Motivation and emotion/Book/2015/Emotional Freedom Techniques/Would you like to practice EFT now? Click here for your very own step-by-step guide!

Practice EFT now
Step one. Begin by sitting in a comfortable, quiet position. Take a deep breath and evoke the memory or event causing you distress and notice any emotions that arise. Establish where the feelings exist in your body and rate them on a Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS) scale, with zero being no effect and 10 being maximum intensity. You can also rate any pain using the same scale. This is your starting number and will provide a standard to assess your progress after each round. Step two. Verbally express your negative cognitions with an opposing, positive statement of self-acceptance. This is known as the ‘setup statement’. For example “Even though I [insert problem statement], I deeply and completely accept myself.” After you have developed your setup statement, you are ready to complete the tapping component of the technique. Please see the figure below for each of the tapping points. Step three. Repeat the 'setup statement' aloud three times while rubbing on your sore spot or tapping on the karate chop point (point 12) using your index finger and middle finger. You might find it easiest to use your dominant hand to tap on your non-dominant hand. Step four. Complete the rest of the tapping sequence as labelled in the figure, starting at point one and continuing through to point 12. Tap about seven times on each point, repeating the 'reminder phrase' the whole time. The 'reminder phrase' describes the problem in a short phrase or single word and is there to prompt you throughout the sequence. Step five. After completing the sequence of tapping points, take another deep breath and re-assess your level of distress out of 10. If the emotional intensity is getting worse, consider changing the phrasing to be more specific to the problem. If the intensity is lessening, continue the rounds until you reach zero. For each subsequent round, adjust the setup statement to “Even though I still feel [problem statement]” or “Even though I still have this [problem statement]". (Craig, 2011).
Figure 4. EFT tapping points.