Introduction To The Emotional Freedom Techniques

Introduction to the Emotional Freedom Techniquesnby Chip EngelmannnnIt is convenient to think of ourselves as a body with parts like a car. When the parts break, we want them repaired. But the truth is, we are integrated systems of energy and matter. What we think and feel has an impact on our bodies. When we think about our neighbor Sally – who borrowed a cake pan, kept it for months, and returned it with deep scratches in the Teflon – our neck tightens up and our face gets flushed. Meanwhile, we may have neck pain, a headache, or a suppressed thyroid and, using our current medical paradigm, never associate our anger with our pain. nnThis mind-emotion-spirit-body disconnection makes taking a couple of ibuprofen for the mysterious pain a reasonable course of action.nnHowever, if we view ourselves as holistic beings whose mind-emotion-spirit-body is unified, we have a lot more power to keep our health in balance. nnTypically, the least-known factor in our health equation is our emotions. An inherent defense mechanism is to suppress our emotions when they become too hard to deal with. But these suppressed emotions don’t go away; they run in the background like a broken record, affecting both our physical body and our thought processes. In fact, they become stored in the energy field that surrounds our body. nnUnfortunately, these negative emotions have a damaging effect. If left long enough, they will deteriorate the part of the body they are associated with. Anger affects the liver and thyroid. Sadness affects the pancreas, etc. These emotions leak out into our consciousness and color our life experience. nnEFT, or the Emotional Freedom Techniques, are a system of using acupuncture points along the body’s energy meridians to “release” these emotions. EFT does not use needles. The person taps on the points with their fingers while focusing on an aspect of their being that they want to balance. nnA negative emotion is like a short circuit in our bio-field, where two wires are close enough to create a damaging, energetic spark. We can use EFT to balance and realign the bio-field by separating the wires so that the spark can no longer jump. The spark is not gone, per se; it simply cannot exist. Our emotions are the same way. With EFT, the power of the negative emotion is disabled, or switched offline.nnEFT is a simple technique that I encourage everyone to learn. My free, 16-page eBook, The EFT Quick-Start Method is a good place to start. EFT can be useful to the individual on a day-to-day basis for countless types of upsets and pains. A mother can use EFT to help her child through the emotions of childhood and puberty. A husband and wife can work together to improve their relationship. A person seeking a job can use EFT to calm their fears before an interview. nnGetting to the core issues that affect one’s quality of life and cause physical ailments may require the insights and mastery of an experienced EFT Practitioner. After all, the same mechanisms that shield an individual from their suppressed emotions are still in place when they attempt to use EFT to release them. The person often cannot see through their own stuff. I consider myself very good at helping people with EFT, and I think I know myself pretty well. Still, I trade sessions with someone else who can see through my emotional defenses. nnWith the help of a professional, a person may be able to release the resentment that manifests physically as arthritis. They may be able to untangle the anger that eats away at them in the form of cancer. They may be able to remember and “disarm” a war experience without having a panic attack. They may be able release a phobia that had affected their lifestyle until now. nnIn short, anything that has an emotional component can be helped using EFT. With each emotional “broken record” you release, you win more freedom. nn© 2007 Chip Engelmann