EFT Emotional Freedom Techniques Article
Peak Persuasion With EFT
by Silvia Hartmann
In case you haven't heard, EFT, or Emotional Freedom
Techniques, engineered by Gary Craig from Thought Field
Therapy, is the hottest thing in Personal Development today.
It is a simple technique - so simple, indeed, that young
children can learn it in a few minutes - and it only does
one single thing:
It removes emotions.
Now that might not sound so impressive at first, but
consider this:
* What stops someone from thinking clearly?
* What causes internal conflicts?
* What causes "problems with people"?
* What stops someone from being powerfully congruent in their
communications with others?
Yes - Emotions. Fear, usually, of something or other. But
there's also anger, rage even, bitter resentment,
depression, hopelessness - you name it.
Imagine for a moment you could remove these emotions - what
would you have left?
You would be set free to act and do, to think clearly and
precisely, and to be able to respond with your best mind
forward to the challenges of life.
Hence "Emotional Freedom Techniques".
If you don't know the basic EFT protocol yet, there is a
link at the end of this mail to an animation and a site that
explains it so you can go right ahead and try it for
yourself. For this article, I am going to consider the uses
of EFT in the persuasion context.
"Fear Is The Mind Killer"
Whatever your outcome desire or context of persuasion may
be, let's start with the thought of your endeavor first -
thinking about the persuasion you are going to initiate, who
it will be with, what the challenges inherent might be.
Then, there is the question as to whether you believe that
you have all the resources necessary to be successful in
your endeavor; finally, there is the whole set of "outcome
fears" I will discuss a little later.
Firstly, get a general sense of what the overriding feeling
is about the endeavor as a whole. In many cases, as you
think of particularly challenging persuasion situations, you
get a visceral (or kinesthetic) response right away:
- - Your heart beats faster
- - Your palms may turn moist
- - There's a pressure in your head, throat or heart
- - Your thoughts speed up and become unorganized
as you flick in your mind from one thing to another.
These are all, of course, physiological signs of stress.
It's important to know what your own personal signs of
stress are and to recognize it when it occurs, so you may
take control and treat this right away. It clouds your
thinking and will cause bad decision making, missing
important pieces of information from the environment and
low/unpredictable performance in whatever it is that you do.
This is the first place where you would want to apply EFT.
At this starting point, as we consider the coming situation
on the whole, you do not need to name any particular aspect
yet and you may do the technique quietly whilst simply
thinking of the situation that is causing the stress.
After each round of EFT, take three deep breaths and check
your physicality for the actual sensations of fear and
stress. When you feel light and easy, balanced once more, we
can turn to the specifics of the situation.
Specific Blocks To Peak Persuasion Remember that EFT
specifically deals with the removal of blocking emotions. It
doesn't teach you how to talk hypnotically but what it will
do is give you the space to be the best you can be, whatever
that best may represent. I have found it fascinating to note
over the years how that individual "best" is usually much,
much better than people ever thought they could do. For
example, a single traumatic memory removed and the fear
alleviated does more for a public speaker than three years
of intense study of how to be an excellent public speaker!
I am telling you this to really have you understand that
whatever time you spend on removing mental and emotional
blocks to your performance is time most efficiently spent,
indeed. If you want results, this is the place to leverage
your efforts, first and foremost.
Below, a list of possible problems and blocks to Peak
Persuasion. In your own context, go through this list and
just wonder if any of these might apply to you, then make a
note to treat this specific topic with EFT until it is
resolved and you have regained clarity on the issue.
1. Past Failures - CrimeLine
In my work with people in the persuasion business and
salesmen and lovers in particular, past failures are the
No.1 cause for mental contortions and reflex like fears and
unconscious sabotage. Make a list of your worst past
failures and arrange them in historical order. I call this
the "CrimeLine" - when that has been cleared, you will find
an incredible surge of energy not just on your persuasion
topics, but all kinds of other performance related topics
(yes, including that one).
If you find yourself resistant to tapping away emotions of
shame and guilt over having been incompetent, stupid,
useless, etc. etc. I must remind you that: "Negative
emotions do not protect you. Common sense does." You can
also, of course, tap away the resistance to tapping a
negative emotion away before you start.
When you are working with your own "CrimeLine", start with
the older occurrences first. The reason for this is that
sometimes, one particular incident, once cleared, collapses
all the rest of them and you save yourself a lot of time
that way.
The second most important block to Peak Persuasion is:
2. Outcome Fear or "It's Just a Different Kind of Pain"
People used to come to me for things like "fear of failure".
Only, and interestingly, if you checked around a bit you'd
find they also had a "fear of success" as well as a "fear of
change" and on top of that, a "dread of no-change". As you
can imagine, that kind of set up would cause some horrendous
internal conflicts whichever way you turn, whatever you do
and whatever your endeavor.
The key to Outcome Fear is to be emotionally balanced,
whatever the outcome. This rests on the understanding that
whatever the outcome is, you will be able to cope with it,
as you have coped with all of these occurrences (failure,
success, change and no-change) before, many times in your
life.
In your notebook, draw a cross and put each one of the four
possible outcomes into each quadrant. Consider each outcome
in turn and tap for the specific fears related to that
outcome and any particularly....
- traumatic memories
- limiting beliefs
- negative thoughts
...that turn up during the process.
Here are some more suggestions how and when to apply EFT:
3. Practical Matters or "The Telephone Is A Giant Spider!!"
Are there any practical matters in the situations you are
planning to enter that cause a fear response? Think mild
phobia and treat yourself as you would treat yourself if X
were a spider. Can you congruently reach for the phone and
"make that call" to the target? Watch yourself very
carefully for any signs of resistance from your neurology
and from your physicality, stop and treat yourself. Do NOT
apply will power to overcome whatever the objections or
resistance from your unconscious mind but once and for all,
remove the reasons for the resistance instead.
4. The Mind Walk Technique
Consider the actual situation you will be entering in due
course. Consider it carefully and in all ways, imagine how
it will be. Start right from the beginning, like thinking
about getting dressed to get ready to go (which is where
some of the fears already begin). Walk through the whole
process of assembling your materials, leaving your home,
traveling to the place in question, walking in through the
door etc. etc. and stop each time and as soon as anything in
the Mind Walk is causing any kind of emotional discomfort
and/or physiological stress response. Back up and treat that
part of the Mind Walk, until you can do the entire thing and
feel perfectly calm or even excited about it.
5. Changing The Other/s
An absolutely fascinating and near magical application of
EFT is to tap by proxy on behalf of another. It produces
change in your own neurology and it very often produces
quite radical changes in the person that was tapped!
This is how you do it: You stand in for the person you wish
to change and name their problems, whatever they may be,
relating to you or that could interfere in the success of
your persuasion efforts. For example, if you are trying to
sell something to someone called Bob "who never buys on the
phone", a set up would be: "I am Bob. I never buy on the
phone." Then you tap as normal.
You can do this for entities as well as individuals, which
is useful when you deal with large, faceless companies or a
family system, replacing the individual name with the
company/family name instead.
6. There And Then
This is simply the best. EFT is simple and quick and so you
can take it "into the field" and use it at any time you need
it. If you have done a fair amount of EFT, you will know
which points need treating when you are in a situation (they
"light up" and draw your attention) and you can just
surreptitiously touch the relevant points even right in the
middle of any given situation. If things go badly or you are
losing your grip on the situation or your confidence, that
will stop you from spiralling out of control and give you
back your behavioral flexibility as well as restoring your
peace of mind.
I trust the above has given you some ideas of how you can
really energize your persuasion performance with EFT. There
is of course, much, much more you can do with this
deceptively simple technique and its infinite variations.
To try out the 2 minute Stress Release for yourself right
now and to find out more about the full EFT protocol, visit
or to order the book "Adventures In EFT" go to:
http://StarFields.org
Silvia Hartmann
Author "Adventures In EFT", "EFT & NLP",
"PowerFields" NLP, EFT, MT & Hypnosis Trainer
http://StarFields.org
©
http://SilviaHartmann.com 2002
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