The best possible way to use EFT on a daily basis

Note From Pat Carrington

Why is it that physicians find that patient compliance, even when the patient knows that the medications they are taking are doing them a lot of good, can be extremely hard to come by? Teaching in a medical school for many years I know that one of the concerns of the Department of Family Medicine has been for medical students to acquire skill in helping patients stick to their prescribed treatment. This is not an easy straightforward matter. Similarly, helping people to remember to use EFT when they need it most is not a simple matter either. Even for those of us who swear by the technique, honor it, and earnestly want to make it an important part of our lives, the tendency is to not use it when we need it the most.

The fact is that during crises, or when making urgent decisions, or at any other moment of heightened stress, we are more apt to forget to do EFT than at any other time. I have observed this repeatedly with my clients. The reason has to do with the emergency measures that our brains are programmed to follow. The frontal cortex, the reasoning part of our brains, is apt to partially shut down under stress and this leaves us prey to more primitive impulses and ways of handling things. The sense of urgency that people experience under stress is a survival tactic that has served the human race well under many circumstances, but when we feel so much urgency during an ordinary day that we cannot stop in our haste to solve whatever problem we face and introduce a quick and simple measure like tapping to bring down stress, then this survival mechanism has gone awry.

I have found that the following preventive measure can help all of us with regard to getting the most out of EFT.

I call it an "EFT Check". It is a strategy that can be used regularly each morning soon after waking up. Many people like to do it when brushing their teeth because that's something they invariably do each morning. However, it can be linked to eating breakfast, getting into your car or onto to public transportation, or to anything else that you do on a regular basis relatively early in the day.

An EFT Check is easy to do. It simply involves bringing to mind any problems that are currently bothering you. When doing the Check you ask yourself,
"What is uppermost in my mind right now that is causing at least some tension or stress? How much stress do I feel about it (on a 0 to 10 point scale)?" Then use EFT right on the spot to clear any issue that turns up.

The issue you identify when answering these questions can consist of almost anything -- something that is going wrong with your plans, a physical distress, a deadline which must be met, or whatever else may be causing tension in your life. The point is to stop as soon as you identify a troublesome issue and immediately create an EFT statement to deal with it.

Here are some examples of this strategy in action:

Suppose an important plan of yours has gone awry and the situation isn't going to pan out the way you expected it to. A useful EFT statement for this might be:

"Even though my plans have been upset, I choose to be aware of the things that are going right in my life."

Or, if you're annoyed at another person or situation, you might use:

"Even though this problem (or person) is bothering me, I choose to know exactly how to handle (him/her/it)."

Or, if you're not feeling up to par you might use:

"Even though I have this pain (distress etc.), I choose to know that it will pass (or -- I choose to obtain really helpful treatment for it)."

Statements such as the above use a positive EFT Choice at the end of the EFT statement (this is the EFT Choices Method). You can also use the EFT default statement at the end of your statement if you wish to (e.g. "I deeply and completely accept myself") or the Choices Method default statement, "I choose to be calm and confident."

The point of an EFT Check is to bring your stress level down to as close to a 0 or 1 as you can by using EFT, then ask yourself, "what else is bothering me somewhat (or a lot) today?"

This second question may well bring up other issues to tap on. If you don't have time to tap right away on your next issue I suggest you write an EFT statement for it on a 3" x 5" index card, put that into your pocket or purse, and tap on it later in the day.

Or, you may want to use the helpful method of setting up an EFT folder on your computer desktop in which you can store EFT statements you may want to use at a later time.

You could also use an all-purpose EFT phrase after you do your EFT Check. This can be particularly useful when you can't identify any particular thing that is disturbing to you and it will prepare you to have a particularly good day ahead. Here are two all-purpose preparatory statements that I like to use:

"Even though I don't know what today will bring, I choose to be calm and confident and handle whatever happens."

Or, "Even though I don't know what today will bring, I choose to use EFT successfully to handle whatever comes up."

Your EFT Check need not be done only at the beginning of your day. It can be very helpful to conduct an EFT Check just before you go to bed at night to clear lingering issues from the day, and doing an EFT check one or more times during the day can be an excellent way to bring down your stress builds-up on a particular day. When you do frequent EFT checks, you will tend to become more effective in all aspects of your life.

Actually, if there were one single thing that I would advise you to do to ensure that you use EFT with maximum benefit on a daily basis. I would recommend that you do an EFT Check. This simple device can be extremely effective in calling your attention to your need for tapping. It is likely to help you use EFT in a much more effective manner.

To Summarize the Steps

● Sit in a comfortable place and quietly bring to mind one or more issues that are concerning you.
● When you identify a troublesome issue, stop immediately and create an EFT statement to deal with it.
● Tap on this statement until you bring your stress level down as close to a 0 or 1 as you can by using EFT.
● Notice any other troublesome issues and tap them down too, now or later.
● Remember to do an EFT Check first thing in the morning, before you go to bed at night, or at any time during the day when tension starts to build up.

I hope you will decide to start the day by doing EFT for any concerns that you can identify, I know you will enjoy each day more if you do...

With warmest wishes,

Pat

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If you are not as familiar with the EFT Choices Method as you would like to be, an highly readable book on this subject (with loads of examples for different uses) is my classic EFT Choices Manual. To purchase it go to: http://store.tappingcentral.com/choicesmethod.aspx

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