Updated: Mar 30, 2022
Have you ever been so angry you felt like a volcano about to explode? What if I told you there was something simple that you could do that would help to alleviate the anger inside? I had the honor to work with Eva Hamilton this week as she explained EFT. She taught me how this technique could help to regulate your emotions and open your mind to new possibilities.
Eva, like every mom, never wanted to yell at her kids. One day, an overwhelmed mom trying to keep naptimes sacred and a strong-willed 3-year-old who wanted to keep playing at the park clashed. This confrontation brought out her inner volcano, but just as quickly regret started to overwhelm her. After the incident, the regret was replaced by feelings of being stuck and hopeless. While trying to deal with all these feelings, she heard about EFT. Not knowing very much about the topic, she decided to attend an EFT workshop. In 20 minutes of tapping during this workshop, she felt “a golden rain drizzle down inside of her feeling so peaceful inside.” As she tapped, the instructor had her repeat, “And every fiber and every cell of my body loves me.”
As Eva tells me this story, I get chills as I felt the same way. It is so hard to focus on that self-love; especially as a mom who is so busy taking care of everyone else, but in this one workshop she felt the importance of what self-love could do for you. Tapping has instilled in Eva the realization that self-love is your birthright, you are love, and you are light. Through EFT, you too can tap into the love.
Before I met Eva, I had only heard about EFT and did not really know much about it. Recently, I have been exploring different self-help techniques, and I was excited to learn how this energy healing would help. Before she went into too much detail, she wanted me to experience the process. After doing one session with Eva, I already felt lighter and saw the benefits of having a tool I could use to help regulate my emotions.
I found tapping on the outside of my hand helped to calm me at the moment, while Eva likes tapping by her collar bone as her go-to spot. I also watched a few more videos and introduced the concept to my kids. Liam used it at times and other times even if he did not want to, I would tap in front of him. I could see a little bit of calm come over him and sometimes he would start eventually tapping with me as I have used this quite a few times since learning with Eva.
You might be wondering what exactly is EFT? It stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It is a self-help tool that reduces stress and anxiety quickly. By combining principles of modern psychology (confrontation and acceptance) with Traditional Chinese Medicine in form of a sensory stimulus (Acupressure/tapping on endpoints of body meridians) you can regulate your stress response quickly and easily. You tap on areas that hit the meridian points of the body as you add in the modern psychological component of detaching emotion from memories. The meridian points which are an idea of Chinese medicine are the areas of the body where energy flows which is also used in acupuncture. This helps to keep the balance of energy flowing within your body. EFT works by regulating your stress response down when you are in a triggering moment.
Both an event currently happening or a past memory (also thought of as future, like a to-do list) can be your trigger because your brain can’t tell the difference between something happening now versus something that already happened. Increased stress is your body’s response to having or reliving a traumatic experience. If your body is in stress response, you can't think. You simply don't have access to the frontal lobe, the part of your brain responsible for creative thinking. By tapping you reduce your stress response quickly and easily, and therefore it enables you to find solutions. It gives you access to see more options to choose from on how to respond to a (once) stressful situation. Therefore, when you are experiencing stress in the body; tapping can open up your thinking to be able to respond to the action that caused your trigger instead of simply reacting to the stress you feel.
What steps are there in EFT?
1. Identify the problem you have as precisely as possible
2. Tune in to your body and determine where you feel it
3. Rate on a scale of 0-10 how intense it is for you both the problem and sensation in the
body
4. Go through the tapping sequence
· Set-up statement: Even though (Problem), I accept myself/that this is where I'm at,..
· Points to tap: the heel side of the hand, top of the head, eyebrow point, side of the eye,
under the eye, below the nose, below the lips, collarbone points, the underarm
5. Reassess and check in with the body to see how it feels, rating again from 0-10
John Freedom pointed out during the 2021 EFTi Scientific Symposium research panel discussion, that EFT effectively treats various clinical conditions, specifically anxiety, depression, pain, phobias, food, cravings, and PTSD. EFT has been proven scientifically and backed by hundreds of studies. It will work whether you believe it or not as I have also witnessed a small bit of calm come over my son as he protested saying this does not work.
EFT works by detaching the emotion attached to a situation or memory. It focuses on the negative first to take care of it. What that means is you start by stating the problem such as even though I feel guilty because I yelled at my kids today and then accepting it (it might not feel right in the beginning to say you accept it. That's ok). I accept myself and what I'm feeling in this moment. This acknowledgment gives the negative emotions space to be expressed, felt, processed, and then integrated into your system. Therefore, when the emotion is detached, the negative associations are removed separating them from the event or memory.
For example, when you used to think of yelling at your kids, you would feel a sense of guilt for losing your temper. Now EFT will give that negative feeling space, detach it from the memory, and thus you can see the situation for what it was. An overwhelmed mom trying her best and feeling compassion for yourself. If you see and use every situation that triggers you as a chance to let go of blocks inside of you (that have often been there since early childhood or longer), you will find that fewer and fewer things trigger you. This path will lead you to inner peace and a deep sense of happiness.
EFT works quickly and easily, plus, anyone can use it. You do not need experience to tap alongside someone and see the benefits. It can cause profound shifts that give you a new starting point every time you work through your emotions that have been attached to a situation or memory. No matter what you are experiencing around you, EFT gives you the option to choose to regulate your experience in a calm way, not blurting out your emotions into the world in a way that hurts other people creating a negative ripple effect. Instead, you replace that negative ripple with a positive one by being a role model for your kids, showing them how to understand their emotions.
As I said before, I really didn’t know much about EFT before working with Eva. She has shown me how easy, but powerful this tool can be. As moms who need to take care of ourselves and model behavior for our kids, this one is invaluable. This week we will dive even further into EFT on Facebook and Instagram including a session for you to tap alongside us on Friday. Comment below if you are curious to try EFT or share your experience if you have already tried it.
If you are ready to dive into learning more about EFT come to check out Eva Hamilton’s course: Emotional Freedom for Moms: How to Master Your Volcanic Emotions. This course is designed in small steps so you can follow easily follow it in only 10-15 minutes a day. This small commitment will make a huge difference in your life. Quickly learn simple techniques that everyone can master. Stop feeling overwhelmed, stay calm with your kids, find joy again, and live a happier life; no matter what's going on around you. Click here to learn more about this course.
