Ep #25: Using EFT to Ease Pain + Dissolve Limiting Beliefs

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The Uncorked Conversation

EPISODE #25

When I first discovered EFT, I thought it was weird. The blogger who introduced it to me – who I followed religiously – suddenly seemed crazy. But I was intrigued, so I gave it a try with an open mind. Today, I use EFT every day both in my life and as a coach.

This is the second episode of a 2-part series where we explore the discomfort associated with growth and how to ease through it. In ep #24 we chatted about how to identify whether the discomfort is coming from the head or the heart. In ep #25, we explore how to use EFT to flow through the discomfort.

In today’s episode we explore:

  • A technique to identify the limiting beliefs that are blocking your growth
  • How Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT, can dissolve those thoughts, and
  • How EFT eases the painful emotions the thoughts trigger.

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References & Resources:

The Uncorked Conversation Podcast with Allyson Scammell

Ep #25: Using EFT to Ease Pain + Dissolve Limiting Beliefs

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Episode number 25.

Good Day to you, Shanti Pax Nation. This episode, number 25, is part two of a two part series on the discomfort associated with natural growth. What I mean by that is evolving into a bigger, truer, more powerful version of yourself, going after those biggest goals, chasing those biggest dreams. Last week, in episode number 24, we explored the different types of discomfort associated with that growth. This week we’ll explore a technique that will provide you with relief from that discomfort. You don’t have to just go it alone and be in the discomfort. There are tools out there and people out there that want to help and want to provide support and ease.

So, what is this tool? Well, I like to tell the story that I first was introduced to this technique in around 2013 from Kris Carr. Many of you know who she is, but if you don’t, she writes about how a plant-based diet basically didn’t cure her of cancer, but it saved her life from cancer after the doctors told her that she had weeks to live.

This was like 10 years ago. She went to a totally plant–based diet and has been 100% healthy ever since.
I was a pretty big fan. I read her blogs. I watched her videos. I remember very clearly, one day she released a video about her fear of public speaking, which I was very surprised, at the time, because she was such a big personality, that she would have such a fear, and I know she was speaking in front of really big audiences. So, I was like, “Huh. That’s pretty cool that, you know …” I appreciated that she was sharing this fear, which I found very relatable. And she said, “I use this technique called emotional freedom techniques or EFT, or some people call it tapping, to help me with my very bad fear of public speaking, and it basically cures me so I’m able to go onstage in front of thousands and really bring the house down.” And I thought, “What is this amazing tool that could do that?”

She started tapping on her face with her index finger and her middle finger, and she started, whilst tapping, she was talking about her fears and the anxiety it produces, getting up in front of people, and I thought she had gone mad. I thought it was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen, and I even unsubscribed from her blog, which I had been reading religiously. But then something inside of me said, “You know what, Allison? Yes, it is weird, but maybe I should give it a try. Maybe I should give it a chance.”

So, I went back to that video, I resubscribed to her blog, and I gave it a try. In not much time, I was a firm believer in the EFTs ability to reduce my pain, reduce my stress, dissolve limiting beliefs, bring me back to a place of peace, no matter what the issue. If it’s emotional pain, physical pain, a huge trauma, a minor annoyance, it can bring me back to a calm state Since then, that was about six years ago, I’ve been on a journey with EFT. I’m now a certified accredited EFT practitioner. I’m working for my advanced certification right now, and EFT will remain in my toolkit, I know, for the rest of my life.

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about how to identify the limiting beliefs that are blocking your growth, and I’ll explain how emotional freedom techniques or EFT can help dissolve those thoughts and the pain they trigger.

So, how do we identify the limiting beliefs? The thoughts like, “I’m not good enough. I don’t have the right expertise. I am too much. The market is too saturated. My partner doesn’t support me.” Those type of thoughts. How do we first identify the limiting beliefs that are really blocking our path to achieving our biggest goals?

There is a very simple technique to get to the limiting beliefs that are serving as the largest roadblocks, and that is to simply say aloud or write down a big goal, one that truly means a lot to you, and then wait for a but. A but …

For example, I used to have as a goal, I want to be fully booked with a waiting list. So, fully booked with one on one clients, with a robust waiting list of people ready to start working with me once I had availability. I remember saying that. “I want to be fully booked with a waiting list,” and I just waited for the buts. But the market is too saturated. But sales is too hard. But it’s too hard to find clients. And I kept identifying the thoughts that felt the truest and triggered the most pain, the most fear, the most dissatisfaction, the feelings of defeat, the feelings of overwhelm, the feelings of depression. All of those things. And I did EFT on each and every thought, and I kept doing EFT until the thought no longer felt true, or it no longer triggered any sort of pain or suffering.
So, let’s now talk about exactly how it works. You said your goal, and you identified your biggest but, your biggest, “I want to do this, but that.” Let’s return to my example. I want to be fully booked with a robust waiting list, but I’m not good enough. I like to use that one because I think every human who’s ever walked the Earth has had the thought at least once. Even the Dalai Lama has probably had the thought.

What you want to do is identify three things, and there’s a million different ways you can do EFT. I’m just going to offer you one technique today, and it’s a technique that I use a lot, both in my life, and with my clients. So, I’m not good enough. Ask yourself three questions. One, what’s the thought? We have the thought.

Two, what emotions does the thought trigger? And here, I want you to be careful not to identify more thoughts, I want you to identify emotions. What I mean by that is it triggers defeat, overwhelm, sadness, depression.

Then the third question is, where am I feeling it physically in the body? When I think the thought and the negative emotions, it triggers. In the neck, tightness, shallow breathing, constriction, anxiety in the stomach, et cetera.

Then let’s go into how EFT works. What EFT is often described as is emotional acupuncture without the needles. So, you are physically tapping on acupressure points in your body, the same points that is used in say acupuncture and other energy medicine, and you are thinking about a painful thought or a painful incident or physical pain while you tap. Many of the energy medicines are founded on the principle that all pain and suffering ultimately are a result of blocked energy in the body, and if you can release that block, you will release that pain, that emotional pain, that physical pain, whatever it is, and you will get the body functioning in a more healthy, easeful way when it gets back to its natural energy flows. And that’s exactly what eft attempts to do.

How you start is you tap in rounds, and you start each round with a setup statement. There are many different setup statements that you can go with. With EFT, you always want to go with with what feels true to you in this moment. So, a classic setup statement is, “Even though I have this pain X,” so in our example, “Even though I have this belief, I am not good enough, I fully and completely love and accept myself.” Now, if that thought doesn’t feel true to you in this moment, you can dial it back to, “I’m willing to love and accept myself. I accept where I am today. I am okay.” And you say that, or a variation of that, three times in a row whilst tapping on the karate chop part of your hand. The karate chop part of your hand is right along your pinky, as if you are going to karate chop a block of woods, and that is what you want to be tapping on.

Don’t worry if you’re not catching all the points exactly. I offer a free EFT training that includes all of this information, a diagram, all the points, everything you need to know, and you can get it for free at shantipax.com/learneft. That link is also in the show notes. If you are all interested in this, I encourage you to get that free training.

Okay. So, you say your setup statement three times, and then you start your round of tapping. As you tap, you want to think of the pain, think of the limiting belief. You want to trigger the pain or discomfort or whatever it is you’re feeling while you’re tapping. Another thing I should mention, with EFT, you always want to tune into the pain. If you are feeling very calm and very relaxed, EFT is not going to have the same effect.

Now, you can do something called, “positive tapping,” that you can tap on positive thoughts that kind of help you to reinforce it, but EFT, to really ease through the pain or suffering that you’re going through, you want to first ease into that pain. One of the things I should have mentioned was before you even start tapping, you want to see exactly how intense the pain is. So, you tune into to the circumstances, the pain, the physical pain, whatever it is, the thoughts, and you rate, using your best guess, on a scale of zero to 10, zero being neutral, 10 being the worst you could possibly feel, where you are in this present moment.

Let’s say before our thought, “I’m not good enough,” we are an eight. That’s pretty high. So, you want to do your setup statement, “Even though I have this limiting belief, I’m not good enough, I fully and completely love and accept myself.” Say that three times, and then you’re going to start tapping. The first tapping point is on the inner part of the eyebrow, and you can tap with your right hand, your left hand or both. You want to tap about five to seven times per point, but it really doesn’t matter, and you don’t have to get the points exactly, as long as you get close to the points and you stimulate them. You want to tap with both your index finger and middle finger.

So, the first tapping point is on the inner part of the eyebrow. The second tapping point is on the outer side of the eye. The next one is under the eye. The next one is right under the nose, and the next is right under the mouth. And then there’s a tapping point on the chest, and you can go right in the center of the chest or slightly to the right or slightly to the left. You’ll see it done many different ways. Or you can use your palm to tap on your, kind of the entirety of your chest. The next point is under your armpit where a woman’s bra strap would go. And the last point is on top of the head.

So, if that sounds like a lot, I promise you, if you do a few rounds, it starts to become second nature very quickly. Again, you do your setup statement, and you start your rounds of tapping. While tapping, you are saying, ideally out loud, but it also can be to yourself, the pain and suffering that you’ve already identified.

So, “I’m not good enough. That’s triggering fear, sadness, disappointment, depression. I feel constricted in the chest. I feel shallow breathing. I feel tightness in my shoulders.” And you’re saying these trigger statements whilst tapping, and you do several rounds and use your intuition as to when to stop. I always take a deep breath, let it all go, and then I check in. Where am I, zero to 10?

If I’m anywhere above a three, I keep tapping until I feel about a three or below. I mean, I’m kind of to the point now where I always can get to a zero, one, two. But sometimes with clients, I can only get them down to a five, and that’s okay. Sometimes it’s just time to stop. But I really wouldn’t stop tapping if you’re anywhere a six and above.

So, my challenge to you is give EFT a try. If it seems weird, then hallelujah, all the more reason to try it. If you already know EFT, I challenge you to make it a more routine part of your week. If you do a lot of EFT, I challenge you to take it to the next level. Learn a new technique, hire an EFT practitioner.
To recap, think of a goal that means a lot to you.

Say it out loud, “I want to make a million dollars, but I’m not good enough.” There’s that thought again. Then do EFT on that thought so you identify the thought. “I’m not good enough.” Identify the pain and emotions that thought triggers. Another technique is to think of a time where you had that thought that you weren’t good enough, maybe a time from childhood, and tap on the circumstances of that experience, and then think of where you feel it physically in the body.

You have your setup statement, “Even though I have this pain, I fully and completely love and accept myself,” and do your rounds of tapping. You keep tapping until you get to about a three or below, if you can, and then you can stop.

EFT works cumulatively, so the more you do it, the more powerful it gets. I challenge you to give it a try, and I challenge you to share this episode with a few friends and give it a rating and review on iTunes or wherever it is you listen, so more people can find us. I’m so grateful for that. As always, until next time, stay uncorked.

Ready to learn how to use EFT to ease your pain and dissatisfaction? Then download my free training at shantipax.com/learneft. I take you through three videos. It gives you everything to know to make EFT a part of your everyday life. Again, that’s shantipax.com/learneft, S-H-A-N-T-I-P-A-X.COM/learneft.