Emotional Freedom Techniques

1. Emotional Freedom Techniques Tapping to Health

2. What is EFT? • It is a very simple procedure that anyone can learn and use to alleviate stress or anxiety, and all the ways those emotions manifest themselves in our lives.

3. EFT: What is it? • EFT is “like acupuncture without the needles.” • In fact, new research indicates that simply tapping on meridian points is every bit as effective at relieving symptoms in the body as acupuncture.

4. What is EFT? • Tapping can be used to address the everyday stresses, emotions, frustrations, and aches and pains that we all have. It can relieve headache pain, even migraines. It can help you fall asleep. It can enhance your performance. • Tapping is VERY good for all of that!!

5. And, it’s something so simple to use that even children can easily master it!

6. We’re Going to Give It A Try! RIGHT NOW!But first……..

7. Before we begin: • On a scale from 0 to 10: with 0 being the least possible stress, and 10 being the highest level of stress imaginable… what number would you assign to your stress level now?

9. How can Tapping Work on so Many Different Things? HEADACHES DIFFICULTY SLEEPING STRESS KNEE AND JOINT PAIN IMPROVING YOUR GOLF SCORE FEARS AND PHOBIAS Test Anxiety Fear of Public Speaking Limiting beliefs

10. How is it possible? • How can something as simple as tapping do so much to impact the body in a positive way?

11. The Miraculous Body • Think about taking a bite of food. You take that bite of food and your body immediately puts it to work in numerous ways to produce nourishment and health.

12. The Body • Can utilize the healing aspects of EFT in the same way. • We’ll be talking about exactly how EFT works as a calming mechanism within the body in just a few minutes.

13. So, The Question Is… • Do you have two minutes to invest in your own wellbeing?Because that and EFT are all you’ll need to rid yourself of the stress that can lead to illness, or to a lack of productivity, or to less happiness and joy than is possible in your life.

14. Because… • If any of those issues present a problem for us, it is because stress and anxiety define our relationship to them. • Tapping treats the anxiety.

15. How does Tapping work? • Until very recently, it was our understanding that EFT worked by removing blockages to the free flow of your body’s energy system. And, this is true. It does that.

16. How Does EFT Work? • In the same way that blood flows through your body, energy flows through you as well.

17. We ARE energy, just as everything in the universe is energy.

18. How does it work? • “The cause of ALL negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.” -Gary Craig, founder of EFT, a form of Meridian Tapping

19. The fact is: • If you never use tapping for anything beyond those things that create daily stress in your life… … it will be one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever receive. Pass it on to others, and you’ll be giving an amazing gift to them as well.

20. How does EFT Work? • In the last few years, new research on EFT has expanded our knowledge and understanding of exactly how Tapping positively impacts the body…

21. How does EFT work? • Studies on the brain reveal that tapping on specific meridian points using the EFT protocol actually sends a calming signal throughout the body, particularly to those areas where anxiety or the “fight or flight” response is being held and is causing you distress.

22. This distress can show up in your body as an emotional or physical symptom, or both.

23. Some of you may have heard of EMDR. You might be wondering how EFT is like, or not like, EMDR. Let’s answer that question right now.

24. How is EFT like, or not like, EMDR • EMDR… stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing • In 1987, Francis Shapiro discovered quite accidentally that bilateral stimulation could assist the brain in processing trauma.

25. Bilateral Stimulation • There are a number of ways to create bilateral stimulation within the brain.

26. EFT VS. EMDR Alike? Different? You might say, they are both a little “strange”, at least in the way we normally think about healing.

27. EFT and EMDR • They are quite different in how they work within the body, and yet, the results they achieve may look very much the same. • They may be thought of as spokes of the same wheel.

28. How EMDR works: • EMDR works by activating the client’s information processing system through bilateral stimulation.It involves an 8 – step process* and a trained clinician is expected to guide the process to facilitate a successful reprocessing of a traumatic event.

29. How does EMDR Work? • EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Normal information processing is resumed, so following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when a traumatic event is brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but the strong emotional charge attached to the event is dulled or removed entirely. • That sounds very much like what happens in EFT.

30. How does EMDR Work? • EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. • Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

31. How does EMDR work? • American Indians engaged naturally in bilateral stimulation as a way of processing events. • When returning from the hunt, they danced around the campfire to the beat of a drum and told their story of the adventure.

32. EFT and EMDR • EFT, on the other hand, works directly on the body’s energy system. • EMDR and EFT achieve very similar results and both have been shown to be extremely effective in the treatment of trauma, or PTSD.

33. Why EFT? • For me, the beauty of EFT is that it puts your healing in your own hands. It takes away the need for a clinician to facilitate the process. You don’t have to make an appointment and wait until the clinician is available. You can use EFT right NOW!!

34. Will tapping work for me? In order for tapping to work, you have to be WILLING to give up your symptom(s). • Not everyone is willing to give up their symptoms. • Sometimes there is secondary gain involved. • Ask yourself: Is this issue serving me in some way?

35. Giving up your symptom… • Maybe the symptom is too tied to your identity. • Who would you be without the symptom? • “If I tap on this symptom, what’s going to have to change?” Am I ready for that?

36. Ask Yourself… • Ask yourself: “What is the downside of letting go of this problem/ symptom?” • “What is the upside of holding onto it?”

37. Let’s Dig… A LITTLE DEEPER NOW into what tapping is capable of doing for you.

38. Brain Plasticity • As recently as the 1970’s we believed that after the teen years our brains were unchangeable. Research on brain plasticity has changed all that.

39. Brain Plasticity • Now we know that the brain is able to change and change rapidly. Trauma is laid down rapidly in the brain, and healing can occur just as rapidly, as it does with EFT.

40. Stress Hormones • When the body/brain suffers a trauma, or even the memory of a trauma, it releases stress hormones into the brain… adrenaline and cortisol.

41. Stress Hormones • Cortisol is referred to as “the stress hormone” because it is released in high quantities during the “flight or fight” response.

42. Cortisol Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream (like those associated with chronic stress) have been shown to have negative effects, such as: • Impaired cognitive performance • Suppressed thyroid function • Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia • Decreased bone density

43. Cortisol Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream can produce… • Decrease in muscle tissue • Higher blood pressure • Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, • slowed wound healing, and other health consequences

44. Today We Life High Stress Lives • Stress has become almost a “normal” and accepted part of our lives. • Almost universally, people acknowledge the high stress levels they live with every day.

45. Here’s Some Very Good News… Research has demonstrated that tapping is able to dramatically and quickly lower cortisol levels in the body.

46. Epigenetics • The field of epigenetics is also changing our understanding of how the body works.

47. Epigenetics • Research in the field of epigenetics shows how the functioning of a gene actually changes as a result of the environment the gene exists in. • What does that mean?

48. Epigenitics • Well, it means that a person’s emotions, thoughts, and experiences of a traumatic nature, or of a spiritual nature, etc., actually impact the functioning of their genes.

49. Dr. Bruce Lipton • Dr. Bruce Lipton is a cellular biologist and a pioneer in the field of epigenetics. His work shows scientifically how “your beliefs actually change the cells in your body”. • You can read more about it in his book, The Biology of Belief.

50. What does EFT have to do with Epigenetics? • Tapping is an excellent way to get at and release the underlying belief structures that limit us… and now we know… can actually define us at a cellular level.