Increasing your effectiveness with EFT, part 120.
Tapping by ourselves can be very challenging for many people, including EFT practitioners. Today, I’d like to share a sustainable way to do this.
When I was finishing my Advanced Practitioner certification, one of the requirements was to do a personal case study. This involved choosing a goal or issue to work on and documenting how I used EFT. I decided to focus on increasing my enjoyment of a weekly group singing class I’d recently started.
I committed to having an EFT session by myself every day for a week. Here’s the key: to avoid being overwhelmed by perfectionism, I decided each session would consist of only six rounds of tapping. Six rounds were enough to process some emotions, as indicated by yawning and cognitive shifts, but it still felt manageable and not overwhelming.
If I had aimed for a 90-minute session or to tap until the specific event felt completely neutral, I probably wouldn’t have done any tapping at all.
Ideally, the “perfect” way to tap by ourselves is to choose a specific event related to the issue, such as a recent memory or an anticipated future scenario, and tap on all the emotional aspects until they feel neutral. However, this can often feel daunting, especially when tapping alone. We don’t know how long it will take, and I often ended up doing no tapping at all when I intended to do this.
On the other hand, being lenient about the outcome but sticking to the commitment of six rounds of tapping has made this habit much easier to sustain. Since completing that personal case study and my advanced practitioner certification, I’ve continued this habit of six rounds of tapping every day. It’s been a month since my first six-round session.
Now, I tap on whatever feels most present to me each day. Sometimes it’s about “whatever is in the way of my performance and enjoyment when singing,” and other times it’s about other areas of my life, like my career or personal relationships. I focus mostly on recent and future events.
I use a Google document to write each setup statement and reminder phrase I use each day. This provides enough structure to keep my tapping organized, unlike my previous sporadic and disorganized approach. I keep it as simple as possible. “The best exercise is the one you actually do.”
The idea is to meet ourselves exactly where we are. Sometimes we might need to tap on “Even though I don’t even want to think about this issue, this is just where I’m at right now,” or even “Even though I don’t feel like tapping right now, this is just where I’m at right now.”
If you want to try it, see if this works for you or if you need to modify it to suit your needs and preferences. Maybe it’s fewer than six rounds, or maybe you do it three times a week instead of every day. Regardless, over time, this new habit will likely lead to great results.
I’m Bruno Sade, a clinical psychologist and Certified Advanced EFT Practitioner. My approach is compassionate and tailored to your unique experiences and needs.
What do you think about this approach? I’d love to hear about your experiences. Your feedback is crucial for shaping our discussions. Please share your thoughts below or reach out to me directly.