I had been struggling with weight issues and used and worked through umpteen programmes, Energy Psychology ones as well, but still there were theses extra 5 – 7 pounds that seemed to be jumping back onto my body as soon as they were gone – or simply did not want to leave.

With all the EFT et al I had no issues left on body size, protection etc., but still struggled with eating for a couple of specific emotional reasons.

From the newsletter of Gwyneth Moss I learned about the Anxiety Gremlin (www.emotional-health.co.uk/articles.htm) – it was just what I needed.

First step

I turned the Anxiety Gremlin into an Overeating Gremlin and personalised it, using:

My anxiety is like a ____________. She is (was) a sleek, slinky and manipulating temptress, looking quite like one of those beautiful members of Cirque du Soleil. She used to whisper into my ears as soon as one of mainly three different unpleasant feelings seemed to creep up.

And so, using Gwyneth‘s anxiety protocol, I tapped the Karate Chop three times:

“Even though my overeating is a temptress I accept myself anyway…”

Then I went around the tapping points and described the personification of temptress in specific detail as I went.

Eye brow: sleek
Outer eye: slinky
Under eye: smooth soft voice
Under nose: undulating
Chin point: staring hypnotising eyes
Collar bone: multicoloured silky
Under arm: sensual
Liver point: hypnotising voice
Top of head: so sensual

I pictured the gremlin again and notice what had changed; She now looked a lot less colourful and almost stiff. And I tapped another round with the new description, using, “still a little ________” as I pictured her again, she actually looked quite bland and stiff, so I moved to the second step.

Second step

I described to myself the body response to the Overeating Gremlin’s whispers:

My brain/mind gets stiff, my only focus is on food, I feel tenseness in my neck and in the lower jaw; I feel defiant, my eyes become tense, staring, my breath becomes tense and short, there is a knot in the stomach.

Third Step

The Gremlin gets that response in me by whispering to me:

“oh, come on, you deserve it, who cares how you look like, it is not so bad anyway, it’s the insides that are important, do not short change yourself, only this last time, oh, come on, just one more little bit – and another one… and anyway you can drink some digestive tea later.”

I realise that she is actually an ogre in the disguise of a temptress. Now I put the steps together and tapped the karate point three times with:

“Even though the Overeating Gremlin makes my mind/brain focus only on food, my neck, jaw and eyes tense, the knot in my stomach keeps me from breathing deeply, I love and accept myself anyway…”

Eye brow: the overeating gremlin makes me focus only on food
Outer eye: by telling me it‘s not so important how I look
Under eye: that I deserve a little bite and another one
Under nose: she making my neck tense
Chin point: my eyes narrow
Collar bone: the Overeating Gremlin makes me feel defiant
Under arm: makes my breathing short and tense
Liver point: she gives me a knot in my stomach
Top of head: and that‘s how the OG does it

After the second round of tapping my breathing around the midriff has become regular and deeper even than it normally is, my shoulders have relaxed and I hadn’t even noticed that they were tense… I have a feeling that I am in control of deciding, not the temptress, what and how much to eat; I do not feel to be in her grip anymore – all the while she was beguilingly talking to me she had my neck in a firm grip with one hand; interesting I only notice it now, that it is gone.

Step Four

I repeated out loud how the Overeating Gremlin does her tempting: she tells me that I deserve to satisfy my immediate wish to eat and that it does not really make any difference, and that I can always loose weight later on, as I have done before, and I am only slightly overweight. The real truth is that I feel really very well when I eat to nourish myself instead of stuffing myself in order to “follow her temptations,” and I know that it does make a difference to my over all well being, physically, emotionally and mentally, even socially; it makes a difference to how I feel about myself.

And so, tapping the Karate Chop point:

Even though the Overeating Gremlin, the Temptress, tells me that I deserve to fulfill my desire to eat, and makes me feel that this is my own thought, the real truth is that I love to feel light, and that I feel really good when enjoy food to nourish me in just the right amount.

I also used the meridian points with the same ideas until the temptress had morphed into a combination of St. Bernard dog and Golden Retriever.

The St. Golden is soft and caring, “feeding’” me with warmth and tenderness, gets me to drink water and to go outside for long or short walks and to go and meet other people, HE is loving and encouraging…

It really works! I do not own a scale so I do not know how much I have lost in the last 10 days, but my trousers fit easier and I have not binged at all. (I have also not starved myself.) So far, whenever a situation popped up when the Overeating Gremlin would have tempted me into eating or stuffing myself, I felt a tender warmth around my shoulders and neck whispering into my ears:

I love you, you do not need this food… the best about it is that it happens automatically, I do not have to think about it.

With gratitude to all involved, starting with Gary

Christina Hurst-Prager uses EFT in combination with Craniosacral Therapy in her practice near Zurich, Switzerland.

The client’s name and identifying features have been changed to insure privacy.

Kathy came to me in total frustration. She had gained a lot of weight in the last couple of years and besides that was overwhelmed and burdened with credit card debt. She was full of frustration, anger, and hopelessness. At 30, most of her friends were married and starting to buy houses. She felt so far behind her friends financially and didn’t like how she looked, and in her words: “I feel like a loser”.

We talked about both her weight and money issues and how they were related. I suggested she choose one for us to hone in on first. She chose to tackle weight first as that was most bothersome to her.

We talked about the idea of emotional eating and specifically about her eating habits. She was very self aware in that she recognized how she was “stuffing” in her anger at life, by eating and stuffing herself with food. She noticed she ate when she was lonely or feeling “low.”

I asked her to try to remember when she first turned to food for emotional reasons; for comfort. It turns out she had a history of this since when was young. She grew up in a household where her sister got all the attention and in her words “there was never enough for me.” Her sister got the better gifts, gymnastic lessons, and everything seemed to revolve around her older sister. Her parents doted on her older sister and Kathy always felt neglected or second best.

And so she ate – when no one was looking.

I tried to get specific with Kathy asking her to recall exact childhood experiences when she felt this lack of love, this “never enough feeling.”

We tapped on quite a few specific incidents where she felt unloved. One was a Christmas when her sister got great gifts and Kathy got shortchanged with skimpy gifts. She said the disparity was laughable. Her sister got glamorous gymnastic outfits, and more expensive well-thought out gifts. Kathy remembers getting a few pieces of clothing and a pair of earrings that she didn’t like – nothing special.

So we tapped on that:

Even though I got crummy Christmas presents while my sister got great ones, and I never got enough love, there was never enough for me, I deeply and completely accept myself.

Even though I didn’t get enough love from my parents, they treated me like a second class citizen, my sister got all the loving, she got the good Christmas gifts, and all the attention, I deeply and completely accept myself.

Even though I grew up without enough love or the right kind of loving and nurturing, my sister got it all so I had to turn to food for comfort and to feel better, I deeply and completely accept myself.

Then we tapped on the body points, saying “not enough love for me.”

Kathy and I worked together for about 3 sessions, tapping on various childhood/teen memories where she felt the pain of not being loved by her parents. Then we tapped on a few other emotional issues all of which typically led her towards food for compensating what was lacking in her life.

At this point, Kathy started to simply feel better about herself. She wasn’t as discouraged and angry about her situation. She was more optimistic and the next time I saw her, she surprised me and told me she had joined a weight loss program and even had a work out buddy. She seemed happy and “light”. Her whole attitude, the energy about her was different! A few weeks later, I asked her if she felt like there was any tapping left to do on this weight issue. She expressed concern that she’d get half way through the program and then quit. As that had happened to her before.

We got specific and it turns out there were times growing up when she’d accomplish something but didn’t get the full recognition or praise she’d hope for so she starting thinking “why bother.” And she started quitting on things.

To avoid this self sabotage, we tapped on these specific memories.

As I write this, Kathy is now finished her weight loss program – she looks great, feels more energetic and is excited to continue this as a lifestyle program.

She now feels ready to focus on her money issues, although since they are closely related, she is already on her way to improvement in that area.

I always like to finish our sessions by tapping on some positive thoughts. These were the ones I chose for our last session on the weight issue:

I love eating in a healthy manner and I feel great
I am the perfect weight and I feel healthy
I have all that I need
I inspire others
I feel good and I have lots of energy
I am a confident woman and people are drawn to me
I love myself and I appreciate myself
I enjoy respecting my body by eating healthy foods

Jessie Diane Wyatt
www.holisticallyyours.org

This article is available in Spanish. Go to the Spanish translation.

I’ve tried tapping on food cravings in the past without success, but recently while tapping I had a bit of an AHA moment, which I thought I’d share in case it might be of use to anyone else.

I’m in the process of changing my diet and it is resulting in some food cravings. The first few days I couldn’t shift the cravings at all with tapping. Then a few days ago I found myself tapping in a different way and it was really effective. I realized that in the past I have been tapping basically with a whole lot of judgment. Even though I’ve been saying the “Even though I’m craving this food I deeply and completely love and accept myself,” the bottom line has been that I don’t accept myself at all – I’m judging myself big time for even having the craving.

What finally shifted the cravings (and so far they haven’t returned!) was total acceptance of the fact that I wanted the foods. I tapped with things like:

Even though I REALLY want to eat X, I give myself permission to crave this food.
Even though I SO want to eat X, I allow myself to dream about eating it.
Even though I REALLY want to eat X, I want to eat a whole bowl and then another one, I give myself permission to want to eat as much as I want.

Then I tapped through the points getting really graphic about exactly what I wanted to eat and how much. In doing so the energy shifted and I realized that the cravings were largely coming from a feeling of being deprived of the particular foods I wanted to eat. When I gave myself permission to really want and crave the foods, that part of me must have no longer felt deprived and so no longer wanted the unhealthy foods I’d been craving.

The power of “and I love and accept myself” is so great, but we really can deceive ourselves at times just saying it and not seeing the judgment we are really feeling.

Jo Hainsworth

I have just retired from many years as a school counselor. This summer has been interesting, as I am beginning to develop my EFT private business. So, in order to have exposure, I have offered to be a guest speaker and have also offered to do free sessions to develop research.

Last week I worked with a man who will be in a power lifting tournament at the end of the month. I worked with him a total of 1 1/2 hours. At the beginning he told me that he is able to lift 365 pounds, but a couple of years ago he could lift 375 pounds. His goal was to lift that amount again. For the first 30 minutes we discussed what was the “wall” that he hit regarding the amount of weight he could lift. Then I asked him questions regarding what his thoughts have been when he could press more weight a couple of years ago, but cannot now.

He said that doubt would creep into his thoughts, and the word failure would pop up. When asked when failure was an issue, he said that while trying out for a university football team, another player said that he was too small and would never make it. So we tapped on “this George statement.” We tapped for releasing “this George statement” and that George had been given too much power for too long. We tapped about 3 or 4 rounds regarding George. When asked if George’s power was still in his cells, he said that it wasn’t. Also, while tapping for doubt, I asked him if the doubt were an animal, what would it be? His response was that it would be an elephant. We tapped that down to being a baby elephant.

Then we went into the exercise room to test the results. This included his regular stretching and safety issues prior to power lifting. I also showed him the “covert” tapping sequence, in case he did not want others to be judgmental. The covert tapping that I taught him was the tapping on the upper corner of each of his fingernails. So when the other person came into the exercise room, and my client’s doubt was returning, he turned his back to the other person and whispered his words while gently pinching the corners of each of his nails. Because other people were in the room, he did use the covert method. However, after a little while, that did not seem to be an issue.

He easily power lifted the 365 pounds. He stated that the weight seemed lighter. Then we tapped for any doubt that arose. Next, he lifted 370, then we tapped more, then he lifted 375. He was so excited that he reached his goal. Next he decided to try for 380, which had not been his original goal. He was successful! At this point, I looked at my watch and noticed that our total time had been only 1 hour. For the last 1/2 hour we talked about how energy psychology works and what he needs to do for his homework.

I truly enjoy working with athletes because they are already in the mindset of success. Three days later, he was still excited and willing to aim for 400 pounds. This whole session felt like pure enjoyment to me. Work. . . what work?

Follow-up 3 weeks later:
I just wanted to give you an update regarding my article about the power lifter. He had his tournament last Saturday and on Monday I was told that he won the state championship!!! His girlfriend told him that the tapping was weird, but he said that he didn’t care, since it works so well! Yea!!!
Sincerely,
Monica Broadfoot Johnson

Monica Johnson is an educator who shares EFT in Tucson, Arizona. She offers her skills to those with peak performance goals, including athletes, sports teams, hiking clubs, physical therapists, personal trainers and schools. Her educators’ support website is www.eftgetsubetter1.com

I work every day as an EFT practitioner, and reassure my clients that EFT works. I also use hypnotherapy—the two are beautiful together. But then, sometimes, my own concerns need to be worked on, and I find myself as worried as a newcomer—will this work? What should I say? This is a medical thing—-how can it work?

As ever, we try it on everything. Most recently, I had a perfect storm of problems that pointed to a bad outcome. EFT did work, I am happy to report—though it took persistence.

Last December, I was faced with a difficult situation. Because of a serious medical condition, I had to go on a massive dose of steroids. I had tried other approaches but the condition was not improving, so steroids were necessary. It was the holiday season, the season of wonderful, high-calorie food. I had just turned 51 and my doctor had just let me know that menopause was in full swing. And now I was on heavy-duty steroids. A prescription for significant weight gain. I was terrified that I would gain twenty or more pounds. I had just lost a few pounds, and needed to lose about 10 more. I told my doctor that I intended to do just that and he basically said that it was impossible, that mostly (in almost 100% of the cases he worked with) people gained weight on steroids; they never lost weight.

So—a challenge. I decided to make this into a test of EFT. What would I do if a client came to me with this concern? And what might be possible? The story ends on a good note—I lost weight (and the steroids and other EFT work did the job of fixing the medical problem.)

Here’s how it worked.

Addressing the Fear

First, I addressed all of the fears I had, tapping on every fear and worry I had. I used language like this:

Even though I am afraid I’ll gain weight…
Even though obesity runs in my family and I’m now on steroids and I’m afraid I’ll gain weight…
Even though I’m starting menopause and women always gain weight, and now I’m on steroids so it must double the problem….
Even though my doctor believes I will gain weight…

I addressed all of the fears I had, all of the stories about weight gain with steroids, with menopause, and my fear that this was just a completely impossible situation.

I did this many times—not just once. Whenever fears came up, I addressed them, throughout the eight months I was on steroids.

Addressing the Medical Treatment

I then, every day, did a little ritual with my medication. I told my body, while tapping, that these were miracle drugs, and that we could take the miracles and leave the rest…that there was no need to take on any side effects.
I also did a little Reiki on the pills each morning before I took them, allowing them to be “blessed” with energy that I intended for healing—-without side effects.

When fear came up, I’d do a little round on that:

Even though I am afraid of the side effects, especially weight gain and sleeplessness…
Even though these are so powerful and I’m still afraid of them…I love and accept myself and I’m giving my body permission to take the miracles and leave the rest.

Doing the Footwork

I spent a lot of time online looking for “weight loss while on steroids,” and there isn’t much there. But there was one story of a woman who did lose weight while on steroids. That’s all I needed. If one other person could do it, so could I—especially since I have EFT at my fingertips. The power of suggestion, her example to me, helped lift my sense of hopefulness.

The other critically important part of the footwork was to do the calorie calculation needed to lose weight. I did that and lopped off a few more—(consult your medical doctor, please; I am not a health care professional and did what worked for me—you and your body’s needs are different from mine.). I stuck rigidly, religiously, slavishly to my nutritional program, which was a low-calorie regime. No exceptions. I was absolutely rigid on this.

Dealing with Cravings

The dirty little secret of steroids is that not only do they have the capacity for wreaking all sorts of havoc, they give you the appetite of a teenage linebacker. I was no exception. I wanted to eat everything in my path. So—I treated myself as I would an alcoholic and assigned myself a tapping routine for each time the cravings came up.

Sometimes I had time to do a whole round:

Even though I want this (name the specific food) so badly, I love and accept myself and it’s ok to let it go…
Even though I feel hungry, and this looks so good, I love and accept myself and it’s ok to have water instead
Even though I really, really want this, I’m going to be ok without it….

Sometimes I wanted to rush into the refrigerator and there seemed to be no time for a round, so I tapped on the collar point and just said “releasing this craving,” as many times as I needed to (backing out of the kitchen.)

What Happened?

Month one: Five pounds dropped off. My doctor said he had never experienced that with a patient.
Month two: Another five pounds.
Month three: Three more pounds and I was at my goal weight. Again, the doctor just said that he had never seen this before.
Month eight: Steroid usage complete and terminated. I have kept the weight off and now am back to normal.

Mindful, creative use of EFT achieved what is considered to be practically impossible, given all of the factors in my situation. I lost weight while on steroids, going through menopause, despite starting off during a high-calorie holiday time. From now on I’ll never question whether EFT works for weight loss—in my own body and in any client’s. As long as the steps I outline above are used consistently, it is very likely to work every time.

Lynne Shaner is an EFT practitioner and hypnotherapist. She is director of Praxis: Wellness in Life + Work and has a practice based in Washington DC, where she works with clients locally and by phone/skype. She can be reached at www.eftpraxis.com

Much has been written recently about the benefits of Nintendo Wii to enhance physical fitness. I have found combining EFT with the Wii personal training programmes has brought me not only physical but emotional benefits that far surpassed my expectations.

Firstly, I found exercising regularly a challenge, I would start with good intentions and then stop. So I decided I needed to set myself a goal.

How would exercise benefit me? My specific goals were to become fit enough to engage in mountain climbing and to keep up with my boys on our winter ski holidays. Both of these activities I have learnt to become proficient in by using EFT to address my specific fears, limiting beliefs, etc. My challenges, however were that physical movement would bring up many buried emotions and all of that had to be cleared to make exercise a safe experience for me. Many physical and emotional traumas are buried somatically, and clearing a belief about it being safe to move at all, with a specific core memory and its consequences on the rest of my life was necessary.

When using the Wii training programmes I noticed that when exercises involved virtual volleyball, tennis, or basketball practice, I would freeze and become uncoordinated. I was in fact being taken right back to all the miserable hours of physical education. In fact I spent all my school years trying my hardest to get out of doing gym class rather than enjoying the experience at all.

I allowed myself to be aware of the physical sensation and related memories and tapped on these until I was able to hit the shots.

I also observed that hearing my Wii personal trainer saying from time to time “Perfect job, well done” was probably about the only time I had ever heard those words related to anything physical. Tapping on the real sadness this brought up for me and to clear the energy of all the negative things that were said to me was very beneficial.

“Try harder, you’re not trying hard enough, you’re not doing that properly, we don’t want you on our team, you missed again, you’re so rubbish” So much writing on my walls!

I was delighted to observe in real terms the benefits of all of this tapping, clearing the limiting beliefs and working with the specific memories. I now have a positive voice encouraging me now when I am engaged in sports, which is a revelation to me, I have rewritten on my walls with the words of my Wii personal trainer.

However my reason for writing today is my excitement about what happened to me this week. I had not truly anticipated that the result of all this tapping would have effects on performance areas—other areas entirely—that I had not specifically addressed.

I rarely swim, as I didn’t enjoy it, tiring after a few laps and never quite managing to coordinate movements. I didn’t like it enough to try to improve. When I was invited to a spa this week I decided to stick to the sauna and Jacuzzi but was tempted by the beautiful pool, so thought I would give it a go. Can you imagine my delight when I found myself effortlessly and easily swimming length after length for nearly an hour?

Next stop a triathlon