How to Reduce Stress: Using Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to Make the Big Changes

"At some point, we have to stop doubling down on what isn’t working."

          Anyone who comes to a web site like mine is looking for solutions to problems that plague us all. Life is just not feeling as good as you know it should feel. It seems like it shouldn’t be this hard. For most of us, by the time we find EFT Tapping, we have tried everything. We know how temporary most fixes are and we’re excited because, for the first time, something is actually alleviating our anxiety and helping us change. With that said, nothing is a cure-all and even EFT can run into obstacles where the expected results just aren’t happening. This short article is meant to provide some perspective on anxiety and the work we do to release it.

            When we perform EFT Tapping, we move trauma out of our nervous system. Trauma, sadness, depression, stress, and anxiety are a part of life. With so many people suffering in this world, it is hard to interact with it without taking some of it on. No one escapes these feelings entirely, but some people experience more than others. EFT allows us to identify what we take on and move it out. However, many of us take on a lot more than we need to and for some of us, the massive accumulation of stress from the outside world has been put on automatic pilot. We harbor relationships that abuse us. We work in jobs where stress and misery are rewarded. We live against our truest selves in a million different ways.

            At some point in any EFT practitioner’s life, they have to make the change from tapping simply to release the present feeling of anxiety, fear, etc… to tapping for the sake of rooting out the core issues that make them choose paths that bring incessant stress into their lives. If you’re aiming for happy, most people won’t fully get there without making some major changes to how they’re living, but there are many beliefs in place that can make that change look harder than it is.

            For example, you may have a high-profile job that is draining the life out of you. You may be surrounded by abusive people in that job who wear you down in little bites, day after day. You come home feeling exhausted or hostile or depressed and you tap on those specific experiences to move the issue out of your body. But what does that mean if you simply return to that job tomorrow?

          Most people feel stuck. This is your job. You worked hard to get here. It’s paying your bills; but at what cost? I could just as easily argue that this is your life. It is disappearing by the minute. How can you afford to not move beyond whatever it is that keeps you stuck here? At some point, we have to stop doubling down on what isn’t working. I’m not saying you should rip yourself out of your livelihood and just wing it, but how might you begin to safely look in that direction? You have to deal with the core beliefs that have you convinced that you need to stay in misery.

            What is it for you? Is it a fear of not being important anymore? Is it a fear of not being able to adapt to new life? Or learn a new career? Ask yourself where you picked up those fears. What is the hidden belief underneath it? Is it that if I’m not important, I won’t be loved? Is it that I’m incapable of supporting myself in other ways? I’m not smart enough? EFT is so flexible, but you have to be willing to face yourself and ask the right questions. That is what a skilled EFT Coach is for, but there is so much you can also do on your own.

My advice to you this week is, when you are finished tapping on your current trauma, ask yourself some questions to unearth (1) what choices you made that left you vulnerable to that trauma and (2) what personal reasons and beliefs do you carry that make you feel you need to permit that situation in your life. A good way to access this is to plan walking away from that situation and listen for all the protests that come up in your mind. Ask yourself where you picked up those beliefs. What specific situations occurred to establish and strengthen those beliefs. Then tap on the traumas from those specific situations. If you can do this, you can transform EFT from an amazing band-aid to a tool of inexhaustible potential for personal transformation. It helps to work with an EFT Coach. Soon I will open courses that will help you do more of the work on your own.