EFT Emotional Freedom Technique Explained (My Own Practice)

This is an introduction to EFT. When I began using this technique, I found it corresponded with meridian points that stimulate various organs. Allowing our body/mind to feel supported. Especially when we are triggered and our autonomic nervous system goes into the fight flight freeze response. I explain where to tap and why we tap here. This is my own interpretation of using emotional freedom technique.

Transcript

Namaste.

I'm here today to share with you a little bit about what I have discovered from practicing EFT,

Emotional Freedom Technique.

I read this wonderful quote and unfortunately I don't know where it comes from but I heard Jack Kornfield read it out.

And he says,

Ice needs to melt before water can move and flow.

And this is how I think of EFT.

I think of the ice as the tension and EFT practice as allowing tension to soften so we can create space for healing.

And there are different points that we can use to tap on our body to create that surrender,

That space for energy to flow once again and us to come out of a dysregulated place and into a space of healing and flow and regulation once again.

So the first point we tap is the crown of the head.

And when I think about tapping the crown of the head,

I think about first orientating myself.

So as I tap the top of the head,

The first thing I do is I just look around the room as I tap and I notice that I'm safe.

I'm safe in the space that I occupy.

And then I close my eyes,

I continue to tap.

This is sending a vibration down through the brain into the pituitary gland,

Our master hormonal gland.

And it helps to set that foundation,

If you like,

For healing to occur.

I'm right here in this present moment and my intention is to bring regulation to my nervous system and to come back to wholeness.

And that's the intention I think about setting as I begin to tap the crown.

This also allows me to really consider where I'm tapping and why I'm tapping here.

I'm sending a vibration down to the limbic system of the brain.

And in here,

I imagine it like a filing cabinet where we sometimes when triggered,

That filing cabinet can open and files from our past experiences can come out and say,

Ah,

The last time this happened,

It wasn't very pleasurable.

So I'm just going to send you some warning signs to say,

Stop what you're doing.

And of course,

We can get into patterns where that's not actually happening in the present moment,

But our brain thinks it is.

So it's sending those warning signs down through the nervous system.

Our next point is to tap between the eyebrows on the forehead,

The third eye or Ajna chakra.

And again,

We're tapping into the brain.

We're also tapping on the rational part of the mind where we're saying to the brain,

Calm.

Let us rationalise what is happening here.

And in the present moment,

I'm safe.

I've just looked around.

I know that I'm safe and I'm right here and I'm doing something about it.

I'm pausing my life for my EFT practice so that I can come back to wholeness.

So we rationalise that there is another way of being rather than stress.

I can come into rest and digest.

Then we tap the inner part of the eyebrow.

I think of this as the beginning of the bladder meridian.

And when I think about the bladder,

I go back to that ice.

I'm melting the ice.

I'm allowing tension to dissolve so that I can create space for healing.

When I begin to tap on the outer eyebrow,

I'm tapping the beginning of the gallbladder area and the end of the triple heater.

So again,

I'm asking my body to calm and regulate,

Have this wonderful healthy balance so that I can feel restored and peaceful.

Then we tap underneath the eye bone,

The eye socket,

The occipital bone on the cheek.

And this is the beginning of the stomach meridian.

So this is where we start to digest information.

And we can work out what we need to support us and nourish us and then allow what waste we don't need,

What no longer serves good purpose to release from our bodies.

We have then underneath the nose on the just above the top lip.

And as we tap here,

We're stimulating almost the end of our governing vessel.

And that runs up from the perineum through the tailbone,

Up the spine,

Over the top of the head,

Over the top of the top lip,

Under the teeth and to the roof of the mouth.

Now,

As we tap here,

We're kind of giving ourselves strength and flexibility to be curious,

To come out of overwhelm.

And again,

Know that we have our own back,

That we are the change we wish to see in this world.

Then we come down to just below the bottom lip on the chin.

And as we begin to tap here,

We're stimulating almost the end of our central vessel.

So we're like zipping up.

So this is an act of protection and becoming that safe container so that we can heal ourselves.

We can hold everything that we need to hold and process what we need to process with clarity.

And we come down in line with the ear,

Just dropping off the collarbone as a little dip here.

This is the end of the kidney meridian.

And as we begin to tap here,

This is usually where I find the state of my awareness begins to change.

So we're coming into awareness.

We're beginning to open the heart.

We're beginning to come into that place of,

Oh,

Maybe there's another way.

And we're starting to flush energy through.

So we're beginning to melt and we're beginning to open our energy channels for healing to start to come into the body and circulate through our energy system.

So it's almost as though we're coming in to rest and digest and out of that freeze tension,

Fear like state.

Then we tap the thumbnail and this is the lung meridian.

And so we're breathing in life and we start to sort of regulate our breathing here.

So we can breathe in and create expansion and we can breathe out and we can create softness.

We can also think of the breath as a place of creating space on the inhalation.

And as we exhale,

We can actually feel our ribs holding us.

We can feel our body holding us from the outside in and our breath holding us from the inside out.

So it's almost I think I'm held here.

I'm being held and I'm holding myself.

I'm showing up to this practice of EFT.

I'm doing something about how I feel.

And that allows me to feel great courage.

And we tap on the first fingernail bed.

This is the part of the large intestine meridian.

This is where we eliminate waste toxins.

So we're allowing things through.

Letting go is a process.

We don't just let things go.

We have to process them and understand.

So it's giving ourselves permission to go through that process and allow what we need to understand and come to terms with to be there in their own time.

So we're allowing space for compassion and understanding.

As we tap the middle finger nail bed.

This is our pericardium.

That's the muscle around the heart.

And I see that as like a moat around a castle.

And it's again,

This wonderful sense of protection.

So I'm protecting myself.

I'm creating time and space for healing.

I'm allowing healing to happen in its own time.

Everything with love and without force.

So there's gentleness here.

There's tenderness.

As I tap the ring finger nail bed.

This is our triple heater.

This is creating the inner furnace to eliminate toxins with ease and allow us to burn through the stories of our ego and the perceptions that we hold.

The stories that we hold.

We're giving them illumination so that we can see them clearly.

And when we tell ourselves the truth,

When we say,

Yes,

I might feel sad or I might feel angry or I might be afraid and I'm OK with those feelings.

I'm not going to make them wrong.

I'm going to give them space to be here so that they can be held and witnessed and validated.

And as we validate our true feelings,

Those feelings feel held and heard and they feel safe.

We feel safe in that space.

So we're creating safety as we tap here.

As we tap on the little finger nail bed,

We have the small intestine and the heart.

So we're opening our heart.

We're coming into our true nature,

The great self.

And here we have the capacity to hold it all.

We come out of the mind where we can be confused about how we feel and we come into our true nature,

The great self,

Where we have the capacity to hold it all and view it all with kindness.

Then we tap on the side of the hand just underneath the little finger knuckle and we tap here.

And this is almost like our finishing point where we bring everything into containment and we seal that energy by saying,

I am this safe container.

I'm doing this practice for a reason.

I'm doing it to support my well-being,

My health and my happiness.

So it's very important the words that we choose,

I feel,

When we're practising.

So we can choose words like I feel overwhelmed in this moment,

But adding into that,

And I am the safe container to hold that vulnerability.

Because that's true.

We are that safe container.

Once we come out of feeling dysregulated and we become regulated again.

So nothing is permanent.

States of being can change from feeling fear and overwhelm to feeling open and happy and joyous.

So this is how I view EFT and what I've learnt from practising it myself when I've been in places of overwhelm.

And I've used things like I am safe whilst tapping on the points to bring me into a place where I can then pause.

And create room to feel my feelings without making them wrong.

So following in the next recording is an EFT practice that I have done myself,

That I've written myself to be able to bring myself down from the stress response and into a place of calm.

And then I can deal with what I need to deal with from there.

Thank you.

Reviews

Hi Sal, this was lovely. I enjoyed learning the significance behind each tapping point as I was tapping along. I really liked the ice analogy too.

Such a wonderful explanation of the points. Thank you. At the end, you mentioned the next session, where you “come down” from a stressful situation? What is the title of that? I will look for it and use it. Thank you.

Brilliant explanation. I found reall calm through this thank you

Very helpful intro to EFT. Looking forward to trying more of your talks and meditations. Thank you 🙏

Thank you, wonderful explanation 🙏

This is an easy to understand explanation of EFT. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of this approach. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with such sensitivity and warmth Sal. 🙏💕

I enjoyed the explanation of what to do and why. This helped me do and learn