Increasing your effectiveness with EFT, part 130.
As we’ve discussed many times, EFT tends to work best when we get specific. The most common way of doing this is by tapping on specific events, such as a memory or an imagined future scenario related to the issue you want to work on. However, if you ever feel tired of tapping on specific events, tapping on a metaphor can be very useful too.
The idea is to come up with a metaphor that represents whatever issue or goal you want to work on. Simply ask yourself what mental image comes up when thinking about your issue or goal. It doesn’t need to be a visual image necessarily, but it often is.
For example, maybe when thinking about your finances, the metaphor that comes up is that “it used to be a lush garden, but now the garden is getting drier, looking more like a dry steppe”.
Or when thinking about your goal of completing a certain project, it feels like you are climbing a mountain with many different mountain peaks along the way, and the highest peak of the mountain seems unreachable as you keep sliding back.
When tapping on your metaphor, you can simply tap on the description of the metaphor, or you can also add how it makes you feel. For example:
“Even though I feel sad when thinking that my current financial situation feels like a once lush garden that has turned into a dry steppe, and I feel this sadness in my throat, this is just where I’m at right now”.
Or:
“Even though I feel frustrated when thinking that completing this book feels like trying to climb a mountain, but I keep sliding back, it doesn’t feel like I’m making any significant headway, and I feel this frustration in my stomach, this is just where I’m at right now”.
After each round, simply notice if there’s any difference in what you notice about the metaphor (it’s okay if there isn’t any difference) and in how it makes you feel, and update the words as needed.
If you ever notice that the emotional intensity feels overwhelmingly high when thinking about the metaphor, you can be gentle with your tapping by “zooming out” and using fewer words, as in “Even though I feel sad just thinking about this, and this is just where I’m at right now”, or doing some silent tapping.
What you might want to try is to tap on whatever metaphor comes up not just one day (one session), but maybe every day for a couple of weeks. For example, you could do only four rounds every day on however the metaphor is showing up in your mind that day. It’ll be interesting to see how it might change throughout the days, and what new ideas you might get as a result.
If you’d ever like more personalized advice on this, feel free to reach out to me.
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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 tapping on metaphors? Have you tried it before? 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.
