By H. Powell
During the last holiday season, I reached the proverbial ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ dilemma when realized I simply HAD to give up eating the large quantities of chocolate and ice cream I had been regularly consuming. I was eating these items several times a week–often daily.
About 10 years ago, I began to notice a decline in my mental functioning and eyesight. I’ve read enough to know that it could be from all of the sugar that I was ingesting, but I felt powerless before my strong sugar cravings when they’d hit. Over time, I began to experience more and more confusion combined with high levels of anxiety, difficulty in making decisions, mental fatigue, and constant worrying. Thank goodness, I had not yet developed full-blown diabetes from my behavior.
Since attending an EFT workshop, I have used my own personalized version of tapping with my clients, so I know firsthand how marvelously effective it can be. Even so, I wondered if tapping on my sugar addiction could really help me. The bottom line was admitting a personal truth to myself: that maybe I didn’t really want to tap away my sugar fix.
Then I did 2 EFT tapping sessions on:
“Even though I eat too much sugar, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Nothing happened, but I have to say that my heart was not really into it. However, that minimal tapping session helped prepare the way for one night a month later, when, in a final state of desperation, I faced my strong reluctance to give up my addictive behavior.
I began tapping with the karate chop point:
“Even though I just don’t want to stop eating all the ice cream and chocolate I eat, I just don’t want to give it up, and I accept and forgive myself anyway.”
I said it vehemently, I yelled it out, I listened to every word, I felt my resistance and accepted that’s just the way it is for now.
I became fully engaged in the tapping process, including the 9 gamut technique and eye-roll, the movie technique, etc. I did several tapping rounds, but I neglected to check my SUD 0-10 intensity level number, either before or after. I simply went to bed after I finished tapping.
Since that fated night, I have passed on having desserts. What is interesting to me is when I look at all those ‘goodies’ something in me just holds me back and refuses to allow me to try them, even though I can almost taste how good they are.
During this time, I have never felt deprived–not even for a moment. I’ve been to a couple of birthday parties where I surprisingly started to eat a piece of birthday cake without thinking and immediately stopped. Maybe it was OK because cake has never been my sweet of choice, but I didn’t feel guilty or frightened for almost slipping up like I would have in the past.
My final test was a small package of jelly beans in front of me at the grocery store. I did buy them, then tried them, but I didn’t enjoy them so I naturally stopped. I didn’t consider this a lapse as the old me would have loved eating jelly beans. Without all of that regular sugar in my system, I no longer feel I am losing my mind. The persistent haze that clouded my eyesight has disappeared as well. I feel much more confident and positive about myself and my future.
EFT has become a powerful tool for me since I’ve had my own powerful experience using it to cure my sugar addiction.