by Mayan Schraders

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique is a powerful, yet simple, technique which can be used to great effect to enhance what can be learned from the recent hit-movie "The Secret".

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique has been around in this country for roughly seven years. Many people will have come across it in one form or other. It originated in the States and was developed by Gary Craig. Gary was a performance coach (and an engineer, and minister), which motivated him to look for better tools to help people achieve their goals. He trained with Dr Roger Callahan, who developed Thought Field Therapy. Both these come under the umbrella of Energy Therapies. Dr Callahan’s technique is effective, but much more complex.

EFT is a simple technique that anyone can learn to use in a matter of minutes, and that can be used for almost everything, ranging from fears and phobias, to depression, to sleep problems, to pain relief. Gary has made this technique available, free of charge, and anyone can download the user’s manual from the official EFT website. (www.emofree.com)

EFT works with our electro-magnetic energy field, just like acupuncture or acupressure. EFT utilises acupressure points - which are also common self soothing points - on the face and upper body.

Even though the technique is very simple and easy to learn there is a real art to doing this well and integrating it into whatever area you work in. Recently I have heard of massage therapists, homeopaths, GPs, wellness consultants, singing coaches and sports coaches all using EFT as an integral part of their practice. Several of my colleagues and I have been integrating this into our counselling and psychotherapy practice. It is a wonderful and very powerful tool in any trauma work, chronic illnesses- whether physical or mental/emotional - depression and addictions, to name but a few. I have been working with EFT for 6 years now and the positive impact it has had on my life has been wonderful, both personally and professionally. One of the most important gains has been that I live my life with noticeably more confidence, because I have this wonderful tool which quickly helps me to process whatever negative emotion presents itself.

The movie and the book “The Secret” have very quickly gone to the top of the bestsellers lists, both nationally and internationally. In it the Law of Attraction is explained. Very simply put: you attract into your life the things and experiences that you feel most strongly about. For instance if you hate the job you’re in with a passion, you are attracting more of the same, whether that manifests itself in the same job or in a new job which “unexpectedly” turns sour.

Conversely, if you love the work you do, you will attract more of that. As it explains in The Secret, this is a law of nature and it works indiscriminately. I imagine that for many of the readers the content of this movie was not all new. Personally, I cut my teeth on Jane Robert’s Seth books in the late seventies. However, it has been a great re-motivator for many people and a very powerful message and positive focus.

Despite its success, there are quite a number of people who have a negative experience towards The Secret and believe it doesn’t work. I know it works and I can also see why people get disheartened. The mechanics of how it works are explained in very simplistic terms. There is a lot more to it and further follow-up reading of the references quoted in the movie and the book shed more light on the depth of this law. It is simple and yet it is definitely not easy.

As soon as I saw the movie, I knew that the combination of The Secret and EFT would be unbeatable, because EFT provides us with a powerful tool for overcoming the barriers to having success with the Law of Attraction. That the Law of Attraction works became undeniably clear to me in 1985 when I was homesick for my family in the Netherlands. I could not stop myself from thinking about them, and longing for them. We did not have the funds for me to go at that time. Within two months we received an offer from our parents to pay for our airfares. We had not mentioned that we wanted to go and my mother even seemed surprised when I responded with such enthusiasm.

So what is happening when people say it doesn’t work for them? On a level they don’t have the full commitment and passion required. Consciously they think they do and that they’re doing everything they can to hold this desire positively in their mind. However, there is a flip side and subconsciously they can see the downside of attaining this goal. For instance someone might aspire to be very successful in their job and be fully committed to that outcome. But there’s a small nagging feeling which is worried that when they become very successful they will not have enough time left for their family. This powerful, but perhaps not noticed or acknowledged feeling, will put a big spanner in the works.

Often the feelings that get in the way of our 100% commitment to our goals are subconscious feelings of missing out in other areas, not being deserving of it, not being good enough (yet) or smart enough, and fears around how this success will change our lives and who we will be once we achieve this success.

In The Secret they say: “Don’t think about it, don’t even talk about that negative thought/feeling, just keep focussing on the positive”. To be honest, that just doesn’t work! This is where EFT comes in. If I, instead, acknowledge the conflicted feelings I have and tap for them so they are cleared from my energy field, I am then free to fully embrace my goals without any reservation.

In The Secret it is mentioned that our feelings are our guidance system. I totally agree. Feelings respond seven times faster than logical thought. We feel and then we think. We have, on average, 50 emotions an hour. Also, when emotions are strong we cannot access our logical thinking. Emotions flow through us, they are not meant to be blocked. EFT is the technique of choice if feelings are blocked because it’s so quick and effective. The EFT discovery statement is: The cause of all negative emotion is a disruption to the body’s energy system.

How do we know whether our feelings are blocked? If you don’t have the awareness of it, your life will mirror it back to you. If you keep trying to achieve something and you never get there, your feelings are blocked and often these blocks are caused by past experiences. To unblock these feelings that are stopping you, you need to do some work on clearing these old experiences. The Law of Attraction states that what we emotionally invest in most is what we attract more of. If your head says: “Yes I deserve”, and your heart says: “I don’t really believe that ….”, you have a conflict. Internal conflict burns up heaps of energy and until these are resolved you will not see any real progress.

Recently, I was fortunate to attend a workshop in Sydney on Attracting Abundance into your Life, using EFT. It was facilitated by Dr Carol Look, an EFT Master from New York, and Steve Wells, a very experienced EFT practitioner from Perth. This workshop focussed on exactly the type of issue I have described here: resolving those inner conflicts and busting those old beliefs (which we have taken from our past experiences) so that we attain the freedom to achieve what we most desire.

As Carol kept saying, “Abundance is a feeling”. Initially it is about having that feeling of abundance. That feeling creates a certain powerful vibration which in turn attracts more abundance to us. If you are experiencing negative emotions tap for them to clear them and then follow it up by remembering a time when you felt abundant. Remember the feeling vividly, feeling it, smelling it and that will change your whole vibration. When you feel abundant, your life in the physical world will come to mirror that. That’s the Law of Attraction.