Clearing your Rheumatoid Arthritis-related Allergies and Emotions with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – Part 1

Following my previous post titled ‘Muscle Testing: A Skill to Self-Test Your Rheumatoid Arthritis-Related Allergies and Emotions‘, I’ve shared with you several good tips and methods that you can apply to establish your list of allergens that aggravate your RA as part of your alternative treatment modalities.

Muscle testing allows one to access unexpected information that is stored in our subconscious mind and our energy field. Our mind holds many emotions and beliefs that no longer serve us and often contradict with our conscious desires and this negative emotions and beliefs can be cleared such that we can let them go and allow healing to happen undisrupted. Similarly, allergies that accompany our RA can be cleared in the similar manner using a technique known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

What is EFT Tapping? How Can it Help Me?
EFT, otherwise known as Tapping or Meridian Tapping, is an amalgamation of Traditional Chinese Acupressure and Modern Psychology. The original developer of this technique is Roger Callahan in the 1980s and this has been further modified and expanded upon by Gary Craig. EFT tapping is a fairly simple technique and it involves ‘tapping’ on the meridian points of our body while saying certain EFT statements.

EFT has known to help millions of people suffering from poor health and emotional baggage to relive a life of peacefulness, emotional wholesome, physical relief, joy and fulfillment, from day to day and moment to moment; by getting out of the vicious cycle of emotional trauma, chronic pain, weight loss, phobias, limiting beliefs and blocks to success, addictions and all forms of negative emotions that arose from feeling sad, depressed, anxious and unwell.

How Does EFT Tapping Work?
(Adopted from The Tapping Solution’s Introduction to Tapping Basics)

All negative emotions are felt through a disruption of the body’s energy. And physical pain and disease are intricately connected to negative emotions. Health problems create feedback – physical symptoms cause emotional distress, and unresolved emotional problems manifest themselves through physical symptoms. So, the body’s health must be approached as a whole. You cannot treat the symptoms without addressing the cause, and vice-versa.

The body, like everything in the universe, is composed of energy. Restore balance to the body’s energy, and you will mend the negative emotions and physical symptoms that stem from the energy disruption. Tapping restores the body’s energy balance, and negative emotions are conquered.

The basic technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand: a fear or anxiety, your RA condition, a stressful or unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering you. While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times each on the body’s meridian points. Tapping on these meridian points – while concentrating on accepting and resolving the negative emotion – will access your body’s energy, restoring it to a balanced state. As I mentioned in my earlier post, meridian is a specific network of channels in our body that allows energy to circulate throughout our body.

This concept comes from the doctrines of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which referred to the body’s energy as “Chi 气 ” In ancient times, the Chinese discovered 100 meridian points. They also discovered that by stimulating these meridian points, they could heal. Call it energy, call it the Source, call it life force, call it Chi… Whatever you want to call it, it works. In some ways, Tapping is similar to acupuncture. Like Tapping, acupuncture achieves healing through stimulating the body’s meridians and energy flow. However, unlike Tapping, acupuncture involves needles! “No needles” is definitely one of the advantages of Tapping.
Tapping is simple and painless. It can be learned by anyone. And you can apply it to yourself, whenever you want, wherever you are. It’s less expensive and less time consuming. It can be used with specific emotional intent towards your own unique life challenges and experiences. Most importantly, it gives you the power to heal yourself, putting control over your destiny back into your own hands.

The Accidental Discovery of Tapping – A Healing Revolution
It began in 1980, with a psychologist by the name of Roger Callahan, and a patient with an extreme phobia of water. Mary’s fear of water controlled her life and kept her from daily activities. She was unable to take her children to the beach and was unable to drive near the ocean; she grew fearful when it rained, and could not even withstand the sight of water on TV. She had vivid nightmares involving water.

Dr. Callahan and Mary had been working on this problem together for over a year. Finally, Mary worked up the courage to sit within sight of the pool at Dr. Callahan’s house. Even doing this caused Mary extreme distress, and though she found ways to cope with the intense fear and emotional pain, she did not overcome her phobia. They discussed her problem, and how to overcome it, but without success.

Her fear of being near the water caused Mary stomach pains – a common “gut reaction.” Dr. Callahan had recently been studying TCM, and learning about meridians. Suddenly he had an inspiration. Remembering that there was an acupuncture point for the stomach meridian on the cheekbone, he asked her to tap there, thinking it might cure her stomach pains.

Mary tapped her cheekbone as directed, and this little action changed medicinal history! The response seemed miraculous, to both Mary and Dr. Callahan. Her stomach pains disappeared. But even more amazingly, her phobia of water disappeared, too! She ran down to the pool and began splashing herself with water, rejoicing in her newfound freedom from fear.

Based on this discovery, Dr. Callahan began a series of investigations to develop and refine this technique, which he termed Thought Field Therapy. Gary Craig trained under Dr. Callahan’s tutelage in the 1990’s, learning the procedures for TFT. As time passed, Craig began to observe some problems with TFT, aspects that he saw were unnecessary complications.

TFT required practitioners to tap on a specific sequence of meridians (called an algorithm) for each different problem. Diagnosing the problem required a technique called muscle testing, wherein the practitioner would measure the relative strength of a muscle, while the patient explored various thoughts or statements.

Craig observed repeated scenarios in which the problem was incorrectly diagnosed or the practitioner tapped out the meridian points in the wrong order, yet the patient was still helped.. Based on these observations, he concluded that it did not matter in which order the meridian points were tapped.

Craig developed EFT as a simplified, improved version of the concepts behind Callahan’s TFT. EFT has one basic, simple sequence of points to tap, no matter what the situation.

Because of this, thousands of people have used Tapping for illnesses and to resolve emotional problems. Tapping practitioners have studied the techniques and trained to take on more complicated and difficult cases, and these dedicated practitioners report more successful applications daily. More and more people are discovering and exploring Tapping. Many are discovering how Tapping can change their lives.

The Tapping Solution Documentary
Spend 2 minutes to watch this documentary film that explores EFT, or meridian tapping, a healing tool based on the body’s subtle energy systems and meridians. This is an inspiring documentary that is going to change our view of how to rebalance and regain our emotional and physical health.

Here’s the Basic Tapping Sequence
(Adopted from The Tapping Solution’s Introduction to Tapping Basics)

As discussed, Tapping can be used for everything- try it on everything! In this example, we’ll focus on general anxiety. Try it now with this initial sequence.

Here’s how a basic Tapping sequence works:

1. Identify the problem you want to focus on. It can be general anxiety, or it can be a specific situation or issue which causes you to feel anxious.
2. Consider the problem or situation. How do you feel about it right now? Rate the intensity level of your anxiety, with zero being the lowest level of anxiety and ten being the highest.
3. Compose your set up statement. Your set up statement should acknowledge the problem you want to deal with, then follow it with an unconditional affirmation of yourself as a person.
   • “Even though I feel this anxiety, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
   • “Even though I’m anxious about my interview, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
   • “Even though I’m feeling this anxiety about my financial situation, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
   • “Even though I panic when I think about ______, I deeply and completely accept myself. “

Follow these instructions:

1. With four fingers on one hand, tap the Karate Chop point on your other hand. The Karate Chop point is on the outer edge of the hand, on the opposite side from the thumb (See picture below).
2. Repeat the set up statement three times aloud, while simultaneously tapping the Karate Chop point. Now take a deep breath!

Learn these techniques properly before we begin:

• You should use a firm but gentle pressure, as if you were drumming on the side of your desk or testing a melon for ripeness.
• You can use all four fingers, or just the first two (the index and middle fingers). Four fingers are generally used on the top of the head, the collarbone, under the arm… wider areas. On sensitive areas, like around the eyes, you can use just two.
• Tap with your fingertips, not your fingernails. The sound will be round and mellow.
• The tapping order begins at the top and works down. You can end by returning to the top of the head, to complete the loop.

Get Ready to Tap

Tap 5-7 times each on the remaining eight points in the following sequence:
Head (H)
The crown, center and top of the head. Tap with all four fingers on both hands.

Eyebrow (EB)
The inner edges of the eyebrows, closest to the bridge of the nose. Use two fingers.

Side of eye (SE)
The hard area between the eye and the temple. Use two fingers. Feel out this area gently so you don’t poke yourself in the eye!

Under eye (UE)
The hard area under the eye, that merges with the cheekbone. Use two fingers, in line beneath the pupil.

Under nose (UN)
The point centered between the bottom of the nose and the upper lip. Use two fingers.

Chin (CH)
This point follows symmetrically with the previous one, and is centered between the bottom of the lower lip and the chin.

Collarbone (CB)
Tap just below the hard ridge of your collarbone with four fingers.

Underarm (UA)
On your side, about four inches beneath the armpit. Use four fingers.

Head (H)
And back where you started, to complete the sequence.

As you tap on each point, repeat a simple reminder phrase, such as “my anxiety” or “my interview” or “my financial situation.” Tap firmly with the first two fingers on each hand.

Now take another deep breath!

• Now that you’ve completed the sequence, focus on your problem again. How intense is the anxiety now, in comparison to a few minutes ago? Give it a rating on the same number scale.
• If your anxiety is still higher than “2”, you can do another round of tapping. Keep tapping until the anxiety is gone. You can change your set up statement to take into account your efforts to fix the problem, and your desire for continued progress. “Even though I have some remaining anxiety, I deeply and completely accept myself.” “Even though I’m still a little worried about this interview, I deeply and completely accept myself.” And so on.
• Now that you’ve focused on dispelling your immediate anxiety, you can work on installing some positive feelings instead.

Note: This is a different approach than traditional “positive thinking.” You’re not being dishonest with yourself. You’re not trying to obscure the stress and anxiety inside yourself with a veneer of insincere affirmations. Rather, you’ve confronted and dealt with the anxiety and negative feelings, offering deep and complete acceptance to both your feelings and your self. Now, you’re turning your thoughts and vibrations to the powerful and positive. That’s what makes Tapping so much more effective than the “positive thinking” techniques that many of you have already tried. It’s not just a mental trick; instead, you’re using these positive phrases and tapping to tune into the very real energy of positivity, affirmation, and joy that is implicit inside you. You’re actually changing your body’s energy into a more positive flow, a more positive vibration.

Instilling Positive Affirmations:

• “I have faith in my ability to change.”
• “I am joyful about these positive changes.”
• “I am accomplishing so much.”
• “I enjoy the calm and peace that I have.”

For a clearer understanding of how to perform a correct EFT tapping, do view this instructional video on ‘How to Tap’.

My 2 Cents Worth on EFT and RA Emotions
Now that you have read, understood and viewed the suggested videos on EFT, get started right away with the tapping for your RA. If you would have already mastered muscle testing and through which determined the specific emotional blockages that accompany your RA, these MUST be resolved for true healing to take place. Emotional blockages are the deepest, non-superficial and innermost layers that must and can be lifted with EFT.

However, if you have difficulties establishing the exact blockages, fret not. Just get started. Begin with the obvious. Say, your relationship with yourself. How are you feeling that RA has been affecting your life and your relationship with yourself? Focus on the negative emotions that you wish to clear, such as, you never believe that you will ever recover again; or you cannot forgive yourself; etc. As you work on one emotion after another, it will apparent come to you on what you have to clear in terms of negative emotions or limiting beliefs regarding your RA.

As you go deeper into these work, how to be clear on what are holding you back? We are different individuals, ask yourself questions and target your tapping. Ask yourself whether there was ever a time during childhood that you were deprived of something that may have a connection with arthritis? Was there a void in your life before? What emotional trauma or stress had you encountered in your past life?

The reason that focusing on clearing an emotional blockage is very important because if an emotional blockage was not treated, it may not be possible to fully desensitize the body from the allergen. Food can have many emotional connections with it, lest that we have ever heard of; both good and bad. Strong emotional connections such as receiving bad news during a meal or viewing a tragic even while eating can subconsciously connect the food you were eating at the time of receiving bad news or viewing that tragedy. As a result, our immune system will react to the food that we were eating during that event and despite you had long forgotten about that news, your immune system however remembers it. Within your subconsciousness, your immune system is linking up that particular food to emotional negativity and react to that food consistently in the future. At the end of the day, this emotional connection of that food has become a substance our body is allergic to.

With this understanding, when we move on with more tapping works, the second part that precedes Part 1 of my EFT blog will target on EFT clearing of food allergies that almost always accompany RA. Make this a necessary component of your Rheumatoid Arthritis holistic treatments and start tapping away!