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Back in the late 90's Jack Canfield introduced me to a very interesting and effective technique to eliminate fear and trauma called the Callahan method. This was later called Emotional Freedom Technique or (EFT). I used it to eliminate a lot of my own fears. It’s easy to learn, has profound effects and the individual can do it for themselves with or without the help of a facilitator.
I never thought to include it in my workshops to eliminate nerves until I was giving a two-day workshop for a management group at a large national bank. I was informed that one of the participants had been recently promoted and in her new position would be giving quite a few presentations. She had never given presentations before and while she was very calm and collected in most circumstances, to the bank’s chagrin she almost passed out when she would have to deliver a formal presentation. She was placed in the class in the hopes that she would feel more confident and less nervous under pressure.
On the first day of the workshop, I saw nothing of concern. She showed no signs of nerves in front of the group. Day one was all about learning the skill sets, day two was about putting them into practice. Day two opened with a few relaxation exercises to get them ready to deliver their presentations. When I told the class that one of the VPs would be coming in to hear their presentations her body language dramatically changed. She went from being extremely poised and confident to swiveling in her chair, twisting her hair, fidgeting, sweating profusely and thinking she was going to be sick. I knew I had to do something drastic or she wasn’t going to make it. I decided to teach the class EFT.
Many of the class members looked at me like I had two heads when I walked them through the technique. I used the fear of presenting as the fear I wanted them to release. Fourteen of the sixteen participants came up to me afterward and said they no longer felt any fear around presenting. The other two asked me if it could be used for other things and I said yes. All were delighted to learn it.
The true miracle of EFT presented itself when this gal got up to deliver her presentation. She was poised, confident, powerful, persuasive and very appreciative. She said it was her greatest take away from the class. I teach it now as part of the workshop.
So what exactly is EFT? It is an acupressure technique that deals with both emotional and physical issues. By tapping with the pads of your fingertips on energy meridian points on your body, you can see a dramatic and positive shift in an emotional and/or physical problem.
Energy meridians are pathways that allow the energy to flow in our bodies. When we have blockage in one of those pathways, we experience trauma. It may begin with feeling a bit out of sorts, but over time if the energy blockage is not addressed, it can result in full-blown problems, fears, traumas, even disease.
To release the blockages in the meridians, there is a tapping sequence that you need to follow. It’s easy and you can learn it quickly and do it anywhere. It provides almost instant relief for those stressful situations we encounter on a daily basis. It isn’t necessary for you to believe the technique will work in order for it to work. The only prerequisites for using EFT are that you tell the truth, feel the truth, focus on the negative emotion while tapping to clear it, notice any internal changes before you begin tapping in your desired state. You have to be able to describe where you’re feeling the stress and give it an intensity score between 1-10 before you begin, during the tapping and when you finish. You can’t do it wrong. It really doesn’t matter what you say as long as you are following the right pressure sequence. Here’s the process.
First identify the issue. We will use fear or anxiety but it could be anything. If several issues come up at once, you only want to deal with one issue at a time. Our fear will be fear of speaking in public.
Next take a benchmark of the initial intensity you feel regarding this fear. On a scale from one to ten with ten being the worst where does your fear fall? Jot this number down so you remember where you started.
Next add the issue into the setup phrase. The setup phrase has two goals in mind. It acknowledges that there is a problem and allows us to accept ourselves lovingly despite having the problem. This setup statement will be used to begin each tapping sequence. The setup statement is: “Even though I have this _______, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.”* You can fill in the blank with anything but for now we will use “fear of public speaking” for our example.
So where does your fear of public speaking fall on that scale of one to ten? Once you give your fear of public speaking a number begin tapping on the karate chop area (flat area between the wrist and the base of the little finger) of either hand. While tapping the karate chop area say the setup statement “Even though I have this fear of public speaking, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” Tap and say this at least three times on the karate chop point. It is important that for this initial part you are dealing only with the negatives. It is the negativity that is causing the blockages you’re experiencing.
Tap in the following order:
Karate Chop Point: Between the wrist and the base of the baby finger on the outside of your hand.
Top of the head: Directly in the center of the head.
Beginning of the eyebrow: Above and to one side of the nose.
Side of the eye: On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye.
Under the eye: On the bone
Under the nose: Between the bottom of the nose and the top of your upper lip.
On the chin: Under the bottom lip in the crease.
Collarbone: Where the sternum, collarbone and first rib meet.
Under the arm: About 4 inches below the armpit. *
As I mentioned we will tap on the karate chop point with the setup phrase. Then, while going through the sequence we merely need to identify the issue with reminder phrases. Reminder phrases are short sentence fragments that key into the issue. Phrases like:
Use whatever negative word or phrase comes to mind. You can’t do it wrong. Go through the sequence again then check in to see if the intensity of the fear has diminished. Record the new level. Keep going through the sequence until the level is two or below. Then you can tap in the positive attributes you want to replace the negative fear with.
Begin at the Karate Chop point again and go through and put in what you would like to replace the negative with. For example:
This is whatever you want to achieve. Repeat this statement 3 times while tapping the karate chop point. Then use reminder phrases for the rest of the sequence. They can be anything positive that comes up such as:
Go through the sequence several more times. You’ll feel a sense of calm and relaxation come over you. This is the basic technique. If you are interested in learning more I will be interviewing Ed Kuiper an EFT facilitator on my podcast series Passionate Peak Performance for the month of July. You can listen to his podcasts on The Presentation Pros website at http://www.thepresentationpros.com/podcasts
The topic of our show discussions is “Tapping Your Way to Your Passion and Success”. In the last segment Ed will walk us through a tapping sequence to tap into our passion for greater success. You won’t want to miss these interviews. Ed is an amazing facilitator with an amazing business background and has a very generous offer for all my podcast listeners. So tune in all this month to gain a greater understanding of EFT. Learning this simple and effective technique will be life changing.
*Make sure you tune into the Passionate Peak Performance podcast series for the month of July. It is all about EFT. Ed Kuiper gives an even more extensive tapping sequence for greater success and provides a great set up phrase and the reasoning behind it. You can go to the podcast area of our site at www.thepresentationpros.com to hear Ed’s first podcast. But why not become a member so you can hear all of the podcasts in this series? It’s not only a great resource for tapping into your passion but as a member you also get personal monthly presentation critiquing. I look forward to meeting you in our online Forum and on our monthly calls.
Debbie Darling, ©2015 The Presentation Pros
Read more of The Presentation Pros blog HERE.
On the first day of the workshop, I saw nothing of concern. She showed no signs of nerves in front of the group. Day one was all about learning the skill sets, day two was about putting them into practice. Day two opened with a few relaxation exercises to get them ready to deliver their presentations. When I told the class that one of the VPs would be coming in to hear their presentations her body language dramatically changed. She went from being extremely poised and confident to swiveling in her chair, twisting her hair, fidgeting, sweating profusely and thinking she was going to be sick. I knew I had to do something drastic or she wasn’t going to make it. I decided to teach the class EFT.
Many of the class members looked at me like I had two heads when I walked them through the technique. I used the fear of presenting as the fear I wanted them to release. Fourteen of the sixteen participants came up to me afterward and said they no longer felt any fear around presenting. The other two asked me if it could be used for other things and I said yes. All were delighted to learn it.
The true miracle of EFT presented itself when this gal got up to deliver her presentation. She was poised, confident, powerful, persuasive and very appreciative. She said it was her greatest take away from the class. I teach it now as part of the workshop.
So what exactly is EFT? It is an acupressure technique that deals with both emotional and physical issues. By tapping with the pads of your fingertips on energy meridian points on your body, you can see a dramatic and positive shift in an emotional and/or physical problem.
Energy meridians are pathways that allow the energy to flow in our bodies. When we have blockage in one of those pathways, we experience trauma. It may begin with feeling a bit out of sorts, but over time if the energy blockage is not addressed, it can result in full-blown problems, fears, traumas, even disease.
To release the blockages in the meridians, there is a tapping sequence that you need to follow. It’s easy and you can learn it quickly and do it anywhere. It provides almost instant relief for those stressful situations we encounter on a daily basis. It isn’t necessary for you to believe the technique will work in order for it to work. The only prerequisites for using EFT are that you tell the truth, feel the truth, focus on the negative emotion while tapping to clear it, notice any internal changes before you begin tapping in your desired state. You have to be able to describe where you’re feeling the stress and give it an intensity score between 1-10 before you begin, during the tapping and when you finish. You can’t do it wrong. It really doesn’t matter what you say as long as you are following the right pressure sequence. Here’s the process.
First identify the issue. We will use fear or anxiety but it could be anything. If several issues come up at once, you only want to deal with one issue at a time. Our fear will be fear of speaking in public.
Next take a benchmark of the initial intensity you feel regarding this fear. On a scale from one to ten with ten being the worst where does your fear fall? Jot this number down so you remember where you started.
Next add the issue into the setup phrase. The setup phrase has two goals in mind. It acknowledges that there is a problem and allows us to accept ourselves lovingly despite having the problem. This setup statement will be used to begin each tapping sequence. The setup statement is: “Even though I have this _______, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.”* You can fill in the blank with anything but for now we will use “fear of public speaking” for our example.
So where does your fear of public speaking fall on that scale of one to ten? Once you give your fear of public speaking a number begin tapping on the karate chop area (flat area between the wrist and the base of the little finger) of either hand. While tapping the karate chop area say the setup statement “Even though I have this fear of public speaking, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” Tap and say this at least three times on the karate chop point. It is important that for this initial part you are dealing only with the negatives. It is the negativity that is causing the blockages you’re experiencing.
Tap in the following order:
Karate Chop Point: Between the wrist and the base of the baby finger on the outside of your hand.
Top of the head: Directly in the center of the head.
Beginning of the eyebrow: Above and to one side of the nose.
Side of the eye: On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye.
Under the eye: On the bone
Under the nose: Between the bottom of the nose and the top of your upper lip.
On the chin: Under the bottom lip in the crease.
Collarbone: Where the sternum, collarbone and first rib meet.
Under the arm: About 4 inches below the armpit. *
As I mentioned we will tap on the karate chop point with the setup phrase. Then, while going through the sequence we merely need to identify the issue with reminder phrases. Reminder phrases are short sentence fragments that key into the issue. Phrases like:
- Scared to death
- Fear of public speaking
- I might make a fool of myself
- I'm so afraid
- So afraid
- Scared to death
- Fear of speaking
- I’ll look like a fool
Use whatever negative word or phrase comes to mind. You can’t do it wrong. Go through the sequence again then check in to see if the intensity of the fear has diminished. Record the new level. Keep going through the sequence until the level is two or below. Then you can tap in the positive attributes you want to replace the negative fear with.
Begin at the Karate Chop point again and go through and put in what you would like to replace the negative with. For example:
- I am a brilliant speaker and have full confidence when I speak to an audience. or
- I am relaxed, balanced and centered when I speak in public.
This is whatever you want to achieve. Repeat this statement 3 times while tapping the karate chop point. Then use reminder phrases for the rest of the sequence. They can be anything positive that comes up such as:
- I’m a brilliant speaker
- I’m relaxed and balanced when speaking in public
- Credible speaker
- Fully engaged
- Full confidence when speaking in public
- Brilliant speaker
- Confident and credible when speaking in public
- Relaxed, confident and brilliant
Go through the sequence several more times. You’ll feel a sense of calm and relaxation come over you. This is the basic technique. If you are interested in learning more I will be interviewing Ed Kuiper an EFT facilitator on my podcast series Passionate Peak Performance for the month of July. You can listen to his podcasts on The Presentation Pros website at http://www.thepresentationpros.com/podcasts
The topic of our show discussions is “Tapping Your Way to Your Passion and Success”. In the last segment Ed will walk us through a tapping sequence to tap into our passion for greater success. You won’t want to miss these interviews. Ed is an amazing facilitator with an amazing business background and has a very generous offer for all my podcast listeners. So tune in all this month to gain a greater understanding of EFT. Learning this simple and effective technique will be life changing.
*Make sure you tune into the Passionate Peak Performance podcast series for the month of July. It is all about EFT. Ed Kuiper gives an even more extensive tapping sequence for greater success and provides a great set up phrase and the reasoning behind it. You can go to the podcast area of our site at www.thepresentationpros.com to hear Ed’s first podcast. But why not become a member so you can hear all of the podcasts in this series? It’s not only a great resource for tapping into your passion but as a member you also get personal monthly presentation critiquing. I look forward to meeting you in our online Forum and on our monthly calls.
Debbie Darling, ©2015 The Presentation Pros
Read more of The Presentation Pros blog HERE.
