Are you suffering from panic attacks or prone to anxiety issues? The emotional freedom technique or EFT can be your solution. Also known as psychological acupressure, this experimental method is a novel treatment for physical pain and emotional distress that creates a balance in your energy system.
Though it is still in the nascent stage and undergoing extensive research for its high potency, EFT tapping treats anxiety and gets rid of negative thoughts, memories and emotions effectively.
The EFT Process
EFT is a powerful tool that can be used for various purposes including relief from physical pain, increased motivation, and improved overall mental health. Everyone can benefit from the Emotional Freedom Technique in some way, but it is especially helpful to those who are struggling with chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. The emotional freedom technique process involves an EFT practitioner who stimulates certain parts of the body while recalling painful memories or upsetting thoughts. These specific spots act as vital points of energy called meridians. Unlike acupuncture, where needles are inserted, the patient has to use their own fingers to apply pressure to these points gently.
It is said that by tapping on these areas and bringing awareness to negative emotions, one can conquer their negative energy and be in control.
How EFT helps with anxiety?
This alternative therapy combines both cognitive and physical elements and has been demonstrated to dispel anxiety symptoms such as excessive worrying, irritability, insomnia and lack of focus.
According to a study that looked at 5000 patients with anxiety, most patients (90%) who received tapping therapy noticed a reduction in their anxiety symptoms as opposed to 63% of the participants who received conventional cognitive behavioural therapy.
Moreover, an analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials of the emotional freedom technique for anxiety disorders found that patients with EFT treatment witnessed a significant decrease in anxiety scores.
The Science Behind EFT
Although further research is needed to discover the science behind this therapy and determine how it modifies the body’s response to anxiety, most researchers believe that it is to do with the involvement of the Amygdala. The Amygdala is a critical part of the brain that plays a pivotal role in the body’s stress and fight or flight response.
It has been discovered that EFT tapping reduces the brain wave frequencies associated with stress and anxiety and stimulates those corresponding with relaxation.
A series of studies and reports using EEGs or electro-encephalograms were used to measure brainwave changes after EFT tapping. Before the tapping therapy, when the patients recalled a traumatic memory, they exhibited chaotic brainwaves. However, after tapping, their brains revealed normal brain waves when recollecting a painful memory. These studies signify that tapping on these points changed the way the brain functioned.
EFT Taps into Electrical Impulses of your Body to Manage Negative Emotions
Besides, our bodies have a profound electrical element. Electrical messages are transmitted continuously throughout the body to govern critical functions without which it would be impossible to see, feel, hear, taste, smell, or think. These electrical systems are vital to physical and mental health and run through electrical circuits or meridians.
It is these energy points that EFT taps into and targets to improve your emotional and physical health. The basic premise of EFT therapy is that – ‘the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system’.
Just like a TV gets disrupted without a proper electrical flow when your energy system goes out of balance, it paves the way for negative emotions. Activating the key points or meridians in your body can increase information flow to the brain and influence your thoughts.
EFT Affects Stress Hormones
When your brain and body perceive a threat, it swiftly responds by going into fight or flight mode. As a result, it leads to a surge in stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to mobilize your physical resources to sustain the impending threat. The emotional freedom technique therapy is also shown to reduce cortisol levels in your body and alleviate the stress load that can diminish your physical and mental well-being.
Positive Results while Focusing on the Negative
An essential step in EFT therapy is to recollect painful memories while applying pressure to meridian points. You might be thinking why to think negative; after all, that’s exactly what gets you into trouble in the first place. However, as an old adage says – ‘What we resist, persists’; EFT helps you accept and make peace with negative emotions.
It can help you heal from past traumatic events that cause anxiety disorders by establishing a connection between the body and mind and accepting uncomfortable feelings to set up the stage for the change.
EFT Invokes Vital Energy to Suppress Panic
The emotional freedom technique is much more than tapping on the right meridian points of your body. It also involves working with your psyche to invoke memories. In doing so, the subconscious mind often stimulates the blocked energy around suppressed memories and mitigates the terrible bodily and mental symptoms that they elicit.
EFT is also about energy healing by looking at the body as an energy system and working in tandem with the human psyche to achieve a sense of harmony. When panic creeps, it’s vital to break the vicious cycle and tap it down to suppress anxiety attacks and issues.
EFT Helps with Emotional Eating
Whenever you feel down, depressed, or in a bad mood, you tend to deal with the emotions by resorting to comfort eating, binge eating, or unhealthy snacking. The dilemma with emotional eating is that it causes you to eat even if you are not hungry and eventually paves the way for unhealthy habits that can be detrimental to your lifestyle.
If you are an emotional eater, the emotional freedom technique can aid in banishing comfort food cravings for good. This can be done by tapping the appropriate meridian points with positive affirmations that enable you to control your eating habits. Focus on the positive and negative memories or emotions as you tap. After a few sequences, you can gradually reduce your bad food cravings to stabilize your body’s positive energy flow to keep unhealthy habits at bay.
To sum up, weaving the specific events of a situation with intense emotion and connecting it to a sensation in the body opens up a possibility of rewiring the brain for rapid and profound changes. This is why the emotional freedom technique is quickly emerging as a powerful tool to target the root cause of your anxiety issues and healing the natural way.
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