There comes a time in a child’s life when sucking his thumb-sucking is no longer acceptable.  It looks babyish, and parents start to worry about future orthodontic bills. However to the child, sucking his* thumb makes him feel cozy and comfortable. It takes him back to that early time when he had a bottle or a breast full of warm milk and he had no worries or concerns. He was safe  and secure in his mother’s arms.

But now he may be getting his permanent teeth, and going to school, so the thumb-sucking is becoming an embarrassment, often more for the parents than the child. Plus there are those aforementioned orthodontic bills to consider. Experts suggest that even for 2-to-4 year olds, thumb-sucking can set the stage for dental problems later on. (See http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/9-ways-to-wean-a-child-off-thumb-sucking?page=2).

If your child is a thumb-sucker, start by dealing with your own fears and concerns about the issue.  Here are some suggested EFT affirmations you can use to lower your own anxiety about your child’s thumb-sucking.   Use short cut EFT techniques, tapping the side of your hand, the karate chop point, and say aloud or to yourself,

• Even though I have these worries about my child’s thumb-sucking, I accept myself.
• Even though I may have also sucked my thumb at the same age (or bitten my fingernails), I accept myself.
• Even though I am frustrated or embarrassed about my child’s thumb-sucking, I accept myself.
• Even though my spouse may have sucked his or her thumb at the same age, I accept myself.
• Even though I worry about future dental problems and upcoming orthodontic bills, I accept myself.
• Even though I feel helpless or inadequate as a parent over this issue, I accept myself.

Now pick one sentence above, or create your own version that encompasses your fears or resonates most with you.  Repeat that sentence  each time as you tap the top of your head, tap between the eyebrows, tap on the side of the eyes, tap under the eyes, tap under the nose, tap under the mouth, and tap the collarbone points and under the arms.  Tap about 7-10 times as you repeat your chosen sentence.  How do you feel now?   Maybe a little calmer? If not, repeat the process a couple of times with a different sentence, and you will likely find some relief. It’s important to work on your side of the issue first in order to address your child more calmly.

The next step is to go to your child and ask permission to show him a new coping skill, something to help him feel cozy and safe.   Tell him – if you haven’t already – that you are concerned about his thumb-sucking and you would like to help him quit and learn a new calming technique. Most children this age are open to new ideas and will accept this kind of suggestion from a parent.

Hold on to his hand,tapping his karate point and say for him:

• Even though I still suck my thumb, I am a good boy, and mommy and daddy love me very much.
• Even though I feel safe and cozy when I suck my thumb, I am a good boy.

Listen to what your child tells you at this point.  If he says, “I really, really like sucking my thumb”, then tap on him and say,

• Even though I really, really like sucking my thumb, I am still a good boy, and mommy and daddy love me.  (If your child starts playing with his toys or runs off into another room, then consider the treatment over.)  If he lets you continue, you can tap on some of the same points you used on yourself, but beware, children are often very ticklish, so you may want to skip the collar bone and under the arm points, or just touch them lightly.

• Even though Mommy and Daddy are worried that I will have funny teeth when I’m older, I am a good boy, and they love me very much.

You may need to wait a week or so to see results and you may need to repeat once or twice, but parents have had good results with EFT for all kinds of childhood issues, including thumb-sucking.

If you teach your child this short-cut EFT technique, you will help with any anxiety around the issue, plus give him something effective to replace his thumb-sucking habit.  If you have any difficulty using this technique, please contact me in these pages, or phone or email me.  I’d love to hear about your successes too. MT

*Throughout this article I have used the male pronoun for the child, but of course this will work with girls too.    If you need a quick intro or a refresher on the EFT points, check out this link.

I live in a city that is pretty sports crazy.  We like our football, we like soccer for the kids, and various amongst us even like other sports. But we love our hockey. We love our Edmonton Oilers. And our team just got raked over the coals in our local paper, The Edmonton Journal, by one of our most prominent sports reporters.  http://epaper.edmontonjournal.com/epaper/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=4QC6QQX91DG2&preview=article&linkid=a77aa4a0-9233-4a9c-bc0f-cabb1a7bfaae&pdaffid=Wli18N%2bbMWDLE1vDiMkxQg%3d%3d

Normally I don’t bother about sports too much, but after that devastating condemnation, I felt really sorry for the home town team and I decided to incorporate some of the tricks of EFT to help the Edmonton Oilers.  If you’re an Oilers Fan, this will probably seem like voodoo to you, but what have you got to lose?  If you are more concerned about your kid’s soccer team or your golf score, just substitute the appropriate phrases.

If you have never used EFT to tap, you might want to check out some of the other articles on this blog, particularly EFT in a Nutshell http://www3.telus.net/emofree/EFT-in-a-nutshell.htm, and articles about Surrogate EFT, but if  you can follow along with these bare bone  instructions, more power to you.

Tap the side of your hand and say the following phrases based on excerpts from the article by Jim Matheson:

• Even though the Oilers don’t have their horses in the barn, I accept myself.
• Even though they are flat out not good enough, I accept myself.
• Even though they chase almost every game, I accept myself.
• Even though they are not a skilled team, I accept myself.
• Even though they have scored two or fewer goals 18 times in the first 29 games, I accept myself.
• Even though the Oilers have only 45 even-strength goals and have given up 71 goals in five-on-five or four-on-four situations, I accept myself.
• Even though  they averaged 2.44  goals per game last season and are at 2.17 this year, I accept myself.
• Even though they have given up the first goal 19 times, I accept myself.
• Even though the Oilers look like they are beaten before the puck drops on the opening faceoff, I accept myself.
• Even though they’ve been hammered 65-38 in goals in the first two periods of games, I accept myself.
• Even though they only start pick up speed too late in the third period, I accept myself.
• Even though they have to give up less and do more, I accept myself.
• Even though the Oilers don’t seem to get many second or third chances of scoring, I accept myself.
• Even though the Oilers’ players need to feel good with the stick in their hands, I accept myself.
• Even though they need to get the puck in the net, I accept myself.
• Even though they need their game to improve now, I accept myself.
• Even though the Oilers have scored only 15 goals in the last 10 games, I accept myself.
• Even though goalies, Viktor Fasth and Ben Scrivens, have seen their goals-against averages take a beating, I accept myself.

Now  tap (about 7 times each ) on the top of your head, between your eyebrows, side of the eyes, under the eyes, under the nose under the lips, below the collar bone,  and under the arm on the torso.

If  10 or more fans get past their feelings foolishness to do this surrogate tapping for the Oilers, maybe the team can turn itself around.

For those who have a great deal of trauma in their lives, it is sometimes very effective to approach treatment through the tapping away of physical discomfort and pain, rather than tackling emotional stuff head-on.   I have used this very successfully in group settings, especially where men were involved. As a general rule, men are usually more comfortable addressing concrete, physical pain rather than ‘feelings’ or ’emotional pain’.

Take a deep breath and scan yourself from head to toe, and take note of how you physically feel in your head, neck, shoulders, upper back, lower back, chest and stomach, buttocks,legs, etc.

Choose one area of bodily discomfort, give it a number from 1-10, and use this format:

Even though I have this _________ (stiff, tense, uncomfortable) feeling or pain in my__________ (upper back, etc,) I accept myself.

Repeat 3 times while tapping the karate chop point.  Then tap through all the other points once or twice.

Note if you feel differently. What is the number now?  If no change after two rounds of tapping, don’t worry. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to work.

Go on to the next problem area and repeat the process.

For more information on the tapping points, check out the link for EFT in a nutshell.

Do you get angry? Anger is a completely normal human emotion that everyone will experience in their lives, right from being tiny children. If your parents are being unfair, your doctor’s bedside manner is something to be desired or your promotion was given to the office junior instead of you, then who can blame you for feeling irritated? In its proper place, anger is a healthy outlet for negative emotion. Anger that is constantly suppressed may turn inward and cause depression or even physical illnesses like high blood pressure or stress related headaches. If you feel that you’re very frequently or always angry and you feel irritation or rage more than any other emotion you may have an anger management problem.

Signs and Symptoms of an Anger Problem

Some signs that you are overly angry are:

• Feeling constantly anxious
• Feeling constantly irritated or even enraged by other people
• Feeling as if you cannot control your angry thoughts
• Feeling overwhelmed by your circumstances
• Thinking about self-harming
• Thinking about harming others
• Very frequent stress related headaches
• Heart palpitations and tight feelings in your chest.

A prolonged state of anger and anxiety can have a devastating impact on your health and can put you at risk of memory loss, stroke and heart attacks. It may interfere with your ability to sleep at night. Having an anger problem can also damage your relationship with your partner and children and could spoil your life at work.

Unresolved Life Issues

Anger issues arise for a variety of reasons. It can occur due to an inflammatory illness (inflammation can cause anxiety) or it can manifest after a head trauma or brain bleed. Sometimes it develops for psychological reasons like childhood bullying or being raised by very critical parents. Issues that affect self-esteem can have long term consequences on how the person views themselves. Some people put others down or act angry to cover up feelings of self-loathing or to take back power they feel they have lost. Sometimes repeated hurts and disappointments are the cause.

If your relationships are already strained it may be time to take action to heal your life and your interactions with others. You can control your anger rather than letting it control you.

How Emotional Freedom Technique Can Help You

Emotional Freedom Technique is one of the ways you can help yourself. Emotional Freedom Technique is a form of acupressure that is based on meridian energy points used in acupuncture for more than five thousand years. However, instead of using fine needles, acupressure uses a less invasive external pressure. Acupressure is a popular way of preventing motion sickness, with some pharmacies and online stores selling acupressure wrist bands to bring relief to travelers. Acupressure can also be used to address emotional problems such as depression, fear of public speaking and anger. Tapping on the specific meridian sites on the head and chest channels energy into them to clear ‘emotional blocks’. Positive affirmations are used in conjunction with the tapping to raise your self – worth and balance your mind. It is known that the mind and the body are connected – for instance, people with depression can have lower immune systems – so saying affirmations not only enhances the action of the acupressure but as a longer term intervention it can help you change the way you think.

What the Science Says

If you’re not convinced that some tapping exercises could change your life, just take a look at what is in the scientific literature.

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease reported that emotional freedom techniques reduced cortisol (stress hormone) levels and eased anxiety and psychological distress. These decreases in distress were much more significant when compared with a group of people who had psychotherapy.

In a separate study in Greece, EFT was trialled on people with stress and tension type headache and was found to increase quality of life by reducing the number of headaches they had as well as lessening their severity.

Staffordshire University in the UK studied the use of EFT for people in high pressure environments and gave EFT training to 50 students. All 50 students achieved better marks in their tests and were notably calmer than students who hadn’t done EFT. This has led to some doctors calling for it to be introduced into the UK healthcare system as a treatment for psychological problems like anger, depression and anxiety.

EFT can be self-administered, it’s easy to learn and it doesn’t have the side-effects that anti-anxiety pills can have so if anger is making your life a misery, why not give it a try?

Sources:

Rosenkrantz MA et al, A comparison of mindfulness-based stress reduction and an active control in modulation of neurogenic inflammation, Brain Behav Immun. 2013 Jan;27(1):174-84, accessed November 20, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2012.10.013 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23092711

Bougea AM et al, Effect of the emotional freedom technique on perceived stress, quality of life, and cortisol salivary levels in tension-type headache sufferers: a randomized controlled trial, Explore (NY). 2013 Mar-Apr;9(2):91-9, accessed November 20, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2012.12.005, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23452711

Church D et al, The effect of emotional freedom techniques on stress biochemistry: a randomized controlled trial, J Nerv Ment Dis. 2012 Oct;200(10):891-6, accessed November 20, 2014, doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e31826b9fc1, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22986277

Emma Innes, Alternative Tapping Therapy Could be Used by NHS to Treat Anxiety and Depression, The Daily Mail, 16 January 2014, accessed November 22, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2540469/Alternative-tapping-therapy-favoured-Lily-Allen-used-NHS-treat-anxiety-depression.html

An Introduction to Emotional Freedom Technique, The Dr. Oz Show, accessed November 22, 2014, http://www.doctoroz.com/article/introduction-emotional-freedom-technique

Anger Symptoms, Causes and Effects, Psych Guides, accessed November 22, 2014, http://www.psychguides.com/guides/anger-symptoms-causes-and-effects/

Controlling Anger Before it Controls You, American Psychological Association, accessed November 22, 2014, http://www.apa.org/topics/anger/control.aspx

Emotional Freedom Techniques, EFT Edmonton’s Blog, accessed November 22, 2014, https://eftedmonton.wordpress.com/

This is a freelance article from Gemma Bays.

• Even though I have this specific problem or challenge, ________________________ , I accept myself.
• Even though I may or may not be totally consciously aware of what is behind this specific problem, I accept myself.+
• Even though there may be one, two or many conscious or subconscious reasons for having or keeping this problem, I accept myself.**
• Even though I may be holding this problem in some part of my body, I accept myself.+
• Even though there may be several parts to this specific problem, I accept myself.**

+ If known, add transcript sentences as appropriate.
**Include as many known reasons or parts as possible using separate transcript sentences.

• Tap through each of the above sentences using the Karate chop point or the sore point, and repeat the sentence three times.
  Then tap through the series of short-cut EFT points-
  Top of the head,
  between the eyebrows,
  sides of the eyes,
  under the eyes,
  under the nose,
  under the lips,
  under the arms, at least twice. (Typically, we tap each point as we go through the series about 7 or 8 times.)

Check out EFT in a nutshell if you need a refresher on EFT.http://wp.me/pFoLU-cR

A dear ffriend has recently been experiencing several minor but annoying health concerns.  Her doctor has recently informed her that she has osteoporosis in her hip and spine.  She also has early osteoarthritis.  She suffers from acid reflux and gallbladder polyps.  Naturally, she has worries about all of these concerns, some more than others.

Besides following her doctor’s advice, I have suggested the following EFT affirmations.

• Even though I have acid reflux, I accept myself.
• Even though I have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, I accept myself.
• Even though I am worried about my softening bones, I accept myself.
• Even though I haven’t exercised as much as I should have to prevent osteoporosis, I accept myself.
• Even though I have beginning osteoarthritis, I accept myself.
• Even though I am getting older and my body seems to be falling apart, I accept myself. I fogive my body for showing the signs of age.
• Even though I have gallbladder polyps and I am not sure how this affects me, I accept myself.

I gave her this short list to go over and practice on a daily basis and we shall see how it goes.  So far she has reported that going through the process has made her feel more relaxed and less worried, so I think its already shown benefits.

 

If you are a regular reader of my blog or web site you will recognize the name Arum. She has been a client of mine since the early days of the EFT forum and we continue to be in touch. The following is excerpted from an email she recently sent me. She brings out some important points. One is that sometimes when our pains go away, we don’t necessarily notice right away. Gary Craig calls this the ‘apex effect. With EFT, it feels like we didn’t have the problem in the first place. Read Arum’s email here:

Hi Mildred,

While looking over some of my old emails, there was a lot of comments regarding the burning issue I had and my hip problem. The change has  been phenomenal. Whereas before the burning sensation almost drove me insane, this morning I noticed it wasn’t there at all. It doesn’t seem to be in my body to where it can even be noticed. Don’t you think that’s odd? And as for my hip, my goodness girl it seems like a miracle. I can sleep on my right side, and this morning when my husband put his arm across me, it didn’t hurt at all. So many of the aches and pains I had are just gone.

Do you know what I think? When we first start tapping it’s like cleaning out a closet, it gets clean gradually. One gets their mind on something else, and all at once they look up and the closet is clean. My body seemed to heal while I wasn’t noticing.

EFT continues to amaze me. Yet there is no one to share my amazement with. When I look back to where I was a few years ago, I’m so grateful. Although there are so many negative things we could focus on, if we just focus on the good things, our life will be full. Thank you for helping me get here. 🙂 Hugs and a smile, Arum

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Much has changed in EFT since I last answered this question. Gary Craig, Founder of EFT, has given the term EFT to the public domain and this means that there are all kinds of EFT out there without any standardization.  Therefore Gary Craig, in response to this situation has come up with two terms, “Gary’s Official EFT(c)” and “Official EFT(c)”. These represent what Gary Craig means when he discusses EFT. You can learn about this in more  depth by clicking on the following link, to go to the Official EFT Tutorial.  http://www.emofree.com/EFT/?aft=908

In Edmonton where I live, there have been several publicized incidents involving police officers who have gone beyond their duty as arresting officers to mete out beatings, and worse, in their own brand of justice.

No one can argue that a police officers’ job is easy.   On a daily basis, policemen deal with the worst type of people in society: pedophiles, drug dealers, thieves, pimps, murderers and sociopaths of every stripe.

Police officers see the worst of what society has to offer, and it must be difficult under these circumstances not to become jaded, cynical, and even traumatized, by the daily human trail of filth that an officer encounters.

It must be discouraging to arrest a drug dealer or a pimp, only to find them out on bail or released after a laughably short sentence. However, it is not my purpose here to address the systemic faults in the Alberta justice system.

My concern today is with a particular police officer, Derek Huff, who tried within his department to take a stand, showing integrity against a code of silence that law enforcement officers follow.   You can read about what  Derek Huff did by googling his name, “Derek Huff” and “police brutality”. Or try this link:  http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Brutality+allegation+shows+police+transparency+always+simple/9004613/story.html

I would like to address this article to Derek Huff , who feeling betrayed by his coworkers is now suffering PTSD because of the treatment he received in response to his attempt to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

Derek, take a deep breath and notice how you feel in your body.  Are you tense? Do you have pain in your neck or shoulders? Just notice this and start by tapping the side of your hand and saying each sentence below three times. Then tap through the acupressure points described in EFT in a nutshell.

• Even though my dream job fell to tatters, I accept myself.
• Even though  I and my partner saw three fellow police officers punching and kicking a drug dealer in a planned beating and we wanted to do the right thing, and were unsuccessful, I accept myself.
• Even though I, Derek, took these allegations to my superior officers, I accept myself.
• Even though my complaints went nowhere, I accept myself.
• Even though I was branded a rat, I accept myself.
• Even though I feel betrayed by my coworkers and my supervisors, I accept myself.
• Even though I felt threatened and bullied for reporting wrongdoing, I accept myself.
• Even though didn’t know what to do after the incident, I accept myself.
• Even though my partner and I were in a no-win situation, I accept myself.
• Even though I am struggling with depression because of the bullying and intimidation I’ve gone through, I accept myself.
• Even though I had to go on stress leave, and eventually quit my job, I accept myself.
• Even though it may be that the problem I brought forward is even bigger that I anticipated, I accept myself.

If you are not Derek, please consider doing some surrogate EFT for him – I’m sure he could use the help.  We, the public, need to show our support for courageous men and women who stand up against injustice even at great personal cost.  Derek Huff, you have my appreciation and admiration.

Now take another deep breath and see how you feel.  If you were tapping the points , you may feel a little lighter in your body.  Maybe your breath is a little fuller or easier. This is how EFT works and how it can help you.