EFT: Fact-for-all or Fad-for-all?

When it comes to self help, I really only have one main rule I live by: “As long as it doesn’t cost me a crazy amount of effort or a gazillion dollars, as long as it doesn’t come with the risk of injury or death, I am willing to try it.” If it literally can’t hurt to try, not in any physical, emotional or financial way, why the fuck not?! I mean, if you don’t have anything to lose, it’s worth a shot, right?

I heard about EFT through Gala Darling, who champions for Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) regularly on her website and in her series of Love&Sequins podcasts. Short explanation: It’s a way of tapping on your energy nerves (meridians) that can fix shit that’s going on in your mind, soul and body. From daddy issues to acne to fear to anything.

Gala herself has made amazing progress in many areas using EFT, not just in terms of emotional healing but also curing herself of asthma and eating disorder. If you want to read about it, click here and here. It explains EFT and her experiences, and I like the last link best.

I always tread carefully around these type of claims, especially when it comes to medical stuff. Despite my reputation as self help nut*, I am somewhat of a sceptic. Tapping a little on your body while saying something nice to yourself? Does that work? Even with my Law of Attraction believin’, this EFT sounded like a bunch of hooey to me at first. Which is why in all my years of fucking around with self help and spirituality, I hadn’t used it yet.

But after a couple of Reiki treatments and an increased sense of it, I do believe in energy and that it is inside us. So I wanted to see if EFT really has any effect. See, I am always willing to be proven wrong. That’s the great thing about being open-minded: You don’t have to be right.

So during my holiday in Croatia, I decided ‘to tap’. On problems, issues and such. Whenever I was feeling fat, a little nervous over driving, stressed over eating unhealthily I ‘tapped on it’. I always faithfully followed the tapping points and thought the whole verbal “Even though I think my stomach is bloated and I feel fat, I completely love, forgive and accept myself.” I didn’t do it aloud because I could only do it in the washing room buildings and I didn’t want fellow campers to start talking about the crazy big-eyed girl in the Quecha tent.

And to be honest, I didn’t notice that much. A definite tingle here and there, so maybe I was strumming my meridians almost right, but the issues did not magically disappear: I would still feel fat, stressed out. Maybe a little less because I distracted myself with tapping. There was only one time where there it seemed to be effective.

Problem is I can only sleep in tents when it’s relatively calm outside. Not with a lot of stuff going on. Those of you who are familiar with Eastern Europe might know the bora : very strong gusts of wind. Where we were, it howled. It made so much noise and made our tent move all night long.

I can’t sleep when I’m only separated by a Balkan Beat Tornoda by cloth and feel the tent shudder. It freaks me out and I stay alert, anxious and awake.  So as boyfriend (who has no such problem) slept, I was lying in our tent wide awake and getting increasingly more worked up and unsettled. Add to that the annoyance of not being able to sleep and you got yourself a Negative Emotion Cocktail.

So I tapped on it. I tapped a few rounds, lying on the air mattress telling myself “Even though these loud winds make me feel anxious and stressed out, I completely love and forgive myself. Even though all this noise keeps me from sleeping, I completely love and forgive myself. Even though I can’t relax because I’m afraid the tent is going to blow away with us in it, I completely love and forgive myself.”

And behold. aAfter the third round of tapping, something changed. I literally rolled onto my side and fell asleep within five minutes, only to wake up the next morning completely refreshed. I had felt the stress and panic flow out of my body and I just turned over to doze off.

Which means I either have to conclude that it only works when you’re really really really in the heat of horrible emotions, or I was just depleted of energy and that’s why I fell asleep: It was just too much effort to keep feeling anxious.

I’m not sure. Maybe I should try again with more tapping because I only ever did one round of anything. My current conclusion is that it doesn’t do anything amazing but who knows, it might help occasionally. I’ll try more and update another time.

In the mean time, anyone here with EFT experience? I know it sounds cookoo but I’m wondering if there are people here who can either rave or rant about it. Let me know!

*One I am not ashamed to admit I have totally claimed myself. 

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16 comments

  1. Geen ervaring mee, had er nog nooit van gehoord. Wel interessant maar ik moet eerlijk zeggen dat ik niet echt geloof dat je medische klachten kan verhelpen met je gedachten. Met je mindset kun je jezelf natuurlijk wel beter laten voelen maar serieuze dingen als astma en dergelijke, nee daar kan ik me weinig bij voorstellen.

    1. Begrijp ik, ik vind het ook moeilijk hier uitspraken over te doen. Wat je zegt inderdaad, door je mindset verlicht je jezelf misschien dus dat is dan sowieso wel fijn! 🙂

  2. I think you have to try it to see… without deciding first whether you agree or disagree with the idea of it (as you did- just trying it out in a neutral way). It works for me- not just saying positive things, but tapping as I describe negative emotions seems to neutralise them. I tried tapping on IBS and when I was really stressed at work by having too much to do, and too little time to do it all in- and I felt immediately physically and mentally better, and it lasted for weeks! I am lucky in that there’s a local group run by this guy- Andy Hunt- with a good website full of information: http://www.practicalwellbeing.co.uk/
    Glad it worked for you in your windy tent!

  3. Heei, welke podcasts heb je nog meer? Ik moet elke dag naar school fietsen (45min heen/terug) en ik ben door mijn muziek heen, dus dat is wel slim om podcasts te gaan luisteren!!

    1. Bedoel van je van L&S of naast L&S? Ik vind/vond Write The Book leuk om naar te luisteren, als je van techno houd heb je podcasts van Adam Beyer, als je House leuk vind zijn Sensation Podcasts misschien wel wat en daarnaast heb je ook nog meditatie en dergelijke. Bedoel je dat?

  4. Interessant! Ik was ook erg nieuwsgierig na het lezen van Love&Sequins, voorgenomen om het te proberen maar ben het toen eigenlijk weer vergeten. Ik heb er dus geen ervaring mee, behalve een paar keer uitproberen tijdens het kijken van youtube-filmpjes. Ik wil het nog een keer een week uitproberen!

  5. I am so glad someone else is willing to share their experiences with EFT. I have been thinking about starting to tap but haven’t let myself do it yet. I think I shall try now!

  6. What kind of reiki treatments did you have? I’m not familiar with the EFT method, but I did grow into reiki when I was young. The thing with reiki is that you really have to be open to see all that it can be, I don’t practice it much anymore, but I have experienced some pretty far -out things doing it. If you get the energy flowing, it’s pretty amazing what can happen. Maybe it’s the same with this, practicing and feeling might make the effects more prominent and noticeable.. I might try it at some point.. Or maybe I should embrace reiki more again, with all that has to offer 🙂