Personal Power at your Fingertips

Stress. Anxiety. Guilt. Pain. Sadness. Trauma. These feelings and emotions are all part of our human existence. At times, however, one or more of these can become negative emotions and can block our ability to live life fully. We may find ourselves repeating patterns in relationships, with career choices, or with physical ailments, feeling stuck in situations that appear to be beyond our control.

We now have a simple but powerful tool that can help us regain our sense of choice over our negative emotions and recover our personal power. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT for short) allows easy release of negative emotions and turns the stuck energy into empowerment so we can freely choose what is best in our lives. After the release of the negative emotions we can be free to experience more of life's joy and happiness.

What is EFT?

EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques, is an easy yet effective method developed by Gary Craig that allows quick release of negative emotions. EFT involves tapping on certain meridian points that communicate energetic information throughout the human body while focused on the emotion we want to release.

Try EFT Now!

Take a few minutes to learn the fundamental steps of this powerful self-help tool.

Recall an experience when something happened that you felt was out of your control. What are your feelings as you think about that situation or the people involved? Name the feeling or emotional response that you have right now. If you cannot name the specific feeling, just call it "This emotion." Rate the intensity of the emotional response on a scale from zero to ten, with ten being the most intense and zero being no emotional response at all.

Perform The Setup: With the finger pads of the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand, begin tapping lightly the "Karate Chop" point of your other hand. The fleshy part on the side of the hand below the little finger is known as the Karate Chop point. While continuously tapping this point, repeat the following Setup Statement three times: "Even though I have this emotion, I deeply and completely accept myself." If you can name the emotion, then replace the word "emotion" with the specific feeling such as "anger," "guilt," or "sadness."

Physical pain or discomfort can also be treated with EFT. Simply replace the word "emotion" with a description of the problem such as "headache," " lower back pain," or "arthritis in my knee." For example, to treat my stress I repeat, "Even though I have this stress, I deeply and completely accept myself," three times while continuously tapping the Karate Chop point.

Next, perform the Tapping Sequence by tapping about five times on each point (see point chart) to rebalance your energy flow. Keep focused on the emotion or problem by repeating a Reminder Phrase similar to the Setup Statement. To release stress, I repeat, "This stress" while tapping lightly about five times on each of the following points:

EB = Beginning of the Eye Brow
SE = Side of the Eye
UE = Under the Eye
UN = Under the Nose
CH = The Chin
CB = Beginning of the Collar Bone
UA = Under the Arm
KC = Karate Chop Point

Points on either side of the body can be used, and sides can be switched during the tapping sequence.

Take a deep breath. Now focus on the emotion you were addressing. Rate the intensity of that feeling on the 0-10 scale. If you were feeling stress on a level of 5 or 6, is it still at that same level?

Next: Measuring Your Relief