By S. Zacharia
My EFT workshop attendee, “Victor,” was using EFT tapping for an incident and became stuck. The incident was a talk he attended where Victor could not concentrate and felt detached. We called this event the “Big Hall Event,” and we first tapped on the whole thing as one entity.
His SUD level of intensity number started at about an 8 on a scale of 0 to 10.
We tapped:
Even though I have this Big Hall Event feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself.
We carried on in this vein for a few rounds of tapping. During the workshop, Victor responded very well to EFT for issues before this exercise. However, this exercise was a challenge because there were many aspects to the Big Hall Event, and Victor could not remember most of them.
This is because memory and concentration were a big part of the problem, as were his anxiety and shame about this.
His SUD level of intensity number was going down, but only gradually. Putting emphasis on the words “I deeply accept myself” helped shift his level of intensity a little more. We even shouted that part with gusto.
We also tapped the following:
Even though I’m feeling impatient and want a resolution, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I’m only responding normally and I want to respond like Superman, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I still have this Big Hall feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Reminder Phrase:
Feeling impatient and want a resolution.
His level of intensity number gradually went down to about a 5 when we had to stop for lunch. After lunch, we worked on the Big Hall Event again using the Movie Technique. Victor recounted the event step-by-step as far as he could remember. I stopped him at one point when he said he had been feeling overwhelmed by the atmosphere in the big hall. He reported a level of intensity number of about 4 out of 10.
We tapped:
Even though I have this big hall atmosphere feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself.
We tapped a few times on this, and his SUD level reached 0. So we carried on with the movie. We reached a part when Victor was feeling detached, and anxious about feeling detached. His level of intensity was about a 5 out of 10.
We tapped:
Even though I have this detached feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I have this anxiety about feeling detached, I deeply and completely accept myself.
I believe it was at this point that his level of intensity crept up a little, back to about a 5. So I asked Victor where he felt the anxiety. It was in his solar plexus; this is where we feel our identity, self-will, and sense of being in control. If there is a problem with feeling in control or feeling that something has been taken from us, it is usually felt in the solar plexus.
Having gained the knowledge previously that Victor had experienced difficulty getting on with his stepmother, I told him that I had a hunch this was connected. He described the stepmother feeling as one of “my space being invaded” and reported feeling it in the solar plexus. I asked him to give a number to the level of intensity in his solar plexus, and thinking of his stepmother, he measured it at 5 out of 10.
We then tapped on a few stepmother aspects, which brought the solar plexus feeling to about a 2 or 3 out of 10. Since this was an exercise in a workshop, I decided to go back to the movie at this stage. Victor reported that level of intensity for the detached feeling and associated anxiety went down to about a 3 or 4.
We tapped:
Even though I have this detached feeling anxiety in my solar plexus, I deeply and completely accept myself.
This produced no further results and we were running out of time, so I could not explore further aspects.
I had recently been working on a project involving EFT and chakra colors, so it was on the forefront of my mind. I sometimes combine color with EFT by holding a colored object. The color is used to restore balance while tapping, and the solar plexus color is yellow. I found just the right shade of yellow toy bricks which we held in one hand.
We tapped with the other:
Even though I have this detached feeling of anxiety, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I need this yellow in my solar plexus, I deeply and completely accept myself.
For the Reminder Phrases, we alternated tapping:
“Detached feeling anxiety,” and
“Yellow healing in my solar plexus.”
At the under eye point, we continued tapping while I told Victor, “Just allow yellow healing to your solar plexus. Remember good things your friends say about you, all the nice comments clients give you, and all the nice things that you know about yourself. Sunshine yellow healing in your solar plexus.”
His SUD level of intensity went down to a 2. Encouraged, Victor then took out a couple of yellowish crystals that he had in his pockets. He exchanged a crystal for the yellow toy brick and we tapped as the color tapping above and his level of intensity went up to a 3 or 4 again.
To me, this was a sign that we were tapping on the wrong color, as the crystal was more orange than yellow. This probably brought out other aspects relating to a different color, in other words, aspects other than were felt in the solar plexus. We only had time for one more round, so we decided to try the toy brick again, since it was an actual yellow.
His level of intensity went down to 2 out of 10 again. We were amazed. This really brings home the importance of being specific.
In my opinion, this color booster for EFT is an extension of Chasing the Pain where we describe the feeling, such as “this anxiety in my solar plexus.” With the color addition, we are simply being more specific and describing the feeling in terms of color as well. And the color is only the catalyst needed to release the negative feeling.
We had to stop there, as it was a workshop session rather than a one-to-one. Victor attended a further workshop with me later, and it seems that the first session had paved the way for further healing related to the root causes of this issue. As a result, Victor could remember and release events from his childhood that even previous visits to a regression hypnotherapist could not yield.
And all it took was EFT and a yellow toy brick!
