One of the questions most often asked by people who are new to tapping is “What words do I use?".
This is an understandable question, but it’s not a very useful one.
Newcomers are often dazzled by the linguistic abilities of their tapping teachers.
It may look like what you say is fundamental to success in EFT, but the words you use might be the least important part of the EFT protocol.
Tapping expert Gene Monterastelli elegantly describes the EFT process as:
Stimulation (tapping) plus Attention leads to Relief.
The words are there to direct you or your client’s attention to what needs to be soothed, it’s the tapping that does the work.
If you are still convinced that you need to find the exact words to get good tapping results I’d like to invite you to try this little experiment.
All you will need is a feeling and an IKEA catalogue or access to their website.
There are only 8 steps in this process:
- Think of the situation that troubles you (use a mild example) and become aware of one of the feelings that this situation provokes.
- Open the IKEA catalogue / website at a random page and choose one of their products: a piece of furniture, lighting accessory, a piece of cookware, etc.
- Use the name of the article as the name of the feeling. For example: you could imagine that your feeling is called ‘Linnmon’ (it’s a desk, just in case you are wondering).
- On the [name] scale how strong is the feeling. E.g. The ‘Linnmon’ is 8/10 in the situation I’ve chosen.
- Now tap for the feeling using the ‘IKEA name’ in place of the feeling. For example: “Even though I feel Linnmon, I deeply and completely accept myself x 3 followed” by “I feel ‘Linnmon’" as the reminder phrase.
- Check to see how strong the feeling is on the ‘Linnmon’ scale. Is it less?
- Repeat the tapping using ‘IKEA name’ for the setup and reminder phrase until the feeling has settled.
- Now check back to the original situation - what is that like now?
You will probably find that the emotional charge has diminished or disappeared even though the word you used was not related to the feeling at all (unless Linnmon is the Swedish word for your feeling).
So if it’s not the word that is making the difference what is going on. Simply have your attention on the experience of the feeling, whatever that is, and the combination of stimulation and tapping does the work.
So if you are ever stuck for the right words just open an IKEA catalogue and choose one.
“Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?” - Zen Inspiration
Important: Please remember that this approach is just a little experiment, not a universal solution to all life’s challenges. Sometimes the right words can be very useful.
Image by mastrminda from Pixabay
