All Entries Tagged With: "Natural Healing"

EFT For Pets (Or How To Save On Vet Bills)

Did you know that you can use EFT to help your pets? It’s very effective and fast and can bring great relief to your animals AND your checkbook.

Essential: First Calm Yourself

Unless it’s such an emergency that there’s no time to do this, take a minute to use EFT on yourself first. Clear (or at least reduce) your issues about your pet’s problem. These might include:

• Worry or anxiety about your pet’s injury or condition
• Anger at a person or circumstance contributing to the problem
• Guilt that you contributed to it or didn’t notice it sooner
• Doubt that tapping can help

In my experience, if you’re too upset, that negative energy can block the success of EFT healing for your pet.

NOTE: If there’s no time to do EFT on yourself, at least take a deep breath and visualize setting your own concerns on a shelf until later. It works!

If Your Pet Lets You Tap

Some animals have no resistance to your tapping on them. If that’s the case, do it! Some people tap on points equivalent to our own points. That’s not always possible, however. Most pets respond to gentle tapping up and down their spine, so you can try that. The top of the head is another place that’s generally easy to get to and is effective.

When You Can’t Tap On Them

There are reasons why it won’t work to tap on your pet. For example:

• You can’t dive into the fish tank.
• Your pet is too upset (or stuck in a tree).
• You’re already at the vet and can’t physically tap on your pet.

Now What?

Now you can tap on yourself on behalf of your pet. It’s called surrogate tapping or proxy tapping. You just pretend you’re the animal and tap on yourself, saying what the animal might say.

Here’s a sample of how I helped my cat who was hiding in a corner with a large cactus thorn in his mouth, and a piece of cactus stuck to his inner thigh. I skipped the setup.
Then I just tapped around the points on my own face and body, saying:

This really hurts and I don’t know what’s going on. Mom loves me and she’s helping me now. I can trust Mom to help me. I’m feeling calm now and my breathing is slowing down. It’s safe for me to let Mom help me. I know she loves me. I can feel all the love right now. It’s OK for me to let Mom come close [he can be very stand-offish}. I can relax now and let Mom help me. It’s OK for Mom to tap on my head. It will feel really good to let Mom tap on my back.

He calmed down and let me remove the cactus without resisting — amazing for his personality! And he allowed me to tap a little bit up and down his spine. Then he walked away, breathing much more slowly than before and appearing normal.

I went back to tapping on myself as if I were him, saying:
I ask my body to heal itself quickly. I don’t need any reaction, so I let go of any swelling. I ask my body to easily let go of any thorns that might be left. I feel like my old self, and I’m ready to enjoy life again. I love being tapped on and I love Mom to help me if I’m hurt. I’ll remember this next time I get myself into trouble.

Who knows? Maybe he will!

Other Animal Examples

Some other ways I’ve used it are:

• To help a cat heal from a coyote bite wound on his leg
• To calm an old dog who freaks out when her owner leaves the house
• To clear some unknown obstruction in the throat of a coughing cat
• To calm a lizard down so I could catch it to put it outside
• To get a yellow jacket to leave our picnic table!

Animal EFT Experts

There are tapping practitioners that specialize in working with animals, who go far beyond these simple guidelines. You can easily find them online through Google or at emofree.com.

In the meantime, this is a great way to help your pets when they’re in trouble — and to enjoy your picnics more. Just trust yourself, knowing you have the animal’s best interest at heart. Say whatever comes to mind. Give it a try and let us know how it goes by posting a comment below.

To read about surrogate tapping for other people, check out Tapping For Others – What’s The Deal?

Tapping Overwhelm – No More Issues, Please!

Do you ever feel like you’ve opened a Pandora’s box by starting to tap on your issues? Do you get discouraged when a new issue pops up? Here you were – excited to get rid of some old inner junk, only to uncover another layer or a related problem. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming – like this is going to go on forever. Like, what’s the point of clearing one thing if it’s just going to stir up something new?

Not Really New

In reality, your challenge isn’t new. Maybe it hasn’t been in the forefront of your consciousness for awhile, but it’s not new. It’s just that its priority in your psyche and energy system has shifted so now it has come to your attention.

The healing and clearing from tapping is a marvelous phenomenon. And sometimes that clearing reveals some issue that’s been hidden from view – maybe not forever, but for awhile anyway.

There were excellent reasons for that “new” issue to remain out of sight up til now. Here are some possibilities:

• Maybe you didn’t have the inner strength to face it before.
• Maybe you didn’t have the certainty that you could do anything about it. But now that you’ve had some tapping success, you know that healing is possible.
• Maybe it’s too big to deal with on your own and until now you hadn’t found anyone to help you with it.

You can be sure of this: Your highest, wisest self takes really good care of you at all times. What’s the point of allowing an issue to surface if you aren’t able to do something about it? It makes sense that the issue would stay out of view, doesn’t it? So honor your self-protective skills for taking good care of your heart and spirit by revealing things to you in a sensible, timely way.

It’s Good News

Your “new” issue shows up now because it’s time for it to be healed. That’s GOOD news. It’s been my experience that problems reveal themselves at the perfect time on your healing path:

• Time when you’ve already released other issues that could cause resistance to releasing this one.
• Time when you’ve built a solid enough foundation to trust the process of tapping – you KNOW it works for you.
• Time when you have inner strength enough to be the new person you’ll be without that problem.

By the time an issue shows up, it’s ready to go! It is SO ready to be released. Often these issues are eliminated really quickly once you start tapping on them. I hope you’ll start seeing new issues in a different and hopeful light. Maybe you could even welcome them – imagine the possibilities on the other side of letting them go!

And let us all know how it goes by leaving a comment here.

Untangle The Knot Of Feeling And Facts

Sometimes tapping issues can be a little tricky to sort out. There are the feelings you have and the plain old truthful facts about it. If your emotions on the topic are strong, the separation between facts and feelings can be hard to find. Or you may think it’s ALL feelings, or even ALL facts.

Maybe you’re thinking, “So what? I’ll just start tapping and it will all sort itself out.” That is one approach, and it may be successful. But it can help to at least be aware of the facts versus feelings components of your issue.

In The Beginning

Tangling up facts and feelings can cause resistance to tapping on the issue in the first place. Let me give you an example. A client (“Ben”) was extremely uncomfortable at networking events. He mumbled, avoided people and felt nauseous. He felt ashamed that he didn’t know how to clearly describe his coaching practice.

Ben saw no point to tapping on this issue because he was sure he just needed to come up with his perfect 30-second intro speech. But the fact was that his dread of networking came up any time he thought of writing his speech. And that fear stifled his ability to think creatively to write a good intro speech. With this tangled knot, there was no way out of his dilemma.

What’s The Answer?

Here’s what we did: We acknowledged that it is a fact that he could benefit from writing a good intro speech. We acknowledged that he had strong feelings of fear and shame when networking.

We tapped away the fears and shame and limiting beliefs and here’s what happened: He went to a networking event the next day and had fun! He still didn’t have a good intro speech, but he wasn’t concerned about it. He was able to connect with people anyway, which is the whole point of networking.

So the fact that he needed a good speech didn’t change. But we untangled it from the feelings. Now Ben has the confidence that with some focused effort, he can craft a good speech. And it’s still a fact that when he does, his networking will probably produce better results.

Don’t Forget To Check

Self-blame about an issue can be easily overlooked. But it can anchor other emotions so that they’re hard to clear. So when you untangle your own knots of facts and feelings, be sure to check for that. In Ben’s case, the self-blame was strong related to his unwritten intro speech. We cleared the other feelings and beliefs more quickly by starting off with eliminating that blame.

EFT Resistance – Hard to Let Go of Your Anger?

Releasing anger can be tricky business – even with the help of EFT. Sometimes the process of letting go of resentment and frustration can get bogged down while you’re tapping. Resistance shows up and you’ve got one more thing to be irritated about. Talk about frustration!

What’s Going On?

Resistance arises out of self-defense. When you’re tapping, there’s some part of you that thinks it’s not a good idea to release the anger. Be clear that this is a subconscious part of you. On a conscious level, of course you want to release the anger or you wouldn’t be tapping on it, would you? But some hidden part is reluctant to let go.

Why Does This Happen?

If you’re tempted to blame yourself for hanging onto anger, do your best to just let that go. That self-blame only adds fuel to the fire. It’s important to remember that you’re always doing the best you can, given your experience and circumstances.

And your experience is the key to the “why” of it all. You have some good reason for holding onto that anger, according to some part of you. Granted, it might not be a logical part of you. But that’s OK.

Now What Should I Do?

Consider these options for dealing with your resistance to releasing anger:

• Explore the “why” with a practitioner or on your own. Then use EFT on the root cause of the resistance;
• Acknowledge your resistance when it shows up with anger issues. Stop tapping on the anger, and focus your EFT on the resistance; OR
• Expect resistance when tapping on anger and deal with it right up front. (This one’s my favorite.)

Whichever method you choose, clear the resistance and then go back and tap away the anger issue.

Common Reasons for Resistance with Anger

Here is a list of beliefs that often show up with anger issues. They are totally tappable — that is, you can use EFT to clear them. See if any of these reasons to hold onto resentment or frustration sounds familiar:

• (Someone)__________ is accountable and I don’t want to let them off the hook.
• I’m right and they’re wrong so I’m justified in being mad.
• It’s not safe to let go of this. I need to keep my anger to stay on guard so it doesn’t happen again.
• They need to change first, and then I’ll stop being mad.
• I want to make them pay for what they did. They need to suffer like I did.
• If I let go of this, something worse will show up.
• I’ve had this anger for so long, I don’t know who I’d be without it.

Bonus Tip

Print out this list and look at it when you’re using EFT on anger. Since resistance is subconscious, it can be hard to recognize your own reasons. So use the list to prompt yourself. Just review the list at the start of your session, and if any of these reasons ring a bell, tap on them.

What do you think? Leave your comments below – love to hear from you.

EFT Interference From Hidden Anger

Has this ever happened to you when you’re doing EFT? You’re tapping away, moving out your issue just fine. Your emotional intensity is dropping fast. And suddenly it just won’t budge. You can’t seem to finish off the issue. You want to get that intensity down to a zero, but you just can’t do it.

The Answer May Be Anger

Maybe the problem is hidden anger. Anger seems to act like a magnet, holding unwanted feelings in your system. You have to release the anger to let go of the rest of the larger issue.

Anger In All Its Disguises

I’m using anger here as a general category of emotions. Maybe you don’t think much in terms of “anger.” But what about these variations: feeling annoyance, irritation, impatience, blame, self-blame,  resentment, outrage, unfairness, injustice. Do you ever have little pieces of that mixed in with other issues?

When It Hooks Other Emotions

So anger can act like a hook, hanging on to other emotions so they resist being released. Let me give you some examples of how this works.

1. Say you’re afraid of snakes. You’re using EFT on the fear, and you can feel it leaving. But the process hits a snag. If you’re annoyed at your mom for having that fear herself when you were little, that annoyance (anger) can block the release of the remaining fear.
2. Or maybe you’re tapping away physical pain. You fell on a wet floor and hurt your leg, and EFT is relieving the pain. You realize you’re mad at the store people for not cleaning up the puddle, so you’ve tapped on that anger already. But if you can’t get rid of the pain completely with your tapping, you might be blaming yourself (anger) for falling in the first place.

The Solution

The ideal thing is to quickly check with yourself at the start of any issue to see if you have any kind of anger about it. Then either tap that away with separate rounds, or include it with your other EFT.

Otherwise, whenever you hit a slowdown in your tapping, ask yourself if anger could be the roadblock. Take a minute to tap it away (it often releases very quickly), and finish off your EFT session.

Watch For This One

The biggest culprit in this category, in my experience, is self-blame. The tricky part is this: If you have a habit of scolding yourself, it might not even occur to you to look for self-blame.

One way to remind yourself to check on this is to write a note that you keep with any other EFT papers you have. 

What’s your experience with this? Leave a comment below and let us all know.

Tapping For Others -What’s The Deal?

“Do I need permission to tap for someone else?”
“I can’t stand her. Can I tap for her to change?”
“Does EFT work for remote healing?”
“Do they need to know when I’m tapping for it to work?”

These are some of the questions you’ve been asking about surrogate EFT, or tapping for someone else. The answers are a little more involved than a simple “yes” or “no.” So let’s take a look at them.

The Right And Wrong Of It

Some people are adamant that any treatment (including EFT) must be done with the permission of the recipient — like informed consent for a medical procedure.

Others say the permission thing only applies to those who CAN say yes. So that rules out unconscious people, pre-verbal babies, people with dementia, etc.

I look at it this way: If I think a good thought about someone, or meditate on goodness for them, or do my version of praying for them, I don’t ask permission. I just do it! I figure that since my intention is good, I can’t possibly harm them, so why not?

And on the flip side, do you ask permission before you think a crummy thought about someone or gossip about them? If thoughts and words have energy (which I think they do), then where’s the consent of the receiver of your negativity?

Kinda makes you go hmmmmmmm….., doesn’t it?

Tapping To Change Someone Else

Hey – good luck with that! That works about as well as any other way you try to change another person. Unless you’re a plastic surgeon, it’s not really going to happen.

A better approach is to tap on your own feelings about the person and how you respond to them. Once you clear your own unwanted emotions, think about that person again.

There’s almost always some kind of fear at the bottom of unpleasant behavior. Maybe you could surrogate tap for them on their fear, intending some healing for them.

Distance EFT

Whether remote EFT works or not is another great question to ponder. There are many testimonials to its effective use long distance on the website of EFT founder Gary Craig at www.emofree.com. Some amazing results have been reported.

In my experience, whether it works or not depends on a variety of things. And each factor carries a different weight in each circumstance. Here are some considerations:

• How strong a connection is there between the tapper and tappee (person being tapped for)?
• How skilled is the tapper?
• Is there more than one person tapping?
• How resistant to healing (consciously or subconsciously) is the tappee?

Do They Need To Know For It To Work?

There are a couple of ways to look at this question. If the tappee DOES know there’s surrogate tapping going on, maybe their added intention of healing could help it be more effective. Some would argue that their knowledge of it happening is what’s making it work.

On the other hand, maybe knowing that someone’s tapping for you could raise more subconscious resistance to healing (AKA “reversals” in EFT jargon). Possibly that could actually prevent the EFT from working.

Not a simple answer….but I warned you about that.

What Do You Think?

Have you done any surrogate tapping? Are you for it or against it? Let us all know about it and leave a comment here.

EFT For Great Medication Results

Healing comes from many sources, and they all have something to offer. Options range from herbal remedies to penicillin. From complex surgery to reflexology. From distant prayer healing to psychiatry. And of course, there’s EFT.

It’s Not An Either-Or Situation

You don’t have to choose just one thing to help yourself heal. Tapping works beautifully on its own for emotional and physical problems. But it can also help boost the effectiveness of other things.

It’s your body-mind and you’re in charge, so you can choose any combination of tools you want. Your active participation in your own healing process can’t help but speed it up.

Help Your Medications Work Better

There are different ways you can use EFT to improve the effectiveness of meds. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Start by tapping away any negative feelings about the medication. Examples: I hate to take pills. They cost so much. I should have done _____ and then I wouldn’t have to take this. I hate how it makes my mouth dry.
2. Then use EFT to reduce unwanted side effects. Tap away the belief that it has to be happen that way. Examples: a belief that your mouth must be dry when you take these pills, that your ears must ring, that you must be drowsy, etc.
3. Next, use EFT to amp up the good effects of the medication. Tap in affirmations about the great results you always get from taking your medication. Focus on the intended outcome for taking it in the first place. Example: This antibiotic is working so quickly to eliminate the infection.
4. Use EFT to get your body to partner perfectly with the medication. Tap in affirmations that this is happening. The phrase “I ask my (body part) to…” is one that gets great results. Example: I ask my immune system to work perfectly with this antibiotic to release this infection.

Don’t Forget To Say Thanks

Finish off with some gratitude and appreciation affirmations. Appreciate yourself, your body, the medication, the healthcare providers who help you, your spiritual source — express your gratitude for the healing that’s happening.

This last step feels really good. Even hardcore scientists agree that it will flood your body with beneficial biochemicals.

Keep Us Posted

Give this a try and let us know about your experience with it. Come back and leave a comment.

EFT For Allergy Relief

A reader asked the other day if EFT can be used for gluten intolerance that celiacs experience. That inspired me to pass on this great tapping technique to deal with any kind of sensitivity to substances. There’s really no need to resign yourself to a lifetime of bad reactions.

EFT is the perfect tool to eliminate sensitivities and allergies. This includes reactions to foods, pets, plants, fumes — any substance that your body reacts to in a negative way. No matter what the trouble-causing substance, the approach is pretty much the same.

Where To Begin

First, ask yourself when the allergy or sensitivity first appeared. Then ask if anything traumatic occurred in your life around that time — or within the few months beforehand.

If not, ask yourself if you experienced any trauma directly connected to the substance you’re sensitive to (cat scratch, choked on milk, etc.). Then use EFT to clear that trauma — either on your own, or with a practitioner. Eliminating the effects of that related event often results in the end of the allergy.

If There’s No Remembered Trauma

If nothing occurs to you in answer to those two trauma questions, try the following:

1. Place the substance or food in a container of glass, metal or pottery (not plastic or paper). For airborne allergies, place a bowl of water outside for a few hours, or wave a damp towel around in the air to collect particles. Then pour the water into a jar or put the towel in a bowl. For dust, pet hair, carpet, etc., gather a little and put it in a jar with a lid on it (or have somebody else do that for you).
2. Then hold the container in your lap (for tapping with both hands) or simply touch the container with one hand while tapping with the other. Please note: When tapping, you can refer to “the substances in this jar”, or the “stuff on this towel” – You don’t have to know what it is causing the problem to be able to clear it.

Start Using EFT

Your body responds really well to the phrase, “I ask my body to…”. So after doing your EFT set-up, tap using that phrase. For more about exactly how to do this, read more here.

After Your Session – Getting Grounded

Do you ever feel a little out of it after doing EFT? You’re down to a solid zero in emotional intensity, so you know you’re done with the issue, but you’re not quite back to present time reality?

It’s Different for Everyone

We each finish a session in our own way.  Some people feel perfectly normal. But you might be a little sleepy. Some clients say they feel “checked out.” And others feel kind of “floaty.”

That’s no problem if you have endless free time and no responsibilities. But what if you have kids who need you? What if you’ve got an appointment to get to, or work to get back to?

There Is A Solution

You’ve got options to ground yourself back in reality. Here are some to consider:

• Wait it out. You will return to normal — it’s just a matter of time. So if you’re in no hurry, this is a good choice. The tricky part of this option is that your waiting time might vary depending on how intense your session was. For some people, if they’ve cleared a really big issue they take longer to get back down to earth. I think of it in terms of the juicier the issue, the more energy you shift, and the more after-effects you may feel. But I confess — I don’t know how this works, really. I’ll leave that to the researchers.
• Do breathing exercises. First, set an intention to come back to right now. Then breathe deeply and slowly. Breathe in THIS time on THIS date, in THIS chair at THIS address in THIS city – fill in those actual details. As you breathe out, feel yourself settling in and claiming your spot right here, right now. Try doing that 7 times and then check to see how you feel. (If you’re more lightheaded, you’re breathing too fast.) If you’re not quite where you want to be, continue with 7 more breaths.
• Walk mindfully. That just means to walk with full concentration on the walking. Feel your feet hit the ground with each step. Feel your body moving as you walk. Focus on the physical sensations of the walking itself. Imagine that you’re making a deep footprint with each step. If visualizing helps you, picture your impact reaching down hundreds of feet into the earth.
• Use other practices. If you have other kinds of resources that help you, use those. I won’t go into the how-to’s, but here are some ideas: You can focus on balancing your root chakra. Ask for spiritual assistance in getting grounded. Do appropriate qi gong or yoga movements.

Take Good Care of Yourself

Just be conscious of what your own pattern is. Then do what you need to do for yourself.  You really do need to be grounded to drive. Or even to fix dinner. When you’re not fully present, it’s easy to accidentally hurt yourself by tripping, bumping into something, burning yourself, cutting yourself, or whatever.

There’s no need to suffer any of those things as a part of your EFT experience.  Tapping is for healing — right?  So make the whole thing positive by taking responsibility for yourself afterward, too.

Can you recommend another way to ground yourself?  We’d sure like to hear about it.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for other topics.  Love to hear from you any time.  Whatever you do, keep tapping!

EFT for Physical Problems

Tapping is a great way to deal with physical problems — whether it’s pain, illness or injury.  Maybe you’ve tried this and it hasn’t worked really well for you.  Or maybe it worked, but only as a temporary solution.  If you’re not satisfied with your results, here are a few things to consider.

Only a Symptom

Is your physical challenge chronic (you’ve had it for awhile) or connected to a bigger problem?  If so, you can probably get some relief with EFT.  Just tap on the pain, tension, fatigue or whatever you’re feeling right now.  Be specific about the location in your body — for instance, the back of your right shoulder.

But that relief may not last.  You might be free of the problem for a few hours, or a day, or maybe even a week.  But it may return.  That’s when you want to look further.

What’s the Core Issue?

You’ll likely get lasting relief by using EFT on the issue that physical problem is connected to.  You have a choice here.  You can contact a practitioner to help you with this — or you can work on it yourself. 

Sometimes there’s an emotional event that caused the physical problem.  Tapping on what happened may clear the problem showing up in your body.  For instance, you realize your headaches started the year you left for college.  Go back and tap on the feelings from that time and the other events surrounding your big transition.  You may be through with headaches!

And sometimes there are emotions that flared up at the time the problem started.  Those feelings caused blocks in your energy system that are hooked to the physical problem.  And they’re keeping that problem hanging around.

Say you’ve had knee pain ever since that car accident.  Go back and tap away the aspects of the wreck — the fear, the anger at the other guy, the inconvenience of doctor visits — the whole shebang.  It’s possible that you can clear the blocks that have kept your knee from healing itself.  You might never have knee pain again.

I’m Not Sure How To Do It

For some more detailed instructions, check out my article on the topic: EFT for Physical Issues.

What’s your success with physical problems and EFT? Let’s hear about it!
Do you have tapping questions I can answer or topics you’d like to know about?
Are you finding these EFT tips helpful?

I’d love to hear from you. Just leave a comment below, or shoot me an email any time. Whatever you do, keep tapping!