Side Effects of Tapping

This afternoon in the supermarket, I found myself picking up a tub of Rhubarb Yoghurt. You might think that's nothing to remark on, but last week I remember turning my nose up at the same flavour. Today I found myself wondering why I'd ever had anything against Rhubarb, remembering that I quite liked Rhubarb and Apple crumble, and deciding to try it.

Why should my irrational dislike for Rhubarb suddenly disappear? Well, yesterday I tapped some significant stuff with a friend, to do with lingering feelings of sadness I feel in my eyes sometimes. I would never have expected it to have anything to do with Rhubarb, but you just can't predict these things.

Everything is connected, and goodness knows what meaning my sub-conscious mind had attributed to Rhubarb. Fortunately the side effects of EFT are by nature, bound to be beneficial, unlike those of prescription drugs for example.

A couple of attendees of my group evening workshop course last year found that they were able to quit smoking much more easily than before. We had not worked on the smoking directly, only on self esteem and confidence issues in their lives. When the triggers of their addiction were gone or reduced, they found it much easier to stop.

As I mentioned in my last post, I used to get the most terrible stinging sore throats. These have almost completely stopped now. I did tap on them a LOT directly, when I had them, but this would never get rid of them completely at the time, and they kept coming back. However, as I tapped other issues on an emotional level, I often noticed that the feeling I was tapping was a feeling of something stuck or swollen in my throat. It's likely that tapping those emotions contributed to reducing my sore throats.

One female friend of mine who shall go unnamed traced feelings of low self-esteem back to a slew of memories about starting high school, and the associated feelings of guilt and shame to do with becoming attractive to boys and starting periods. She felt better about herself immediately, but it was a month later that she reported that her breasts had clearly enlarged by one cup size, and she was having the best orgasms of her life.

One curious effect I found was tapping some angry memories of a time I banged my head in childhood. After tapping, I found myself staring at the wall, closing one eye at a time. In my right eye, the wall looked very red. In my left eye, the wall looked very green. The wall was actually white.

I realised that previously, the views through my eyes had actually been slightly coloured the other way around. So whatever I'd tapped had removed that colouring, but my brain hadn't adjusted to the new norm yet. Very strange, especially when it happens to you.

My final anecdote is from about a year ago. I wish I'd kept samples, but a client brought in examples of her handwriting that was clearly very different after we tapped some formative childhood memories. I've never put much weight on handwriting analysis or being able to read someone's personality traits precisely, but clearly aspects of our personality are reflected in every way that we express ourselves.

So - stay aware and look for any changes after tapping sessions, you never know what might happen.

Tapping the Power of Now

I've been reading the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle again and I'm able to notice negative thoughts a lot better recently. These aren't big negative beliefs rather little agitated or irritated pieces of inner dialogue; 'Why are those people always like that?', 'Why does this always happen?' So short they've usually passed by before I've had a chance to notice them. I guess once you've noticed the big issues and worked with them it's time to notice the smaller things and mop them up as well.

Eckhart suggests that you only need to acknowledge the negative thought in order to reduce its power. But I've be experimenting with tapping them and the deeper issues behind them. I see them as symptoms of underlying issues.

One of the important skills to learn is this ability to notice negative thought patterns, beliefs and emotions. It's part of what Magnus calls emotional literacy. It can be challenging because you'll often hide the things you need to work on from yourself. That's why most EFT'ers ought to work with fellow tappers to uncover issues lurking in their blind spots. In the mean time emotional literacy can be cultivated by being present in your body as Eckhart describes.

Applying the principles of the Power of Now together with EFT seems to work really well and I recommend you all try it.

Cornelis

Tapping My Cold

Thanks to Tapping, I haven't had a proper cold in a couple of years. I've had the occasional snuffles and a slightly sore throat, but nothing approaching the raging coughs and sneezes and raw, stinging sore throats I used to have several times a year.

Ha ha, until the last two weeks or so, that is. I don't know how I caught it, or if there are deeper underlying causes, but I've had a dreadful cold. My sinuses are producing impressive amounts of mucus with the result that I've found it very hard to sleep.

I took some cough medicine the other night, which cleared my sinuses and I feel asleep immediately. Then I woke up at 5am with blocked nostrils and a dry mouth due to breathing through it. I blew my nose a few times, but my nostrils remained blocked. Then I had the inspiration to tap it.

I tapped the point of most tension in my sinuses, which was about halfway up. It released, until the most tense point was a bit higher. So I tapped that. A few rounds later and I was breathing freely through both nostrils.

Since then I've been tapping my cold a fair amount, and it is progressing. What I've found in the past is that colds don't just disappear right away, but tapping does seem to accelerate their natural progress so that your body deals with them faster.

Give it a go and let me know how it works out for you!

Magnus