When EFT doesn’t work
EFT can work in the most extreme conditions, when many factors could be expected to interfere with its success, so there are no hard and fast rules about when and where it will work and where it won’t. But from time to time conditions do interfere. The following are common problems that are easily corrected. If you find that EFT isn’t working – you or the person you’re working with experience no change and the situation seems stuck – try these remedies.
1. There may be a problem with energy in the room, or you may be exposed to an energy toxin. Try going outside or into another room. There are many possible sources of electromagnetic interference, including fluorescent lighting. An easy way to help clear your mind and body is to go outdoors and stand for several minutes with your bare feet on bare ground, grass, sand, concrete, or rocks. The earth supplies a constant supply of free electrons, which are anti-inflammatory and help balance energy. Wearing shoes, being indoors, and riding in cars insulates us from those free electrons.
Our modern lifestyles also deprive us of full-spectrum natural light, which our endocrine systems need in order to function well. To remedy that problem, spend as much time as possible outdoors, on a screened porch, or near an open window or doorway – without wearing sunglasses, reading glasses, or contact lenses, all of which prevent the
transmission of full-spectrum light. A shady location is fine so long as your eyes have access to natural light.
In addition, being outdoors (assuming the air quality is reasonable) provides fresh air and oxygen. Take several deep breaths, really filling your lungs. Then try your Setup Phrase and tapping sequence again.
2. Maybe it’s something you ate. A few years ago I worked with a woman who had suffered major bouts of depression since age nine. When I first met her, Louella was suicidal. Tears came easily and "hopeless" seemed to be her favorite word. EFT
tapping helped, but whenever her depression lifted a little, it came right back – and this continued after we found and treated several core issues, relieving her back pain and asthma along the way.
During our sixth partially successful session, she felt better until she ate an apple.
Within minutes she was on the brink of a panic attack, her depression shot back to a 10, she acted as though she had taken a drug, and she fell asleep for several hours.
We invented a “detective diet” to establish what other foods might be causing her problem. She agreed to eat only organic foods (the apple that put her to sleep was not organically grown), eat one food at a time, and wait one hour between foods.
From the moment Louella started this detective diet, her depression began to lift, and within 24 hours it completely disappeared. She began sleeping normally, went on long hikes with friends, enjoyed dancing again, and vacationed in Spain. She learned to avoid wheat, which was the only organic food that triggered an adverse reaction. As long as she stayed away from wheat and commercially grown fruits and vegetables, she felt terrific.
Louella’s food sensitivities are not unusual. Many holistic physicians routinely recommend that their patients stop eating common allergens, like wheat and dairy products, and in many cases their health improves right away.
Many EFTers notice that when they eat certain foods, they soon feel tired, their memory declines, simple projects seem suddenly complicated, and even the simplest EFT
tapping requires exhausting effort. In fact, many forget all about EFT. Responses to
food are individual, but many experience this kind of fatigue soon after they eat sweets and simple carbohydrates.
Those familiar with Applied Kinesiology (see Appendix B, page 265-272) can use muscle testing to check for food sensitivities. There are also blood tests that diagnose sensitivities to specific foods. But one of the easiest ways to discover which foods and substances have an adverse effect on your health, disrupt your energy, and interfere with the effectiveness of EFT is to take your pulse.
Arthur Coca, MD, founder of the Journal of Immunology, was a highly regarded
research scientist in New York in the 1950s. He worked on the cutting edge of medical technology, but the discovery that brought him the most satisfaction was the least complicated. He observed that if you eat a food that agrees with you, your pulse will remain stable. If you eat one that doesn't, your pulse will increase. In his medical
practice and through the book he wrote (The Pulse Test), Dr. Coca trained thousands to monitor their diets and avoid their personal allergens. With this simple technique, he not only treated but cured all types of health problems, including serious diseases.
For details about the Pulse Test and how to use it to improve your EFT results, see Appendix B, page 262.
3. Try varying the Setup Phrase. Try switching from the Karate Chop point to the Sore Spot for your set-up phrase, or vice versa.
Also, your set-up phrase may be too general, too global. Make it more specific. Focus on a single incident or a single upsetting detail in an incident. By alternating between the Sore Spot and Karate Chop point and by focusing on the details of upsetting past events, you’ll make rapid progress. If the Acceptance Phrase is a stumbling block, use the suggestions in Chapter Four (page 50) to change it.
4. You may not know what to tap for. This is not unusual, especially for beginners. It’s hard to know what issue to choose, which detail to select, or how to address an issue once you find it. Your subconscious mind can be your ally here. Try using a Setup Phrase that invites the subconscious mind to communicate, such as:
Even though I don’t know how to use EFT for this problem, I know that my imagination will come up with an appropriate phrase.
Even though I don’t know how to define this problem, the right words will come to me without effort.
Even though I can’t think right now, I know that deep within me my clever, intelligent mind understands exactly what I hope to accomplish, and it is organizing my thoughts in the best possible way for a good outcome.
5. You may need to do more repetitions. I often say that the secrets to success with EFT are focus and perseverance. As long as you experience at least some
improvement, you are moving in the right direction. EFT practitioners and students often
report that when they felt stuck, going nowhere, but continued to tap and tap and tap – suddenly everything shifted.
6. You may be avoiding unhappy memories. Some people feel uncomfortable saying negative Setup Phrases. They’re afraid that thinking about a problem will make it worse.
This fear is actually a wonderful tapping subject. By focusing on their fear of tapping, many EFT novices have jumped straight to core issues with excellent results. Example:
I don’t want to tap on my weight problem.
There’s your opportunity! Start tapping on:
Even though I don’t want to tap on my weight problem, it makes me
uncomfortable, I’d rather not even think about it, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to think about _____________, and I definitely don’t want to remember ___________.
Let your mind fill in the blanks. Unhappy memories are what make EFT work. Welcome those unhappy memories and start tapping.
EFT is not designed to be a painful procedure. Just tap and think about an unhappy event from a distance, then move a little closer. If it begins to feel painful, back up and tap until the feeling subsides. Then continue. Thanks to EFT tapping, you won’t have to relive the experience. You can observe it from a distance without being emotionally involved. This step-by-step procedure, which we call the Tearless Trauma Technique, has freed EFTers of all ages from the shackles of painful memories while neutralizing core issues that created their pain and discomfort.
7. Try tapping more often. Try to tap at least five times a day – and more often when you think of it. Set a tapping goal, such as tapping every hour on the hour or at a certain time of day. Tap while you read this book. Find a tapping buddy, someone who can tap with you in person or on the phone, and tap with that person at every opportunity.
Recruit friends or family members to form a tapping group. Tap while you watch TV.
Tap while you walk the dog. Tap before every meal, whenever you use the bathroom, and whenever you take a bath or shower. Serious EFTers are ingenious about creating time to tap throughout the day.
8. Look for new perspectives. Always try to find a new way of looking at an old, stuck issue. Review pages 76-80, which offer different ways of describing pain. Approach your problem from new directions. Involve your imagination. Think of the problem as a play or movie and put your favorite actors in the cast. Think of it as a computer game and visualize its special effects. Go back to the Personal Peace Procedure (see page 83) and work through a dozen different issues.
9. Watch yourself in a mirror as you tap. As Carol Look notes on page 98, mirror tapping is an excellent way to discover phrases and statements that make you feel uncomfortable. For example, some are able to say “I fully and completely accept and
love myself” if they’re looking at a wall, but not if they’re looking at themselves in a mirror. Once EFT neutralizes negative emotions and you install positive emotions and affirmations in their place, mirror tapping can strengthen those positive results, making them a more powerful part of you.
10. Shout it out! If the set-up phrase isn’t getting through, you may not be saying it loudly enough. In many of my seminars, I’ve had people SHOUT their set-up phrases.
Some people do this in their cars with the radio volume turned up. Others do it in the shower. To involve your entire being in this exercise, use emphatic gestures or jump up and down. See Rex Jantze’s interesting report on this approach on pages 43-46.
11. Get some vigorous exercise. There’s a definite connection between the lymph system and the body’s energy system. When you’re sedentary, lymph doesn’t circulate, so the body’s waste removal slows down, and that interferes with not only EFT but your overall health and thought processes. Some exciting EFT results have been achieved immediately after a vigorous physical workout. Try jogging, going for a hike, swimming as fast as you can, bouncing on a rebounder (miniature trampoline), or riding a bike immediately before your next tapping session.
12. Clear your energy. Donna Eden, author of the best seller Energy Medicine and co-author (with David Feinstein and me) of The Promise of Energy Psychology, has taught thousands how to clear their energy and keep it balanced with tapping and other
exercises. See any of Donna’s books or videos for instructions.
Try all of these techniques and keep track of your results so you’ll know which strategies work best for you..
As mentioned, perseverance and repetition can be essential, both when you’re dealing with complex problems that have many aspects and as you search for core issues, examine your situation from different perspectives, and experiment with EFT. Here Cathleen Campbell describes how it took months of effort and the help of an EFT coach to work through the many layers of her disabling back pain. Was the effort worth it? Read on.