Tapping to Clear Unwanted Beliefs

If there is a part of your life NOT working the way you want it, you probably hold beliefs that are interfering. These might be about your work and how you approach it. Or maybe they interfere with relationships. Possibly they affect your health.

Here are some other places to look for limiting beliefs:

• What are you afraid of or nervous about?
• Consider what you want to do, but can’t get started with.
• Where do you feel resistance to moving forward?
• What is always a struggle for you?
• Where in your life do you have to force yourself to do something?
• When is follow-through a problem for you?

Start At The Beginning

EFT works best when it’s focused on a specific issue. So choose your challenge first, and zero in on that. Get somewhere without distractions and get quiet. Have a pen and paper ready.

Listen to the Voices

When you think about your challenge, what is the negative chatter in your head about it? What are the little things you tell yourself about getting well, changing careers, or painting the house? THOSE are your limiting beliefs.

They might sound something like this:

• I can’t do that.
• I don’t deserve that.
• I don’t know enough; I don’t know how.
• People in my group (family/gender/age/background, etc.) don’t do that.
• Other people won’t like me/approve of me if I do that.
• If I do that, I’ll be _______ (a showoff/a bad person/selfish/greedy, etc.).
• My ________ (doctor/boss/mother/husband) thinks I can’t do that.
• I’ve never been any good at ____________.
• I’m too ___________ (young, old, short, heavy, uneducated, etc.) to do that.

Where Did Those Beliefs Come From?

We start creating beliefs when we’re very young. We get them from family, teachers, spiritual leaders, our community, TV, movies, peers…the list goes on and on.

Sometimes it’s helpful to know where they came from. Not as a reason to blame someone. If that feeling comes up, write it down and come back to it later. Tap on that anger as a separate issue at another time.

Here’s how it CAN be helpful: If you notice a pattern of unhelpful beliefs came from one source, look there first next time. When you work on a different issue, listen for beliefs that came from that person or group.

Prepare For Releasing

Follow these steps to begin:

1. Make a list of those limiting beliefs.
2. Make a separate list of the positive beliefs you would rather have.
3. Assign a short name to your list of unwanted beliefs.  You’ll use this as your tapping reminder phrase. Keep it simple and easy to say, like “crummy work beliefs,” “sickness beliefs,” “negative sewing beliefs,” or “limiting money beliefs.”
4. Read down your list — either aloud or silently.

Get Down To It With Tapping

Now use the steps you use with any tapping session:

1. Assess your intensity of belief on the whole list. Use a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being belief that they’re absolutely true, and 0 being no belief whatsoever. Just ask yourself, What’s my number? If you have trouble with that, just say: I don’t know what my number is, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was a ___. Then go with that number.
2. Write your number down.
3. Using your karate chop point or rubbing your sore spot, repeat your setup phrase 3 times: Even though I have these limiting career beliefs, I love and accept myself anyway.
4. Tap one complete round using your short reminder phrase.
5. Tap a few rounds, using your list of beliefs — one phrase at each point as you move around.
6. Tap a round or two on your FEELINGS about the issue: fear, worry, frustration, self-blame, blaming others, etc.
7. Reassess your intensity and write your new number down.
8. Tap a round on remaining limiting beliefs.
9. Tap a few rounds on I want to let them go, no I don’t, yes I do. I give myself permission to release these beliefs, I’m ready to release them, I allow myself to release them, I can feel them leaving my system, etc.
10. Reassess. When your number drops to a 3 or below, start tapping in positive choices. Use your second list - the one of the beliefs you WANT to have.

Finishing Up

Be sure to tap all the way down to zero.  Keep tapping until those beliefs hold no strength of charge whatsoever. Don’t shortchange yourself!

Test your results. Go back to your list of unwanted beliefs. Read through them one at a time and see if you get any emotional charge at all on any of them.  If you do, simply focus on that belief and tap it away.

Extra Tip

If your intensity drops, but seems to get stuck at a certain point, go back to your list. Ask yourself, What beliefs account for most of this 6 (or whatever your number is)? Then focus on that particular belief for your next rounds of tapping. Sometimes this can speed up the whole clearing process.