in humans, because there is little to no money to be made on teaching humans to repair themselves at no cost!
So here is a link to that article on EFT and psoriasis :
I know this is an old we're r thread but I wanted to add my experience with Tapping. Amazing, anger over things in my childhood, resolved, can't say enough good about it. Resolving deep emotional issues is crucial to our healing.
I found the same and the effects seem to be lasting. It is simple enough for anyone to do at almost any time. I think, based on studies, EFT and very low dose lithium orotate may be two of the best and least invasive ways of dealing with PTSD! EFT may be a relatively quick fix for PTSD and many other deep seated issues. It costs nothing, can be done almost any where, takes only a small amount of time, is definitely noninvasive and so far is effective for me!
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