Download the Personal Peace Procedure (.pdf).
The Personal Peace Procedure is an exercise for using EFT to help make peace with what happened to us in the past. It was created by EFT developer Gary Craig and is introduced as a foundational EFT application. See Level 2 – Foundational Skills in our Core Skills Library.
By making a list of specific, bothersome events from our lives and applying EFT to each specific event – we can systematically and permanently change how troubling memories continue to affect us.
Do you expend a certain level of energy coping with thoughts around a particular memory from years ago?
Is there guilt or shame around any aspect of your past?
Do you keep bumping into the same kinds of relationship challenges again and again in your personal or professional life?
Do you suspect that you may be escaping by using food or other substances to avoid persistent “old” feelings?
What might you be doing to yourself now based upon what happened then?
If any of these questions give you pause to think, you may be carrying stress based upon events that happened to you in the past. Imagine how much better you would feel if the stress from these events were no longer a part of your life.
Please Note: There may be fear or reluctance around approaching early troubling events. Under most circumstances, these fears can be handled as you explore this practice. However, if for any reason you do not feel safe or you are not comfortable revisiting these events on your own, please do not. Instead, ask for assistance – from a friend who knows EFT, a qualified therapist or an experienced EFT professional. As always, before beginning any exploration with EFT, you agree to take full responsibility for your emotional and physical well-being in every way.
Overview: How to Do The Personal Peace Procedure
1) The Personal Peace Procedure involves making a list of every bothersome event in your life you can think of. Even if the memories feel hazy or don’t feel very charged right now, trust there is a reason they are coming to mind. Be as specific as you can and give these negative events a short title: For example, “shamed by my teacher,” or “the bus ride home from school.”
Working Organically
If writing a list doesn’t resonate with you, you can simply set an intention to be on the lookout for images, people, or other specific past events that come to mind throughout your day. At first, these specific images or events may not seem important, but write them down anyway. The fact that you thought of them suggests a need for resolution.
2) Assign an Intensity Level (on a scale of 0-10) to each specific event. For example, “shamed by my teacher, 8.”
3) Apply EFT to one of these titles per day – from every angle you can – until you can either laugh about it or you “can’t think about it anymore.”
4) After using the Personal Peace Procedure for at least a month, pay attention to your body. Are chronic conditions feeling less like a problem? How might your relationship to yourself or others have improved? Are you breathing more easily? Are you less stressed? More energized? Unless you recognize your progress, the changes you are experiencing may be so subtle they escape your notice.
Good Questions for Zeroing-in on Specific Events:
If you could live life over again, is there anything you would you prefer to skip?
Gary Craig, developer of EFT and the Personal Peace Procedure, was fond of asking this very provocative, yet highly useful question in order to bring specific past events to the surface.
If this difficult part of your life were a movie, what would the title be?
If a lot of intensity still remains, break the movie up into small scenes (5-10 seconds long) and name each scene. Apply EFT to each one separately.
Who in your life has caused you trouble or been troubling for you in some way?
Write down any specific events or memories associated with this person. If just their name brings up a charge, write it down by itself.
If you like, you can begin to see this process as your “moving on” practice. If it feels right, remind yourself that you deserve to leave the past behind you – once and for all.
Developing Your Personal Practice
When you are ready to make your list, set aside some time for your practice, then follow the steps below:
Find a private, comfortable place to write and tap
Turn off your cell phone
Set a timer if you have one, any length of time is ok
Find a notebook you that can be your Personal Peace Journal
Begin making your list of bothersome, specific events, memories or people in your life. Give each one a short title.
Look at the list you have written and pick the title that jumps out the most right now. Which is most intense? Apply EFT to it until you either laugh about it or “can’t think about it anymore.”
Apply EFT to one event per day, bringing each one as close to “0″ as it will go. If other, more intense, events pop-up – that’s ok. See if you can just be curious about whatever arises and write these events down as well, giving an Intensity Level to each.
Do approach these events in your own time and in your own way, gently tapping until the intensity is “as low as it will go.”
Before finishing for the day, write down a new number that represents where you are with this particular event now that you have finished today’s practice.
Recognizing Your Progress
As you work through the process, your days may begin to feel somehow lighter and clearer. You may even begin to feel surprisingly relieved in ways you never thought possible. Notice, for example, how your relationship with your partner or family member feels easier, even though he/she did not necessarily sign up for change. Make a note of any positive shifts in your experience. Revisit and test the remaining intensity of the issues you have already handled. When you notice how EFT has helped, you are more likely to make time to visit this process again.
When Can I Use the Personal Peace Procedure?
As homework for transforming the energy of past events that arise from sessions with a physician or therapist. Doing this can serve your healing process in surprising and positive ways
As an ongoing daily practice to bring awareness and transformation to a lifetime of limiting beliefs and emotional hang-ups. You may be surprised how this can enhance your view of yourself, reduce self-doubt, and allow a greater sense of peace and relaxation
As a way to clear any possible emotional contributors to serious illness. This may be the first time you have ever looked at the emotional events that were happening before (or because of) the onset of your symptoms and experience
As a useful way to uncover and resolve many of your core issues. By applying EFT to important past issues, you will naturally be handling any core issues or self-limiting beliefs attached to them
As a way of “doing your own inner work” that is sure to resonate with others, demonstrating a sense of what is possible when we actively and intentionally transform the energy we are bringing to our life situations
The Personal Peace Procedure is just one of many powerful EFT applications you can use on your own. To brush up on your EFT skills, download the Free EFT Manual.
